Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
23
gambling profits actually go—and if the
casinos can possibly be a good thing for
the pueblos and tribes.
A number of pueblos and tribes, how-
ever, are showing signs of prosperity, and
they are using newfound revenues to buy
firefighting and medical equipment and to
invest in local schools.
4 ART & ARCHITECTURE
Many artists claim that the crystalline light
draws them to the Southwest. In truth, the
light is only part of the attraction: Nature
in this part of the country, with its awe-
inspiring thunderheads, endless expanse of
blue skies, and rugged desert, is itself an
artwork. To record the wonders of earth
and sky, early natives imprinted images (in
the form of petroglyphs and pictographs)
on the walls of caves and on stones, as well
as on the sides of pots they shaped from
clay dug in the hills.
Today's Native American tribes carry on
that legacy, as do the other cultures that
have settled here. Life is shaped by the arts.
Everywhere you turn, you'll see pottery,
paintings, jewelry, and weavings. You're
liable to meet an artist whether you're hav-
ing coffee in a Sedona cafe or walking
along Canyon Road in Santa Fe.
The area is full of little villages that
maintain their own artistic specialties.
Each Indian pueblo has a trademark
design, such as Santa Clara's and San
Ildefonso's black pottery and the Navajo's
geometric emblazoned weavings. Bear in
mind that the images often have profound
meaning. When purchasing art, you may
want to talk with the maker about what
the symbols signify.
Hispanic and Native American villagers
take their goods to the cities, where, for
centuries, people have bought and traded.
Under the portals along plazas, you'll find a
variety of works in silver, stone, and pottery
for sale. In the cities, you'll find streets lined
with galleries, both slick and modest. Trad-
ing posts, most notably Arizona's Hubbell
Trading Post in Ganado and Cameron
Trading Post in Cameron, offer excellent
variety and quality. At major markets, such
as the Spanish Market and Indian Market
in Santa Fe and the Heard Museum Indian
Fair and Market in Phoenix, some of the
top artists from the area sell their works.
Smaller shows at the pueblos also attract
artists and artisans. The Northern Pueblo
Artists and Craftsman Show, revolving
each July to a different New Mexico pueblo,
continues to grow.
Drawn by the beauty of the local land-
scape and respect for indigenous art, artists
from all over have flocked here, particu-
larly during the 20th century. They have
established locally important art societies;
one of the most notable is the Taos Soci-
ety of Artists. Santa Fe has its own art
society, begun in the 1920s by a nucleus of
five painters who became known as Los
Cinco Pintores. Meanwhile, Scottsdale,
Tucson, Sedona, Tubac, and Jerome have
developed into rich founts for Southwest-
ern and Western art.
2
Impressions
[Sun-bleached bones] were most wonderful against the blue—that blue that will
always be there as it is now after all man's destruction is finished.
—Georgia O'Keeffe, on the desert skies of New Mexico
 
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