Last Saturday, I spent some time at Indian Market in Santa Fe, and took lots of photos, of which the following slideshow is a selection:
Hundreds of vendors set up shop in booths that went all round the Plaza in Santa Fe and into the streets around it. There were musicians, fairground booths, a tent hosting an awards ceremony for the most outstanding craftsmen and women, and of course thousands of pieces of pottery, weavings, jewellery, sculpture, and other forms of art. There are more than 19 pueblos in New Mexico, each with its own distinctive artistic traditions and iconography, and they were all represented at the market. My favourite style of art is from Acoma Pueblo. The pueblo itself, which I visited a few years ago, is a collection of adobe buildings dating back more than 1,000 years, sitting high up on a mesa that looks from afar like a gigantic slab of clay laid down on the desert floor. The Acoma style of pottery is known for its thin clay walls, its off-white and black glazes, and its very fine-lined decorations. The following photo shows a table of Acoma ceramics, with the artist attending at the Indian Market:
Strangely, there was a flamenco group at the Indian Market, too, which I suppose unites the twin Hispanic and native American history of New Mexico:
There were thousands of people at the market, and it was about 92 degrees Fahrenheit when we were there, so we only spent about 90 minutes there. But it was great to see it, and it was more evidence of the uniqueness of New Mexico within the United States, with its blend of Anglo, Hispanic, and Indian cultures, its astoundingly beautiful landscapes, its great food, and the feeling it conveys to you that once you step within its borders, you've stepped temporarily out of the increasingly homogenized and corporatized life of the rest of the USA.
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Hundreds of vendors set up shop in booths that went all round the Plaza in Santa Fe and into the streets around it. There were musicians, fairground booths, a tent hosting an awards ceremony for the most outstanding craftsmen and women, and of course thousands of pieces of pottery, weavings, jewellery, sculpture, and other forms of art. There are more than 19 pueblos in New Mexico, each with its own distinctive artistic traditions and iconography, and they were all represented at the market. My favourite style of art is from Acoma Pueblo. The pueblo itself, which I visited a few years ago, is a collection of adobe buildings dating back more than 1,000 years, sitting high up on a mesa that looks from afar like a gigantic slab of clay laid down on the desert floor. The Acoma style of pottery is known for its thin clay walls, its off-white and black glazes, and its very fine-lined decorations. The following photo shows a table of Acoma ceramics, with the artist attending at the Indian Market:
There were thousands of people at the market, and it was about 92 degrees Fahrenheit when we were there, so we only spent about 90 minutes there. But it was great to see it, and it was more evidence of the uniqueness of New Mexico within the United States, with its blend of Anglo, Hispanic, and Indian cultures, its astoundingly beautiful landscapes, its great food, and the feeling it conveys to you that once you step within its borders, you've stepped temporarily out of the increasingly homogenized and corporatized life of the rest of the USA.
Subscribe to Praeterita in a reader