La Mesa, NCECA 2015 Providence, RI

La Mesa is a show put on by Avra Leodas Director of Santa Fe Clay and held during the annual NCECA conference.  The quality of the show is awesome and Avra puts hours into making it all happen.  I can’t wait to see La Mesa in Kansas City 2016!

Instead of using my iPhone to take these photos I used my new camera, which sadly I do not know how to use and thus these are not great photos.  I need to learn about white balance and get Photoshop.  All in good time!  Enjoy!

La Mesa NCECA Milwaukee 2014 – only took a year to post!

Before I start to work on the photos from La Mesa 2015 – I thought I should finish this post!  I like to take photos of dinnerware!  And I like to show those photos to my students.  Now I have a forum for this!  There is this wonderful show put on by Avra Leodas Director of Santa Fe Clay every year at NCECA called La Mesa.

The Last Supper, Santa Fe

We spent the day at Canyon Road. Saw these wonderful ceramics by Ruth Duckworth. I had snapped a few when the gallery manager asked us not to photograph – they are all on their website.   http://www.bellasartesgallery.com/duckworth.html

Driving to Canyon Road caught sight of these amazing Jun Kaneko ceramics at Peters Gallery, Santa Fe.

Our last supper was absolutely delicious at Joseph’s of Santa Fe.  Highly recommended!

We sat outside under an awning and it began to rain, we stayed there until an enormous flash of lightening and a clap of thunder a couple of blocks away forced us inside.  This was the sky after the storm as we left the restaurant.

 

Puye Cliff Dwellings

Susan and I decided to go south to Peco’s National Park. After an hour’s drive on 25 we arrived to find an empty trading post. No trails to hike.  There was a large plaque with the history of the area.  Looking at the images online as I write this we clearly were in the wrong place!  What a shame to have missed the real deal!

Quick reroute and we were driving back to Santa Fe, the same route we took coming south, and on our way to the Puye Cliff Dwellings. What a great choice!  A not to be missed tour.

We arrived just in time for the 12 o’clock tour – having left at 930am!  The whole tour was magical.  Our tour guide was a local Native American, Derek, who is clearly a wonderful ambassador for his people. He talked so intelligently and eloquently about his people, the history, and it’s future.  He sees his generation coming out from the self imposed silence of the older generations and introducing Americans to their customs and way of life.  After the atrocities suffered by the Native Americans, especially the Navajo in this area, they took their hearts, souls, and ceremonies inside the kiva and maintained great secrecy.  No white people allowed in.  They are now proudly calling themselves Diné as Navajo was an American name given to them and has no meaning in their language.

Derek told us the pottery shards contain the spirit of those that made them and if we take them home we will be haunted by those spirits.  The piles of shards are those that have been returned because those that took them were being haunted!  That was enough to make me a believer!

Leaving the mesa and climbing down to the cliff dwellings.

The cave dwellings were dug into the rock with wonderful petroglyphs high above on the wall.  Some of the dwellings were 2 and 3 stories so they could stand on the roofs and carve these petroglyphs or paint the pictographs.

 

 

 

 

 

Santa Fe Continued

After spending 5 days in the studio it was time to explore Santa Fe.  We started at the Spanish Market – mostly religious themed crafts.  I have been to Indian Market which includes all the crafts, each pueblo has their own style and no two are alike.  The younger generation are making within the tradition and at the same time developing their own voice.   I find that very exciting.  We visited Shiprock Gallery on the Plaza and saw top of the line jewelry, weaving, and pots.  We lunched at Cafe Pascal and I had a magnificent plate of Huevos Rancheros.

We returned to Museum Hill to visit the Museum of International Folk Art.  Amazing collection from all over the world.  Here are some images of my favorite objects.  I didn’t write titles or countries down – sorry!

 

Last Day Mark Pharis Workshop

Today the studio was both hushed and full of activity. Some participants were cleaning up and leaving early, some finishing last minute details, settling up bills (mine was very high I have a very supportive husband!), and saying goodbyes.  I didn’t take any photos today but here is one from earlier in the week of the group!

Participants of the Mark Pharis Workshop at Santa Fe Clay

Participants of the Mark Pharis Workshop at Santa Fe Clay

Susan and I ended the day on a “Behind the Scenes Tour” of the Georgia O’Keefe Home and Studio.  We saw the room where she stretched her canvases, her bedroom next to the studio (now set up as a bedroom) and the fall out shelter in addition to the regular tour.  It is really a magical place, no wonder she waited 15 years until she could buy the house.  Georgia O’Keefe’s bedroom is on the corner of the house.  The two outside walls have enormous plate glass windows with a view overlooking the valley.  She could lie in bed and look at this view.  We were not allowed to take anything up to the house with us – no photos allowed – but I found this one on the internet.

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Georgia O’Keefe House, bedroom

Source

 

We had a wonderful dinner at the Abiquiu Inn.  Highly recommended.

 

Day 2 Mark Pharis

Up early and by 645am Susan and I were on our way to Starbucks!  I was asking questions and she said “you are making me talk too much”!!  I laughed to myself, we both talk too much!  The Starbucks is predominantly a drive in and has an open air seating area.  I will get a photo tomorrow.

We walked through the Market, it is open on Tuesday and Saturday mornings and is located in front of Santa Fe Clay.  The produce was so fresh and delicious looking I wished I had a kitchen.  I brought some fried hot peppers and tried to talk the owner to cook up some of those small sweet peppers to no avail.

 

Onto the workshop.  Mark cleared up some confusion from yesterday how to make a template and where the right angle should.  Most challenging for the non-math inclined which I include myself.

My attempt at being Mark!  I threw the slab and cut the form out using a template.

Charlotte Lindley Martin being Mark Pharis!

Charlotte Lindley Martin being Mark Pharis!

Day 2 Santa Fe, Day 1 Mark Pharis

What a fun day we had.  Mark showed us how to make templates out of paper to build our pots.  The paper was problematic so we ended up using tar paper.  Thanks to HP Bloomer for buying it for us.

Mark said the join of the two slabs is the beginning and the ending of the pot.

Santa Fe

I am traveling again, this time to Santa Fe for a Mark Pharis workshop. I just love Santa Fe, so it was easy to say yes when Susan, who I met last year at the Bray, asked if I wanted to go.

This morning the first thing Susan asked me was, where is the closest Starbucks.  Never fear my trusty Around Me app got us to the Starbucks near the Plaza.  Not only was I able to have my favorite beverage but I have someone to imbibe with me!  This is going to be a good week!  We visited the Georgia O’Keefe Museum, Museum of Fine Arts, galleries, before heading back to get the car to drive to the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture.

New Mexico Museum of Fine Art, love the adobe buildings

New Mexico Museum of Fine Art, love the adobe buildings

Bill Daley told me when he taught in Santa Fe years ago he took all of his students to see The Staircase.  “You must go see it, Charlotte”  We did – what an feat to build this staircase with two 360 degree turns and no visible means of support.

The Staircase, detail, The Loretto Chapel

The Staircase, detail, The Loretto Chapel

The Staircase, Loretto Chapel

The Staircase, Loretto Chapel