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A Folk Art Advocate Shares Her Collection

In 1961, Judith Espinar came across a handmade casserole pot at a marketplace in Mexico.  That revelatory pot, which cost her less than $2, inspired a lifetime devotion to folk art -- collecting it, yes, but also championing its traditional artists.  In 2004, Espinar co-founded Santa Fe's annual International Folk Art Market.  Now the International Folk Art Museum in Santa Fe is displaying over 200 works from her collection.  A Gathering of Voicesruns through August.

Judith Espinar was a student in the early 1960s when she found herself "in this field of casserole pots.  The painting was very free-form, the colors fought with each other and had an excitement about them.  I thought, How could it be that I was studying design for five years and I never heard these two words, 'folk art'?  So it was discovering the accessibility of folk art -- that it wasn't intellectual, academic, it's for everyone -- that fascinated me.  And I just went at it."

Judith Espinar describes her approach to collecting in this longer version of the interview.  In particular, she talks about a pivotal work in her collection, a wooden madonna, Our Lady of Sorrows, by New Mexico santero Felix López.  "It's extraordinary in its ability to take you in."

judith_espinar_interview_long_version_final.mp3

Spencer Beckwith reports on the arts for KUNM. For ten years, until March of 2014, Spencer was the producer and host of KUNM's "Performance New Mexico," a weekday morning arts program that included interviews with musicians, writers and performers. Spencer is a graduate of the acting program at the Juilliard School, and, before moving to New Mexico in 2002, was for many years a professional actor based in New York City.
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