Folk artists create, explain craft around Plaza
Some 160 craftspeople, vendors from nearly 55 countries are here for market
As she colors in her painting of a traditional Indian bride, Manisha Mishra points out a pair of footprints she drew next to the woman’s face that she later fills in red.
In her culture, she said it is a wedding tradition to put the bride’s feet in red water. When she walks through her new home, her new role and presence is physically symbolized with the red footprints.
“She brings wealth and prosperity in the new family,” Mishra said. Her art is derived from Madubahni traditions of painting wedding messages and symbols on walls, which she has translated into smaller paintings on paper and other canvases. She also paints other symbols of life and
new beginnings, including bamboo, fish and turtles. The turtles, she said, represented how to face life as hard on the outside, but soft on the inside.
Mishra was one of seven international artists who demonstrated their crafts in galleries and stores along the Santa Fe Plaza on Thursday after arriving for this weekend’s International Folk Art Market. Among her were jewelry-makers, weavers, textilians and ceramicists from across the globe.
As a first-time demonstrator and third-time vendor, Mishra said she enjoys sharing her craft with passersby and hopes to inspire others by letting them into her culture. What she loves about the annual market is the friendliness. “I feel at home here,” she said.
For first-time vendor Juana Pumayalli, the market, as well as her craft, is a family affair. Though she has never sold before, the Peruvian weaver’s mother and other family have come to Santa Fe in years past. She learned traditional weaving when she was 7 years old.
Thursday afternoon, she attracted a large crowd at Workshop and Santa Fe Dry Goods, 53 Old Santa Fe Trail, while remaining focused on her back-strap loom. Her piece would likely become a shawl or a tablerunner. Larger pieces like those could take her up to a month. Through a translator, Pumayalli said she’s hoping for “a lot of success selling.”
After several years of showing in the market, Algerian jewelry-maker Karim Oukid Ouksel said the market itself has changed parts of his craft. He showed off some of his new work while demonstrating at the Rocki Gorman Gallery, 119 Old Santa Fe Trail. Though he currently lives in Spain, his work is inspired by designs in Algerian folk textiles and crafts. He made jewelry from a silver base that was then designed with melted, colored glass placed into small sections; he then heats up the glass to make it solid again. Now, he says, he’s trying new, non-traditional colors, like turquoise, and utilizing new stones like amethyst. He said the market “burns” his desire to try new designs and elements, but also preserve his traditional style.
“I am one step of this change and I have to make it the best I can,” said Oukid Ouksel.
Other selected demonstrators included Uzbekistan’s Rustam and Damir Usmanov; India’s Dayahal Kudecha; France’s Blaise Cayol; and Tarek Abdelhay Hafez Abouelenin and Ekramy Hanafy Ahmed Mahmoud from Egypt.
The 2017 International Folk Art Market taking place this weekend on Museum Hill features about 160 artists from nearly 55 countries.