Monday, June 27, 2005

New wolves and other news

Hello Tribal Artery fans:

This weekend we posted a lot of wolf, fox and coyote fetish carvings to our Zuni Link Website at http://www.zunilink.com/ On the home page, click on the wolves/foxes/coyotes link near the bottom of the page. There actually are three pages, so if you are interested in the wolf/fox/coyote family, pick any oneof them and then click through to the others. And don't overlook the carvers' pages, where wolves et al have been posted because they were done by carvers such Tsalabutie, Quam and Lena Boone.

We've also reorganized and updated our jewelry pages at http://www.native-jewelrylink.com/. Many pieces were sold and they have been replaced by new ones. We never stop being amazed by the artistry and inspiration of jewelry makers from Zuni, Navajo, Isleta, Santa Domingo and other peoples.

Periodically, we receive orders from people who bypass the order form. When the orders arrive we wonder if there was something wrong with the order form. Of course, we welcome orders no matter how they arrive. But we become concerned that a malfunctioning order form may discourage some potential buyers. So we run a test on the form and it inevitably works. So what is going on? If you have been frustrated by our order form we would like to hear from you. You can email us at sanibelart@comcast.net. That's also the sure way to get an order to us, if all else fails.

Gordon Bronitsky at New Mexico Culture is working on an idea to send a Hispanic- Native American entertainment troupe to the Marianas Islands in the South Pacific. If you have an interest in supporting such an effort, you can reach Gordon at g.bronitsky@att.net

Our friend Clint at the Free Spirit Gallery announces the arrival of a number of salmon carving plaques from G. Baker. He also runs a blog called IndianInuitArt. When you subscribe to our blog through Bloglines, (click on the "Sign up"icon at the bottom of the sidebar) you can add Clint's blog to your feed.

As you know, we offer tribal art from Africa and Australia, too, at http://www.tribalworks.com/ We received an email messages from another gallery with Australian Aboriginal art in their dillybag. BookerLowe's proprietors were coming to Captiva and we suggested a cup of coffee to discuss common interests. Turns out that their home on Captiva still was not repaired from Hurricane Charley and they were tied up with repair people so we never got to see them. Perhaps next time.

On the African front, we have become impressed with works in the collection at http://www.randafricanart.com/ If you are interested, it's worth a visit.

By the way, we are not paid for mentioning anyone in this blog. We do it because we think these are good sources and we want to share them with our readers.

That's all for this issue. We'll see you next time, whenever that is.

PS: To subscribe to this blog, click on the "sign up" icon or the RSS icon near the bottom of the sidebar on the right hand of this page. The link will tell you how to do it.

W8s

Saturday, June 25, 2005

Collaborative Indian Market Piece "Inspires Generations"

COLLABORATIVE PIECE CREATED FOR INDIAN MARKET GALA “INSPIRES GENERATIONS” OF ACOMA ARTISANS

AND... IT COULD BE YOURS!

Santa Fe, NM--A very unusual item will be part of the Santa Fe Indian Market celebration this year. The Southwestern Association for Indian Arts (SWAIA) will be raffling off a 48” side-by-side Viking gourmet refrigerator that has been designed and hand-painted by acclaimed Acoma potters, Maria Lilly Salvador, her sister Wanda Aragon, and Wanda’s daughter, Clarice. It will be unveiled at the Southwest Design Conference at the Sweeney Convention Center in Santa Fe, NM on Friday, June 24 (10am - 5pm) thanks to the generosity of Western Interiors & Design Magazine.

“We were delighted to give SWAIA exposure at the conference,” said Carol Decker, CEO of Western Interiors & Design Magazine. “The refrigerator is a stunning piece of design—people will be blown away by it—and we love to support the Santa Fe Indian Market.”

The refrigerator evolved from SWAIA thinking of new and fun items that could be part of the auction gala this year. David Cloutier, Executive Director of SWAIA said, “The people at Viking Range Corp., SunWest Appliance Distributing and Showcase Appliance Center of Santa Fe were kind enough to donate this very high-end refrigerator. As we thought about which artists we should approach to design it, we thought about the origins of Native American pottery as a food storage device. Since the refrigerator is the ultimate evolution of that idea, we thought it would be wonderful to have potters work on this piece.”

Enter Maria “Lilly” Salvador and Wanda Aragon. SWAIA wanted Acoma potters in particular noting that Acoma designs could translate well to such a large piece. “We approached Lilly and Wanda because we loved their work,” said Connie Tsosie Gaussoin, SWAIA Gala Chairperson. “They really embraced the project as something that would be fun and a challenge for them.”

What SWAIA did not anticipate was the tie-in this project would have with the theme of the gala this year—“Inspiring Generations.” There are several collaborative pieces being offered in the auction that represent multiple generations of some of Native America’s leading artistic families. Lilly and Wanda are sisters and they looked to some of their late mother’s designs that she had passed down to them for inspiration on this project. From the traditional Acoma parrot design on the right hand door to the more abstract black & white rain symbols on the left hand door, Frances Torivio’s legacy sparked their creativity. The sisters also spoke about how this project brought them closer together. “We don’t get to see each other that often,” explained Wanda who lives in Albuquerque (Lilly lives in Acoma). “We had so much fun spending all of that time together working on this and just talking and catching up. It really made us closer.” A third generation of the family became involved, too. Wanda’s daughter, Clarice Aragon, designed and painted the stunning zig-zag border around both doors.

The spectacular finished piece is not just for the kitchen. The panels (generously donated by Wolfswinkel Enterprises Custom Woodworking) are detachable from the refrigerator, so the custom made artwork can be preserved long after the refrigerator is gone.

Raffle tickets will be sold in front of the refrigerator at the Southwest Design Conference from 10am-5pm, June 24-26th, throughout the summer at the SWAIA offices and at select SWAIA events. Only 300 raffle tickets will be sold at $100 per ticket. The estimated value of the refrigerator and the artwork is $17,000. The winner will be drawn at the Santa Fe Indian Market Auction Gala on the evening of August 20th at La Fonda Hotel (one does not have to be present at the gala to win). To purchase a raffle ticket, or for more information please call SWAIA at 505-983-522 0. To preview the piece online, please visit SWAIA's website under "Current News" at http://www.swaia.org/cnewsd.php?id=97

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Wednesday, June 22, 2005

Another place to find tribal art

Yo Tribal art fans:

We recently discovered another site that accepts 'free' listings of tribal art offerings (and other items). It's http://www.gathergate.com.

We have posted a number of items - and probably will post more when we get a chance. Included are some major African pieces and some Alaskan walrus ivory and whalebone carvings. There are even a Tohono O'dham basket and a Seminole basket.

Whether you are a buyer or a seller, I encourage you to visit gathergate.com. We need to support alternatives to monoliths like eBay.

Other items of interest include the pottery of Wayne Snowbird of Santa Clara. We first encountered Wayne's work under the portale of the Governor's Palace in Santa Fe. We were struck by the grace and elegance of his figurative pottery pieces. On our last trip to Santa Clara, we met Wayne in his home and were able to acquire pieces fresh from the firing. They are posted at http://www.Native-PotteryLInk.com

Our friend, Salvador Romero of Cochiti continues to produce fetish carvings in his unique style. Whenever we visit Cochiti, we stop by to see Salvador, his mother (a very sweet matriarch), his brother, Wilson and Wilson's wife, Annette Romero, who does very desirable pottery nativities. We hope to acquire more of this talented family's work in the near future.

We'll be sending some more information in our next blog. Meantime, to subscribe to this blog, so that all you have to do to read future postings is click on the blog link on your computer, click on the Site Feed link at the bottom of the sidebar to the right. It will tell you how to subscribe to this and other blogs that you may discover.

We'll be trolling for your eyes next time around.

Monday, June 20, 2005

Busy Days

Howdy, Tribal Art fans:

These are busy days at Aboriginals: Art of the First Person.

We are in the throes of a sell-down in the gallery in anticipation of our physical closing in the next month or so. The indefinite nature of the date is a result of a possible month-to-month extension of our lease. We were due to be out on July 1. The landlord, however, has advised that the new tenant will not move in until September. So, we have a few weeks of slack to wrap things up.

We will continue to offer fine triabl art online at all of our web sites. They are - http://www.Native-JewelryLink.com , with 12 pages of gorgeous, hand-made Native American jewelry. http://www.Native-PotteryLInk.com with equally spectacular hand-made Native American pottery. http://www.tribalworks.com where the whole thing started and which still offers a smattering of Native American art objects, but principally offers African and Australian Aboriginal art. Oh yes, there also is Arctic art on tribalworks, at least until our arctic-artlink gets activated.

Then there is ZuniLink, our site for authentic Zuni fetish carvings. We have just added almost a dozen new Lynn Quam buffalo carvings at http://www.ZuniLink.com/Lynn_Quam_Carvings_at_Zuni_Link.com. (Probably obscured by the link underscore is the fact that there are underscores between the words "Lynn" "Quam" "Carvings "at" "Zuni" and 'Link". Also, if you happen to copy the url down for later use, the uppercase letters after the back slash are important to make the link.)

Once you are on the ZuniLink site, you might navigate to other pages, where some new-to-the-web carvings have been posted. These are carvings that had been reserved for gallery visitors but now will be offered on the Web.

Just because we are closing the physical gallery on Sanbiel doesn't mean we are abandoning the islands. Sanibel will continue to be our emotional home in Southwest Florida. William is on the Chamber Board of Directors and writes the monthly enewsletter. If you would like to subscribe to that Sanibel-Captiva update, go to http://www.Sanibel-Captiva.org and click to opt in to the enewsletter. William tries to keep in light but informative and it is an easy way to stay up to date about Sanibel-Captiva doings.

Other news: A recent fire at the local greyhound track killed a number of dogs and moved a larger number of them into adoption status. Since they can't race any more (thank God), they can be adopted. If you didn't know, we have two rescued greyhounds, our third and fourth. We encourage others to take theese loving creatures into their care. You will never have a more loyal or bonded pet. A good place to start is at http://www.secondchanceforgreyhounds.org. This is an organization we support and we can recommend the proprietor, Helen Banks, without reservation.

That's the news from Aboriginals: Art of the First Person for now.

Wednesday, June 15, 2005

Welcome to Tribal Artery

Many people will recognize this as the blog version of the original Tribal Artery enewsletter from Aboriginals: Art of the First Person.

With changes in the Internet and email expectations, we decided that it would be better for all if we created a blog that can be updated as spirit moves us and accessed by interested parties as the spirit moves them.

Since this is a launch posting, we will save news for another day.

In the meantime, all who access this blog are welcome to visit our web sites at

http://www.tribalworks.com

http://www.ZuniLink.com

http://www.Native-JewelryLink.com

and http://www.Native-PotteryLink.com

We also can be found on eBay at our store - Art of the First Person.

A bientot.
W8s