CALL TO ARTISTS

Artists wanted to create site-specific, temporary, outdoor installations on site at the Harwood Art Center. The center is ooking for entries that will entice and engage the community and passersby; benefit from community involvement; and be impervious to - or happily engage - destructive forces. Learn more and submit your proposal!

TV news submissions

Robin DesJardins, who regularly supplies me with photos and
Belen/UNM-Valencia updates (our stringer on the other side of the Llano
you could say, reported from Belen yesterday,

Hi - thought I'd share this milestone. Today, I filed two photos and
stories on the Channel 13 My New Mexico;. Look for the photos
called "Rio Communities Rollover" and "Another 'Controlled Burn'." Robin

Ed. Note: Do you have good local pictures or video clips to share?
Don't just send them to us, submit them to a local TV station. Both
Channel 13 and Channel 7 have have "citizen photojournalist" sections
(no doubt Channel 4 as well) and invite submissions. If accepted, email
me (vcrary@yahoo.com) the link to blog.

• FAQ, uploading and submitting photos and videos to Channel 13, My New Mexico
• Channel 7 - You be the reporter
  

New blog on the block

Copied from the NM-Central.com portal page (highlight to display missing parts, link to blog at bottom of page). FYI - blog take public service announcements about community events and is actively soliciting advertisers. Time for a Central NM Blogroll?

Welcome to NM-Central.com. News, views, reviews and commentary from New Mexico's REAL Central Valley!

(Ed Note: not so sure how to interpret "real" since it excludes Mountainair, which is actually closest to geographical center of the state. Is our community yet again the proverbial red-haired step-child?)

NM-Central.com, a regional issues blog and commentary site, is being developed to allow for a greater degree of discussion and disclosure regarding issues and events relevant to the real Central Valley of New Mexico (more on that inside the blog). While our newspapers do the best possible job in bringing us the news and commentary in print, the Web allows us much greater freedom in the amount of discussion, background information, and candor than traditional media are able to offer.

This site is in the early stages of its development. We are working to develop the best possible online authoring and commenting environment possible, with an emphasis on accuracy and constructive criticism. NM-Central.com will be examining a broad spectrum of issues pertaining to life in the truly central portion of the state, with an eye towards providing information on matters of public policy, local and regional events, economic development, environmental protection, and other concerns relevant to a vital and growing community. We especially look forward to exposing and correcting the unfortunate misconceptions and misperceptions, and occasionally even misleading information, that can serve to cloud public debate. Our focus is to explore issues in a manner that promotes healthy debate and seeks common ground where it can be found, and respect for the right of others to disagree when it can not.

Why not visit the NM-Central blog and let editor/owner know how you feel/ It is, however, head and shoulders above NM Crier which, self-described as "free local papers by the peple and for the people," lists no staff/editorial names and will appropriate your copy without compensation or rights. It too overlooks Mountainair...

---

Also blogging Mountainair from Poets & Writers Picnic and Mountainair Announcements,

Memorial Day in Arthur Park, Estancia

Thanks to Margarita Hibbs in Estancia for sending the following update (and more). I hope the arts council, chamber and town are reciprocating by having her on their routine email announcement list. If not, they can consider this a reminder.
 
Well, we all survived a very busy Memorial Day Holiday weekend.  Those of you that missed our celebration day, missed a great day of music provided by Picoso and Just Us.  The first band Picoso is a latin/jazz/funk band and the second, Just Us is a country western band.  They provided a wonderful mixture of music for our blue skied sunny day.  It was a little windy, but in all, it was a beautiful day of community.   

 

It was a wonderful day of remembering our men and women in the military and their families, but also all of our veterans who have provided the freedoms we all enjoy today.  Please keep all our men and women, along with their families in service and all veterans in your prayers.  We were very fortunate to have young Amber Mendez sing the National Anthem and before that, we were blessed to have several veterans in the band Picoso, who led us in the Pledge of Allegiance. 

 
... We have many wonderful events coming this summer season.  Remember, as Estancia is the county seat of Torrance, Estancia is everyone's home town and we are very happy to have you all here for any of these occasions.  With the price of gas these days, it might be wise to stay closer to home.  Hopefully we will see you for some of these events.

• Saturday, June 21, Jack Thorp Day, Noon to 8 p.m.
• Friday, July 4, Community Family 4^th, Noon to 9 p.m.
• Saturday, July 26, Old Timers’ Day, Noon to 8 p.m.
• August 1-2, American Cancer Relay for Life, 6 p.m. to 6 p.m.
• August 11-16, Torrance County Fair & Sale, All Week
• Monday, September 1 (Labor Day), Latino Music Fest, Noon to 8 p.m.
  

Please share this [schedule] with...your network,...coworkers and customers.  Until then, God Bless you and keep you safe all summer long.

---

Ed Note: Thanks again, Margarita. I'm in process of converting Margarita's schedule to image and pdf format to link here as well as posting on Mountainair Announcements and other calendars. Does your  organization have an event / announcement flyer? Please send it to me for posting - preferably already formated/ converted in optimum format for posting.

oops and announcings

Fresh from the oops desk:

Senior Center Grand Opening was prematurely announced. Originally set for May 3, it has been rescheduled for June 25 to accommodate dignitaries from Santa Fe and all that jazz. Election year ya know even there won't be babies to kiss at this venue.

I also missed announcing the May Gymkhana Rodeo (thinking it a week later than it actually was). Another in June plus a NM Junior Rodeo event. Red Kingston filled me in on the gymkhana and rodeo arena history but my computer spit up the blue screen of death before I could blog it. Did you know that the original wood arena area started equestrian sport life as a polo field in the 30s? Yes, that's right. Polo in Mountainair.

The Mountainair on a Mission "Art and More Auction" got announced and posted but the intended last pre-auction write up did not get blogged nor reminder emailed to NM Culture announcement list. Grapevine versions report a respectable take. I welcome more detailed reports to blog and am curious about how the print I donated fared. Here's hoping Mission keeps up the good work and joins forces with Margarita Hibb's Relay for Life project. Catch Mountainair chair Lori Autrey at Meds & More to learn more about it.

Incidentally - don't look for all announcements to show up here on Mountainair Arts. Check Mountainair Announcements blog for local events, activities and what not. Two posted today: Clay Workshop and Tijeras Open Air Market.

I'm transitioning local (and area) announcements from here to there. Eventually I hope to spread out posting (not just me posting) so that it becomes an open community announcements area, independent and self-sustaining...

Closing with a Pop Quiz: who can tell us what Mountainair's FAA 3 digit airport code is? And why does it matter?

Artwork Submission - Artistaday.com

About ARTISTADAY

Artistaday.com’s goal is simple. We feel artists are under-valued, under-exposed, and generally under-appreciated. We want to bring attention to artists that otherwise don’t get the attention they deserve. If we can bring their art to one person that would have otherwise missed the opportunity to see it, we feel like we have made a contribution to the art community. If you like the artist’s work, take a second to leave a comment to tell them so. If you don’t, feel free to tell them that as well (constructive criticism is always appreciated). We don’t intend to showcase all the artist’s work, in fact we only show one or two images by the artist. Be sure to continue through to the artist’s website to find more of their work.

Submit your work for consideration

We know of a lot of great artists but we don’t know them all. If you are an artist or if you know a artist whose work should be shown here, let us know. Note that even if we do accept your submission it may be a few weeks before your work is featured.

Please note that if you want to nominate an artist (whether yourself or someone else), whatever artist you nominate must have a website or online portfolio - an internet address. The submission must also include a sample - attached as a digital image file.  The site features artists from around the world. Art categories are Animators; Collage Artists; Costume Artists; Digital Artists; Fiber Artists; Illustrators; Installation Artists; Jewelry Artist; Painters; Photographers; Sculptors; Street Artists; Video Artists. Acceptance should boost exposure as part of the "Google gadget" collection and showing up on customized iGoogle search pages all over the internet.

Also blogging Mountainair from Poets & Writers Picnic and Mountainair Announcements

Maria Rodriguez Pope, June 2008 art exhibit at Los Lunas Museum

Keep this in mind for June -and take a nice drive down to visit our neighbors in Los Lunas!

Maria Rodriguez-Pope . . . a retrospective
On Exhibit June 3rd - 28th, 2008
Opening reception: June 7, 2008

Also featuring Aztec Dancers, Native American Flutist and Guest Poets

Time: 2:00pm to 5:00pm
Location: Los Lunas Museum of Heritage and Arts, 251 Main St. SE, Los Lunas, New Mexico

For more information please call 505-352-7720

---

Maria Rodriguez-Pope is an extraordinary poet, expressionistic painter, sculptress, printmaker, dancer and photographer, who was born amidst the sugarcane fields of the town of Tafi Viejo, at the base of the Aconquija Mountains in northwest Argentina, Tucumán.

Maria's visual art; paintings, prints, sculptures as well as her poetry will be showcased in a month long Retrospective at the Los Lunas Museum of Heritage and Arts. This unique art collection depicts strong, enduring, and passionate women in their roles as children, mothers, sisters, lovers, friends and ministers.

Maria's poetry, in both Spanish and English, speaks predominantly to pursuing a peaceful world society, while preventing the destruction of our spirits and our planet. Her visual art incorporates more than 25 years of archaeological research into the prehistoric and historic essence of being a woman. Much of her presentation is based on the multitude of sacred images encountered during her research of caves and tombs reflecting the height of the Matriarchal Age. She seeks "to pursue and recover an understanding of the human element . . . in order to create a link that develops better relationships and enhances the recovery of our own spirit as social beings."

Throughout her art, Maria utilizes her own experiences to facilitate recapturing the power, wisdom and knowledge of times past; to enhance the re-establishment of more harmonious and understanding relationships between people, nature, and our planet as a whole. Maria uses a variety of media in her work, some of which defy verbal description —her poetry is not only written, it is visual, at times blending words with her art.

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.

---

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 

 

---

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.

---

Also blogging Mountainair at Poets and Writers Picnic and Mountainair Announcements

recycled art: tires this time

'RubberMade : Sculpture by Chakaia Booker'

Kansas City, MO - Since the early 1990s, Chakaia Booker has worked almost exclusively with recycled tires. Through a physically demanding process of twisting, slicing, and weaving found rubber tires, she forms dynamic, whimsical sculptures that fuse ecological concerns with questions about racial and economic differences, globalization, and sociopolitical power structures. The exhibition RubberMade: Sculpture by Chakaia Booker surveys the past seven years of production by one of today’s leading African American artists.

Featuring nearly 25 sculptures, the exhibition is on view June 6–August 17, 2008, at the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art in Kansas City, Missouri.

Booker reclaims her tires from roadsides, abandoned lots, salvage yards, and city dumps. In her studio, which was once a commercial laundry facility, the artist uses an arsenal of machinery and small cutting tools to perform the arduous task of shredding and pulling apart the elements of tires. The variety of tire lengths and fragments are then folded, twisted, and knotted into abstract forms—a process that is physically demanding and, at times, painful.

The Artist Transforms Salvaged Tires into Art
Booker draws upon the inherent characteristics of the tires—their black color, steel belts, and various tread patterns—to create her expressive and complex sculptures. In the exhibition’s catalogue, Curator Christopher Cook writes, “Encountering the occasional patch of tar or dust and the off-gassing of an acrid, seemingly toxic aroma, viewers are constantly reminded of the rubber sculptures’ industrial origins.” Her sculptures range from small wall-mounted works to massive monumental installations, including the exhibition’s It’s So Hard To Be Green (2000), measuring more than 200 square feet.

Visit the Kemper Museum online: www.kemperart.org

Cross posted from Art Knowledge newsletter

Mountainair - Outsider Art Destination / Folk Art Environment

Detour Atlas ("outsider art, discoveries along the backroads") carries 3 listings for Mountainair, The New Mexico section is fascinating and quite large.

• Gordon McMath (artist)
• Shaffer Hotel (site)
• Rancho Bonito (site)

From the National Register of Historical Places document nominating Rancho Bonito and the Shaffer:

"Like other artists The Folk Art Environmentalist seems to be driven by the need for expression, but in this case the expression often takes the form of a lifetime, single project which is guided by the desire to form an environment over which the artist has complete control. The unity of the artist's vision is readily apparent but the underlying motivation is much more difficult to discern. On the whole, works by American Folk Environmentalists seem to share no direct relationship with the art of the past or awareness of developments in the art of their contemporaries.

They work outside the mainstream, intently focusing on a inner vision, the content, scope, and style of which is the sole product of the artist. What the forces were that motivated "Pop Shaffer" to begin work on his small animals and decorated buildings are not known nor do we know what guided the creation of such a unified vision. We do know that there are no other examples of Folk Environments on this scale in New Mexico and that efforts should be made to preserve this humorous and impressive monument to one man's vision."

Gordon's Critters in his front yard are not just a display but as much a folk art environment as the other two sites. Local house art - creating environments - surely falls in the same category.

There are also Photo sets for each at Flickr in Kelly Ludwig's collection "southwestern self-taught artists & folk art environments" .... "dedicated to the sheer joy of outsider, folk, visionary, self-taught, vernacular art and environment discoveries found all along the back roads (and side streets) around the world."

• Gordon McMath
• Rancho Bonito
• Shaffer

---

Kelly Ludwig (queenodesign) who did these describes herself as "a graphic designer by trade, a collector of self-taught art, and road trip fool by passion..."

I am crazy about this stuff called outsider art, visionary art, art brut, folk art or whatever you want to name it. I think it is a pure root art form, like a visual blues or jazz.

It’s the spirit of both the art and the artists that is so captivating. If you are lucky enough to venture off of the main highways of this country, you can encounter the most amazing folks and environments. People who create just because they have to. Not for recognition, or to satisfy a client, but because it is in them to create. Maybe they have retired and have some time on their hands, or maybe there has been a personal tragedy, or sometimes the Lord has spoken to them, or they had some left over paint, but whatever drives them to create is a pure as it gets.

Kelly's Websites...

• Ludwig Design... an adventure in graphic design (& portfolio)
• Detour Art... self-taught art discoveries along the backroads (and side streets) all around the world. Over 3700 listings for artists, sites, environments, galleries, museums and more...
• Detour Art flickr photos...

and Blogs...

• Detour Art Travels... personal musings from the road and the latest news from the outsider art world
• Geeky things I did today... notes from the cyber-road and all it's detours
• Bright shiny objects... daily distraction
  

Mountainair album on Picasa

Paul's Mountainair NM album on Picasa - 10 pictures, street scenes - main street with motorcycles parked in front of Uncle Walter's & 55/60 intersection showing Wana Beth's mural at Abo Trading and the corner of Gypsy Treasures, Shaffer ceiling (best I've seen so far), Rancho Bonito
 
http://picasaweb.google.com/blueeasterner/MountainairNM

Enjoy

Acequia Field School

ACEQUIAS Y MERCEDES: LAND, WATER, and CULTURAL LANDSCAPES OF NM
DOCUMENTARY FIELD SCHOOL

2008 Special Summer Session / June 2-27 / 9-12 MTWRF
UNM Main Campus-Week 1,2,4 / Mora Valley-Week 3

Chicano Hispano Mexicano Studies CHMS
Southwest Hispanic Research Institute
Center for Regional Studies

PROFESSORS:
From UNM - Enrique Lamadrid, Miguel Gandert with special guest lectures and
field presentations by José Rivera, Sylvia Rodríguez, and Manuel García y
Griego. Acequia activists and community scholars including Paula García,
Estevan Arellano, James Maestas, Harold Trujillo, and others will also join
us in northern New Mexico.

CREDIT:
Students will earn 6 credit hours in this project. Courses cross listed with Native American Studies, Communications & Journalism, American Studies, and Spanish & Portuguese as follows:

FIELD SEMINARS:
A field based survey of the Acequia Culture and Landscapes of New Mexico, based on the folkways associated with traditional management of water, historic land grants, and agriculture. This overview of the ecology, history, ethnography, and sustainable systems of the region is accompanied by training in digital documentary technology, interview techniques, field notes, archiving, analysis, and the ethics of cultural representation. Two weeks of fieldwork will be conducted in the middle Río Grande Valley, Tijeras Canyon, and Cuba, plus one week in the Mora Valley of northern NM.

ASSIGNMENTS AND SCHEDULE:
Special emphasis on cultural mapping and qualitative research. In a final seminar on students present their research in a multi-media forum on August 23. Morning classes and workshops, some afternoon field trips. One week field trip in Mora 6/16-20.

TEXTS:
Crawford, Stanley. Mayordomo: Chronicle of an Acequia in Northern New Mexico.
Rivera, José. Acequia Culture.
Rodríguez, Sylvia. Acequia: Water Sharing, Sanctity, and Place.

INFORMATION:
Contact Enrique Lamadrid for information on logistics, admissions and
scholarship applications
(505) 269-5569 / lamadrid@unm.edu

---

Blogging from Mountainair NM at
Mountainair Arts, http://mountainairarts.blogspot.com
Poets and Writers Picnic, http://poetsandwriterspicnic.blogspot.com
Mountainair Announcements, http://mountainair-announcements.blogspot.com

May Day Splingo

Splingo? Splingo = "Spring Fling Bingo." Splingo is shorter to type. But would "Green Spring Fling Bingo" = Gringo? Perhaps but too easily confused with gringo as derived from "green grow the rushes ho."

I did not bingo, splingo or gringo - having grown up in Francophone (and Catholic) south Louisiana, a hotbed of church bingo, you might say I am bingo-ed out. I missed the Senior Center Open House too. Kristine's report, minimalist but covering salient points. Expanded narratives invited.

pix of bingo - went well, about 100 there - ate lots, spent lots

Chuckie, Kristie & Dennis - young gardeners

Mary Childers & Scott Remmich - Ruth Ballen, Kristine Lauretsin & Anita Soluna

Spring Clean-up Day, April 26

Late to be sure - but with pictures. Thanks to Kristine for pictures and report:

Helping out with clean up day: Ed's wife Whitney; Scott Remmich; Kevin Turner; Frank Lucero; Town Council member Steve Sanchez; Judy Reynolds; Pam Pettingill; Anita Soluna; Craig Lockwood (ag teacher at high school); me; Girl Scout Troop #? and troop leader. Red Kingston and his kids were there helping too. I (Kristine) made scones and coffee for volunteers. Scott provided bags, gloves, water. High school students made the sign on elem. school fence. Vel helped Friday night, and of course Susan Brazil was our liaison with the waste disposal people.

Girl Scouts ready to start clean-up & cleaning up

Local residents bringing in loads; Kevin & Whitney (loading themselves?)

Ed Note: by all accounts, a great success (cleaned up in the polls/at the box office). All three 30-yd dumpsters were full by just past midday. As invariably happens on clean up days, a presumably not representative handful - all of whom should and no doubt did know better, some more than others - jumped the gun and dumped the night before. Another town clean-up day is planned for October.

Next: minimalist splingo (spring fling bingo) report + pics

Folk Art in the news and around the blogosphere

Folk Art in the news

Fashion and fiber come to the Folk Art Center
Asheville Citizen-Times - NC,USA
ASHEVILLE – The Folk Art Center’s Mother’s Day fashion show will feature felted handbags, woven jackets and wraps, and painted and marbled silk scarves and ...

Friend's slaying inspires `Sacred Stones' art series
The Associated Press -
"I would categorize it as being spiritual, almost in a folk-art sense," contemporary artist Laddie John Dill said of Muizz's work. "

Ahoy There! Philadelphia Antiques Show Sails Into Navy Yard
Antiques and Arts Weekly - Newtown,CT,USA
There were high impact displays of American folk art, scarcer on the floor this year, at Allan Katz Americana, Hill Gallery and Olde Hope Antiques.

And the beaches became storm clouds

THE INSIDER’S OUTSIDER by Ben Davis
Artnet - New York,NY,USA
21, 2008, at the American Folk Art Museum, 45 West 53rd Street, New York, NY. What’s so fascinating about Henry Darger?

Mapping Your News: History, folk art festival on tap Saturday in ...
Shreveport Times - Shreveport,LA,USA
The Benton on the Square History and Folk Art Festival will be held from 9 am to 5 pm, Saturday at Heritage Village, 414 Sibley St. The fifth-annual festival ...

---

Folk Art Blogs

New Trend: Folk Art
By Paisley St Claire
I think this trend is going to expand to include folk art, in particular kurbits designs (popular in Sweden between 1780 and 1870). I'm going to be on the lookout for more folk art inspired pieces but in the meantime here are some ideas
... Paisley St Claire - http://paisleystclaire.typepad.com/main/

Mexican Folk Art

Huichol beaded jaguar head

By phaskins
A few weeks ago I started a new occasional series detailing some of the Mexican folk art that I love and live with. My own little gallery of sorts. This is another in that series. Today’s piece is one of my absolute favorites
http://pattihaskins.wordpress.com

PRINT of Mixed Media Folk Art Angel Painting Jane DesRosier
I am a daily painter folk art doll maker Some of my favorite mediums to work with are wood, papers, fabric, charcoal, paint, and wax. I am best known for my unique folk art dolls and angel paintings ... http://www.artbyus.com

Another Folk Art Flowers Quilt
By Sonya
I’ve finished quilting another(click link to view image) Folk Art Flower’s quilt. This quilt was done in a block party at Ruth’s Stitchery. I discussed the designer etc. in this post. This quilt is a different colorway
http://atbquilting.wordpress.com

Hand carved folk art fishing decoys
By The Midwest Carver/John Gabriel
Hand carved folk art fishing decoys. Two of the fish decoys are carved from red cedar and the other is pine. The frog is carved from white cedar. The pine wood fish was stained, the other three have a natural finish.
Uploads from The Midwest Carver http://www.flickr.com/photos/folkartdecoys

---

Also blogging Mountainair NM at Poets and Writers Picnic and Mountainair Announcements

May Day

There is May Day and then there is Mayday. One is May 1st (with various meanings, some indubitably less culturally palatable than others). The other is the international radio distress call, from "m'aidez." Considering the Trigo fire jump and resurgence, today is both May Day and a Mayday day. News Alerts tell me a Type 1 incident team is on its way. Winds in force again tomorrow but expected to abate by Saturday.

May Day: maypole wall hanging

Back (centuries ago) when Feb 1 was celebrated a the 1st day of spring, May 1 was day 1 summer. Calendars change but the festivals they spawn live on. May 1 is also a cross-quarter day, or one falling approximately halfway between a solstice and an equinox. The cross-quarter days were also independently developed in East Asia as four of the 24 Solar Terms. So either a roisterous Roodmas or a wild Walpurgisnacht (remember that scene in Goethe's Faust?) to you too.

April, opening with Fool's Day, is also associated with Earth Day - for some Earth Week, Month.

No thematic disconnect from wildfires Climate change has been associated with upsurge in wildfires:

• Researchers Link Wildfires, Climate Change, Charles J. Hanley, July 22, 2006, Associated Press

"Researchers find growing evidence tying an upsurge in wildfires to climate change, an impact long predicted by global-warming forecasters....The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change...has long predicted that summer drying and droughts would worsen forest fires, which in many regions are primarily set by humans....The Scripps study, in the journal Science, was unique in collating detailed data from 34 years of U.S. western wildfires with temperature, snowmelt and streamflow records. Wildfire frequency varies widely from year to year, but the California researchers found a clear trend: The average number of large fires almost quadrupled between the first and second halves of that period. They also looked at land-use changes and forest management practices, but concluded they were secondary factors in the upsurge of fires."

• Warming climate plays large role in Western US wildfires, Scripps-led study shows
• CLIMATE CHANGE: Is Global Warming Causing More, Larger Wildfires? Steven W. Running
  

Less moisture--more fires. Between 1970 and 2003, spring and summer moisture availability declined in many forests in the western United States. During the same time span, most wildfires exceeding 1000 ha in burned area occurred in these regions of reduced moisture availability

April was also National Poetry Month - blogged & plogged at Poets and Writers Picnic

Cultivo Una Rosa Blanca
Por Jose Marti

Cultivo una rosa blanca
En julio como en enero,
Para el amigo sincero
Que me da su mano franca.

Y para el cruel que me arranca
El corazon con que vivo,
Cardo ni ortiga cultivo,
Cultivo una rosa blanca.

---

Coming up this month - haven't gotten to putting together the May calendar for the blog but have updated the community calendar on the Chamber site. Another busy month.

The quick run through - to be developed in more detail & regularly announced on Mountainair Announcements - Spring Fling Bingo (aka either Flingo or Splingo), Senior Center Open House, Art and More Auction, another workshop in MMAC/Art Etc series, Torrance County Senior Games (qualifiers for Sr Olympics), Tanesha's & Shannon's animal rescue/ shelter fundraiser, Gymkhana Rodeo, 2008 HS graduation, May ShareFest.

That's just in town. The May 1 Something to Do calendar from the Arts Alliance is available online so I won't be excerpting it.

--

---

Also blogging Mountainair from Poets and Writers Picnic and Mountainair Announcements