Around town

The Mountainair on a Mission "Art and More Auction" is today, 2pm-6pm at the Shaffer Hotel, auction, last but not particularly up-to-date notice, has it starting at 3pm. Donated artwork includes original works by local artists Susan Probert, Deb Vetterman, Dee Melargno, Madelein Gutwein, Anne Ravenstone, Mary Schultz, Meg Chobanian, Susan Aulde - all Cibola Arts members. No pictures available for posting but will be available for viewing in the Shaffer Conference Room. Other donations include limited edition signed Douglas Johnson (represented by Parks Gallery, Taos) print.

Late announcing, hopefully not too late for everyone - chalk it up to a combination of computer problems and not getting a reminder about reminding. I can't do much about either but do wish I could have followed the "out of town" notice with a post on local doings.

Also today - the last day of the Torrance county 50+ games, qualifiers for 2008 NM Senior Olympics. That means there will be a team to announce soon. Mountainair Sr Olympians consistently do well at state games.

If you have not been by the renovated Senior Center, drop by and take a look at the new and expanded digs. Wana Beth Fox (our White House artist) writes, "I've been cleaning, re-wiring, hanging art work for them in my spare time... I enjoy it. It's better than doing my own housework. hah!" She is also loaning the original of her "Maud" charcoal to hang in the Center and has offered to conduct classes for a proposed an arts and crafts program.

It's the weekend and a glorious day to boot: don't forget the rest of the town. Joan Page's Out of Tyme Shoppe on Limit and Jackass Junction on US 60 across from Turner Inn are open -"Mountainair originals" worth venturing out of the 2 block Broadway "core" to visiting.

Ethnic Events this Weekend in Abqq

ETHNIC EVENTS THIS WEEKEND

May 16 & 17, 2008 11:00 AM - 5:30 PM Matachines! The largest ever gathering of Matachines dance groups from the Southwest will take place on Friday and Saturday May 16 and 17, 2008; at the National Hispanic Cultural Center. The dance groups will perform on both Friday and Saturday on the Plaza Mayor. There will also be panel discussions about the dance inside the Center in the Wells Fargo Theater on both afternoons. Seven Matachines dance groups have committed to perform at this point including groups from Bernalillo, Tijeras, Tortugas, Alcalde, a Yaqui group from Tucson, and a Raramuri (Tarahumara) group from the Sierra Madres in Mexico. This unique event is free and open to the public. However the public should be aware that this dance is considered sacred by many of the dancers who perform it and we ask that the public be respectful of this fact. Several of the groups have asked that there be no photography or recording of the dances. Some of the groups will allow photographs if photographers are respectful and stay out of the dance area. It is best to ask permission first. Info & Schedule: www.nmarts.org/matachines.html May 17, 2008 9 AM - 5 PM 20th Annual Rio Grande Valley Celtic Festival and Highland Games. Balloon Fiesta Park. A celebration of Scottish, Irish, Welsh, Manx & Galician Culture. Experience the food, dance, music, athletics, attires, and history of the Celtic Heritage! (Please enter by taking San Mateo or the frontage road north from Alameda, then turning west onto Balloon Fiesta Parkway (to avoid construction). Admission is $10 for adults, $5 for children 6-13. (Advance adult tickets are $8 at Apple Mountain Music, Bally Dun Celtic Treasures, Two Fools Tavern, or Rio Rancho Travel.) Info: 453-0696 jcsquared@spinn.net Website May 17, 2008 Noon - 9:00 PM Filipino American Foundation of New Mexico (FAFNM) Santa Cruzan Fiesta. The Fiesta begins at noon. The Santa Cruzan's holy mass at San Felipe de Neri Church is at 5:00 PM followed by a procession at 6:00 PM, which symbolizes a saint's search and eventual discovery of the cross used in Jesus Christ's crucifixion. Fiestas are considered a core element of the Filipino culture originating with the Spaniards during their 300 year colonial rule in the Philippines. Although it was originally observed to honor a saint or to commemorate a religious event, the fiesta could also be a celebration of good harvest. Old Town Plaza, Albuquerque. Info: 417-5774 or 459-8010. May 18, 2008 10:30 AM - 4:30 PM FREE Festival of Asian Cultures 2008. Spend the day with friends and family listening to music, tasting Asian foods, watching performances and just have a wonderful time at the Festival of Asian Cultures. Participating Cultural Groups include: Cambodian, Chinese, East Indian, Filipino, Hawaiian, Indonesian, Japanese, Korean, Lao, Middle Eastern, Nepali, Tahitian, Thai and Vietnamese. Feel free to wear your Asian attire or costume. Civic Plaza, Marquette & 4th St SW. Info: 903-0202

There are so many fabulous ethnic events in Albuquerque. Please check out the Arts Alliance Ethnic Events Calendar at: http://abqarts.org/cultural/culturecal.htm Please send your ethnic events listings to: Cricket@abqarts.org

Written in Sand, Art show at Harwood - June 5-26

I'm very excited to have a chance to do some visual art again, it has been a while! Hope you can come see the show.  Thanks, Dale

P.S. Apologies if you are getting this more than once.

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Written In Sand,
Genesis in Pictographs & Petroglyphs
a Collaboration on Lost Cultures
by Three Contemporary Artists

 June 5 - 26 in the North Gallery of the Harwood Art Center, located at 114 7th St. NW just north of downtown Albuquerque at Mountain Road, 505-242-6367. Opening & Arts Crawl Reception: Friday, June 6, 5:00 - 8:30 pm; Performance 6:30 pm; Gallery Talk, Conversations in Response to the Art: Friday, June 20, 6:30 pm

• Peggy Powell Dobbins "...dwelling in tents..." an inhabitable art erection by Atlanta installation & performance artist features Karankawan pictographic sand drawings of Genesis according to Sor Juana's Arabic interpretation.
• Gao Feng "Worship Heaven" illustrations by Kunming, China calligrapher of the Naxi Dongba people's pictographically written Creation sagas.
• Dale Harris "Stories in Stone" scroll paintings by Albuquerque artist and poet, inspired by Southwestern petroglyph rock art.

 

Contact Dale Harris for more information poetdale@yahoo.com, more information at http://www.peggydobbins.net 

 

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MORE ABOUT THE ARTISTS

 

Peggy Powell Dobbins Ph.D. is a veteran of the Women’s Rights Movement and a retired sociologist. In 2001 she attended an international social sciences conference in Kunming, China, capital of the southwest province of Yunnan, where the majestic Himalayan Mountains begin, nearby to Tibet. There she became interested in the Naxi, an indigenous people famous for their preservation of Dongba, the world’s only surviving hieroglyphic writing system, and the Na (or Musuo as outsiders call them) who had no writing but are equally famous for their unbroken practice of matrilineal marriage and property traditions known as Azhu. Some contemporary ethnographers believe the Na and the Naxi have common ancient ancestors, some do not.

 

As part of her explorations, she met Gao Feng, an extraordinary calligrapher. His art has fomented curiosity among anthropologists and artists worldwide about the Naxi myths and wisdoms contained in over 10,000 ancient, obscure manuscripts. Dobbins was captivated, "“It bore no resemblance to any other Chinese calligraphy I’'d ever seen. It looks more like cells of a giant’s cartoon strip awaiting animation."

 

Eventually she arranged to have “Worship Heaven”, Gao Feng’'s rendition of a Naxi creation story, brought to the U.S. for exhibit. "Worship Heaven"” was first shown at the Texas State Museum of Asian Cultures in Corpus Christi and its U.S. tour continues with the Harwood Art Center in Albuquerque, New Mexico June 5-26, 2008.  Gao Feng and Peggy Dobbins are both contributors to the upcoming 16th International Congress of Anthropological & Ethnological Sciences in Kunming, China July 15-23, 2008.

 

Dobbins was inspired by Gao Feng'’s work to begin her own artistic adventure, exploring a culture closer to her home in the Galveston, Texas area. The Karawankans were an affiliation of non-nomadic native tribes that lived along the Gulf of Mexico, first “discovered” by Spanish explorers in 1528. By the mid-1800’s they were gone, extinguished by European colonization and the reprisals of American settlers. Their known history is sparse. In 1685, LaSalle, a French explorer who had a monopoly to import slaves in any territory he settled, landed with a small party and established an outpost. A massacre ensued but a child survivor Marie Madeleine Talon lived among the Karawankans until Spanish soldiers took her to Mexico and she became a maid in waiting to the Viceroy’s wife. The Vicereina was a good friend of the famous nun and poet Sor Juana de la Cruz, known for her immense library that contained Arabic texts.

 

Dobbins was raised hearing that the Karawankans were “naked, illiterate savages” but thought differently. As an artist, she could conceive Karankawan pictograms “written in sand” that Marie Madeleine Talon might have reproduced for Sor Juana’s interpretation. Dobbins artist’'s statement describes her visit to a private library in Paris to receive a box containing Karankawan pictographs and Arabic notes accompanying them, with letters tracing their provenance through the hands of Martha Gellhorn, Frances Wright and Berlandier, back to Sor Juana and Marie Madeleine Talon. 

 

The result is “"dwelling in tents," Genesis 25-27”, a structure covered with pictographs interpreted in Arabic. With bold and cheerful artistic license, Dobbins cuts across cultures and time zones to tell a dynamic, non-linear story about the origins of human society. In her accompanying performance piece, she is a mysterious woman by turns in nun’'s robes and bourka, a veritable dervish of words. Viewers are invited to enter the tent and the experience. “"Dwelling in tents"” has been exhibited in New Orleans, Atlanta, Birmingham, Hiroshima and Tokyo, Japan, Goliad, Texas and Telluride, Colorado with a planned finale at the Christie’s Auction in Dubai where it will be sold in time for the Hajj 2008. 

 

Dale Harris and Peggy Dobbins met in Telluride at the 2007 Talking Gourds Poetry Festival. The poetry and life patterns of both made them instant friends. Also an early activist in the Women’s Liberation Movement, Harris is an artist with a background in Chinese watercolor and printmaking. She easily sold Dobbins on the Harwood Art Center in Albuquerque as a venue for “"dwelling in tents"” and "“Worship Heaven”." When Harris commented, “All you need to complete the show is some Southwestern petroglyphs,” Dobbins replied, “Exactly! You do it!” and so their collaboration began. Harris frequents petroglyph sites in New Mexico and takes rock scrambling detours whenever she travels through neighboring states. She describes her reason for the attraction, “Awesome, powerful, they are physically accessible but whole worlds away in meaning. Petroglyphs are perfect subjects for art and spiritual journeying!” 

Wind

DOE Report: Wind Could Power 20 Percent of US Grid by 2030.  Easy to believe on a day like today.... better than dwelling on notorious winds in legend and history, not to mention folklore about wind driving people mad...

 Exaggeration? I think not. Famous and infamous winds we have known (windbags too but that's another story). Prairie winds on the Great Plains, the Santa Ana, the Dust Bowl, Provence's mistral (wind of wrath), North Africa's khamsin or sirocco or other regional name for the wind rising in the Sahara and blowing across North Africa and the Mediterranean. The name "khamsin" is derived from the Arabic, khamsun or hamsin, meaning fifty, for the approximate period of days during which it blows. According to Egyptian popular culture, khamsin-blown madness has even been cited for defense in a homicide trial. 

I doubt the wind will drive me to such extremes, but I do think that if were to stick beans up my nose, they might sprout.

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Also blogging Mountainair at Poets and Writers Picnic and Mountainair Announcements