Monday, July 17, 2006

July 16 Tribal Artery message

This Tribal Artery blog reproduces the contents of the July 16th Tribal Artery e-newsletter. With a few corrected links. (Don't ask. )

Major sales of the last month.

We’re pleased to report that some important pieces are heading out to new homes.

Among them is a gorgeous painting by Tasmanian Aborigine, Max Mansell. His rendition of sunset – sunrise gives us a look at the star-filled night sky, home for so many Aboriginal Dreamtime settings, bracketed by the colorful features of nightfall and day break. This acrylic on canvas painting is on its way to Washington D.C. The new owner found us on the Web after learning about the closure of our Sanibel Island gallery. She reported that she had visited the gallery several times and had her eye on this painting. She was disappointed to learn we were no longer there. But she found us on the web as have so many of our regular customers.

In addition, two of our favorite personal collection pieces have found new homes in Miami: a Dan (Cote d’Ivoire) heddle pulley and an Ashanti (Ghana) akua ba. Both were extremely well carved with great esthetic sensitivity. The buyer did a lot of research and determined that the akua ba, while not “antique”, was so well done that a similar piece had been collected by a highly regarded museum. Both pieces had been exhibited at the Owensboro Museum of Fine Art while part of our collection.

Numerous Zuni and Cochiti fetish carvings also have been leaving to new homes. Emery Eriacho, of course, is ever popular and we have dozens of his carvings on site. The work of Salvador Romero and his brother, Wilson Romero, of Cochiti. also don’t gather any dust on our shelves. Both are represented in just one or two other places besides ZuniLink/Aboriginals: Art of the First Person. Both are two of our favorite artists and we look forward to seeing them and acquiring additional examples of there work when ever we can.

We also should mention the distinctive work of Melvin Sandoval, a San Felipe member who’s wife is Zuni. The fluid and impressionistic nature of his work makes almost every piece a feast for the eyes. You will not find his pieces many places beside ZuniLink.

On the jewelry front, we just received a message from a customer to the effect that a pair of earrings had found their way into the washing machine and had been damaged. He asked if they could be fixed. We are more than willing to help. We asked him to send the earrings back to us and we will take them to the artist for repair.

Other news


According to Dionne Walker of the Associated Press, a group of Virginia Indian chiefs will travel to England, to spend a week touring and discussing their history and culture as part of the 2007 commemoration of America's first permanent English colony. For Indians, it's a first step toward healing age-old scars of violence and betrayal. Approximately 60 chiefs and tribal members will make the trip. It will be the first trip to England by an official Virginia Indian delegation in more than 250 years.

Indian leaders will visit Parliament and spend two days lecturing on tribal history to students in grade schools and at the University of Kent. While there, the group also may visit the grave of Pocahontas, daughter of Powhatan, the Chief of the Pamunkey Tribe. She is buried in the southeast England region. Englishmen arriving in Virginia in 1607 encountered the Powhatan Nation, headed by Pocahontas’s father, the powerful Chief Powhatan. Pocahontas eventually married an Englishman, John Rolfe, and died while sailing on a return trip to Virginia.There are now about 17,613 Indians in Virginia, according to the U.S. Census, out of a population estimated at 20,000 in the 1600s.

Indian fare at the Fair

One of the staples of the Indian diet – at least at social occasions such as pow-wows and ceremonials is fry bread, When you attend you must trysome. In the meantime, here’s a receipe:
4 cup white flour

1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cup warm water
1 cup lard for frying (or your choice of oil)
Mix dry ingredients together. Add warm water to dry ingredients. Knead until dough is soft and elastic and does not stick to bowl. (If necessary, add a little more warm water. ) Shape dough into balls the size of a small peach. Let these sit for 15 minutes. Pat out a bit, pinch edges and then pat back and forth by hand until dough is about 1/2 to 3/4" thick and is round. Make a small hole in the center of the round. Melt lard in a heavy frying pan. Carefully, put rounds into hot fat, one at a time. Brown on both sides. Drain on paper towels. Serve hot.
This recipe came from Jim Bodle. A Google search will turn up many more variations.



Fry bread can be eaten with toppings like ground beef, tomatoes, lettuce, onions, and refried beans, in which case it sometimes is called a Navajo or Indian taco. Personally, we like it with honey and a little powdered sugar or cinnamon.

~~~~~~
Tribal Artery is the name of both the e-newsletter and this blog from Aboriginals: Art of the First Person and its associated web sites - Native-JewelryLink, offering top quality American Indian jewelry; Native-PotteryLink, offering superb hand-made pueblo pottery; TribalWorks, offering a wide spectrum of African, Australian,Arctic and Native American tribal art; ZuniLink, one of the Web's largest selections of beautifully carved Zuni, Navajo and Cochiti fetishes.

There is also a blue button to click to sign up for the e-newsletter version of Tribal Artery, if you are interested.You may, of course, unsubscribe at any time.



No comments: