Zuni Bracelet Cuff

Known these days primarily as a fetish carver, Fred Weekoty was also a silversmith earlier in his career (pre-1970s)—according to biographical information for this artist on the Internet. Beautiful stones set in handmade bezels, set off by elegant, simple stamping. Perfect silver patination. Signed FW Zuni, this row bracelet cuff is singularly Fred Weekoty.

True Story

South Capitol residential area of Santa Fe, New Mexico

Seven years ago, it was the romantic associations of structures like this true adobe casa that fascinated me about the capitol city in the state of New Mexico. After a few years living in that city, I packed up and moved 65 miles south to the true hub of this place many call the Land of Enchantment. New Mexico is enchanting, in spite of the extremes of poverty and prosperity that become so apparent once you live here, especially in the capitol city. I'm still trying to figure out whether I have been embraced or rejected by this land. I knew as a child in 1951, on the only real vacation our family ever took, that I wanted to embrace it. These days, I live in one-half of a 1940s duplex in an historic neighborhood near the University of New Mexico—my tiny (by just about any measurement) rented space only one-quarter the size of the home I own on family land in central Texas. I visit that home only a couple of times a year, for a few weeks each time. New Mexico proudly calls itself the Land of Enchantment. Some say, ironically, the land of entrapment. One of the "official" monikers of Santa Fe for decades has been The City Different. Many say, again ironically, the city indifferent. It's all true. Or as a friend often comments about matters of happening and history, "true story".

Two Days South of the Autumnal Equinox

Fall is looking over our shoulders here in central New Mexico. A peek here and a peak there. We've toyed with daytime highs hovering in the low 70s and other days where Indian summer rules. But oh, the morning air, the light, and the smell. If only a picture—well, maybe someone else's camera and eye—could paint the story. Grasses have topped out with their autumn whispers, and the Gallardia is giving up its intense orange, making seed heads and trusting on another summer. After a 30-minute walk through the neighborhood early this Saturday, I sat in my front yard, and facing east I just breathed.

Life among the grasses

Early Utah Art

Rural landscape by Utah artist Hilma Mole, dated 1930.

Hilma Mole Payne (1902-1965) was born in Croydon, Utah, and lived most of her life in Ogden. She studied under famed Utah artist, James Taylor Harwood, art department chair at the University of Utah. Mole (Payne) graduated from Weber College and the University of Utah. In 1928 she went to Paris, via London, where she enrolled in the Academie Julian. She also studied at the California School of Arts and Crafts in Berkley.  

Fall Flush of Purple

New England Aster, (A. Novae-angliae). Described as a ubiquitous species of Native American Aster, grows from Vermont to Alabama, west to North Dakota, Wyoming and south to New Mexico and the higher elevations of Virginia. Reportedly, the Native Americans used this plant as a root tea for treating fever and diarrhea.

All images taken at Randall Davey Audubon Center, Santa Fe NM, September 16, 2014

Santo Domingo Pueblo (NM) Shell Pendant

Artists of the Santo Domingo (Kewa) Pueblo, situated about midway between Albuquerque and Santa Fe along the historic Atchison Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad (ATSF), have a long history of selling their jewelry and pottery to tourists traveling to the West. As early as the 1880s/90s, traditional Santo Domingo objects of art found their way into the hands of travelers eager to carry home  a piece of the West and Native America that appealed to their sensibilities. Travelers making their way along historic highway Route 66 added further to this history.

The story I am told about the shell mosaic pendant pictured here is that it was purchased from the shop of well known Santa Fe trader, Rex Arrowsmith, in the early 1970s. Arrowsmith's Relics of the Old West was my first stop on visits to Santa Fe in the late 1980s and early '90s. On snowy mid-winter days, the fireplace was stoking behind the heavy historic door, ornamented with hand forged iron straps, that led into Arrowsmith's on Old Santa Fe Trail. I've never met Rex. I think he was sort of retired by the time I discovered the shop. His name is key in the history of the marketing and trading of Indian art, including the famed Indian Market, which has taken place in Santa Fe for close to 100 years.

One older Santo Domingo jewelry artist told me recently over Labor Day at the pueblo's annual arts and crafts festival that she thinks the piece could date to the 1950s. So far, I haven't seen another piece like it. Maybe I'll know more about it someday, more that is, than that I like it, a lot.