Page 48 - the NOISE October 2015

428 •• oOcCtToObBeErR2015 •• ththeeNOIISEarrttss&newss •• thenoiise..us
ARTSBRIEFS:
RAVENS OF WILLIAMS
The City of Williams is hosting their fourth annual Alpine Harvest Festival this October. With activities all across the city — from the Grand Canyon Railway to Bearizona — everyone will have a chance to experience the coming of autumn with the creative people of Williams.
The Gallery in Williams is celebrating ravens, those mystical birds of mischief that have captured human imagination for thousands of years. Sculptors, painters, photographers, quilters, potters and jewelers — more than twenty artists will be contributing pieces for the Raven Show.
Photographer Amy Martin is showing her best raven photographs and hand- pressed block prints. She is deeply connected to Northern Arizona and she always returns no matter how far abroad she travels.
“I’ve left and I’ve lived in different places, but I always dream about this area and I always come back,” Ms. Martin says.
A former Peace Corps volunteer, Ms.
Martin has worked in the Dominican
Republic, Kenya and Uganda. “I’m very much into social justice and humanitarian work,” she says. “What I concentrate on is working with girls and women, and education and empowerment.”
A biologist by trade, Ms. Martin spends her time equally between photography and her science work in Grand Canyon and the Colorado Plateau, where she works as a water resources technician, monitoring water quality, hydrology work and aquatic biology. She has also worked with native and endangered fish species at Grand Canyon and Utah, focusing on conservation, monitoring and reintroduction.
As an artist, she started off in a variety of media, from paint and charcoal to pen and ink drawings. But with her scientific work, she found it was impossible to find the time to keep the art in her life. That is why she turned to photography. “Basically, you’re creating art instantly,” she says. “And so that just totally sold me on it.”
“I love ravens. Working in Grand Canyon, they’re the most amazing companion while you’re down there,” she says. “They’re so mischievous, they’re so beautiful. They’re always there one step ahead of you.”
Owners Tom and Kris Williams of the Gallery in Williams will display Ravens in their own media. They have been married for 17 years and have lived in Williams for nearly a decade. Together, the husband and wife collaborate on almost every piece of art they produce.
Mr. Williams is a blacksmith and metal sculptor. His three life-size steel ravens are the stars of the show and together they represent up to 700 hours of work.
Ms. Williams is a former teacher and metal sculptor with spring and wire-mounted ravens perched throughout the gallery.
The Gallery in Williams was the only art gallery in the city when they opened in 2011. Since then, other galleries have also opened. They started the Raven Show to coincide with the Alpine Harvest Festival, since so many of their artists are also preoccupied with ravens.
“Ravens are highly intelligent and are misunderstood,” Mr. Williams says. “If you befriend a raven it will let all of the other ravens know. But if you make a raven an enemy you have made an enemy of all of the ravens and they believe in revenge.”
The Alpine Harvest Festival also includes a scarecrow contest, sponsored by the Williams-Grand Canyon Chamber of Commerce, in which local businesses build their own scarecrows. The Gallery in Williams has won the contest for the past three years, with raven-crow-related themes, such as Vincent van Crow, Scary Potter and Edgar Allan Crow. Representing the Gallery this year is Crow-Magnon Man, surrounded by a style of cave art and, of course, ravens.
“Visitors viewing scarecrows can be entered in a drawing for a fall gift basket,” Ms. Williams says.
From now until October 10, the Williams Alliance for the Arts is sponsoring the first ever COW Drive (City of Williams) art tour event. Local businesses are showing pieces of cow art at their locations. All proceeds from the silent auction at 15 locations will fund art classes for local kids. Visitors who view at least ten of the cows can enter for a
$100 cash drawing.
The Grand Canyon Railway is also sponsoring The Pumpkin Patch Train, which will carry passengers to a “secret”
pumpkin patch, where children will be allowed to select their own pumpkins. alpineharvestfestival.com, thegalleryinwilliams.com
CELEBRACIONES DE LA GENTE
The Museum of Northern Arizona is hosting the 12th Annual Celebraciones de la Gente. On October 24 and 25, from 9AM to 5PM, visitors can celebrate a lively Day of the Dead festival in the Mexican tradition.
The Museum of Northern Arizona is teaming up with Nuestras Raíces, a local grassroots organization of Flagstaff’s Hispanic pioneer families from the 1900s, dedicated to promoting Mexican, Mexican-American and Hispanic culture. musnaz.org, 928/774-5213
MUSICAL HAPPENINGS
The Grand Canyon Guitar Society kicks off the 2015-16 concert season this month. All concerts will be held at Shepherd of the Hill Church, 1601 N San Francisco Street. Six concerts will take place between October 2015 and April 2016. Tales of India on Saturday, October 9 Features award-winning guitarists Johannes Moller and Debasish