Folk artists add flair to State Fair as they share talents

Saturday at the fair found folk artists, from blacksmiths to potters, demonstrating how they ply their crafts.

According to Carol Edison, director of the folk arts program for the Utah Arts Council, folk art "embodies our past and shares it with our future." It provides a way to ensure future generations are grounded in their community.

Edison said the fair is a place for artists to showcase their work and for viewers to see art from other cultures.

Two Sudanese men now living in Utah, Dominic Raimondo and Alex Okongo, demonstrated how they make clay figurines of cattle. Cattle in Sudan are a status symbol — the more cattle a person has, the higher the social status.

To help teach children how to take care of cattle, they must start molding figurines, Raimondo said. "If you don't have that foundation, who will pass it on?"

Raimondo and Okongo make the clay cattle in the traditional way. They mold the figures by hand with surprising detail. When the figures have dried, the men put them in a pile of sawdust in a bucket, start it afire and cover the bucket to trap heat. It takes many tries to bake the figurine to the desired hardness.

"It's a long process," Okongo said, one that could take two to three weeks to perfect a bull or cow. The cattle figurines they showcased had various colors of glaze, but Okongo said that in his village of Equatoria Estates, they usually leave it the color of the clay, a vermillion the color of sandstone.

Another artist working with clay was Katherine Poleviyaoma, an Acoma Pueblo Indian. She makes and decorates pots using traditional methods.

"We want to continue what has been given to us by our ancestors," said Poleviyaoma, who hopes to keep the art alive for her descendants.

Using traditional colors of black white and vermillion, she paints using yucca leaves, preparing the leaves in a way passed from generation to generation.

"I chew my own yucca fiber to make a paintbrush," Poleviyaoma said.

She uses nature symbols in her designs.

"Fine lines mean rain," she said. A dot symbolizes a raindrop, and a checkerboard signifies clouds.

Frances Martinez Dee said she also draws inspiration from nature when she makes paper flowers. She said her aunt brought the craft with her from Mexico, and Martinez Dee learned from her. Originally, the flowers were made from corn husks, but lack of available medium dictated they make the flowers from crepe and tissue paper in colors including red, yellow, purple and blue.