The State of Santa Fe art

Mixed reviews on the state of the art market in Santa Fe, from the Santa Fe New Mexican newspaper.

Bloom or Bust?
Jury's out on state of Santa Fe art market
by Tom Sharpe

"While some gallery owners have seen signs of life in the art market, others say City Different scene is getting stale."

Our comment -
The overall art market in Santa Fe includes Native American art as a component.
But that component is not covered in the article.

So, dealers in Native American art and other tribal art. What say you?

You may remain anonymous. But your opinion is valued.

Another Small World Story concerning Native American Art

A few days ago, we decided to post a couple of items from our inventory to eBay.

One of them was a Choctaw river cane basket by Rosie Joe. The buyer turned out to be someone who had previously owned the basket. He recognized it when he saw it listed in our eBay store. Upon completion of the transaction, he notified us of his prior involvement with the basket. Here are some excerpts from what he wrote us.

"Thanks, I'll tell you a little more about it. I sold items regularly to OIAG and this was one of the items I should have kept, but accidently (sic) got included in a group package that I had put together for them. I could not get it back because they told me it was not available for sale.

I had met Rosie Joe some years before that and had purchased many of her baskets from her. I had helped her collect river cane in Eastern Oklahoma and watched her prepare the cane and start weaving baskets. One day as I had gone to pick her up in Shawnee Oklahoma to take her to Eastern Oklahoma to gather river cane, she came out carrying this basket and gifted it to me for my help to her.

I was upset when it got away from me, and am glad it is returning home.

Rosie Joe also went by the name Rosie Lewis, never signed her baskets that I am aware of, and came from Eastern Choctaw family where her mother and grandmother taught her to weave baskets.

Thanks again for the opportunity given to me, to regain this lost basket back into my now very small collection."

This one of the things we love about trading in tribal art, whether it's Navajo folk art, Zuni carvings, pueblo pottery, African tribal masks and figurative carvings, Australian Aboriginal art and artefacts or Arctic/Inuit carvings, there is a friendly circle of shared interests and values.

We are glad to include you, dear reader, en the circle.

Australian Aboriginal Art redux

Last week, Susanne Waites, my co-proprietor of our Australian Aboriginal art gallery, and I made a presentation to about 30 people who showed up at the Captiva Memorial Library Cultural Fest to learn about the art of the Australian Aboriginal people.

I'm happy to say the crowd was rapt. There were lots of questions afterwords. And no one left early, which always is a good sign. (As a frequent public speaker, I can attest there are few things more debilitating than having an audience member get up and leave during your presentation - even if it just to visit the bathroom).

Anyway, preparing for the presentation and revisiting many pieces of Australian Aboriginal art in our collection, reminded me of how special this genre of art is to us. It was our first love in the field of Tribal Art. It happened to us when we were living in Australia and we first became aware of these talented people and their fascinating culture. We began to acquire pieces of Central Desert art, Tiwi art and Aboriginal art from the Top End.

At the time, exchange rates were much more favorable for the US dollar. Today, the Australian dollar hovers at about par with the US greenback. So Australians who want to repatriate native art to Australia have a much easier go at it.

The trigger for this blog has been the realization that, as we became so caught up in African tribal art, Arctic/Inuit carvings and Native American art, jewelry and pottery, we have put our Australian Aboriginal art in the back of our minds.

That is a shame. So here are examples of some outstanding pieces, and a link to an entire section of our web site devoted to the native art of the antipodes.

To the left is dot painting on an Australian Aboriginal coolamon, a wood bowl used for gathering and holding bush tucker. Bush tucker is a term for foodstuff that grows in the wild. The dot pattern represents a map of a sort, through which is told the stories of the tribal group's arrival in this world and where important sites are located for food gathering and ceremonial purposes.


Carrying on with the theme of dot paintings, on the right is large canvas painted in the same technique by Anmatyerre artist, Gabriella Possum. It is one of our favorite paintings. It is filled with vibrant color and is busy with symbols that the tell the story of Gabriella's country. It is the same country as her father's, the Master Australian Aboriginal artist, now deceased, whose work has sold for tens of thousands of dollars at auction. (Australian Aboriginal traditions require that the name of the dead not be stated.)

The fact that these images are even available for outsiders to see is credited to an English art advisor in Papunya, a central desert settlement, not far from Alice Springs. Geoffrey Bardon convinced the tribal elders to paint images, previously restricted to viewing by Aborigines only, to paint the images on the walls of the buildings that had been erected to shelter these nomadic people.

The results were so electric that a movement was launched. Australian Aboriginal desert art has since enlivened the aesthetics of a quasi-barren land and provided income and sustenance to the natives. The title of this painting is "Bush Tucker Dreaming".

In a different genre, the people of the north, who live in a land of "the wet" for a large part of the year, learned to harvest eucalyptus bark, scrape and cure it and paint on the clean side. It was a natural evolution since the bark panels frequently were used for structures to protect families from the rain. Materials used for these paintings were natural ochres, ground into powders and liquified, charcoal, and chalk. They were mixed into paints, using sap or ant honey as binder. The image to the left is of one such painting. Dots are generally not used in these paintings. Rather, cross-hatch designs are stroked onto the bark using twigs and small branches. These designs are called "rarrk". They have deep symbolic meanings for the groups that "own" them. Only the owners are allowed to paint a certain rarrk or to permit it to be painted.

These are some of the most secret/sacred designs in Aboriginal art. During one encounter with an artist, we asked her to explain the painting. She started out straight-forwardly but then lapsed into speech that was so faint we coul dnot make out what she was saying. At the conclusion of her explanation, she returned to normal speaking volume. We were told by the white art advisor that she was too polite not to respond to our question, but she could not reveal the information. This gentle stratagem served her purpose and ours.

This blog posting, which started out modestly, has taken on a life of its own. Out of respect for the reader, we will continue it in another posting later.

Thank you for your attention.

Australian government to implement Resale Royalty Rights for visual artists.

(William & Susanne Waites, proprietors of Aboriginals: Art of the First Person, report on news and events influencing the tribal art market.)

In legislation passed this November, the Australian Parliament has created a law that will require payment of a royalty of 5% of the resale price of a work of art to the artist, if still living, or to the artist's estate for seventy years following the artist's death.

There are conditions, but profitability is not one of them. If a gallery (or private owner, one presumes) sells the art for less than was paid for it, a 5% royalty still must be paid. At this point, the royalty is only payable on a sale exceeding $1,000.

We have commented earlier, when this law was being vetted, our concern that the unintended consequences of the law will be more damaging than the benefits, if any.

For example, if a gallery is required to pay 5% of the sale price of work that they may lose money on, how eager will they be to purchase art by unknown or emerging artists? Will this stunt the market for those without establish reputations?

Will the market see and automatic increase in pricing of more than 5% to cover the cost of the royalty? Will this also have a depressing effect on the art market?

Will this external market control, as with many well-intended moves, end up doing damage to the interests of the artists it seeks to protect?

Fortunately, all of the Australian Aboriginal works in our inventory at http://www.tribalworks.com/Australian-Aboriginal-art-buyers-guide.htm
are exempt until they are sold in the Australian market a second time.

You could consider it a 5% discount.

Tribal Art - Stolen Objects Alert

As members of the Antique Tribal Art Dealers Association, we receive alerts whenever there is a report of stolen objects.

We have just learned of thefts from a shipment from New York to San Francisco. Photos of the missing objects have been posted to the ATADA website page designated for that purpose. http://www.ATADA.org/theft.html#loux09

If you encounter any of these objects in your dealings with collectors, dealers or individuals wanting to sell them, please notify the San Francisco police department.

Do not be tempted to buy any of these items. They are stolen merchandise. Having stolen merchandise in your possession is a crime and the items may be confiscated by authorities. There is no statute of limitations concerning stolen goods in the USA according to the ATADA.

This alert is brought to you by Aboriginals: Art of the First Person with websites for African tribal art and Australian Aboriginal art at Tribalworks.com, for Native American jewelry at Native-JewelryLink.com, for Native American Pueblo Pottery at Native-PotteryLink.com and for Zuni and other American Indian fetish carvings at ZuniLink.com

Thank you.

Tribal Art - Sotheby's May 20 catalog on line

Eighteen days from now, May 20, 2009 Sotheby's New york will hold an auction of American Indian Art including property from the Frieda and Milton Rosenthal Collection.

The catalog is online for web browsers at Sotheby's.

There are more than 200 lots ranging in estimates from US$5,000 to US$80,000

Among the higher end pieces are Chilkat blankets, Haida rattles, Navajo weavings and historic pottery from the Southwestern Pueblos. Baskets also are well represented.

In addition to browsing through the catalog on line, you can order a copy of the catalog for purchase. We find these printed catalogs, which usually are followed by a 'prices realized sheet' if requested, can be valuable resources for determining values of similar items you may be considering buying or selling.

Oh, yes. You also can bid on line. Be sure to read the terms and conditions. An auction house premium is added to the winning bid.

Whether you bid or not, however, an auction like this can be very educational. At Aboriginals: Art of the First Person and our websites at Tribalworks.com, ZuniLink.com, Native-JewelryLink.com and Native-PotteryLink.com, we value informed buyers. We add our best thinking and experience to the educational mix. The more you know about an object of tribal art, the more you will enjoy owning it.

Tribal Art - New Orleans Museum offers overview of African Art

Tribal Works offers this from JacarandaTribal, a blog with a special expertise in African tribal art that we follow -

African Art from the Permanent Collection
Tuesday, April 28, 6-8 p.m.
Curator of African Art William Fagaly will use the Museum's collection to provide educators with a general overview of the arts of Africa. The objects in the galleries will help to shed light on the religious, social and artistic background of each culture represented. Overall themes within the collection will be highlighted, allowing educators to present the material to their students with ease. Education staff also will discuss classroom activities and suggestions for incorporating African art into a variety of curricula.

Thanks Jacaranda.

Tribal Art - have some fun. Guess the carver.

Often we get confused about who carved what.

Not that we didn't know and can't look it up.

But we look at a carving we have had for a while and we wonder, "Who carved that?"

Of course when we look it up in our records we say, "Of course, that's who the carver was."

So we thought we might turn it into a game and you might enjoy playing.
Is it Emery Eriacho?

Or Elroy Pablito?

Or a Quandelacy?

|?

|?

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If you guessed it was a Quandelacy, you must know a little something about fetish carvers.

But we're not done yet.

Which Quandelacy?

Click here to find out

Tribal Art - Whitehawk announces 2009 shows

Whitehawk has announced the dates and venues for its 2009 Ethnographic Art Show and 2009 Antique Indian Art Show.

The Ethnographic Art Show, the 26th annual staging, will run Saturday and Sunday, August 15 and 16, 2009 from 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM, with a preview opening on Friday, August 14, 2009 from 6:00 PM to 9:00 PM.

The 31st annual Antique Indian Art Show will have a preview opening on Monday, August 17, 2009 from 6:00 PM to 9:00 PM, followed by shows on Tuesday and Wednesday, August 18 and 19, 2009 from 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM.

Both shows are to be held at the Santa Fe Community Convention Center.

The shows are harbingers of the world-famous Santa Fe Indian Market, which will take place throughout downtown Santa Fe on Saturday, August 23 and Sunday, August 24, 2009.

The Whitehawk shows always are well-attended and include outstanding dealers and other exhibitors. For more information about the Whitehawk Shows, visit Whitehawkshows.com. For more information about Indian Market, go to SWAIA.com, the web site for the South West Association for Indian Arts.Street scene at Indian Market 2008. Artists' Booths line San Francisco Street,
with St. Francis Cathedral in the background.

This particular week in Santa Fe is a time of incessant activity. Accommodations book up early. If you don't have your place to stay already, its important to line it up now. When doing so, consider that Santa Fe Trails, the local bus company, runs shuttles from certain parking areas so it is not necessary to stay right on top of the action.

If you can't find vacancies in Santa Fe, an alternative is to stay in Albuquerque and ride the new Railrunner train service from Albuquerque to Santa Fe. There's also a Days Inn in Bernalillo that is just two blocks from the local stop of the Railrunner. Actually, we will probably ride the Railrunner at least one day while there, even though we have a local Santa Fe room booked, simply because I am kind of nutty about trains.

Yes, this is rather early notice. But, with Indian Market week, if you don't act fast, you lose out.

As indicated, Susanne and William Waites plan to be in New Mexico for Indian Market and associated events. As collectors and dealers in tribal art, we enjoy seeing all of our old friend artists and their latest work, and all of our fellow dealers.

Items acquired at the time eventually appear on our Web sites: ZuniLink.com featuring top quality fetish carvings by Zunis, Cochitis and residents of San Felipe Pueblo; Native-JewelryLink.com for outstanding and unique items of handmade Indian jewelry; Native-PotteryLink.com for creations of historic and contemporary Pueblo and Native American pottery. We also offer African tribal art, Australian Aboriginal art, Arctic-Inuit art and Navajo Folk Art at our fourth Web site, TribalWorks.com

Thanks for reading. If you plan to be in Santa Fe when we are, give us a shout now and we will look for opportunities to meet up there.

Church Street Cafe, Old Town, Albuquerque, NM

As we anticipate our next journey to New Mexico, we reminisce about one of our favorite palces to eat while there. The Church Street Cafe in Old Town behind San Felipe Church.

The rear garden is a sensual treat that adds to the delightful menu of Southwestern dishes.

We enjoy watching this and hope you will too.

Tribal Art - Molly Murphy, Oglala artist wins Best of Heard Show

"Absolutely magnificent", was the rave given by Barbara Korn, Heard Museum Show official, to the Best of Show winning work of Oglala Sioux bead work artist, Molly Murphy.

Murphy's entry, titled "Past is Prologue", was a Salish-style cradle board, beaded in light blue turquoise.

Lovers of Native American tribal art recognize the Heard Museum Fair and Market as one of the pre-eminent competitions in the world of Native art. Murphy's work was in competition with seven other first place winners in other categories, representing an even more significant win.

The show attracted entries from more than 700 Indian artists. Crowds visiting the weekend festival were estimated at 20,000, a 14% increase over last year's attendance. This speaks well for the vitality and popularity of Native American Indian art

Murphy also won a Second Place award in the beading category with a sewing box covered in red wool and ornate beading.

Murphy reported that the cradle board was purchased by collectors from New Jersey, who have several grandchildren, including a very recent one.

More information about Murphy's win is available at the Missoulian, a Missoula, MT newspaper.

As fans of beautiful Native American bead work and all Native Tribal Art, Susanne & William Ernest Waites, providers of tribal art at TribalWorks.com, Native-JewelryLink.com, Native-PotteryLink.com and ZuniLink.com, salute Molly Murphy for her extraordinary work and her impressive win.

Tribal Art - Saving the Planet online

Whether or not you believe in man-made global warming – personally, I am an agnostic - it turns out that you may be reducing your impact on the planet by purchasing items online instead of in-person.

The Carnegie Mellon Green Design Institute put together a study that purports to prove that e-commerce not only uses less energy but also reduces the carbon footprint of retailing by one-third vs. bricks-and-mortar retailing.

The team, led by H. Scott Matthews, compared energy consumption and CO2 emissions required to deliver a small thumb drive to a customer via a shopping trip to a store vs. buying and shipping from an online site.

According to the study, as reported in the Wall Street Journal, the highest environmental cost of traditional shopping is the drive by car to the store. (This was based on an estimate of an average shopping round-trip being 14 miles, with three different items purchased on a trip.)

But what about the environmental cost of delivery to you home? The researchers determined that the “last-mile” cost of delivering a package as part of a UPS delivery truck’s trip - in which numerous packages are delivered to different addresses – requires significantly less energy per package.

Okay, what about the cost of data centers and computers? Well, it turns out that, on average the incremental costs of running data centers and computers, beyond the energy costs that are incurred by businesses tracking inventory and consumers using computers for other tasks, is insignificant.

To be fair, the extra packaging to ship safely adds mare cost than carrying an item home in shopping bag. In addition, using air mail or personalized express shipping options can increase the impact on the environment. On the other hand, using the postal service3 to ship has almost no incremental cost since the time and resources are already being used for normal mail delivery.

There is one way the traditional retailing has less impact on the environment than e-commerce; if you walk to the store. Of course, that seldom applies to shopping for tribal art since so few of us live down he stet from a tribal art gallery.

While we are on the subject of tribal art, let’s reflect on its benign environmental impact.

Very little if any non-renewable energy is used in the making of tribal art. True, some Native American carvers use electrically-driven carving tools. But then they start with natural materials, stone, wood, semi-precious gems, silver, gold and clay with very little energy expended in manufacturing and very little wasted material.

For example, Native American potters create their works the traditional way. They mine the clay by hand. They form it by hand. They fire in pits using wood. They polish by hand with smoothing stones.

Finally, buying tribal art supports a process and practice that has been place for generations, and the artists who were among the first to recognize the importance of honoring Mother Earth.

This report is brought to you by Susanne and William Waites, proprietors of Aboriginals: Art of the First Person, with Web sites at ZuniLink.com, featuring Zuni and other Native American carvings; Native-JewelryLink.com, featuring the finest in Native American Indian jewelry; Native-PotteryLink, featuring handmade Indian pottery from Native Pueblos; and TribalWorks.com, combining triabl art from African, Australian Aboriginal art, Arctic art and Navajo folk art.

We are gratified to be able to bring this outstanding tribal work to your attention, on behalf of the artists (and the planet).

Selling Tribal Art has its emotional rewards.

We just received an email from a customer who ordered a pottery buffalo by Mary Small of Jemez Pueblo.

May we share his comment with you?

"I just wanted to tell you that the Mary Small buffalo arrived and it is absolutely fantastic, unusual, and an incredible addition to our Mary Small collection. Both of you are stupendous buyers with an eye for excellence, creativity, and uniqueness. So thrilled that I found your website. "

Here's a photo of the buffalo object of his affections.


We love it when this happens. It completes the circle of our satisfaction and rewards from involvement with Tribal Art.

You can read this and other testimonials on our web sites at ZuniLink. Com, Native-PotteryLink.com, Native-JewelryLink.com and TribalWorks.com. Thank you.

Tribal Art News about San Ildefonso

New Mexico Tourism has issued the following news release.

San Ildefonso Pueblo Re-establishes Historic Cottonwood Trading Post

The San Ildefonso Pueblo Enterprise Corporation has announced the re-establishment of the historic Trading Post at San Ildefonso Pueblo, naming it the Cottonwood Trading Post.

The Cottonwood Trading Post features the work of nearly 60 New Mexico pueblo artists, including 33 from San Ildefonso, who continue to follow the traditional art of pottery making for which San Ildefonso has a well-deserved international reputation.

San Ildefonso is one of the best known New Mexico Pueblos because of the famous black-on-black pottery which originated there and which was revived in the 1920s. At that time San Ildefonso, like many other Pueblos, was suffering a severe economic depression. Long standing internal conflicts, encroachment upon tribal lands by squatters and illegal cutting of timber all contributed to the low-subsistence level to which the Pueblo had fallen. When American Indian crafts began to be popular with collectors, it was fortunate for the San Ildefonso people, because although the Pueblo population was small, there were a number of skilled artisans, makers of pottery and painters, who set to work to improve the economic condition of the Pueblo. Before long, the outstanding quality of San Ildefonso pottery became known. It was then that the famous black pots were revived, primarily because of Maria Martinez, who is credited for creating the pottery style for which San Ildefonso Pueblo is most known..

Today, they command the respect of world-wide collectors of fine art. Other artists, potters and watercolor painters came to the attention of the public and although the Pueblo is one of the smallest in population, it is among the best known, averaging more than 20,000 visitors each year.

Cottonwood Trading Post has long been a part of San Ildefonso Pueblo's history throughout the years. Although ownership has changed over the years – now owned by the San Ildefonso Pueblo Enterprise Corporation - the past is ever-present in the memories of its artists and visitors. The trading post has been remodeled and updated with the times, but original beams of the grocery store and trading post are still in place.

The Cottonwood Trading Post buys, sells, and trades authentic Native American pottery, paintings, jewelry, dance goods and more.

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Tribal Artery and Native-PotteryLink.com tips its "thank you hat" to New Mexico Tourism for this good news. We remember the Cottonwood Trading Post from the old days. We always enjoyed our visits there. It's good to have it re-opened.

The Human Drive to Make Art - Tribal and otherwise

WHY do humans make art? It can be lovely. It can be stimulating. It absorbs some of the finest minds in any society. It can change hands for ridiculous sums of money. And dizzying edifices of commentary have been built around it since the time of the Greeks. But all those aspects of art beg a fundamental question: why do we do it?

An article in The Australian, Australia's national newspaper, reviews a new book by Dennis Dutton, The Art Instinct, that discusses the subject.

Dutton suggests that because all humans make art, and people from many different cultures appreciate similar subjects in art, art is an evolutionary adaptation, helping humans survive as individuals and as a species. Eventually, over the millennia, art-making traits have been absorbed into the repertoire of human instinct.

To read more of this article, click on this link -http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,,25035538-16947,00.html

At Aboriginals: Art of the First Person we revel in the spirit of art executed by tribal peoples, and present examples at TribalWorks.com, Native-PotteryLink.com, Native-JewelryLink.comZuniLink.com and

In Tribal art, what is antique-what is vintage?

What is antique? What is vintage?

An article discussing this subject recently appeared at http://avcosa.ning.com/profiles/blog/show?id=2697035%3ABlogPost%3A1623

We recommend you visit the link for the full story.

Here is sample to get you started:

"Too often, people will mislabel items as "antique" or "vintage" - sometimes because they believe it will be profitable to do so but, more often than not, it's because they just don't know the accepted definitions. If you are one of those individuals, you'll be relieved to know that there are NO "hard and fast" definitions for these terms and my intent is to simply provide you with a rule of thumb.

Although there are no accepted "rules" defining vintage, let's start developing our definition by putting it in the appropriate context. Most collectors agree that there is a clear distinction between what is considered "antique" and what is not. Antiques are usually associated with characteristics of a certain period of time or style of manufacture."

Aboriginals: Art of the First Person, purveyors of Tribal Art at TribalWorks.com, ZuniLink.com, Native-JewelryLink.com and Native-PotteryLink.com brings you this link with a tip of the hat to Antiques, Vintage and Collectibles online sellers association

Do we need a Culture Czar?

Posted by William and Susanne Waites of Native-JewelryLink, Native-PotteryLink, TribalWorks and ZuniLink, under Tribal Art

Culture Grrl Lee Rosenbaum, who blogs as the Culture Grrl and comments on the culture and arts scene, has posted a message expressing disfavor with the concept of a Federal Government culture czar. Frankly, we agree with her.

The government has no business "czar-ing" art and culture. If they can tell us what good art is, they can tell us what bad art is. We fervently believe that judgement is best made by the audience as individuals. Keep the politics out of it.

We've captured an opening paragraph Lee's blog. There is a link to continue at the end.

I've got nothing against better coordination among government programs involving the arts and humanities. Regular meetings of representatives from the relevant offices and agencies could foment creative synergies. Perhaps a White House official with advisory, not managerial, responsibilities could help facilitate this without inserting what we emphatically DON'T need---an extra layer of bureaucratic control over our nation's cultural activity.

Read more

10 suggestions to protect your valuable tribal art collection

Unlike some other New Year’s resolutions, this one is definitely worth the time you will spend on it.

If you are a collector of tribal art, or any art,
do something to protect your collection.

With economic conditions getting worse, your collection is more at risk than at any other time.


So, is your collection secure? Do you have a security alarm system on your premises?
Do you have photographs and records of all your precious items? Did you save your receipts? Are your records and photographs in a safe and secure place?


The answers to most of these questions will suggest themselves.


The last one, however, warrants some additional discussion.


1. Get a digital camera. It does not have to be a fancy one. It just needs to have resolution to capture a clean, in-focus picture.


2. Take a picture of every item in your collection. It’s best to shoot in light shade on an otherwise bright, sunny day. If you shoot with subject in bright sunlight, you may lose some of the detail that is important to identify an object.


3. Shoot multiple photos, from different angles, even flat art such as textiles and paintings. Digital images don’t cost anything. With many pictures of the same item from different angles, you have the best evidence of what is in your collection. Insurance companies are aware that adept computer users know how to fudge an image, or create one that wasn’t there. Multiple images can assure the insurance adjuster that you actually owned and photographed the item.


4. Take the chip from inside the camera to some place that can make photo images from it. Most pharmacies have a photo-processing desk and digital kiosk. Ask for a DVD or CD with your images on it. Even better, connect the camera chip to your computer and save .jpg images to put in a digital folder. There are several low cost or free photo management software programs that can convert and hold your images. Picasa is one of them.


5. Make sure that each picture is labeled with enough description. This will help you search for the picture later.


6. If you have access to a scanner, scan your receipts and transfer them as jpg images to your computer. Put those jpg images in a digital folder, identifying each for ease of searching and clear relationship to the item you purchased.


7. Buy an inexpensive thumb drive with 4 to 8 gigabytes of storage space (less than $30). Since computers are notoriously prone to crashes and file corruption, transfer the digital folders to the thumb drive. You also can “burn” the photo and document images to a CD or DVD. They are less convenient and more prone to damage than thumb drives, which capture files from your computer through a USB port.


8. Do this once every six months or every time you add or subtract from you collection. The beauty of thumb drives is that they are very easy to overwrite with updates. CDs and DVDs may require to burn a new disc each time you update.


9. Put the thumb drive or the CDs/DVDs in a place that is removed from your collection and your computer. A safe deposit box is a good choice.


You will now have back-up complete records of every item in your collection and the receipt for your purchase of it. If anything happens – a burglary or a fire – you will have proof of your loss and its value. If the items are stolen, you can post your photos to various stolen item directories. This can alert potential buyers, who might be approached by the thief, that the items are stolen.


10. Another word about insurance; buy it. Most homeowner policies do not cover
jewelry or high value collectibles and art objects adequately. There are companies, however, that specialize in that kind of coverage. Seek them out and get a quote to cover the value of your collection. One of them to check out is Collectibles Insurance Services, LLC. I am not recommending them because I have never had to file a claim with them. You will need to do your own research to determine if they are the right insurance company for you.


You have more than money invested in our collection. You have memories, expertise and hard work finding its contents.


Don’t leave your collection unprotected.


Happy New Year from William and Susanne Waites at ZuniLink, Native-JewelryLink, Native-PotteryLink and Tribalworks.

Tribal Art Events in 2009

The Antique Tribal Art Dealers Association has issued a calendar of tribal art and other art events scheduled for 2009.

Here are those included for January and February.

January 21-25 - Fourteenth Annual Los Angeles Art Show at the Los Angeles Convention Center, West Hall A, 1201 S. Figueroa Street, Los Angeles CA 90015. www.LAArtShow.com 310-822-9145.

February 6-8 - High Noon Western Americana Show & Auction at Phoenix Convention Center Exhibit Hall F & G, 33 S. Third Street, Phoenix, AZ 85004. www.HighNoon.com 310-202-9010.

February 13-15 - San Francisco Tribal and Textile Arts Show at Fort Mason Center Festival Pavilion.

February 13-16 - Annual O'Odham Tash Indian Arts Festival at Casa Grande, AZ.

February 16 - Bonhams' Native American, Pre-Columbian and Tribal Art Auction at Bonhams and Butterfields, 220 San Bruno Avenue, San Francisco, CA 94103. www.bonhams.com. 415-861-7500.

February 21-22 - 25th Marin Show: Art of the Americas at Marin Civic Center and Embassy Suites Hotel, San Rafael, CA www.MarinShow.com.

If you're in the area of any of these events, it will be worth your time to visit.

This message is brought to you by Aboriginals: Art of the First Person, member of ATADA and host of tribal art web sites at ZuniLink (Native American fetish carvings), Native-JeweleryLink (featuring a wide range of authentic Native American jewelry creations), Native-PotteryLink (with authentic hand coiled and formed Pueblo pottery) and TribalWorks (offering a art from Africa, Australia and the Arctic). Visit us at your leisure.

Australia, the film, debuts.

With great hoopla, the new epic film by Australian director, Baz Luhrman, was released in Australia this week.

We mentioned the film in a previous, pre-release article discussing it's relationship to Australian tourism efforts.

At the time, we joined a group of pre-nascent critics who were concerned, not about the film, but about its effectiveness as a tourism marketing tool.

Now, the film is in theaters in Australia and will shortly be released in the US.

Film critics give the feature mixed reviews. The Australian newspaper summarizes with, "Yet for all its flaws -- and Australia is not the masterpiece we hoped it might be -- the film is easy to take. This is partly because it looks so magnificent, partly because Luhrmann's vision is so stimulating and partly because the actors are, for the most part, so engaging in their roles."

The critic observes that the film appears to have been made more for overseas audiences, principally American, than for Australian audiences, containing cliches that make Australian audiences cringe or chuckle.

For the complete review in the Australian newspaper, visit this link -
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,,24671640-16947,00.html

Tribal Artery's interest in this film springs from proprietors Bill Waites and Susanne Waites' affection for Australia, where we once lived, and our engagement with Australian Aboriginal art at TribalWorks.com. We hope the movie reflects the truth about Aboriginal culture that will increase understanding and appreciation among a worldwide audience.