New Mexico Arts runs a Folk Arts Apprenticeship Program that pairs masters in a particular art form with apprentices so that a wide variety of arts unique to New Mexico can be passed on. In this episode of Encounter Culture, host Emily Withnall chats with bootmakers Jes Márquez and Deana McGuffin about their experience with the Apprenticeship Program and the wonderful challenge of making beautiful cowboy boots.
“It was a personal drive. … I’m watching at the finisher. How is the heel being sanded? How are you holding it in your lap? The insole; how are you using a knife?” says Márquez, who apprenticed with master bootmaker McGuffin. “I took a lot of photos and a lot of video, and I went home and spent a lot of time crying, and a lot of time trying, and a lot of time saying, ‘I quit! I’m never doing this again’ while I’m doing it. … But there’s something so magical and superhero power about enduring the frustration of making a cowboy boot.”
“I was very impressed when I really started to get to know Jes because she’d already made, what? Twenty pairs of boots or so—before we ever started working together and she figured out how to make a one-piece wrap around top, and I’ve never made one of those. I’ve never even figured out how to do that,” says McGuffin. “She’s an incredible pattern maker and I thought, well, if she can do that, she can learn to, you know, take what she knows and what she sees—and with what I can teach her, she’ll be an incredible boot maker.”
Mentioned in this Episode:
New Mexico Arts Folk Arts Apprenticeship Program
Jes Márquez Instagram profile
Jes Márquez website
New Mexico Arts Art in Public Places
Zozobra event in Santa Fe
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Encounter Culture, a production of the New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs, is produced and edited by Andrea Klunder at The Creative Impostor Studios.
Hosted by Emily Withnall, editor at El Palacio Magazine
Executive Producer: Daniel Zillmann
Technical Director & Post-Production Audio: Edwin R. Ruiz
Recording Engineer: Collin Ungerleider and Kabby at Kabby Sound Studios in Santa Fe
Editor & Production Manager: Alex Riegler
Associate Producer & Editor: Monica Braine (Assiniboine/Lakota)
Theme Music: D’Santi Nava
Instagram: @newmexicanculture and @elpalaciomagazine