International Folk Art Market II

This Thai booth was the hardest one for me to resist. I loved the style of their creations, their indigo fabric, made to look and feel a lot like silk with the use of egg whites, then worked in to lose fitting clothes. The kind I would love to wear.

This Thai woman, focused mostly on her sewing, gets my vote for most attractive woman in the sense of my pleasure as I watched her appearance, her calm and centered energy while she kept herself busy and created articles of artistry, beauty and usefulness, that my heart might covet.

This shockingly beautiful woman, graceful inside and out, gifted me with a bag of Frank Incense when I expressed my pleasure about the scent that filled the air from their booth. Her eyes were truly awesome, I could not help but exclaim how beautiful she was (something I do not usually do as it is a sensitive issue with so many women.) She gets my vote (even though their is no contest) for most beautiful woman at this year's Folk Art Market.

Sitsemiso Simelane from Swaziland gets my vote for most charismatic. I thoroughly enjoyed my exchanges with this most expressive and exuberant man. He should work for Swaziland's Tourism Bureau, he gushed with such enthusiasm about the  beauty of his country, not so unlike Santa Fe, he admitted.

Most exotic to me were these ladies, there were four of them, all dressed in those bright purple robs, from the Ottoman Sultanate. They made me so curious about their life styles. Most gracious we were offered a taste of their coffee, delicious, along with date paste. These ladies danced, and painted intricate, delicate designs on bodies with Henna.

Last but not least, the by far most dazzling smile, in my not so humble opinion, goes to this Tuareg Silversmith who lit up my world and lifted my spirits as he directed it at me.

I might ad that the most ingenious creation goes to the watering object, that submerged, with the hole on top closed off with one's thumb, will hold water and then sprinkle it where so desired with the release of one's thumb, awesome, if not exactly cheap earthen ware for fifty bucks, but well worth it I would venture to say. Especially when making use of rain water collected in barrels with no spouts, like mine.

Learn more about this one of a kind International Folk Art Market where the artists take 90% of their proceeds home to make a real difference in their communities. Visit their website and/or my  related flickr set and/or my prior post below, and please offer us your feedback, I would be delighted.

INTERNATIONAL FOLK ART MARKET

Yesterday's grand opening ceremony of this year's Folk Art Market on the plaza was most exciting. 

The plaza was packed, the music great, the dancing inhibited due to limited space but the energy was way high.

My canine companion Isabella-girl smiled from ear to ear, I swear. I never seen so many dogs on the plaza. Two gorgeous Party Poodles, of course always those favorite Chihuahuas, but also one lumbering huge Bernese Mountain Dog and a variety of Mutts like mine.

More recent photos with more explanations will follow.

These are from prior, cherished events, now in it's 7th year.

You can visit the Folk Art Market website and learn about the astounding details of this market's success.

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.