Living Traditions Craft Demonstrators

The traditional craft artists who participate in Living Traditions are presented under a series of canopies, each with their own workspace, so that they can talk about their work as they show the audience their craftsmanship.  Passed down through generations or learned through apprenticeships, the fine craftmaking demonstrated at Living Traditions represents a continuity in techniques and materials unique to each culture.  Many of the Living Traditions craft demonstrators have won awards for excellence.  The story of how they became interested, how they acquired the skills and where the materials come from is told as each craft artist demonstrates the artform.  Most of the materials used are organic:  fruit, flowers, leather, fiber, clay and so on, and the preparation of the materials is a part of the story as well.

AFRICAN CARTOON AND PAINTING TRADITIONS (New in 2009)
Emmanuel Makonga
Salt Lake City
Friday Canopy E & Sunday Canopy A
Emmanuel Makonga is from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), and one of the many African refugees who have resettled in Utah because of political unrest at home. Emmanuel practices a number of traditional arts from textile work to sculpting and is best known for his work in cartoons and comics, an ethnic artform that reflects contemporary African life and culture. Unfortunately, his cartoons created controversy that ultimately forced him to leave his home country. Emanuel is also an accomplished painter and his watercolors were recently featured at the Art Access gallery in Salt Lake City.

ARMENIAN NEEDLEWORK
Emrazian Family
Salt Lake City
Saturday Canopy E
Born and raised in Aleppo, Syria, sisters Melva Hindoian Emrazian and Rose Hindoian Peterson learned to knit, crochet and make lace using only a needle and thread. After the family came to Utah in the 1960s, they continued to produce clothing and fine household linens for both family and friends. Melva’s daughter, Lena, and her daughter-in-law, Lolita, have both mastered the difficult art of needlelace and their children are now learning this beautiful family tradition.

ARMENIAN HAND KNOTTED CARPETS
George Aposhian, Jr.
Diane Moffat
East Millcreek
Friday, Saturday & Sunday Canopy E
George Aposhian learned to weave rugs from his father, George Sr., and from his grandparents who immigrated to Salt Lake City in the early 1900s. In turn, he has taught his daughter, Diane Moffat, the traditional techniques for stringing a vertical loom and weaving rugs with intricate traditional designs. The family’s rugmaking history began as part of a family business in Syria.

BELARUS WOODCARVING
Nikolay Motro
Salt Lake City
Friday, Saturday & Sunday Canopy D
Nikolay Motro was born and raised in Belarus, a former Soviet Republic, where he made his living as an electrical engineer. He learned to carve wood from a neighbor and became interested in researching the various traditional design motifs found throughout the countryside. He carves faces and figures in both two and three dimensions as well as elaborately carved spoons and picture frames. His work is both precise and extremely graceful.

bobbin laceBOBBIN LACE
Elizabeth Peterson and Alice Dalton
South Jordan and Murray
Friday & Saturday Canopy C
Bobbin lacing requires great patience, coordination, and sometimes hundreds of bobbins to create a piece of lace. During the 19th century women made bobbin lace to generate income. Today lace enthusiasts like Elizabeth Peterson and Alice Dalton of the Beehive Lacers, enjoy bobbin lacing for the artistic challenge. They have studied and mastered a wide variety of styles and techniques, helping to preserve these techniques for future generations.

BRAIDED WOOL RUGS
Barbara Jones
Layton, UT
Friday, Saturday & Sunday Canopy E
Using pre-washed strips of wool, Barbara Jones has been braiding rugs for more than twenty-five years. She learned how to make rugs from her neighbor, Kate, the daughter of a pioneer polygamist, and has developed a real commitment to this tradition. Her beautiful rugs illustrate both talent in color selection and technical abilities.

CENTRAL AMERICAN FOLK JEWELRY
Zulma Arevalo
Salt Lake City
Friday, Saturday & Sunday Canopy E
Zulma Arevalo comes from Costa Rica, where, as a child, her brother taught her to make bracelets out of recycled nylon thread. This folk craft is popular throughout Central and South America where kids teach each other how to create their own names or the names of tourist attractions. In Spanish the jewelry is called pulseras and people wear them on both wrists and ankles. Since coming to Utah five years ago to attend school, Zulma has enjoyed making pulseras using colorful cotton thread.

EUROPEAN-STYLE DECORATED EGGS
Ingrid Hersman
Kearns
Friday, Saturday & Sunday Canopy C
Ingrid has carried on the family tradition of decorating eggs since her childhood in Germany and in recent years has developed a love for the batik-dye method, commonly known as Ukrainian eggs. Ingrid has also researched and mastered European egg decorating traditions from throughout central Europe. These various techniques are not defined by human-made borders, but by the rivers and mountains of the varied regions.

EUROPEAN DECORATIVE PAINTING
Hella and Myron Pope
Sandy
Friday, Saturday & Sunday Canopy A
Decorating furniture and homes with painted flowers and symbols is a tradition found in many northern and central European countries. During her childhood in Germany, Hella learned the traditional skill of decorative painting and later attended European schools specializing in that art form. Her husband , Myron contributes by crafting the wooden objects for Hella’s paintings.

leisHAWAIIAN LEIS AND CRAFTS
The Ohumukini Family
Halau Hula ‘O Keola
Salt Lake City
Friday, Saturday & Sunday Canopy B
Hawaiians keep their culture alive by organizing hula schools, or halaus, where history, culture and the ancient arts of music, dancing, chanting and crafts are taught. Master artist Maurice ‘Keola’ Ohumukini teaches and shares these ancient arts through performances and demonstrations. Using fresh flowers, vines and the kukui nut, members of Keola’s family and hula school braid, twine, and string together exotic materials creating leis that symbolize Hawaiian beauty and hospitality.

JAPANESE BONSAI
Ken Yamane
Salt Lake City
Friday, Saturday & Sunday Canopy A
As a teenager, Ken Yamane remembers watching his father tend bonsai plants at home. When he spent time in Japan in the Air Force and was given a bonsai plant to tend, his interest in this art form blossomed. After retiring from Hill Air Force Base in the late 1980s, Ken spent more time learning and practicing bonsai. Since then he has studied with a recognized bonsai master and has displayed his work at various festivals in Utah.

JAPANESE CALLIGRAPHY
Masami Hayashi
Salt Lake City
Friday & Saturday Canopy A
Using the simple tools of brush and centuries-old writing techniques, Japanese calligraphy incorporates the literal meaning of a symbol with an artist’s personal interpretation of that word or concept. Requiring years of diligent practice japaneseto advance through predetermined stages of accomplishment, Masami began seriously studying and teaching calligraphy in 1979 after living in Japan for two years. In July 2004, he ended his years of formal study, having achieved the highest rank of Dojin from Bokusei-kai of Tokyo, Japan.

JAPANESE ORIGAMI
Judith Iwamoto
Salt Lake City
Friday Canopy A
Judy Iwamoto, a native of Salt Lake City, has always been fascinated by origami artists who take a flat piece of paper and fold it into a three-dimensional item. She bought a book about origami, began teaching herself the craft, and then worked with master artist Ine Takenaka. Judy is one of Utah’s most accomplished and enthusiastic proponents of origami. She shares this art form with others by participating in festivals and working in classrooms, helping others to enjoy creating magic from a simple sheet of paper.

MEXICAN PAPER FLOWERS
Dolores Perez
Frances Martinez Dee
Holladay & West Jordan
Friday, Saturday & Sunday Canopy C
Paper is used in many Mexican crafts from candy-filled papier-mache piñatas, confetti-filled cascarones, design-filled banners called banderolas to colorful flowers like those made by Dolores Perez and her niece, Frances Dee. With family roots in the three hundred year-old Spanish Colonial region of northern New Mexico southern Colorado and influences from the Mexican state of Guadalajara where Dolores’ husband comes from, they create a wide variety of flowers that enliven local parties and fiestas.

NAVAJO BASKET WEAVING (New in 2009)
Anderson Black
Kayla Black
Salt Lake City
Friday, Saturday & Sunday Canopy B
Anderson Black and his niece Kayla are the son and granddaughter of nationally recognized Navajo basket weaver, teacher and innovator, Mary Holiday Black. Growing up in Mary’s home where basketmaking was the central household activity, both Anderson and Kayla helped prepare materials and learned to weave as small children. Traveling to desert streams to help gather willow and then spending hours helping to clean, split, dye and weave the materials, basketry became as much a part of life as eating and sleeping. The Blacks live in Salt Lake and travel back home often to Monument Valley to visit family and gather weaving materials.

ORNAMENTAL BLACKSMITHING
Sergey Sakirkin
Salt Lake City
Saturday & Sunday South of Canopy A
Russian blacksmith Sergey Sakirkin is known for his exquisite, hand-forged metal creations. He learned his art in a Russian blacksmith shop working first as a designer then apprenticing as a blacksmith, ultimately specializing in restoration metalwork. He works at Heritage Forge where he creates custom stairways, railings, gates and furniture as well as delicate candle holders, sconces and wall decorations that are a testimony to his design and fabrication skills.

retablosPERUVIAN RETABLOS
Jeronimo Lozano
Salt Lake City
Saturday & Sunday Canopy B
Retablos represent a very old form of three-dimensional art that combines sculpture and painting to create mythical or historical scenes. Originally created for Catholic Churches to illustrate scenes from the Bible, retablos are still made today in the high mountain region of Ayacucho, Peru, to depict both historical events and scenes from local culture. Jeronimo Lozano creates his retablos figures of flour and plaster, placing them in decorated display boxes with scenes from his Peruvian past or stories of his life in Utah. Jeronimo was named a National Heritage Fellow by the National Endowment for the Arts in 2008.

PUEBLO POTTERY
Katherine Poleviyaoma
Darrell Poleviyaoma
Kearns
Friday, Saturday & Sunday Canopy B
Pueblo Indians of the American Southwest are recognized for their exquisite pottery. Beautiful hand-built pots and small sculpted animals, all painstakingly decorated using traditional dyes and brushes, are examples of this notable artform. Katherine Poleviyaoma imports clay from her Pueblo home, using centuries-old techniques to build and decorate her traditional pottery. Her husband, Darrell, assists in the production with his knowledge of these traditional skills.

RAWHIDE BRAIDING
Max Godfrey Family
Riverside
Friday, Saturday & Sunday Canopy D
Like his father before him, Max Godfrey spends winter evenings braiding rawhide into horse tack-- making reins, bosals and headstalls for those who work on horseback. He takes particular pride in preparing his own rawhide and in testing finished tack on the family ranch before others use it on the range. Max is an accomplished cowboy singer and poet. His artistry is valued by many, including collectors who seek out his rawhide work and his children who carry on the family braiding tradition.

SCANDINAVIAN WEAVING (New in 2009)
Anna Brown and Kirsi Jarvenpaa
Salt Lake City
Friday & Sunday Canopy C
Anna Brown comes from a long line of Swedish weavers. She learned from her mother who grew up in Sweden watching her grandmother work at home and studying weaving in schools and at special classes. Anna has spent many years studying the subtleties of weaving linen, cotton and wool while mastering a variety of traditional designs and patterns. Today she weaves tablecloths, towels, runners, pillows, rugs, upholstery fabric and even hand-woven cloth that she transforms into clothing. Her student, Kirsi Jarvenpaa, comes from Vaasa, Finland and has been in Utah about six years. She, too, spent years watching her grandmother weave. When Kirsi told her grandmother she was going to learn to weave her grandmother said, "Why would you want to do that, it is such hard work?"

SCOTTISH TARTAN WEAVING
Anne Carroll Gilmour and Lindsay Holt
Park City
Sunday Canopy E
A Scottish tartan is one of the most difficult patterns to weave, and Utah is home to one of America’s finest tartan weavers, Anne Carroll Gilmour. Her family moved from Nova Scotia to the United States, creating the opportunity for Anne, as a young girl, to learn Scottish weaving techniques from master weaver Norman Kennedy. Her passion for this beautiful art form is shared by her daughter, Lindsay Holt, who works alongside her mother weaving beautiful traditional textiles.

SUDANESE CLAY BULLS
Salt Lake DiDinga Community
Salt Lake City
Friday, Saturday & Sunday Canopy A
Ongoing warfare in southern Sudan has orphaned thousands of young men from various southern Sudanese tribes. Better known as ‘Lost Boys,’ they have relocated throughout the US including here in Utah. Dominic Raimondo, Alex Okonga and their friends are members of the DiDinga tribe, a cattle-raising culture. Before they were old enough to take herds out to graze, they learned about cattle culture through play, by making toy bulls from clay and singing songs about bulls. Today they sculpt bulls to remember who they are and to perpetuate their Sudanese heritage.

SUDANESE BEADWORK (New in 2009)
Raele Toma
Salt Lake City
Saturday Canopy A
Raele Toma comes from South Sudan and is a member of the Kakwa Tribe. She grew up handmaking collars, jewelry, bags and other small items. Many of her creations are constructed or decorated with beautiful beadwork, a traditional form of folk art that is particularly strong among the Sudanese. Raele came to Utah with her family about five years ago. She is a member of the Kakwa Union USA, a performing group that specializes in traditional Sudanese singing, dancing and drumming.

thaiTHAI ART OF CARVING AND PAINTING
Amronrat Antczak
Midvale
Friday Canopy E & Sunday Canopy D
Amronrat was born in Bangkok, Thailand and moved to Utah in 1996. When she was just 15 years old, she entered an art school that specialized in the ancient art of traditional Thai painting. Years later, she used some of the same skills to master the art of carving fruits and vegetables into flowers and other designs. Today she uses soap as well as fruit to create carvings that last. Amronrat enjoys working with unusual materials to create captivating visual effects while preserving a beautiful part of her own cultural heritage.

TIBETAN RUGWEAVING
Sok-Choekore Family
Kearns
Saturday & Sunday Canopy E
Carpet making has always been an important Tibetan art form where large carpets are used for flooring and smaller ones provide seat cushions and pillows. Karma Sok-Choekore learned to weave pile carpets in a Tibetan refugee camp in Nepal after his family fled from Tibet in 1959. He immigrated to Salt Lake in 1992 and was later joined by his wife Sonam, also a carpet weaver, and their four sons. Today the boys are learning the skills and designs of carpet weaving as a way to maintain ties to a homeland they have never experienced.

TONGAN WOOD & BONE CARVING
Tonga Uaisele
Salt Lake City
Friday & Saturday Canopy D
Tonga began working with wood over forty years ago when he carved toy pistols for his sons from a coconut palm tree. Having discovered the joy of making something with his own hands, he tried working with harder woods and his work soon evolved into replicas of sea life and representations of deity. Recognized among local Tongans as a master carver, Tonga was recently commissioned to create an altarpiece for the Tongan United Methodist Church in West Valley, dedicated in a ceremony attended by King Taufa'ahau Tupou IV of Tonga.

TURKISH CROCHETING
Hulya Kablan
Meryem Ozoglu
Salt Lake City
Saturday & Sunday Canopy C
Turkish artists Hulya Kablan and Meryem Ozoglu recently immigrated to Utah with their husbands who came here for teaching jobs. They practice many Turkish traditions and skills that go back generations including traditional crocheting, or dantel. In Turkey, from the time a woman marries she begins to make a dowry of beautifully decorated textiles for her daughters’ wedding while simultaneously teaching her daughter to crochet. Hulya and Nagihan plan to continue this tradition by teaching their own daughters these beautiful crocheted designs.

WOODWORKING
Ray Kartchner
Sandy
Friday, Saturday & Sunday Canopy D
Ray Kartchner took a night class in woodcarving and fell in love with its soothing qualities and its power to take one’s mind into a different place. He enjoys using a variety of both power and hand tools to capture whatever image or object might be embodied in a specific piece of wood. Ray often carves animals, including a variety of imaginary dragons enjoyed by his grandchildren, elaborate walking canes topped with figures and decorative designs and spoons with intricately carved Celtic-knot motifs.