SANTA FE (AP) ― Artist Tony Abeyta just can’t help himself.

Pushing up his sleeves and letting his fingers make one more run through his deliberately tousled hair, he reaches for a bit of charcoal on his studio table and goes at the three finished canvases again.

In minutes, his fingertips are black, his forearms are smudged and there’s one more layer on the triptych he has dubbed “Divine Intervention.’’ Just in time for the curators to pick it up.

The work will be hanging in the entry of the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture as part of the annual Native Treasures Indian Arts Festival, which opens in Santa Fe on May 25 with Abeyta being recognized as this year’s “living treasure.’’

“I feel fortunate,’’ the Navajo painter and jewelry designer says. “I have an immense amount of gratitude that I can do what I do. I basically come in here and do what I want. I don’t have to be influenced by the market place, by my gallery, by collectors. I like the idea that I can be the music maker in the studio here.’’

Abeyta says it’s a little strange to think of himself as a living treasure at age 46. But festival organizers say the reasons were clear: his style, his time spent mentoring other young Native American artists and his refusal to fall back on formulas when it comes to creating art.

Abeyta is among the artists who are pushing the envelope when it comes to redefining American Indian art.

Curators, gallery owners and collectors say the stereotypical images of horses and Indians clad in feathers have given way to more contemporary work that stems from spiritual sensibilities often rooted in nature, tradition and culture.

“As a Native American and as a Native American artist, the spiritual is part of who I am and what I do. And I work at that,’’ Abeyta said. “When I’m painting and I’m right on, I’m channeling all of this stuff from some other place, from some divine. I don’t know what it is.’’

More than 200 native artists from over 40 different tribes have been invited to the two-day festival, which marks the start of Santa Fe’s summer art season. Everything from pottery and jewelry to carvings and textiles will be on display.