The Weems Artfest, in November, is billed as New Mexico's number one arts and crafts festival; a three-day event, the Artfest shows the works of approximately 260 artisans from around the world.
Mary Ann Weems set tongues wagging when she opened her first establishment, mixing fine art with crafts and offering art at more affordable prices than many other galleries. Weems Galleries, whose original site in Eastdale opened more than two decades ago, was followed up with a second location in Old Town 18 years ago. Her philosophy has always been to keep art affordable so that everyone’s lives can be enriched by it.
If Mary Ann Weems’ two galleries weren’t enough to cement her reputation as an arts advocate in Albuquerque, Weems also organized the first Weems Artfest 28 years ago, to capture the holiday sales market for art fairs. This annual event, now known as the Weems International Artfest, held inside the New Mexico State Fair Ground, brings together artists, shoppers, children and charities, and has attracted many celebrity artists including Sophia Loren and the late Anthony Quinn.
This was my first time attending the Weems Artfest, but I wouldn’t actually be attending in the same sense of that word. Walkin in Circles Ranch Horse Rescue was invited to host a booth at the event because of one of our volunteer’s connections with the Weems Artfest. We were all thrilled because of the opportunity to get the word out about the horse rescue as well as the potential to raise more money for the care of the equines, too.
I was signed up to volunteer on Sunday and was very excited to see our beautiful booth set up, created mostly by Christine, who is also a very talented jewelry maker. The only things we would have changed is if we could have covered up the children’s art banner and could have been closer to the front of the room. Quite a few people would look down the row of booths to where our booth was, and see the children’s art banner and become confused and not even bother to walk down and check us out.
I think we had a very festive booth, though.
We were in a room filled with similar charities, mostly animal related, but a few were non-profit art associations, too. The other thing we would have changed is to bring a ambassador from the horse rescue. All of the other animal non-profits had beautiful animals that people could get up close and personal with….which usually led to more donations and sales. Next year, we are planning on bringing a mini-horse with us, with a saddle bag to hold donations, like these Great Pyrenees’ dogs had.
We did have some cool raffle ticket items, like two mini-horse size stuffed ponies and a beautiful necklace/earrings set handmade by my friend Christine. We also had gift baskets for sale that volunteers donated, along with t-shirts, note cards, posters, and framed photos. Like the photo of Pintura, the lovely Paso Fino mare that Jem and I hand-stamped and decorated for the Parade of Painted Ponies fundraiser during the Hug a Horse event last summer.
Because I did some volunteer work for Hawk Watch International many years ago, I was thrilled to be surrounded by stately hawks and beautiful owls (and fidgety crow) in our corner of the room. I took lots of photos, but only a few turned out due to the quick movements of the raptors and the poor lighting.
A few organizations were doing cat and dog adoptions all weekend, too, including The Animal Humane Association and the City of Albuquerque Animal Welfare Department.
Prairie Dog Pals was there, too. My kidlets and I were involved with Jane Goodall’s organization, Roots and Shoots. We were members of the Rio Grande Roots and Shoots a few years ago and we signed up with Prairie Dog pals as a service project, visiting locations around Albuquerque delivering hay, fruits and vegetables to the little prairie dog towns, land-locked by neighborhoods, highways and traffic. It was a lot of fun and we loved being able to hand-feed many of the tamer prairie dogs. Prairie Dog Pals brought a couple ambassadors the day I was there, but when I went back over with my camera at the end of the day, it was their naptime.
I was also excited to see that Wolf Spirit Sanctuary was among the non-profits who had a booth, because I had first met the Executive Director, Leyton Cougar about 9 years ago when he did a presentation at the Petroglyph Monument just west of Albuquerque. We sat in a circle around he and his handsome, black wolf, Raven while Leyton shared information about wolves and his amazing sanctuary (which includes a campground where visitors are invited to fall asleep to the sounds of wolves howling right outside their tents!) While we were sitting down, I was very surprised and amazed when Raven slowly walked over to my twinling son Jem, and gently touched his nose to my son’s nose! It was a moment I will never forget. Wolf Spirit has a special place in my heart, that’s for sure.
Leyton’s wife brought her special wolf, but he was napping for much of the afternoon.
They had a really terrific booth set-up, though. Lots of hands-on educational stuff and wonderful merchandise to purchase.
If I lived closer I would be an active volunteer. Check out Leyton Cougar's personal website ~ Wolf Daddy. He is a very interesting and unique individual and the wolves are lucky to have him to be their voice.
During my lunch break I managed to do a quick stroll around part of the Art Fest building and saw some really beautiful items….collected a few brochures and business cards to make some future purchases, too!
I loved these gorgeous Spirit Dolls made with bones.
Who doesn’t like Doreman Burns?
My favorite piece, for obvious reasons, ironically called “Double Trouble” haha!
He and his talented artist wife Sheri Burns both call New Mexico home and live about 45 minutes away from me, in the charming Village of Corrales.
I fell in love with this piece by Marjie Bassler. It will go perfectly right above my fireplace! And I had to laugh when I realized why her whimsical, colorful artwork seemed so familiar! I had already seen Marjie’s work before, because she had donated one of her beautiful pieces called Miraculous Horses to Walkin in Circles Ranch Horse Rescue so we could have posters made to sell to help raise money for the horses.
All in all it was a pretty good weekend. I enjoyed meeting lots of new people and spreading the word about Walkin in Circles Ranch Horse Rescue. My big deed of the day was when I was able to get one couple so interested in the plight of some of the horses at WNCR, that they were motivated to make a much appreciated donation of $100!
At the end of the weekend, I think we raised about $2,000 for the horses rescue, which will help feed and care for the 60 equines and maintain the ranch for about….a month. So, we’re always looking for more fundraising opportunities and generous donations. (hint-hint)
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Note: I hope all of my favorite blogger buddies will be stopping by when I upload my next post…….because I’ve got very BIG news to share….and a contest, too!
