About a year ago the editor of Metalsmith reached out about doing an article on pewter. There seemed to be an uptick in the creative use of this metal. It sounded like a fun project so I agreed to write an article. I did research, I asked around, I networked. Many talented people were generous with their time. I also did a ton of historical research. At the end of the day I had to cut over half of it out and we still went over the proscribed word count. But I am happy with what remained as a snapshot of this metal and the contemporary attitudes that surround it.
Everybody's Bolos in the news
I have been so pleased at the reception of this exhibition which I co-curated with Brian Fleetwood and Hannah Toussaint. Ashley Callahan wrote a lovely article about the Everybody’s Bolos exhibition that made the cover of Ornament magazine. I also had the pleasure of working with Veronika Muráriková who created a colorful overview of the show for Current Obsession. We even got picked as ‘Required Reading’ for Hyperallergic! The show is up through May 10th at UNT. After that, you will have to wait until January 2025 to see it at the Fuller Craft Museum in Brockton, Massachusetts or July 2025 where the work will be for sale at Hecho a Mano in Santa Fe, New Mexico..
Photograph by Dasha Wright
Invitation to Everybody’s Bolos exhibition and symposium with qr code to register for symposium
Everybody's Bolos
In the fall of 2021, post-baccalaureate student Hannah Reynoso Toussaint approached me about making a series of bolo ties. They were the objects that her non-binary partner most enjoyed wearing. I suggested she do some research and when she was unable to locate much information, I went looking myself. I was surprised to find very little information on the subject. The best resource by far is an exhibition catalog by the Heard Museum written by Diana Pardue and Norman Sandfield entitled “Native American Bolo Ties: Vintage and Contemporary Artistry.”
But there was nothing out there about its adoption by the queer and non-binary communities. Respected museums with established fashion and jewelry collections had few bolo ties if they were located outside the southwestern United States. The field of art jewelry has put out books on chatelaines and tiaras, but no bolo ties.
This bothered me and bothered me until I decided that this gap needed to be addressed. I reached back out to Hannah and asked if she would be interested in working on a bolo tie project. She said she would. Then I reached out to Brian Fleetwood who teaches at the Institute for American Indian Arts and with whom I served on a committee for SNAG. He was interested. So the three of us got together on a video conference and formulated a plan to have an exhibition of bolo ties with accompanying catalog. We each invited ten artists and contributed bolo ties as well. The three of us provided essays on different aspects of the bolo tie.
I was fortunate to receive a University of North Texas (UNT) Institute for the Advancement of the Arts Fellowship which gave me a semester to focus on this project as well as funds for professional photography of the bolos and publication of a catalog. Additional funding has been supplied through the generosity of the UNT Libraries, The Bohlin Company and Deedie Rose. The UNT Art Gallery had an unanticipated availability this spring, which we were able to secure. We wanted the show to leave the Southwest and were able to make an agreement with the Fuller Craft Museum to have the show travel there in 2025. To help the participants sell their work, the final exhibtion will be at a commercial gallery, Hecho a Mano, in Santa Fe, New Mexico in the summer of 2025.
With an exhibition and catalog, the next step in my mind was a symposium. This would provide an opportunity to bring in more voices and perspectives. I was able to secure a College of Visual Arts and Design Flagship Grant to support a one day symposium. Brian, Hannah and I brainstormed about speakers and put together a very diverse and interesting lineup. Eventually, the recordings will be loaded into the UNT Library Digital Collection.
This is the speaker lineup:
Ana M. Lopez: Welcome and Introduction
Norman Sandfield: Bola to Bolo
Brian Fleetwood: Meaning Making
Hannah Toussaint: Reimagining the Bolo
Jessica Metcalfe: More than Just a Trend
Sulo Bee: Coloring Outside the Lines: Queer Fashion and the Genderless Bolo
Annette Becker: West Dressed - Fashion Inspired by the American Frontier
You can register for the symposium here.
Ana M. Lopez, 2023, Pneumatic Trailer Bolo with Seedpod Plumb Bobs
sterling silver, napa leather, 18 x 3.5 x .75”
photo credit: Dasha Wright
Art for Everyone
i am very grateful to Heidi Grew and the rest of the faculty at Chemeketa Community College for including my work in their art appreciation textbook, Art for Everyone. This is the just-released revised edition published by Oxford Press.
