Arts & Culture from “All Things Real Estate” Monthly Newsletter
By Melissa J White, Media Manager/ Web Designer, Santa Fe Realty Partners
Telephone wire baskets from Africa at the Santa Fe International Folk Art Market
Looking for something unique to add to your home’s interior? Wend your way through the Santa Fe International Folk Art Market, now in its seventh year on Museum Hill, July 9th, 10th and 11th. The largest event of its kind in the world, this year’s market will include more than 170 master folk artists from 52 countries who hang out in their booths, spinning, weaving and painting all weekend.
The colorful arts display will include African telephone wire baskets (like the ones, above), Ikat dye weaving and embroidery from the Hainan Province in China, wooden marquetry from Syria, knotted carpets from Uzbekistan, metal sculpture from Haiti and woodblock prints from Brazil. In one afternoon, you can circle the globe at this Market!
Perfectly accompanying this rich experience, there will be entertainment on stage starting Friday night with Afro-Cuban rhythms and Spanish melodies. Japanese taiko drumming, Balinese gamelan music and flamenco are some of the musical highlights lined up for the weekend.
Come prepared with sun hat, sun screen, camera and water. There will be a selection of international foods on site. For tickets, parking info and artist bios, check out the Market website at www.folkartmarket.org where you can buy tickets on line and pick them up at will-call. And if you need more inspiration, know that 90% of the proceeds go directly to the artists who use the money for all kinds of endeavors to raise themselves and their communities out of poverty.
Born in the year of the Horse, Xiang Zhang (pronounced Shong Zang) grew up in China. After graduating from The Central Academy of Drama in Beijing, where he was strongly influenced by the 19th century Russian masters, he received his Masters Degree in Fine Art from Tulane University in New Orleans. While at Tulane, he developed his special style of portraiture work and increasingly cowboy art. Combining impressionistic, as well as realistic techniques, awards in regional and national shows marked him as an artist to watch. The excellent, consistent quality of Zhang’s work has made him one of the most collectible artists in the world. In 2002, he moved to a ranch in Sherman, Texas. Immersed in the local ranching lifestyle, his work reflects the symbiotic relationship between the cowboy and his horse. Using scintillating colors and bravura brushwork to capture the drama of ranching life, his definitive style has catapulted him to new heights in the art world. Xiang Zhang’s paintings hang in private and corporate collections in the United States, Canada, Europe, and China.
In this sculpture, John depicts a Mandan archer engaged in “the game of arrow,” an event witnessed by George Catlin in about 1833. He reported that the most distinguished archers by the other archers for entrance fees. It was written that the winner of this particular gathering achieved eight arrows gathered on the prairie, each one having paid an entrance fee such as a shield, robe, or pipe. In turn, they shot their arrows into the air to see who could get the greatest number flying at one time, the winner taking as his prize everything that was brought in flight before the first one struck the ground. John Coleman is one of the leading sculptors today who portrays the historical nature and mythology of western subjects. John Coleman’s award-winning bronze sculptures are among some of the most detailed and most accurate depictions of American Western legend and history that are being produced today.
In the Western art genre, Donna Howell-Sickles has taken the image and idea of the cowgirl beyond charcoal lines and into reality. Howell-Sickles has been exploring the layers beneath the cowgirl’s engaging exterior for more than 30 years. A vintage postcard from the 1930’s featuring a cowgirl with ruby red lips sitting atop her horse instilled in Howell-Sickles a lasting fascination with the cowgirl spirit. The cowgirl in the postcard was at once both familiar and unreal. This dichotomy in the imagery has fueled Howell-Sickles’ artwork, and inspired her to create images of women that are both real and myth. Howell-Sickles’ artwork captures the quintessence and timelessness of the cowgirl spirit.![81[1].PHOTO](http://www.santaferealtypartners.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/811.PHOTO_-150x150.jpg "81[1].PHOTO")
Since opening in 1931, The Lensic has been an anchor in Santa Fe’s downtown. Now, the restored theater thrives as the city’s premier performing arts center, with a diverse program of world-class theater, music, dance, film and lecturers. The Lensic is a member-supported nonprofit organization.
October in Northern New Mexico is our favorite month to unwind from the numerous festivities we enjoyed during summer. With the prospect of October’s sunny days and cool nights ahead, and the harvest of apples and chilies in full swing, it’s only natural to explore the communities that produce these delicious crops.
El Rancho De Las Golondrinas (The Ranch of the Swallows) is a living history museum on 200 acres in a rural farming valley just south of Santa Fe. This fascinating museum complex is dedicated to the heritage and culture of early Spanish Colonial settlers in northern New Mexico.