Although Colorado isn’t technically the Southwest, it holds a lot of similarities to those states. There are cowboys, open land, desert climates, cattle, horses, wild terrain, native americans and a whole host of other parallels that bring to mind olden days of cowboys riding in to rough towns, driving cattle across the desert, buffalo grazing on plains and native people surviving and thriving in great number.
The picture I am painting comes to life in art each year during the Colorado Indian Market and Southwest Art Show. This year at the Denver Mart, 130 or so painters, metal workers, musicians, jewelers, potters, weavers, photographers and other artists came for a long weekend to sell their wares. Not only art, but the weekend was full of performances from Inka Gold, two brothers from Ecuador who play the guitar and pan flute, the Ehectatl Aztec and Bearsheart Hoop dancers, and even Grammy Award winning songwriter Michael Martin Murphey. A full sized teepee was set up, live birds of prey were on display, and food, including Navajo fry bread, was enjoyed by those attending.
