Biography
Gorman was born in Chinle, Arizona. His mother was Adele Katherine Brown, and his father Carl Gorman was a noted Navajo painter and teacher, who later became a code talker during World War II.
Gorman grew up in a traditional Navajo hogan and began drawing at age 3. His grandmother helped raise him, recounting Navajo legends and enumerating his genealogy of artist ancestors. She kindled his desire to become an artist. While tending sheep in Canyon de Chelly with his aunts, he used to draw on the rocks, sand, and mud, and made sculptures with the clay, with his earliest subjects including Mickey Mouse and Shirley Temple.
He credited a teacher, Jenny Lind at Ganado Presbyterian Mission School, for his inspiration to become a full-time artist. After he left high school, he served in the Navy before entering college, where he majored in literature and minored in art at Northern Arizona University.
Read more about this topic: R. C. Gorman
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