We had read in the Indian Market guide about Wanesia Spry-Misquadace, an Ojibwa artist who lives in Santa Fe. She is preserving a very rare form of art, birch-bark biting, so we stopped by her booth first. Her pieces are exquisite. Here is an image of what the bitten birch bark looks like. It's not one of Wanesia's pieces, though. Hers are more intricate; she does turtles and insects.
Two Great Quotations
We were a couple booths away from Wanesia's when we heard the first of the Two Great Quotations of the Day. A woman was looking at a sculptor's work and asked, "Are you selling this?" There was a long pause while he looked closely at her and decided she really hadn't just been beamed down from the mother ship. "It's all sold [before 8:30! How cool is that?]," he told her. She said, "Well, you should put up a little sign then."
Later we were looking at the booths on Lincoln Avenue and heard the second of the Two Great Quotations. A woman said to her companion, "Let's go to the other side of the street. You can get the stuff on this side in any store." We assumed she shopped at Walatowa-Mart.
The best-dressed tourist contest
The contest was a toughie this year. Would we choose the woman dressed in diaphanous skirts, pink full-quill ostrich boots, and layers of floating scarves that trailed behind her like exhaust? How about the woman wearing every bit of her silver and turquoise jewelry? Ordinarily it would take six men and a boy to hold her up under the weight, but for Indian Market, it's best to solo. We finally decided on the woman clomping around in her bespoke boots featuring Our Lady of Guadalupe in colors so bright and vibrant they could have been given a coat of tan.
What we brought home
Michele got a Zuni fetish of a bear.
My friend Tony, a Santa Clara sculptor, gave me this little bear. We worked together for several years at Los Alamos National Laboratory, and he said he wanted to give me something to celebrate our friendship over the last 25 years. What a nice guy!
I got this little beaded sheep from Ronda Dosedo of Zuni, New Mexico.
6 comments:
I'm jealous that you get to go to Indian Market. Did Randy Chitto have unusual things?
I love the sheep.
Randy didn't have anything unusual this year. His pieces were variations on a theme. For example, he had a large turtle holding a star over Baby Jesus Turtle. He had koshares and storytellers.
I will send you the article on the birch-bark biting.
I like the sheep, too!
Cain't you get me one 'a them little dogs with a scarf lookin' up?
Very pretty little sheep, and the bear is very lovely.
And how was the quickly eaten burritah
I think you made a sound judgment in your choice of the Best-Dressed Tourist. You also made a sound choice of the items you brought home. Both are very nice!
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