Many thanks for Placitas Holiday Sale help

–Nancy Couch
Board Member
Placitas Holiday Fine Arts and Crafts

I would like to thank all the many people in our community that help make the Placitas Holiday Fine Arts and Crafts Sale happen.

Special thanks go to the committee that donates their valuable time to organize this event and makes it a quality art show: Mary Hofmann, Andi Callahan, Lisa Chernoff, Bunny Bowen, and Jon Couch.

Other people that I wish to thank are Jim Fish, Kennie Warren (the principal of the elementary school) and the Presbyterian Church, who let us use their space for all the artists who participate in the holiday sale.

There are many other people who help us get ready for the show: John Roth helps us furnish the tent with electricity; Mel Chernoff helps with the signs; and Chuck Callahan, our photographer, will take pictures for us again this year.

I also want to thank the Signpost and Barb and Ty Belknap for all their help and support in publicizing the Placitas Holiday Fine Arts and Crafts Sale.

It’s impossible to mention everyone by name, but I want to say thank you to all those who have volunteered their time to make this the best show ever.

Click here for a map to the Placitas Holiday Sale

Sampling wine at Anasazi Fields Winery during last year’s Placitas Holiday Sale

Margaret Adams show her metalwork to a customer at the 2001 Holiday Sale

Gene McClain combines paintings, Southwest furniture and sculpture
to create fun furniture

Lisa Chernoff’s booth shines with her fused glass sculptures

Twenty-first
Annual Placitas Holiday Fine Arts
& Crafts Sale artists:

SITE 1—
PLACITAS ELEMENTARY SCHOOL

Joan Reeder—Santa Fe—jewelry

Jolene Bird—Santo Domingo—jewelry, silver-inlayed turquoise, shell

Bunny Bowen—Placitas—matted and framed batik landscapes, silk scarves

Annette and Shawn Caffrey—Pecos—metal home and office accessories

Andi Callahan—Placitas—silver jewelry and glass sculptures

James and Greta Cannon—Santa Fe—contemporary jewelry and stone sculpture

Mary Carter—Placitas—painted furniture, tea tables, rocking chairs, cabinets

Delbert Charging Crow—Placitas—carved Lakota fetishes

Gareth and Lin Davies—Los Lunas—original mohair teddy bears

Dave Doss—Placitas—photography

Joe Dowell—Bernalillo—wildlife art paintings

Meredith Edwards—Albuquerque—collectible dolls, ornaments, fun jewelry

Mick Fredrickson—Santa Fe—handmade paper jewelry, vessels, wall pieces

Adrian and Sandra Fry—Sandia Park—handpainted tiles

Renée Gentz—Albuquerque—art quilts and silk wearables

Susan Gutt—Rio Rancho—traditional and contemporary baskets

Mario Hinojo—Albuquerque—carved gourds

Elizabeth Jenkins—Taos—handwoven garments

David Reed Johnson—Placitas—wood cutting boards

Allan Edgar and Judith Young—Corrales—jewelry

Sandy and Michael Kadisak—Cochiti Lake—art pottery, little people, animals

Maria Kenarova—Santa Fe—ceramic wall hangings and plaques

Pat Marsello—Albuquerque—vases, fountains, lanterns

Judy McCullough—Placitas—handpainted photo image transfers

Barbara Barkley and Michael Columbo—Quemado—watercolor, paper, block carving

Elaine Bolz and Michael Murphy—Corrales—ceramic artwork

Randy Miller—Bernalillo—jewelry

Robert Redus—Albuquerque—jewelry and sculpture

Sunny Smyth—Santa Fe—jewelry and fountains

Lance Heddan and Suzanne Chustz—Santa Fe—glass plates, bowls, wall art, jewelry

Barbara Thompson—Santa Fe—raw cotton clothing

Pat Walke—Santa Fe—gourmet dressings, vinegars, dips

Barbara Woods—Santa Fe—painted silk clothing, lampshades, light sculptures

SITE 2—
THE BIG TENT

Terry and Margaret Adams—Cuba—wall art, lamps, home decor, candleholders

Sue Bason—Hillsboro—religious folkart crosses and plaques

Henry Chernoff—Albuquerque—handcarved stone

Paula Dimit—Albuquerque—wood sculptures

Shirley and Stanley Giser—Grants—intricately inlaid wooden boxes

Lazaro Gutierrez—San Ysidro—jewelry

Molly Hart—Santa Fe—jewelry

Lynn Hartenberger—Placitas—oil, pastel paintings

Mary and Karl Hofmann—Placitas—functional pottery

Juliana Kirwin—Bernalillo—printmaking, serigraphs

Peach Malmaud—Placitas—garlic oil, direct prints

Adrian Martinez—Albuquerque—natural wood inlay pictures

Ginny Neumann—Ranchos de Taos—ornamental jewelry

Susanne Pinkham—Taos—night lights, mirrors, glass hangings

Diana Stetson—Albuquerque—printmaking

David Strong—Fort Worth—color photography

Willow Summers—Santa Fe—jewelry, accessories, collage

Pam Slipyan and Villy Newton—Albuquerque—custom leather and eclectic jewelry

Patricia Wyatt—Santa Fe—paintings and mixed media

Dennie York—Placitas—artistic and decorative wood crafts

SITE 3—
ANASAZI FIELDS WINERY

Norman and Danna Aufrichtig—El Prado—picture frames, mirrors, decorative accessories

Janet Behl—Sandia Park—leather goods

Lisa Chernoff—Placitas—fused glass sculpture, bowls, jewelry

Nancy Coonridge—Pie Town—organic goat cheese

Helen and Joseph Coriz—Santo Domingo—turquoise jewelry, earrings

Nancy and Jon Couch—Placitas—glass water prisms, mandalas, boxes, candleholders

Zephyr Del Pino—El Rito—leather drawstring bags

Vangie Dunmire—Placitas—watercolor paintings

Lynda Feman—Glorietta—ceramic and glass art

Jim Fish—Placitas—wooden sculptures, walking sticks, cutting boards

Gene McClain—Placitas—paintings, furniture, sculpture

Timothy O'Lear—Carrizozo—animal-shaped handpainted mirror frames

Renee Rector—Tijeras—handwoven one-of-a-kind items

Connie Remaly—El Prado—clay crosses, mirror frames, clay jewelry

Susan Tische Clifford and Thomas Wright—Albuquerque—contemporary sterling silver and semi precious stones

Steve and Wanda Thompson—Bosque Farms—chocolate candy

Fred and Kristen Wilson—Albuquerque—raku mask/pottery, jewelry

Nancy Wood Taber—Tijeras—colored pencil drawings

Get set for the Placitas Holiday Sale—
November 23 & 24 — 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

—Jon Couch
Placitas Holiday Fine Arts and Crafts board member

Mark your calendars, smash your piggy banks, and update your holiday gift lists! It’s time for the Twenty-first Annual Placitas Holiday Sale.

Held on the weekend before Thanksgiving, the Placitas Holiday Fine Arts and Crafts Sale signifies the beginning of the holiday season for residents and visitors of Placitas. After the hectic autumn, the mood is more leisurely, with time to talk with old friends, enjoy the goodies, and discover what wondrous works the artists and artisans have brought to our village.

This year, the Placitas Holiday Sale will be held at three locations: the Placitas Elementary School, the Big Tent, and Anasazi Fields Winery. The school location has been expanded into the halls, the Big Tent will be on the main highway next to the DeLara house east of the Presbyterian Church, and Anasazi Fields Winery continues to offer a warm and sunny spot to enjoy the art as well as the delightful wines.

Ceramics, jewelry, woodwork, prints, paintings, leather, photography, glass, baskets, batiks, stone carving, metalwork, teddy bears, handmade clothing, and much more will be offered at the show. Everything is handmade and many of the artists have created special gifts at affordable prices for the holidays.

To fill the limited number of spaces in the Holiday Sale, the work of some of the best artists from all over New Mexico and beyond was screened by a jury. While nearly a quarter of the seventy-one artists and artisans are from Placitas, an equal percentage are new to the show.  

By maintaining the number of artists at about seventy every year, the organizers of the Holiday Sale feel they can sustain the high quality of arts and crafts, the variety, and the friendliness that the sale has become famous for.

New this year, the Placitas Holiday Sale is sponsoring a raffle of art works to benefit the arts and literature programs at Placitas Elementary School. The public can purchase tickets at $1 for a chance to win a piece of art, and all of the proceeds will go to the school, where the donated pieces will be on display.

There will be food and beverages at all locations and Anasazi Fields Winery will be offering tours of their winery, as well as free wine tasting. Among their New Mexico wines that are available by the case, bottle, or glass, they will be featuring their 1999 American Cranberry Wine, continuing what has become a local tradition at the holiday dinner. Also at the winery will be marinated goat cheese by Nancy Coonridge of Pie Town and chocolate delights from Amour’ Chocolates of Bosque Farms.

In addition to the other food and drinks available, bake sale goodies will be offered by Las Placitas Presbyterian Church at the Big Tent and by parents at the Elementary School.

The Placitas Holiday Sale is Saturday, November 23, and Sunday, November 24, from 10:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m. 

The Placitas Holiday Sale has been sponsored for the past twenty-one years by the Placitas Mountaincraft and Soiree Society, a nonprofit organization.

Petroglyphs examined for creativity

Placitas printmaker Deborah Cool-Flowers of Studio Cool, who recreates rock-art images as etchings on handmade paper, will give a slide presentation, “Ancient Artists of the Southwest,” on November 7 at 7:00 p.m. at the Maxwell Museum of Anthropology. Cool-Flowers will investigate creative expression and intent rather than cultural significance. “Archeologists look for commonalities in rock art,” she says. “I look for exceptions.”

Pictographs and petroglyphs from Utah, New Mexico, and Texas will be shown, with a special focus on the unique paintings from Hueco Tanks, Texas. The slide presentation is geared for the general public. There is a $2.00 charge for admission.

Cool-Flowers, a graduate in fine arts from the University of New Mexico, will return to the Maxwell on Saturday, December 14, to conduct an ongoing papermaking demonstration from 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. She will show traditional mold-and-deckle processes, and demonstrate how paper pulp can be modeled, formed over another object, or cast in a model. Pulps from unconventional sources such as yucca fiber, dryer lint, and onion skin will be used, as well as cotton linters. Participants may try their hand at screening their own sheets of paper.

For further information, please call the Maxwell Museum of Anthropology at 277-3700.

MasterWorks art show planned for April

Slides due January 1

The fifth annual premier MasterWorks of New Mexico juried art show will be held in April 2003 in the Hispanic Arts Center at the state fairgrounds. This exclusive collaborative fine arts show is for New Mexico’s best.

There will be four separately juried shows, cosponsored by the Pastel Society of New Mexico, the New Mexico Watercolor Society, the Rio Grande Arts Association, and Miniature Arts Bardean. All shows are open to any artist residing in New Mexico.

The jurors for pastel, watercolor, and oils and acrylics are: artist-teacher Frank McCulloch, artist and arts consultant Bill Wyles, artist Kevin Zuckerman, and artist Pat Ballard. The judge is Michael Hurd—of the infamous Hurd-Wyeth family. Slides for these shows are to be received by January 31, 2003. Jury notification will be mailed by February 29, and juried works should be received by March 23. For a prospectus and information, contact Lyla Garcia, 505-293-0959, watercolors; Betsy Greenlee, 505-898-8828, pastels; or Frieda Thorsen, 505-293-3811, oils and acrylics.

Jurors for the Miniature Show are author-illustrator Eleanor Schick, artist-architect Lynn McLain, artist-teacher Jan Keefer, and artist Miro Kenarov. The judge is the nationally recognized artist Doris Steider. Actual works (no slides) are to be received by March 23, 2003. For a prospectus and additional information, contact Barbara Lohbeck at 505-260-9977 or Bardean@aol.com.

Westside Community Chorale forming

Are you interested in joining a multicultural mixed singing group? Sopranos, altos, tenors, and basses are needed. Weekly rehearsals will begin in January at the Corrales Elementary School. A performance is planned for the spring. For further information, call Joan Abend, 892-5347, or Sheryl Farley, 922-9126.

Free Web galleries for Placitas artists

A new Web site, PlacitasArtists.com, is now offering free Web galleries to all artists and craftspersons living in the Placitas communities. Each artist's gallery will contain a home page, up to eight image pages, a biography page, and a contact page, which may also contain links to other Web sites and art-gallery Web sites.

The site was designed by Gary Priester of gwpriester.com, the designer of the Placitas Chamber of Commerce and Signpost Web sites, who is also maintaining the new site. "I have talked to a lot of artists who would like to have a Web site but don't know how, or don't have the time, to create their own site," said Priester. "PlacitasArtists.com fills this need."

"My goal is to put together a site that will showcase and promote the artistic talent we have in this area," said Priester. "By creating a formidable gallery of artists, and by getting good placement in the search engines, I hope to focus the eyes of the world on the Placitas art community."

Artists who already have a personal Web site or who are represented on a commercial gallery site are also encouraged to show their work on the PlacitasArtists site. "The more artists who participate, the greater the drawing power. We would like to have as many artists as possible on the site," said Priester.

The site is free to all Placitas artists and will be funded by donations from sponsors in the community. Interested artists and sponsors should visit www.PlacitasArtists.com for more information. Priester may be contacted by e-mail at gary@gwpriester.com.

Churches will sponsor festival to benefit
Storehouse West, Boys and Girls Club

The Second Annual Great Gift Festival will be held November 8 and 9 at the American Legion Hall, 1500 Barbara Loop, Rio Rancho. Part of the proceeds of the event will be donated to Storehouse West and The Boys and Girls Club of Rio Rancho. Hours on Friday are 11 a.m. to 8 p.m.; Saturday, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Lunch will be served both days by the American Legion Ladies Auxiliary.

Handmade items, gifts, and baked goods will be offered for sale, and there will be live entertainment during the festival. On Friday evening there will be a Chocolate Extravaganza featuring desserts by Flying Star, Cold Stone Creamery, Marie Callender’s, and others. The sponsors of the event are Calvary Lutheran Church, Our Lady Queen of Angels Liberal Catholic Church, St. Paul’s United Church of Christ, and the Unitarian Universalist Westside Congregation.

Unitarian Universalist gallery hosts Overfield exhibit

Richard Overfield’s oil and acrylics will be featured during November at the Unitarian Universalist Westside Sanctuary Gallery. Works by Overfield are owned by over thirty public and corporate collections in the United States and Canada. A reception for the artist will be held November 10 from noon to 2:00 p.m. at the Unitarian Universalist Westside Congregation, 1650 Abrazo Road in Rio Rancho. For gallery hours, call 896-8192.

Willy Sucre and Friends play piano, viola, clarinet trios in Placitas

—Gary Libman
Placitas Artists Series board

On November 10, at 3:00 p.m., the Placitas Artists Series is presenting another outstanding concert featuring Willy Sucre and Friends. This month’s concert will be a selection of piano, viola, and clarinet trios by Schumann, Mozart, and Bruch. The Schumann work will be his Märchenerzählungen Trio, Op. 132, (“Fairy Tales”). The Mozart work is the Trio in E-flat Major, K. 498, (“Kegelstatt”). The concert will close with five of the Eight Pieces for Clarinet, Viola and Piano, Op. 83, by Bruch. Once again, Willy Sucre will be bringing in outstanding musicians to perform with him. Joining him this month will be clarinetist Michael Stordahl and pianist Pamela Pyle.

Willy is very well known to Placitas Artists Series concertgoers. He has served as conductor and music director of the Albuquerque Philharmonic Orchestra and assistant conductor of the Canada Symphony Orchestra and the New Mexico Symphony Orchestra. Michael Stordahl is the principal clarinetist of the NMSO. He’s also played with the Santa Fe Symphony and has played numerous summers with the Santa Fe Opera. Pamela Pyle is an award-winning soloist and chamber recitalist and has performed throughout the United States, Europe, and Japan. She is on the music faculty of UNM and is a regular performer at the Aspen Music Festival.

The November concert, which will be sponsored by Spivak Associates, LLC, will be held as always at the Las Placitas Presbyterian Church, six miles east of I-25 on NM 165 (Exit 242). There will be an artists’ reception at the church before the concert beginning at 1:30 p.m. This month’s featured artists are Bobi Chenhall, Peggy Jackson, Diane Walton Reitz, and Shirley Ann Sloop. Please view samples of the artists on the Placitas Artists Series Web page at www.PlacitasArts.org.

Bobi Chenhall is an award-winning artist who works in pastel and mixed media with an emphasis on bold color and a strong sense of design. She finds that her subjects quickly become abstracted and take on a life of their own. Peggy Jackson paints in watercolor, specializing in Southwest and New Mexico historic subjects. She says that her goal in creating a painting is “to analyze the heart of the subject and then to develop the scene with color and tone value that will give the viewers the feeling of being there.” Diane Walton Reitz, who prepares her own pastel paper to make her paintings as large as she wants, is concentrating on the beauty of the landscapes of New Mexico and its history in old buildings. She uses the Maroger technique, which involves layers, and the New Mexico culture and palette of colors in the atmosphere have a great influence on her paintings. Shirley Ann Sloop designs necklaces, earrings, bracelets, and hat bands using beads of semiprecious stones and other materials. She is inspired by her awareness of color, form, texture, and pattern in nature.

Tickets for the concert will be available at the door one hour before the concerts or may be purchased ahead of time at La Bonne Vie Salon and Day Spa in the Homestead Village Shopping Center in Placitas (867-3333). Tickets can also be purchased on-line. The prices for this concert are $15 for general admission and $12 for seniors and students. For additional information and ticket brochures, call 867-8080 or visit the Placitas Artists Series Web site.

Treat yourself to this wonderful concert, as well as the art show, in the acoustically superb Las Placitas Presbyterian Church in the village. Not only will you be seated very close to the musicians but you will enjoy yourself while helping support local New Mexico artists and musicians.

Concerts are partially funded by a grant from New Mexico Arts, a division of the Office of Cultural Affairs. Handicapped access and free child care for children under six are provided.