Santa Fe ~ Museum of Indian Arts and Culture

Look for light

Listen for inspiration on the wind

Let water cleanse your soul

Set yourself on a firm foundation

Serve as the plants

Do not offend your fellow creatures

Live in harmony with all creations

~The Seven Paths of the Anasazi Way: 

The Making of a Forward Walking

After our adventure through the International Folk Art Museum, up on Museum Hill, we had a lovely lunch at the cafe between the Folk Art Museum and the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture.  I had the salmon tacos which were fresh and flavorful, so thumbs up to eating at the cafe up there.

Here's some beautiful music to go with the post!

After our tasty lunch, we headed into our next museum adventure ...

Museum of Indian Arts and Culture

Mountain Spirit Dancer, c. 2000
by Craig Dan Goseyun, San Carlos Apache

All dreams spin out from the same web.

~Hopi proverb

Being a lover of turquoise, which also happens to be my birthstone, I was excited to see the Turquoise, Water, Sky: The Stone and its Meaning exhibition (through May 2nd, 2016), at the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture. No photography inside, but the exterior spaces were beautiful, especially in a blanket of snow!

The Doris and Arnold Roland Sculpture Garden

Unfortunately, the titles of many of the sculptures, along with the artists were covered in snow! I looked online and only found a few of them. If anyone knows the others, please let me know! 

Fred Begay Sculpture, below

Kim Seyesnemn Obrzut: Greeting the Sun, 2001

Bronze 

Kathy Whitman-Elk Woman 

Standing Strong with m Feet Rooted to Mother Earth

I have been to the end of the earth,

I have been to the end of the waters,

I have been to the end of the sky,

I have been to the end of the mountains,

I have found none that are not my friends.

~Navajo Proverb

Of course, seeing all the turquoise in the museum ... I was inspired to go into the gift shop! Here are the earrings I bought. 26 bucks and I LOVE the color.

A great place to by Native American jewelry and art is directly from the artisans who sit outside the old Palace of the Governors, and the artists are regulated by a group of Native American craftspeople who keep it very reputable. My mom bought this beautiful bracelet for me for my birthday (which was a couple of days before we headed to Santa Fe.) I met the woman who made it, and I will try to find her card to post here!

On Christmas Eve, I opened this from my sister! I love it, and I love that she has an identical one and also bought them for my nieces! As you can see, it is very easy to find beautiful things in Santa Fe, especially the turquoise.

As I said, no photography was aloud inside the museum, but this next video is the Curator of Archaeology at the museum is giving a tour of the exhibition. She explains how turquoise is created in nature, as well as showing pieces from the show. The views of the pieces seem to get better as the video continues.

This video explains the meaning of turquoise, to the Native American people of the Southwest.

This next video explains about the color of turquoise and how the color was more important than whether or not the stone was actually "real" natural turquoise stone ...

Here is an 8 minute documentary of the history of the ancient Anasazi people in the American Southwest, Chaco Canyon, and Mesa Verde, as well their architecture and how they formed trade routes a thousand years ago.

A HOPI ELDER SPEAKS:

"You have been telling the people that this is the Eleventh Hour,
now you must go back and tell the people that this is THE HOUR. And
there are things to be considered...

Where are you living?
What are you doing?
What are your relationships?
Are you in right relation?
Where is your water?
Know your garden.
It is time to speak your Truth.
Create your community.
Be good to each other.
And do not look outside yourself for the leader.

Then he clasped his hands together, smiled, and said, 
"This could bea good time! There is a river flowing now very fast. 
It is so greatand swift that there are those who will be afraid. 
They will try to hold on to the shore. 
They will feel they are being torn apart and will suffer greatly. 
Know the river has its destination. 

The elders say we must let go of the shore, 
push off into the middle of the river, keep our eyes open, 
and our heads above the water.

And I say, see who is in there with you and celebrate. 
At this time in history, we are to take nothing personally. 
Least of all, ourselves. For the moment that we do, 
our spiritual growth and journey comes to a halt. 

The time of the lone wolf is over.
Gather yourselves! 
Banish the word struggle from your attitude and your vocabulary. 
All that we do now must be done in a sacred manner
and in celebration.

We are the ones we've been waiting for.

Oraibi, Arizona
Hopi Nation

For the link to the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture click here

Mountain Spirit Dancer, c. 2000
by Craig Dan Goseyun, San Carlos Apache
(Love the green orb that showed up in the photo!)

Blessings and light!

Santa Fe ~ International Folk Art Museum part 1

Learn how to see.

Realize that everything connects

to everything else.

~Leonardo da Vinci

The Girard Wing

I wasn't sure what to expect with the International Folk Art Museum in Santa Fe, but it was 1st on my mom's "to do list!" There are temporary exhibitions at the museum but Girard Wing (which is permanent) is a sight to behold!

Born in NYC, Alexander "Sandro" Girard (1907-1993) grew up in Florence, Italy. After being educated in London, Rome and New York, and then working in Florence, New York and Detroit, he eventually moved to Santa Fe in 1953.

He and his wife Susan began collecting folk art in the 1930s, traveling back from Mexico with carloads of wonderful treasures. That was the beginning of this worldwide collection of wonderful folk art pieces from almost anywhere you can imagine!

Man's Shawl

Kutch, Gujarat, India, ca 1930

This was a beautiful piece from the area near the Indo-Pakistan border. It's a hand stitched ceremonial shall with mirror work as well. And I mean tiny little crossed and looped stitches!

In 1978 the Girards donated over 100,000 objects to the State of New Mexico, 10,000 of which are in the exhibition Multiple Visions: A Common Bond, a tiny portion of which I'm showing you here! More than a million people have visited the Girard Wing since it opened in 1982! 

(Above and below)

Italian Villa

Porcelain figures were created by Jean Charles "Tunsi" Girard, a resident of Florence and highly regarded ceramist. 

Behind the villa, Navajo Wall Hangings from Arizona/New Mexico, ca 1960

Peruvian Village 

This village in Andes shows all the various activities you could find in a village fiesta, including dancers, a market with shoes and potatoes, and apparently there is a drunk guy somewhere!

Amulets from all around the world ...

Everyone and everything

is interconnected in this universe.

Stay pure of heart and you will see the signs. 

Follow the signs 

and you uncover your destiny.

~from the film

Jeff at Home

Amulets from Greece

Here is my sister, photographing the huge earthenware painted Mexican Village from Acatlán de Osorio, Puebla, Mexico. (20th century) It was definitely one of my favorites in the vast collection!

The next two photos were also taken of the same Mexican Village. The Big cathedral on the left of the photo (along with many other pieces in village) was made by Herón Martínez Mendoza, one of Mexico's most respected potters.

Love the designs around the doors and windows!

Opera Figures

China, mid 20th century

(how gorgeous are they?!)

Polish Set
This was a huge case. On the right, you look through to a nativity (I posted a few posts ago for Christmas, I think) Unfortunately, I missed the information on this one.

Another view from the amazing Polish set ...

You can see below, that in this huge room there are seemingly endless cases and more cases of so many beautiful things! I have no idea how long we were in there. A couple of hours? More? No idea but we could have gone back in again, because there was just so much to see.

They give you a spiral notebook with numbers and names of the objects, with some background information about the objects and where they came from. So, as I do with other museums, after I photographed a case or work of art, I would take a photo of the title and information because otherwise I'd never remember it all!

Toy Theaters (Paper or Model Theaters)
19th Century, France

These were used in miniature productions staged by family members, and children "took on the challenges of creating, producing, and directing the plays. ... they would dutifully build the miniature stage and carefully design, color, and install the characters, set decoration and proscenium."

Below, left, (in and above case) pieces from India

Right, a Woven Blanket with a jaguar from Tlaxcala, Mexico, early 20th Century

Indian Street Scene
India, 1900-1950
These "toys" were used to create narratives of the lives of Hindu gods, as well as for amusement. They are bigger than they look here. Maybe a couple feet tall (?) and beautifully detailed.

I missed the information on this one, below, but it was so neat with the forced perspective! The figures were clay and I think it's from South America? If anyone knows, please fill me in! Thanks!

Shrine (SanMarkos) 
Jésus Urbano Rojas,
Ayacucho, Peru, ca 1958

detail of the above shrine ...
Incredible!

Last Supper

"Misterio" Domigos Goncalzes Lima

Barcelos, Braga, Portugal, ca 1960

19th Century Town
United States
This village is filled with some of the most popular toys of the 19th century, including dollhouses and metal toys. It was so big I couldn't fit it all in. You can see there are a whole set of buildings behind these, as well!

My Mom and sister checking out what was in the doll cases ...

Dolls from Azapampa, Junin, Peru

ca 1958

Carved cactus wood, gesso, cloth and paint (for the actual doll form)

Rag Dolls
Jaipur, Rajasthan, India, ca 1950
Alexander Girard found this in the "arms of their Maker, as she carried them down a street in Jaipur."

Guignol Glove Puppets
Europe, late 19th-early 20th century

Used in the Guignol period of puppet theater. In the book it said the ones with masks large noses were for comic effect and masquerade scenarios. Puppets with deformities were antagonists and heroes were common people with normal features. Not really seeing the heroes in this bunch! ;)

Dolls
Iran, ca 1955
Difficult to see the details in this next photo. You might be able to click to enlarge but they are covered in colored buttons! Love!

Humankind has not woven the web of life.

We are but one thread within it.

Whatever we do to the web, 

we do to ourselves.

All things are bound together.

All things connect.

~Chief Seattle, 1854

Black Rag Dolls
United States, 19th-20th Century

The majority of the dolls were entirely handmade form scrap cloth, made by family members for their children. Most movingly I thought, were that a few were said to have been found in one of the hideouts of the Underground Railroad.

This next piece was (I think) a temporary exhibit.

Below, you can see a photo of the artist, Nicario Jiménez Quispe, an immigrant to the U.S. from the Andes in Peru. He is a 3rd generation retable artist.

Immigration: The American Dream

It's a very moving piece and I love how he uses the traditional idea of the retable for telling the story of immigrants' journeys to the United States from Cuba, Haiti and Mexico.

There was also a temporary exhibition on Flamenco but I will get to that in another post!

One of the things I loved was seeing the similarities different countries (and different continents!) share. Dolls are common around the world, similar kinds of handwork and motifs, clays and carvings and themes that are universal, pretty much no matter where you go! We all share so much in common, and yet somehow we are under the impression we are all so different.

"Alexander Girard, like museum founder Florence Dibell Bartlett, hoped visitors would see the connections, the common bond, among the peoples of the world. As an old Italian proverb oft-repeated by Sandro Girard tells us, "Tutto il mondo é paese" - The whole world is hometown."

We don't accomplish anything in this world alone ...

and whatever happens is the result 

of the whole tapestry of one's life

and all the weavings of individual threads 

from one to another that creates something.

~Sandra Day O'Connor

For more information on the folk art museum click here, for the website!