OVER SEAS by Gonzalo Espinosa

Art is as much a part of his life as the air he breathes. The art and the artist have become one. Gonzalo Espinosa considers his work as a passage between his life experiences and their translation into his art.

TWO PERFECT SKIES by Espinosa

Espinosa merges the light and energy he witnesses in Arizona with the magical realism he witnessed growing up in Acapulco, Mexico. He considers his images as paths into his world of youth and masked heroes that live in the realm of his imagination and perception. (more…)

Paper Mache head by Matt Cotten

A great opportunity for family fun has arrived again this year with a new mask and giant puppet workshop started September 22 and it is FREE!  The workshop is being held at Splinter Bros. and Sisters Warehouse every Tuesday and Thursday evening from 6:00-9:00 PM.  The address is 901 N. 13^th Ave.

12 ft. Puppet by Matt Cotten

This is a great opportunity for the whole family and individuals to work under professional instruction designing, constructing, and decorating a mask or big head puppet to wear or carry in the 20^th All Souls Procession Sunday, November 8, 2009.

Angela Walker and sculpted bike. Photo by Susan K. Tiss

These workshops will also help people build their own altar, float or bicycle decoration for the procession.  These workshops run from September 22 until November 12^th. (Clean up after the parade) (more…)

“OH MAN, IT’S CRAZY HOT OUT HERE,” Lucas McDonald said gulping water from a gallon plastic jug.

 McDonald was wrapping up a Saturday afternoon standing in the sun by the side of the road waiting for customers to pull over and check out his horseshoe saguaro creations.

Lucas McDonald

McDonald is a roadside art vendor, one of a coterie you’ll see at the side of North Thorneydale or South Silverbell in places where there’s room to set up shop and accommodate turn in traffic.

 McDonald is a novice at the trade, taking it up this summer while visiting from his home in Minnesota, using horseshoes he gets from a blacksmith friend for the pieces he makes that run in the $40 range.

 Mike Stephenson is a veteran.

 For 17 years, he says, “this is what I do,” surveying an array of objects he designs himself and crafts from steel using a plasma arc cutter. Sun symbols are popular and tourists, especially, like the kokopelli figures. 

Mike Stephenson

His repertoire now spans some 300 decorative items ranging from $20 up to the $950 asking price on an elaborate swing set he’s prepared to install at a buyer’s home.

 Over the years he’s traveled to art and craft shows in California, Utah and New Mexico and likes to make an annual trek to a show in Ft. Walton Beach, Florida. Mostly though, he sets up at one of six local spots over the weekend, finding that business tends to be best between about noon and 2 pm.

 It’s been a real slow summer, he explains, “but if I do good today, you won’t see me out here ‘till next week.”

 Terry Paschen is a veteran too, selling his hand made furniture by the roadside as a sideline for the past 11 years. His pieces range from tables and chests to beds, dressers, armoires and grandfather clocks.

Terry Paschen

He was packing up the first afternoon I met him, racing to get out from under a belt of rain headed to his spot on Silverbell on Sunday afternoon. A bust of a day.

Mesquite table by Terry Paschen $650

A couple of weeks later along Thorneydale, Paschen told me he’d gotten a commission for a wet bar in one customer’s home and another had stopped by for a repeat sale.

 That’s the way it goes  by the roadside. You never really know until you just get out there and see what the day will bring.