SWAIA Blog

I’m headed back to Santa Fe after spending some days in Phoenix with some of the best artists in the world. Bruce Bernstein, Paula Rivera, John Torres-Nez, Gabe Gomez and I were there sharing information about SWAIA’s upcoming Santa Fe Indian Market as well as SWAIA’s new film classification. Gabe and Paula sported the 2010 Indian Market t-shirts that our graphic designer extraordinaire Whitney Stewart designed and we were excited at the overwhelming amount of positive feedback they received. We were also so excited for SWAIA’s Gomeo Bobelu, who received a great reception for the premiere showing of his jewelry. Gabe and I had the opportunity to interview many artists including Kathleen Wall, Nocona Burgess, Marcus Amerman, Colin Coonsis, Cliff Fragua and Maria Samora. They described their creative and technical processes, talked about what inspires them, what their work means to them and answered some fun questions too. It was great to meet their families especially the little cutie pies. I’m looking forward to sharing the footage with all of you. So please keep an eye out for it. As a side note, yesterday was my birthday so on the way out of town today I stopped at Sprinkles Bakery for some delectable treats. Cupcakes! SO I’ll be signing off cause I have some celebrating to do.  In the meanwhile, please enjoy some of my photos from the weekend. Talk to you when I return to Santa Fe.

-Tailinh

Hello out there!

Some fun news – I’ll be updating SWAIA’s blog more often, so if you can’t attend our events, you’ll be able to experience them through this blog. There are so many incredible events planned for the coming year (in addition to Indian Market, of course) including parties, gallery openings, film screenings and book readings.

I came on board at SWAIA a couple of weeks ago and was excited to be a part of the SWAIA 2010 Poster Unveiling Luncheon. SWAIA is honoring 95-year old artist Gerónima Cruz Montoya (Ohkay Owingeh) as the Indian Market poster artist this year. The poster is beautiful — as is the woman behind it. I was completely inspired by her strength and wealth of knowledge. It was amazing to see her surrounded by her family at such a special time, and it was even more incredible to hear her son speak about how much she cares about her people and the journey she has taken in her life to get to this very exciting point. The poster was unveiled to lots of excited applause. Bruce Bernstein, Executive Director of SWAIA, said some lovely words, the Tewa Women’s Choir sang in honor of Ms. Montoya, and everyone enjoyed a wonderful meal together. It was a good day — a heartfelt and moving experience.  To check out a video short of the event, follow this link – 2010 Poster Unveiling – you’ll see what I mean.

Tonight I am headed to Warehouse 21 for an event presented by SWAIA and The Humble called The News: Good or Bad, It’s Still The News. Info here: The News. Lots of music, lots of art, lots of fun people. After years of staying home Friday and Saturday nights with the kiddie pies, I’m excited to get out and see what’s going on in the cool scene. I’ll report back tomorrow with the scoop. Oh, and just a warning, you might not recognize me. I just might be a little bit cooler too.

Tailinh

I just got back from the final day of the 88th Annual SWAIA Indian market, and again, I’m exhausted and my feet hurt. At about 10:00am my visitting friend from California and I hit up the fashion show, just in time for the contemporary fashion walk at the grandstand stage and what I believe was the children’s division because all the cute kids were also lining up to walk the catwalk that wasn’t there (Those of you who saw the event know exactly what I mean). It was pretty cool and the teenager with the foot-high mohawk received the most applause, which I whole-heartedly support. He had a Douglas Miles Skateboard (without the plastic) too, and I didn’t have the heart to point out that 25 years ago the plaza rats in Santa Fe dressed pretty much the same (BTW, the soundman from Santa Fe AV who did the stage’s sound is one of those very same plaza rats! Oh the irony). But it was all done in fun and the elaborate headpieces and ornate beadwork was amazing. I love this event and now I wish I hadn’t opted to miss the earlier fundraiser last Monday at the Allan Houser Sculpture Garden…

After snapping a few pictures and running into Phaedra Haywood (Happy Birthday Phaedra!) from the Santa Fe New Mexican we decided to go to the Allan Houser Sculpture Gardens near Galisteo because we had some other visitors from other states who needed to see it. They were nearly overwhelmed and bought a few items from the gallery out there and we also listened to Allan Houser book author W. Jackson Rushing’s presentation for a few minutes… The best part of the Allan Houser Sculpture Garden trip was getting to introduce them to my Grandmother, Anna-Marie Houser (age 97), who was sitting in the visitor center, signing books and telling stories to a parade of delighted visitors. My grandmother is a personal hero to me, so I gush…
By this point everyone was starving, so we hit up the Santa Fe Brewing Company before our final couple of hours shopping at the downtown Indian Market (and a couple of the galleries) for the last time…

At 5:00pm, like clockwork, the Saint Francis Cathedral bells tolled and Imediately the market artists started to pack up their artwork, break down their booths, and head back to their homes around the country and beyond. The tourists, perhaps wary of the storm clouds, were petering out and streaming out of the plaza area.

Personally, I ran over to America Meredith’s booth and helped her carry some of her heavier stuff to her car and then I walked home. I heard of a barbeque that I was invited to, but I’ve been working! I need to decompress with a good book or perhaps some of this week’s comics that I’ve neglected to read…

I did manage to possibly do some future trades of my photography with some of the artists I like today, and that makes me very happy…

I do have pictures, but (again), there’s too many to post using the Wordpress software for the SWAIA blog, so I’m posting them to my Facebook account here: http://www.facebook.com/sam.haozous

Feel free to add me as a friend if you’re on it…

I’m also on Twitter and MySpace, search for me if you like.

Sam Haozous

Sam Haozous here…

I *Just* jot back from the 88th annual SWAIA Indian Market and I am dead tired…
The day started by claiming my free parking spot at my work, totally avoiding the $20 parking fees that shot up $5 from last year at all the private lots, woo hoo! I then proceeded to cruise through the “Emerging Artists” section (that I sort of feel is mis-titled because some of the artists there have been working on a professional level for up to 20 years, but whatever) to drop off all my nifty computer gear at my family’s gallery, which is amazingly handy… Then it was time to visit and check out the art! Lots of brilliant work this year, pots, paintings, rings, buckles, bolo ties, ribbon shirts, and anything else that you could imagine. Everything was represented wonderfully!
I got to meet Katrina Mitten, hang out with Ryan and Monty Singer, talk trash with America Meredith and Douglas Miles, and (unfortunately) spy my sister get nauseaus and go home to rest…
The Lifetime Acheivement Houser Legacy and Pov’ika Awards presentation was next and that was great fun too. Grandma Houser was sitting in the front row and my friend John was doing sound so we talked for a while before seeing all the awardees get their due by Bruce Bernstein. I had everyone written down, but I lost my paper somewhere, probably when I was in the food area buying the awesome roasted corn and an iced tea (And since when does a bowl of red chile cost $8?).
All the awardees got that great new limited edition blanket too, you know, the one I want that was for sale at the SWAIA booth in the center of the plaza (Hint Hint). The corn wasn’t enough though, so I rounded up some friends and family and after investigating the wait at all the more “established” restaurants like the Blue Corn and the Coyote Cafe, we ended up at the El Paseo and had bar food, which was wonderful because we were starving!
From there we hit up the Skatexplosion event at W21 for a bit and watched the performers and the DJs and the skaters mill about before returning to the plaza to do some more shopping… Before I knew it, it was 5:00 and I had just one hour to get back to the homestead, clean up a bit and head over to the Gala Auction at the La Fonda (they SAY it starts at 5:00pm, but those of us in the know that really means 6:00 because I guess we’re working on Indian time… OK, I joke, so sue me.).
I twittered the auction to a wrong twitter account, so I am reposting it here for everyone to see, starting here:
————————————–
Now I’m back at the 2009 live auction gala… Today has been a blast!
The ballroom is filling up quickly now
Joanne Shenandoah just made me take her picture with my grandmother…
Now that was a salad!
Bruce Bernstein is chatting up the tables…
And it begins…
Here comes the invocation part ofthe evening
A Mohawk Nation Invocation!
Oh Joanne is going to sing!
Wow, she was great!
More volunteer recognitions
Bruce is making the “case” for market…
Maria Zamora… The face of indian market.
Oh no, will it be chish or ficken?
Oh hey! It’s the same auctioneer as on Wednesday!
A Maria Zamora shell bracelet valued at $4,000
Sold for $4,750!
Sam manymules pot abstract piece…
$3,500!
Eddie noisecat “neo-aboriginal” wall hanging valued at $2,700..
$1,800!
Duane wilcox mixed media sketch valued at $2,300
Oops, I got distracted, what did that go for?
The lemon tart dessert is excellent!
Oh look, Henry Munchmore is the art handler!
A upton ethelbah bronze statue…
$6,000!
A Lu Ann Tafoya black carved pot with kiva steps.
Sold, $4,750
A Monty / Ryan Singer / Marla Allison collaborative painting series valued at $6,800
Sold for $9,250!
A nocoma burgess painting valued at $8,000
Sold for $5,750
A pat priuit bracelet valued at $4,000
Sold for $2,500
Oh my gosh, I am exhausted…

So there you have it. I’ll try to throw a few pictures into this in a moment… Wordpress is being difficult.

Quick Questions with Hoka Skenandore

1. What, if anything, are you doing to prepare for Indian Market 2009?

I find that having a ton of work on hand for any event/show/situation is a good thing. Right now I’m just finishing touching up paintings, and preping prints.

2. There’s going to be 100 new artists this year, do you have any words of wisdom to them?

Words of wisdom… Well, bring food and water, don’t pay for it if you don’t have to, bring cards or some kind of good contact information, decent chairs are a must, people ask a million questions so be ready for anything, and a good pair of sunglasses are key in case you are prone to nodding off.

3. Do you think that having a booth at the same time as being represented by a Santa Fe gallery during Indian Market ups your profile much?

I don’t have representation in Santa Fe, but I try to have something available at another location in town if I can such as the IAIA Museum gift shop gallery. As far as my profile… I’m still working on that one, but I do have some regulars who find my work interesting enough to keep coming back.

4. The Berlin Gallery at the Heard Museum in Phoenix has been really good to you. Where do you hope to exhibit in the future?

The Berlin Gallery has been great, it is a venue that my work fits into better than most. As far as showing work, I’m up for anything, from small D.I.Y. shows to curated musuem exhibitions, I am up for anyone who is willing to let me hang the work. This includes shows that cater more to the Outsider/Graffiti/Street Art crowds… I guess the graffiti mentality never left me, trying to get as much work up and out is key.

5. Are you going to DJ the Douglas Miles event he’s been planning with SWAIA?

I usually only spin with Mr. DJ “Werewulf” Micah Wesley, so if he gets on this one, I might be right next to him… We’ll see.

Here’s Marla Allison answering some Indian Market 2009 – geared questions I sent her. I have a list of the new Indian Market artists also and will be throwing some of them some questions soon… Hopefully.

Marla Allison:
In my preparation for the Santa Fe Indian Market I have recently visited Albuquerque to stock up on the last paints and wood supply for canvas and frames that I will need. When preparing for such a great show, I try to sketch ideas and gather what I need a long time in advance, this is among finishing orders and such. I look forward to new artists and artwork being at the show. I think that it is good to have a range of views and styles at such an immense art show that represents Native American Art with Contemporary and Traditional styles connected. This will be my second time at the Indian Market. I don’t have much advice to give but, “finish the work that you started and believe that you will be just fine no matter what”. That’s what I had to tell myself last year and it worked out. I think that having representation at the Heard Museum and in the Berlin Gallery has helped me be more confident in what I am trying to accomplish in my art. I am honored that they carry my work and I won’t be able to tell if it has had much effect till the show is over and after hearing what the crowd says. I hear from people that they could see my work in a lot of different places such as museums and galleries. I’m trying to find where my style might fit best. My biggest hope is to some day show some of my artwork at the Whitney Museum in New York. This is something I have been researching for a few years and I’m still trying to make a strong portfolio to send.

As far as my living in a small town and coming up with ideas, I think it helps me to focus most of my time on my artwork. I’m sure if I had more artistic influence at hand it might make it easier to conjure up ideas although, they might not be the ideas I’m looking for. I think the convenience of living in a city has it’s benefits but living here in Laguna has worked for me very well.

-Thanks for the opportunity Sam. Could you send me links if all goes through? Hope to hear from you soon. See you in Santa Fe.
Marla Allison

With this interview I thought it might be interesting to get an outsider’s perspective on the SWAIA Indian Market. Since Phillip Vigil is pretty prolific on the internet with his contemporary painting and artwork, he immediately came to mind as someone to ask.

1. As an artist who has not been involved with the SWAIA Indian Market, do you think that not being involved as an artist is a hindrance?
I don’t think it’s hindered me at all, although it could help as well. There is so much opportunity out there, you just have to go out and look for it. Going the Indian Market route is not the only way.

2. Since you’re based in Santa Fe and have a relatively high profile online, do you believe that there is an “Indian Art runoff” for secondary artists because of Indian Market?
I’m actually not based in Santa Fe. I’m currently based in northern New Mexico, near the Colorado border. And tell you the truth I haven’t noticed any “Indian Art Runoff”, because I’m just out here doing my own thing. But I guess it could and does exist.

3. What has kept you from getting a booth at Indian Market in the past?
I realize it would be great exposure for my work. But then again I have a problem being labeled a “Native American Artist” as if that alone defines who I am and what my work is about. Not to say I’m not proud of who I am or where I come from. But, I’ve always thought about going a different route.

4. Do you go to Indian Market?
I haven’t been to Indian market in a few years. But I definitely plan on going this year.

5. Any last words?
I’ve always refused to let where I come from to define who I am and what my work is about. There is definitely more to me than just being Native American. I never intended on becoming an artist, it just happened, literally. But it’s been an amazing ride and opened my eyes to the bigger picture. It’s changed my life forever and I’m forever grateful for it. It’s always a reminder to me, that anything really is possible.