These are works by artisans reflecting the past 232 years of the U.S.A. since its birth as a nation. Admittedly there is a predominance here on the American west, particularly the old west, but I have had my own romance with the American west ever since I first saw those "amber waves of grain" under a peculiarly spacious, turquoise sky on a lonely highway somewhere between western Nebraska and Cheyenne. And there, thirty years ago this month, I was first struck by the "big sky," somehow it just seems higher in the west, giving the illusion that it's bigger and more spacious. And in those 30 years I have seen the forests and woodlands, mountains, rainforest, canyonlands, rangelands, deserts, and the Pacific Ocean; the logging and clearcutting, mining, and irrigation; the dust storms, volcanoes, and earthquakes, and all that points to the vastness and what is beautiful and not so beautiful about the American west.

All sub-galleries of the Artisan Crafts Gallery shine here in a sort of Fanfare for the Common Man with their own particular interpretation of the rugged, distinctly American beauty of items from the past to the present. I have not focused solely on American artists because, in my opinion, that would not be in the spirit of our Independence Day. I chose deviations instead that reflect either a "spirit of the west" or simply the joyful, artistic expression of the everyday life of the individual, the "Common Man."

• Architectural Design



• Culinary Arts




• Custom Dolls






• Fiber Art




• Folding & Papercraft






• Jewelry






• Knotting & Weaving






• Leatherwork








• Metal Work




• Miscellaneous




• Sculpture & Glass






• Textiles






• Woodwork