Festival

I can not remember the last time I had such a jammed pack, super fun Saturday!! It all began accidentally in the morning when I was taking Nyla for our usual walk. We happened to come across a Native American Pow-Wow taking place….I just followed the loud heart beat of the drums. There were booths set up with traditional Arts, food, and information about organizations and projects happening in the area. So much beautiful things to see!! But it was that incredible heartbeat of the drums that pulled me in. Nyla and I sat watching the dancing on the grass among the other people in a large circle. My favorite part is how the music just vibrates through your whole body. I do not have any photos from the Pow Wow, since it was a total, wonderful surprise…plus, I must add, everyone there was so friendly!! (It helps to make friends too when you have the most cutest dog in the universe!!!)

When I got home, Hansel and I headed down to the Heard Museum in downtown Phoenix. They were having an open-air Spanish Market. This was planned for, so I have tons of photos!!! The Artists there were from Arizona, New Mexico, California, Mexico, Guatemala, Peru, and many other places. We were there for hours just taking our time exploring the Art and talking with the Artists. I even got to meet the wonderful, famous, ever so beautiful Crafty Chica. Unfortunately I didn’t take any photos of her work–but I will tell you that its absolutely beautiful and so much better in person then on-line! She too was full of energy and as sweet as can be. I love you Crafty Chica!!

The two above photos are Art that I thought was pretty neat. The Artist creates a stained glass effect by placing flower petals between two pieces of glass. Here they are hanging so the sun can catch them…but the lime green curtain makes it a little difficult to pick up the intensity of the pieces.

The Artist was so kind though to hold one away from the curtain; so now you can see how cool these pieces look This Artist was also a real hoot!! She told us, and showed up photos, of how she was on the tv show America’s Got Talent for playing some kind of strange water instrument. How much fun is that?!?!?! She lives in New Mexico.

I really enjoyed this Artist. He was so friendly and kind–talked to us forever!! (I wonder if Hansel and I can be a bit annoying at these Art festivals—I want to touch everything and both Hansel and I insist on asking tons of questions on how things were made and just plain being nosey!!!) What the Artist is doing in the photo above is embedding tiny pieces of straw into the resin (that he creates himself out of pinon pine berries). The straw ends up looking alot like gold, and he said that many call it “poor man’s gold”.

This whole process is truly a work of love. You have no idea how tiny the pieces of straw (which he imports from France) are when he then slices them in half and then in half again, then into little pieces to create the intricate line patterns. The coolest thing is that the Artist told us he has been doing this craft for a little over twenty years and he is completely self taught. He simply fell in love with the pieces that had this type of work and he researched it like crazy and taught himself. His pieces now sell all over the world for many times thousands of dollars and he has been featured in tons of magazines and books!! Don’t you love that kind of stuff?!?!?!

There was a lot of the traditional Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) Art! Above is a photo of metal luminaries. Loved them!!! Peachy Cheek would have been right at home at the festival!!!

Plus—Frida Kahlo was everywhere!! Oh, you have to love Frida!!

Frida! Frida! Frida!!

Mariachi!!

Lot of the Art work found at the festival were wooden pieces that were embellished with color, glitter, rhinestones, and trinkets. Above is an example of what I mean. These little chairs are so sweet–so fun. Stuff like this inspires me to go to the wood aisle of the Art store and pick up some pieces and start painting!!!

This was Hansel’s favorite Artist!! Guess what those little sculptures are made out of!!

Chalk!! Yep, the kind of chalk they used on those big. green chalk boards they used to have when WE went to school!!! I have to admit–this stuff was incredible!! The absolute detail!! There is no way I would have the patience for something like that!!

This Artist and his wife were extremely sweet. He carves masks out of one piece of wood—wood that comes from the avocado tree!!!

Can you believe that that is all from one piece of wood…well, except for the tusks that he adds later. Incredible!! And, the pieces are so light–feels alost like balsa wood.

Then the artist paints them using car paint!!!

If you look closely you can see all the tiny, tiny detail he does with pink to create texture and pattern. That was my favorite part of all!!!

Hansel loves masks!!! So do I!!

Here are a couple other pieces I loved at the festival:

This is a traditional jacket that would be worn with one of the skull masks during Dia de los Muertos.

Look at all those fun trinkety things!!

Hope you had a fun Saturday as well!!!

(All photos were taken with permission of the Artist.)

Peace & Love.