Ocotillos & Javelinas

By Joanna Keane Lopez

Big Bend

October 20, 2015

On our way to Big Bend State Park, we rode the highway through El Paso, Texas. The Rio Grande acts as the physical boundary line between El Paso and Juarez, Mexico. In Arenosa campground, where we are camped, the Rio Grande roars past. The sound of the water thrashing is audible all throughout the day and through the night.

The river is large and alive here. I think to myself how I know the Rio Grande intimately in my own way because I grew up in Albuquerque, where it also runs past. I’ve been to the river so many times throughout my life but I haven’t seen it the way it flows here. In Albuquerque, it is wide, shallow and quiet. There is something holistic about experiencing the rio farther down south. Across the Rio Grande at our campground, the boundary line of Mexican soil is visible.

         

The animals I’ve seen here include javelinas, a red snake, a preying mantis, walking stick insects, butterflies and ravens. Everywhere are ocotillos, a kind of tree-like cactus. Even though it is late fall, the evening stays warm all throughout the night.

Night Weave

By Joanna Keane Lopez

Turkey Creek/Gila

October 19, 2015

Being in the Gila Wilderness was really beautiful. There was so much life along the river. The first day there I saw javelinas running across the trail at sunset. At night I could hear them walking around my tent, along with other creatures like deer and skunks. We worked and learned from local artisan, Orien Macdonald to learn about local natural materials and the art of basketry. We harvested and processed willow whips from the banks of the river to make our own individual baskets and then as a group we collectively created a four-foot olla. The last day in the Gila we carried out a collaborative performance where we carried the olla to the river and wove it in and out of the water to a site on the bank where we planted it into the ground to root and regrow.

Local ecologist Carol Fugagli explained to us the importance of “wild rivers” and how their natural rhythm of flooding is elemental to creating habitat and the health of a riparian system. She explained to us how rivers are living organisms and how they need room to swell and contract. This is how they breathe. The Gila River is the last undammed river in New Mexico. Currently there is a proposal to divert and dam it in order to provide drinking and irrigation water to the surrounding communities and counties. One thing in particular that Carol mentioned, that has especially stayed with me is that we as humans have a moral obligation to allow the right of other creatures their own evolutionary process. This includes allowing rivers to remain wild and undammed.

Gila River Collaborative

Gila River Collaborative
By Clark Frauenglass & Joanna Keane Lopez
October 15, 2015

For the past week, the Gila Wilderness has been home to Land Arts of the American West, a collaborative group of artists coming together to explore the environment and work with natural materials in response to the proposed diversion of the Gila River, the last un-dammed river of New Mexico. Land Arts of the American West is a semester long place-based art & ecology program through the University of New Mexico. As a group we have created a four-foot tall woven olla, traditionally a clay vessel for holding water, made of willow whips that we collectively gathered along the banks of the Gila River.

Since arriving in Gila, we have been learning from local artisan, Orien Macdonald. Orien has shared his knowledge of local materials and basketry with us. Under his instruction, we have harvested and processed willow, sotol and yucca from the surrounding area. With the materials we spent a day learning to weave our own individual baskets.

Local ecologist, Carol Fugagli, paid a visit to our camp and took us on a hike up the watershed. Carol shared her knowledge of the flooding cycles of a healthy river system, and the many endangered species that take refuge in the Gila Wilderness.

Our collaborative project, the olla, was built in stages with groups of four artists coming together to weave each successive panel. Once completed we carried the woven olla to the river where it was passed from hand to hand and dipped in and out of the river in a weaving motion, allowing the water to fill the basket and escape through the gaps in the woven walls.

The olla traveled from one artist’s hand to another down the river to a site on the bank. The olla was then planted along the bank in an act of renewal. As the willow whips take root and continue to grow, the olla will reconnect to the riparian ecosystem creating new habitat and paying homage to the vibrant wild communities and traditions that depend on the health of the Gila River.

Big Moon & Ponderosas

By Joanna Keane Lopez

Valle Vidal

September 30, 2015

Valle Vidal is very beautiful. It is located in Northern New Mexico in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. There are a lot of ponderosa pine trees, wild rose hips, high grasses and a creek that runs through the meadow where most of our group is camped. I’ve seen a bald eagle flying in the sky, a hawk screeching while in flight, a squirrel, a small snake, little fish in the creek and a lone cow. 

On the second night, I saw this huge moon rising on the horizon. Later there was a full lunar eclipse that we watched together in the grasses.

Here, at Valle Vidal, I focused on collecting thistle fiber for papermaking, embroidery and a collaborative project with Harriet Fawcett. We are doing a stop motion/documentary that has an environmental take on the classic La Llorona story. 

The Navajo Nation & Environmental Terrorism

By Joanna Keane Lopez

Four Corners

September 30, 2015

My experience with the Four Corner Resource Extraction site was very powerful and influential. We stayed with Dr. Larry Emerson, Diné, on the Navajo Nation near Ship Rock, New Mexico in an area called Tse eaa k’aan. We traveled to different resource extraction sites with Diné activist, Anna Rondon of old uranium mines, coal mining and active fracking areas on the Navajo Nation.  We also went to Monument Valley and a place called Dinosaur Tracks near Tuba City. I got this Pocahontas plate there. I find it to be really bewitching, somber & eerie.

At Monument Valley, there was a gift shop. The “selling out” of Native American imagery and culture was very palpable. I came across this scene of the “Native American Wisdom” book next to the cash register and I felt this summed up the atmosphere of the place.

At a coal mining facility on the Rez were these strange pop art 50’s propaganda signs everywhere. They were all of white men pointing at the viewer (most of the mine workers are Navajo/Diné) in a disciplinarian posture advocating for safety.

Fiber, Paper, Embroidery, Thread

By Joanna Keane Lopez

El Vado

September 30, 2015

During my time in El Vado, I focused on sewing self portraits with black thread, embroidering colcha designs and continuing on my collection of plant fiber for paper making. I found fields of milkweed that were giving off whitish silvery fluff. I collected a couple bags of the fiber and I plan on using a recipe I have in Albuquerque to make paper that I will incorporate into a larger project.

Place, Culture, Folklore & Language

By Joanna Keane Lopez

Cebolla Canyon

September 6, 2015

Cebolla Canyon is an incredible place of historical cultural intersections and landscape. Up the mountain from where we set up camp is an ancient indigenous village. The stone ruins of the home structures are still visible. Pottery shards are everywhere. While I was up there a friend of mine found an ancient flute and arrowheads.

I also went to the springs which was about 3 miles southeast of camp. At the springs, there were abandoned and eroding settlements made of stones and adobe. Broken glass and porcelain were strewn all around the dilapidating structures. I found many small treasures including a small porcelain doll foot.

Today, the last day of our time here before returning to Albuquerque, I went to the petroglyphs that are northeast of camp.  Human figures, animals, spirals and geometrical shapes were carved into the stone. Near the petroglyphs, is a grave site. A slab of grey stone with a cross carved into it lays quietly surrounded by high grass.

While in Cebolla Canyon, I focused on collecting fiber material from black sage to make paper and documenting the plant through drawings and sensorial touch. I also worked on a stop motion with Harriet Fawcett that we titled, The Crying Woman. The stop motion is inspired by the story of La Llorona and an English folktale from Harriet’s childhood. We are working with materials found from the various Land Arts sites to create the film. I also want to include contemporary environmental and political dialogue into the storyline.

While in Cebolla Canyon, I re-realized how important language, culture, identity and place is to me. I’m fascinated by the story, history and folklore of names. Place name, plant names and names in general. I’m engaged in the historic use of plants including their edible, medicinal, fiber, dye, building and beautification properties and how it relates to regional folklore and utterance.