Indian Market Weekend

The audacity of some is stunning to me. Here, this wood sculpture towered over us mounted on an SUV parked on San Francisco Street, one of the busiest streets leading to and from the plaza and Indian Market. This is THE long awaited money-making annual weekend of the year for our community. The size of inhabitants in our community tends to double with tourists hopefully eager to shop until they drop, at least in to a bar stool, ready for a Margarita and some seriously hot, local Salsa.
This sculpture got to be one man's dream of a female variation of the Vixen-Virgin theme. For good measure stick in a baby and leave every man with fantasies of his own of suckling breasts. Check out her claws, yikes!
How do they get away with parking all day on a public street? Last year this one guy took up half a block with his truck loaded with oversized metal sculptures that later showed up on lawns of various businesses. His hanging out in front of Starbucks for a day, smoking cigars, must have payed off handsomely.

This year this same guy was reduced to set up informal shop on one of the side streets., his truck extending in to a no parking meter zone. Well, the American entrepreneurial spirit seems to be still alive and well.

Meanwhile canine discrimination is in full force in and around the plaza with no clear perimeters as to where pets are welcome and not. And this despite the wonderful new set back isles that leave a lot more room for visitors to mill about without the all too familiar congestion around favorite, usually award winning booths. Here we strolled on the outskirts of booths and police bothered us just after I had stopped to take this to me funny and also sweet image of a man supporting a lady up high.

It's Indian Market Weekend and I actually made my way over there relatively early, 8 am, but not 6 am when early, serious buyers would tend to serious business. Yes, I heard of guys sleeping under stalls to reserve their first right to buy! I wonder if this is still a practice? I have not come upon the fashionistas either, the ladies and gentlemen dressed for the occasion in their Southwestern look with big cowboy hats and big hand crafted swash buckle belts and ladies chests bejeweled in handsome silver and gems. Where are the rich Texans and Californians these days? While I was in search of such I came upon this local Hispanic guy, displaced from the plaza, his regular hang-out and seemingly deeply involved in his art.
He is an Oritz with maybe 400 years of roots in our local history. He showed me the face he was carving out of what will become another of more then 100 walking stick art pieces in his possession. After heart trouble he decided it was not worth the stress to worry about advertisement and making money. So clients have to find him if they want a piece of his art! I can so relate in this respect, the refusal to engage in promotion of oneselve and hankering after money or most anything else. He seems determindly happy, although his circumstances seem not the easiest. He has a home and once his benefits kick in he will be o.k.. It turns out that by passion this man is a photographer with a lot of work in film stashed away as he does not have the means to produce it! He must be one of many, his tale touched me and I want to dedicate my post to all those unknown passionate artists that plug away and do their thing despite it all.