Juno Ogle
daily press staff
The weekend was filled with art as various celebrations took place in downtown Silver City.
Saturday was a big day for the event, with Southwest Print Fiesta offering a steamroller printing spectacle and printers market at Main Street Plaza off Bullard Street. On Broadway, the Southwest Women’s Fiber Arts Collective held its annual Fiber Arts Holiday Sale in the Murray Hotel Ballroom and featured several art demonstrations.
Saturday wasn’t the first time El Paso artist Louis Salazar has worked in large format, but it was the first time he printed his work on a steamroller, he said. He has been participating in the Fiesta Print His Exchange for three years, and this was his second year participating in the Fiesta.
“It’s just so fun and powerful, and it’s great for people to see the prints come to life in real time,” Salazar said.
He said the piece, which depicts a masked figure surrounded by marigolds, pays homage to his culture.
“It’s just a representation of Mexican culture, especially honoring our parents and ancestors,” Salazar said. “These days I use masks a lot, and I also use flowers. They have marigolds, cempastil. They start coming out around this time every year, the autumn season. It’s a theme about the connection between childhood and perseverance. .”
Steamroller printing has been a part of Southwest Print Fiesta since its inception seven years ago, said Kyle Dury, who organized the event with Jamie Karorich for the past three of those years.
“We have five new artists and we are producing three prints for each artist. This is a good public spectacle,” Dury said.
The steamroller, visible from Bullard Street, drew people from all over the Southwest to wander through the printmaker’s booths. Vendors from Colorado, Utah, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas displayed and sold screen prints, woodblock prints and other works.
Renee Podunovich was president of Mancos Common Press in Mancos, Colorado. The studio was founded when a professor at the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Design visited a small town in southern Colorado and peered through the windows of a shuttered building that once housed the local newspaper. The original printing equipment was preserved inside and has since been renovated. Podunović said there are currently about 15 artists working in the studio.
“It’s been about a three-year project at the moment, but everything is going well and we just won a grant for a new building with retail space and a new printing press,” she said. “Mancos has a creative arts district and is truly a vibrant community of artists.”
Ms. Podunovich said she had worked with Ms. Karolić in the past, where she taught several classes at Southwest Print Fiesta and the community studio.
Print Fiesta included workshops on Sunday and Monday, and talks by artists and jurors on Friday.
The Fiber Arts Collective has coordinated Saturday’s holiday sale at the Murray Hotel Ballroom with a weekend at the Silver City Art Association’s galleries.
“We are members of the Silver City Arts Association. That’s why we rent. [the ballroom] We don’t own a gallery, so we do it during Weekend at the Gallery,” said Marcia Tinker, Chair of the Textile Sales Committee.
The organization, whose mission is to empower women and help them earn an income from the arts, has seen a recent increase in membership, said president Charmaine Waite.
“Basically, from pre-coronavirus to now, we’ve doubled our membership. We also have diversity, we’ve got younger members, and we’re really looking forward to it,” she said. Told.
The group plans to do some outreach by holding after-school activities at public libraries in Silver City and Bayard, she said.
“We’re trying to do a whole circle of providing our current members with the means to support themselves, but at the same time sharing those skills and hopefully planting seeds in younger people.” said Mr Waite.
On Saturday afternoon, several members demonstrated their art in the hotel’s Martha Room, which connects the ballroom to the hotel lobby.
Susie Calhoun brought a spinning wheel and demonstrated spinning recycled silk. She also brought samples of other types of materials, such as wool, and discussed how to spin them into yarn, such as carding wool with a pair of brushes. She said this loosens the wool fibers and allows you to mix and match different colors.
“It’s pretty cool to do something again that someone did a long time ago,” Calhoun said. “People had more time and patience back then. We now live in a world of instant gratification.”
In addition to a productive weekend in Silver City, the Gila Monster Gran Fondo will kick off its 60- and 80-mile races from Gila Hike and Bike early Saturday morning, and Little Toad Creek Brewery and Distillery will host its annual event with music and games. We celebrated the season with Oktoderfest. — including a barrel-throwing contest on the blocked-off Bullard Street in front of the Bullard Street Pub.
Juno Ogle can be reached at juno@scdailypress.com.