Cruising Arizona and New Mexico, July 2012

Santa Fe/Chinle Trip Summer 2012  July 10-16, 2012

I am sitting at home now in a wonderful Summer Monsoon….we haven’t had such downpours in a long time. Our plants are perking up with delight!

Fortunately, we missed most rain on our recent desert cruise with friends Curt and Tina to Santa Fe and Chinle.

We left Phoenix and drove Northeast through the mountains and forests of Payson, Showlow and Springerville. We loved missing the highway route and took in the evolution from desert to highland environments.  We stopped in Springerville for a picnic lunch and wanted to see Casa Malpais, but missed the guided tour.  Instead, we went to the small museum in Springerville and learned much about this ancient site.

Casa Malpais was occupied  from about 1200 to 1400 AD and is considered a sacred ancestral place by both the Hopi and Zuni tribes.  The video we saw included commentary by both scientists and local tribal elders.  It provided a rich commentary on the oralhistory and the archaeological evidence regarding the area. The site included a kiva that was not the traditional round shape (more angular) and the remains of  what are thought to be an astronomical observatory

We decided to stay off of the big highways (in the case I-40) and enjoy the backroads.  Route 60 started in eastern Arizona and continued through New Mexico and we took it until we hit I-25.  There were two famous spots along the way:

Pietown and National Radio Astronomy Observatory’s “Very Large Array”—rows and rows of gigantic white dish antennas that can be manipulated to work together like eyes and “focus” on deep space.

We stopped in only one of the two  (guess….)

Only because one of the two famous pie cafes was open….

And we missed the tour of the Observatory  (another missed observatory!).

By 7PM we reached Santa Fe and our condos.  We walked to the square and found a restaurant where we could sit outside in a courtyard and have dinner.  Lovely,  full day. 

Santa Fe  July 11

The guys went golfing so Tina and I wondered around Santa Fe.  Since she lives in a small town in way-North California, she doesn’t have access to “ethnic” clothes and Santa Fe was like an oasis for her.  We went to bead shops, clothing stores, art galleries, funky stores with a bit of everything and went for the gold medal in Olympic shopping.  We stopped at the Hotel La Fonda for lunch—where we both loved the tortilla soup. 

That evening we enjoyed a fabulous dinner at Geronimo’s on Canyon Rd where we celebrated Tina’s birthday a few days early.

July 12

After a great southwestern breakfast at our favorite place, Cafe Pasqual, we met a local guide to take a historical tour of Santa Fe…something we’ve never done. Our guide was  a transplant from back east and was knowledgeable and charming.

 

We stopped in one Gallery that is going into the 3rd generation in Santa Fe.  They have a great collection of Native American and Folk Art as well as Curtis photography.  One of their artists was selling his collection of folk art and there was a piece by a Georgia

 folk artist whose work is on our wall in our bedroom and whom I've never seen anywhere else!  Quite a surprise (I can't remember his name for the moment....)

We visited the Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi.  Interesting in that the site has had a prior adobe church.  

The Bishop who erected it had alienated enough of the citizens that he decided to leave the adobe chapel with La Conquistadora.

La Conquistadora

After lunch, we headed over to our friend's shop, Casa Nova and heard Natalie talk about the use of dolls in African ritual.  Natalie mentioned one of the most famous African artists, Esther, would be at the International Folk Art Festival later that week.

Our good weather genie failed us at that point and it started to pour.  So we gave up on the idea of watching the opening parade of the festival and went to the market to buy food to eat back at our condos....

July 13
We were so excited to get to the International Folk Art Museum and the Festival today.  The International Folk Art Museum is one of my favorite museums.  In addition to the normal exhibits, one of the traveling exhibits was the Art of Gaman. This was a very moving exhibit and gave me insight I had never had to the life of Japanese Americans who were kept in camps.

Altar Made while in Internment

Jewelry made from shells and other objects found on the ground and around the camps.

The exhibit showcases art objects made by Japanese Americans in U.S. Internment camps during World War II. After the bombing of Pearl Harbor in December 1941, all ethnic Japanese on the West Coast—more than two-thirds of whom were American citizens by birth—were ordered to leave their homes and move to internment camps for the duration of the war; including a camp in Santa Fe, New Mexico. 

Art making became essential for simple creature comforts and emotional survival. These objects—tools, teapots, furniture, toys and games, musical instruments, pendants and pins, purses and ornamental displays—are physical manifestations of the art of gaman, a Japanese word that means to bear the seemingly unbearable with dignity and patience.  And I must say that the grace and beauty exhibited in the quotes and objects were inspiring.  For example:  "Everything was lost except the courage to create."  

What was sad to learn was that the creativity that was cultivated during the internment was not continued by many of these new artists once they left the camps.

We also visited the permanent exhibit and I noticed one exhibit that reminded me of us.....

We headed to the galleries of Canyon Road to visit a few and to have lunch.  We found a prized parking place and decided to go into the gallery we were parked near. We looked at the Japanese-like paintings of koi fish and thought this might be a Japanese artist.  When we met the gallery owner we found out the story of this artist:

Jimmy Tsutomu Mirikitani is an 86-year-old artist who was born in Sacramento, CA, in 1920, and raised in Hiroshima, Japan. At 18, he returned to the US to pursue a career in art and escape the growing militarism in Japan. He was living in Seattle when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor in 1941. Executive Order 9066 sent Jimmy to Tule Lake in northern California. When the government required internees to take a loyalty test, Tule Lake became a segregation center where those deemed "disloyal" were congregated. Thousands there renounced their US citizenship in protest. Jimmy was one of them. After the war ended, Jimmy and hundreds of other renunciants continued to be held without charge, first in Tule Lake, then in a Department of Justice INS camp in Crystal City, TX. In 1946, Jimmy was transferred to Seabrook Farms, a frozen food manufacturing plant near Bridgeton, New Jersey. Here, he and other renunciants on "relaxed internment," worked the 12 hour night shift, 6 days a week, sorting vegetables on an assembly line. By August 1947, Jimmy was finally released. Jimmy arrived in NYC in the early 1950's to attempt to resume his art career. When an art professor found him sleeping in Columbia University’s library, Jimmy was referred to the New York Buddhist Church where he was provided room, board, and training as a cook. For years he traveled the East Coast doing seasonal work in resorts, summer camps, and country clubs. While cooking at a restaurant on Long Island, he met Jackson Pollock.

Mirikitani painting

Jimmy's US citizenship was finally restored in 1959, but by then he had moved so often that the government's letter never reached him. Eventually Jimmy became a live-in cook on Park Avenue. But when his employer died in the late 1980's, Jimmy was again suddenly without a home or a job. Within a year, he was living in Washington Square Park in Greenwich Village, selling his artwork to survive. He met filmmaker Linda Hattendorf ("The Cats of Mirikitani" - Tribeca Film Festival Audience Award winner 2006) in Soho in 2001. Shortly after becoming her documentary subject, she helped him apply for Social Security, SSI, and housing benefits, and in 2002 he moved into an assisted-living retirement center run by Village Care of New York.

Once again we were submersed into the realities of 1940s Japanese internment.  Quite amazing that we just happened to be parked in front of this particular gallery.  If we weren't committed to go to the Folk Art Festival that evening, we could have come back to the gallery and  met Jimmy.

After lunch, we stopped by another gallery that just happened to have the sculpture of a woman whom I collected in Georgia--Jill Shwaiko's bronze deer and goats were large scale and slightly different in this gallery. We found out she now owns a gallery in Madrid, NM (on the Turquoise Trail) so we considered making a stop there on our way out of  Santa Fe. After a few other stops at galleries and shops, we headed to the condos to get ready for our Opening Event of The International Folk Art Festival!

We had such a great time going from one booth to the next-seeing the folk art of hundreds of countries all on "Museum Hill" in Santa Fe. The artwork, the artists and the atmosphere of festivities was all wonderful.  Food from many countries was offered by waiters along with beverages.  Music was performed by musicians from around the world.  We found many objet d'arts from South America, to the Eastern block to Africa for our collection.  The most wonderful experience was meeting Esther (my grandmother's name sake) the famous artist from South Africa.

Esther with the Doll I bought

Esther Nikwambi Mahlangu was born in 1935 on a farm near Middelburg in Mpumalanga Province. Esther’s mother, like her grandmother and great grandmother before her, was a simple woman who looked after her family and occupied herself with traditional wall painting and beadwork. During winter most of the Ndebele women kept themselves busy by doing decorations in the surrounding areas, vying to outperform each other with their painting skills. Their designs were austere and uncluttered, handed down by tradition from one generation to the next. Drawings and paintings were done with fingers since brushes were unknown in the early days.

  The beautiful dress and accessories of South Ndebele women reflect their age, social status and love of colour. An aesthetic cultural affirmation that is in everything from the front aprons of little girls to the colourful gala blankets and spectacular costumes of married women.

 

Two things in particular catch the eye. First, there are the stacked rings worn round the neck, arms and legs. Married women whose husbands are yet to build them a home wear a broad studded necklace known as a rholwani.

When her house is ready this hoop is cut off and replaced by copper, brass or plastic bands called idzilo; the quantity of which denote the wealth of the husband. These becoming a permanent statement as they can never be removed because the bone and muscle structure of the wearer adjusts to them.

Second, and most striking, is the lavish beadwork decorating front aprons, skirts, tiaras and the long strips that tail behind. All featuring geometric three-dimensional patterns, which show the creativity and individuality of the wearer. These, in turn, serving as the inspiration for the mural art of South Ndebele homesteads when ethnic construction methods changed from beehive huts to circular and rectangular mud-walled dwellings in the early 20th century.

The most celebrated of the Ndebele artists is Esther Nikwambi Mahlangu. Born in Middleburg in 1936, she was invited in 1989 to exhibit at the Pompidou Art Museum in Paris, France. Since then she has painted the home of the Ndebele royal family, a fire screen at the Civic Theatre in Johannesburg and the walls of the Ndebele Museum Village at Botshabelo.

She has also received critical acclaim in the United States, Europe, Japan and Australia; and been commissioned by BMW to paint one of their motorcars for their Art Car Collection, which includes work by renowned international artists such as Andy Warhol.

Esther describing her work to Leslie; photo by Tina Nelson

‘My mother and grandmother taught me to paint when I was ten years old,’ she says. ‘I have been busy with it ever since and have always liked it. When I am painting my heart is very wide, it reaches out. It makes me feel very, very happy.’

She is a woman of grace whom we greatly enjoyed meeting.  Quite a thrill. Now the doll has a place of honor in our living room.  

We stayed from the first moment the show opened Friday night, to the closing time and beyond.  We couldn't pull ourselves away from the colorful crafts and people.  

Next... on to Canyon De Chelly in Chinle, Arizona.

Saturday, July 14, 2012  On To Chinle!

We packed up and headed out of Santa Fe and traveled down the Turquoise Trail.  This road goes through the desert and by old mines into several little towns, the most interesting of which is Madrid (pronounced  with the emphasis on the "Ma.").  We stopped in a couple galleries and shops including Jill's Indigo gallery where we saw more bronze sculptures and paintings and Tina bought some more clothes!  

We enjoyed the back road (stayed off of I-25 this way) and finally hit I-40 which we took west to head for our next stop:  Hubbell Trading Post.  Jack and I have been here several times.  It is now a national Park that still operates like a trading post  but was an active trading post with hundreds of thousands of sheep 100 years ago.  We watched a video about Geronimo and headed back on route 191 that runs along the eastern edge of Arizona.

We landed in Chinle and at our little hotel within the Canyon de Chelly park (Thunderbird Lodge), dropped our stuff and drove along the edge of the Canyon to look at it before sunset.

"White House" ruins

There is evidence that these Canyons have been occupied for 5000 years. The evidence includes campsite remains from the earliest dwellers (2500BC), petroglyphs then the rock dwellings, etc. The natural history and the human history are both fascinating. We learned more about that on our tour down in the Canyon on Sunday.  Later tribal life here included both Hopi tribes and Navajo.  Tonight, we are having dinner with my good friend,  DY Begay whose family land is about 35 minutes away from Chinle.  She has a traditional Navajo dwelling, a hogan, on her family property and she has invited us for dinner!

DY, who is a famous Navajo weaver, gave us careful directions on the roads that were paved and sometimes marked with numbers.  When those roads gave way to dirt roads without names, she met us and led us onto her family's property and up to her hogan.  I had been there once before in my low-to-the-ground Jaguar and I remember well the challenge of making it to her home.  But I certainly didn't remember how to get there (probably 10 years ago!).

Dy's Hogan at Dusk

Tina, Curt and Jack enjoy the cool breeze outside DY's Hogan.  I catch DY and Jack having a good chuckle! Then DY takes us back to her studio and shows us the piece she is working on for the Santa Fe Indian Market a month away.

DY and Jack

                                                       

 

DY then proceeds to make us Navajo tacos for dinner...so delicious.  Unlike those we have at fairs, her fry bread is not deep fried:  it is lightly sautéd in olive oil so is a lot more healthy!! And she does make the fry bread from scratch!  What a lovely evening.

July 15, 2012 Canyon De Chelly
We met our guide Harris, from Antelope House guides and rode with him in his vehicle down into the canyon.  He grew up with his grandparents in the canyon and climbed up the canyon each morning to catch the bus to school.  They lived without electricity, plumbing  or other luxuries and rose every morning to go running before heading to school.  He is proud of the strength he gained by the years he spent with his grandparents in the Canyon.  He has worked in many trades and has come back to the Canyon, his home to raise his kids.  He was a knowledgeable and fun guide.

Our tour vehicle in Canyon De Chelly

Some of the rock art dates back to 1200; other is later and can be attributed to the Navajo.
The Kokopelli on his back (above) is unusual--the guide attributed it to bad times.

look at the color in the rock art above.  That is indicative of later, Navajo art.  This was at "Antelope House" and may have been a depiction of an antelope. The following is Antelope House:

Because I wasn't' taking notes during this adventure, I don't have a lot to share about our lovely tour.
We had a sense of the ancient and recent history of the canyon as well as the beauty of the natural history.  

We left the canyon and headed home.  We stopped in Winslow Arizona ("Standing on the corner....")
at the La Posada Hotel for a late lunch and watched the trains rush by like the olden days of western travel.  We stopped in Flagstaff next for a walk down memory lane for TIna who went to college at NAU.  Alas, we made it back to Tierra Amour after nearly a week of Southwestern exploration.

Jack and I are off to Hawaii next for a bit of fun and work!