Barbara (Bobbi) Emerson Kitsman is a Navajo artist living in Tohatchi, New Mexico.  She grew up in Church Rock, New Mexico. Emerson Kitsman sold her first painting at age seven and later attended the Institute of American Indian Arts as well as the University of New Mexico and the University of Colorado.  She is a member of the Navajo Master Painters Group.

        

She has roamed the furthest regions of the Navajo reservation, painting some of its most iconic places.  She is a plein air landscape painter and avid student of the land and geography of the Navajo Nation. She is also an accomplished print-maker, writer and photographer.

 

Emerson Kitsman has taught numerous workshops at local schools, at the church in Tohatchi, to interested individuals and at schools in and around the Gallup area.  In 2008, a documentary about her return to the reservation, “A Return Home,” was showcased at film festivals around the nation and was awarded the Governor’s Cup later that year.