The year’s activities at Starr Interiors

by Susan­na Starr

Begin­ning a new year always gives us the chance to look at the past one. Ours at Starr Inte­ri­ors was a spe­cial one. We cel­e­brat­ed, all year long, our 40th anniver­sary. Where did the time go? Rather than try­ing to recon­struct the decades, our book com­mem­o­rat­ing the jour­ney was pub­lished and is now being dis­trib­uted. Reviews are still com­ing in and you’ll find the lat­est one below. I think it says it all.

There were a num­ber of events includ­ing the book sign­ing that took place in May at Starr Inte­ri­ors, in June at Moby Dick­ens in Taos and in Novem­ber at Barnes & Noble in Albu­querque NM. There were also mag­a­zine arti­cles and news­pa­per fea­ture sto­ries. All in all it was def­i­nite­ly a cel­e­bra­to­ry year.

Book signing and photo show room
Book sign­ing and pho­to show room

Many thanks are due to Leah Sobol for her job as gallery direc­tor. If every­one were to feel about their work as she does the world would be a bet­ter place. In addi­tion to her strong sense of respon­si­bil­i­ty and com­mit­ment, she main­tains the high­est stan­dard of keep­ing the gallery main­tained to pro­vide the kind of ele­gant pre­sen­ta­tion the rugs deserve. Not only is her abil­i­ty as a man­ag­er always in evi­dence, but her heart involve­ment is as well. She is there to make sure every­thing runs smooth­ly, helps clients with their needs and pro­vides indi­vid­ual con­sul­ta­tions to ensure that client’s unique needs are specif­i­cal­ly met. We are for­tu­nate indeed that our team includes her impor­tant and ongo­ing con­tri­bu­tion and concern.

Front cover
Front cov­er

Thanks to Susan Mont­gomery for the won­der­ful review of our new book, Our Inter­wo­ven Lives with the Zapotec Weavers: an Odyssey of the Heart . The review is pub­lished in entire­ty below. Susan’s web­site can be seen here.

 

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Two Cultures, One Spirit:  A Book Review

by Susan Montgomery

Our Inter­wo­ven Lives with the Zapotec Weavers is beau­ti­ful mem­oir of lives and fam­i­lies from com­plete­ly dif­fer­ent cul­tures that have inter­twined and enriched each oth­er for sev­er­al decades. The dif­fer­ences and par­al­lels are elo­quent­ly expressed by author, Susan­na Starr, and pho­tog­ra­ph­er, John Lamkin.

Susan­na writes about her life as an artist and gallery own­er in Taos, New Mex­i­co, but she pri­mar­i­ly focus­es on her deep con­nec­tions with Zapotec weavers in the small vil­lage of Teoti­t­lan del Valle locat­ed about 20 miles from the city of Oax­a­ca in the foothills of the Sier­ra Juarez moun­tains in Mex­i­co. The Zapotec peo­ple are the descen­dants of an ancient civ­i­liza­tion that is indige­nous to the Oax­a­ca region. In this remote vil­lage, many gen­er­a­tions of fam­i­lies have been pro­duc­ing intri­cate­ly designed, hand-woven rugs that are unique to their cre­ators and their locale. Their mate­ri­als come from the world they live in with wool pro­duced by local sheep and yarn made local­ly with dyed, vivid pig­ments. Each rug is a work of art, reflect­ing both tra­di­tion­al and more mod­ern, inno­v­a­tive designs.

After nav­i­gat­ing moun­tain­ous dirt roads to find this vil­lage in the 1970s, Susan­na Starr was so entranced with the weav­ing com­mu­ni­ty she found that she kept going back and even estab­lished her own sec­ond home in the area. She devel­oped a mutu­al­ly ben­e­fi­cial busi­ness rela­tion­ship with the Zapotec weavers, pur­chas­ing their rugs and tak­ing them back to Taos to sell in her shop. But her rela­tion­ship with the weavers became much more than business.

Susan­na shared in their lives as their fam­i­lies grew and adapt­ed to chang­ing times. The book is rough­ly divid­ed into her rela­tion­ships with three gen­er­a­tions of weavers—the par­ents (now grand­par­ents) who are about Susanna’s age, their chil­dren who grad­u­al­ly took over the weav­ing busi­ness from their par­ents, and now the grand­chil­dren, some of whom are becom­ing tal­ent­ed weavers them­selves and oth­ers who are spread­ing their wings as they pur­sue edu­ca­tion and careers.  But the beau­ty of this sto­ry is the close­ness of these fam­i­lies, because wher­ev­er these chil­dren go they retain the cul­tur­al val­ues and tra­di­tions of their com­mu­ni­ty. In spir­it and soul, they will always be part of their Zapotec vil­lage.  Through­out the book, Susan­na dis­cuss­es her own fam­i­ly and the dif­fer­ences and sim­i­lar­i­ties she sees as her chil­dren, like the Zapotec chil­dren, grow and move into adulthood. 

In many ways, this is a trav­el book because the read­er is trans­port­ed to a small Mex­i­can vil­lage and soon feels immersed in this warm and col­or­ful com­mu­ni­ty. It is a book about place, fam­i­ly, cul­ture, tra­di­tions, and hope for the future. We are intro­duced to mul­ti­ple gen­er­a­tions in sev­er­al fam­i­lies and we fin­ish the book feel­ing as if we know them and would love to meet them too.

John Lamkin’s col­or­ful, per­cep­tive pho­tos bring Susanna’s sto­ries visu­al­ly alive. We are able to not only see the beau­ti­ful rugs but to study the fas­ci­nat­ing faces of the weavers and their fam­i­lies as they grow up and grow old­er, cel­e­brat­ing both dai­ly life and the many tra­di­tion­al fes­ti­vals that are so much a part of their culture.

This is a book you will want to read and think about over time. It is a book that will be at home on your cof­fee table or on your bed­side night stand.  I know I would like to share this book with my fam­i­ly and friends, not only because of its unique sto­ry about cre­at­ing art through gen­er­a­tions but because it tells a sto­ry of how we are all more alike than we are dif­fer­ent, about how the spir­it in peo­ple can tran­scend cul­tures and gen­er­a­tions, and about how our cul­tur­al val­ues make us who we are.  It is so appro­pri­ate that the sub­ti­tle of this book is “An Odyssey of the Heart.”

This book can be pur­chased for approx­i­mate­ly $20 in paper­back or $30 hard­bound from Ama­zon or ordered from Cyn­thia at Palo­ma Blan­ca Press (PalomaBlanca.Cynthia@gmail.com). It is also avail­able through your local book­stores or any oth­er online bookstores.

Susan­na Starr is an entre­pre­neur, pho­tog­ra­ph­er, speak­er, artist, and own­er of Starr Inte­ri­ors in Taos.  She is also own­er, design­er and direc­tor of the acclaimed design­er weav­ing col­lec­tion, “Line of the Spir­it,” whose found­ing and devel­op­ment is described in her book.  Susanna’s arti­cles have appeared in many pub­li­ca­tions and she is a mem­ber of the Inter­na­tion­al Food, Wine & Trav­el Writ­ers Asso­ci­a­tion. Her web­site is www.SusannaStarr.com.

John Lamkin is an award-win­ning jour­nal­ist and pho­tog­ra­ph­er who is also based in Taos. He is a con­tribut­ing writer and pho­tog­ra­ph­er for many pub­li­ca­tions and a board mem­ber of the Inter­na­tion­al Food, Wine & Trav­el Writ­ers Asso­ci­a­tion. His web­site is www.TravelWritingAndPhotography.com.

Pho­tographs by John Lamkin.