Sitting in San Diego, California, with his newest work, “Pillow Talking The Devil,” is Navajo artist Dion Terry. His newest piece is also my newest acquisition, as when I saw the snapshot of the completed canvas on Facebook, I gave him a call, telling him it was sold to me. I got in the car to drive five and a half hours from Phoenix to San Diego for the express purpose of collecting this extraordinary painting. I arrived early enough for Dion, Tassia, and me to share lunch at the beach and visit a hidden garden before exchanging cash for art.

My interpretation of Dion’s “Pillow Talking The Devil” is that he has painted a self-portrait of sorts, a powerful and inspiring image that, in the years to come, will prove to be one of his greatest works. The fierce raven is only a part of Dion, with his worn body marked with moments from his past, graffitied and tattooed. Over his head is a halo of innocence, which I regard as his questioning of nature and trying to deal with the subject at hand: honesty. In hand is the snake, also known as the devil. In the Navajo belief system, the snake is inherently evil; it is the devil. The snake is not only in hand confronting Dion it is also a yoke around his neck. So maybe it’s his beliefs that are a burden that he’s trying to confront. This introspection is made all the more vulnerable in that his chest is wide-open and his heart exposed as if to imply that, “I challenge you to prove you are more than a chimera. I think it might be that you simply enslave me with fear, and if I am to truly know myself and my heart, I must ascend and throw off this yoke of mythological superstition while I attend to exploring the heavens through my art – but first, I must pillow talk this devil before me, I must overcome.”

Regardless of what its true meaning may ultimately be, if there even is one, I feel that Dion is on a path of creativity that is uniquely his and is on the cusp of breaking through the art world’s exclusive fortress.