SHE USES ZIPLOC bags these days and he uses Exacto knives. They live in America now.
But even if the tools of their crafts have been westernized and modernized, Vaishali Ogale and William Lee keep their traditional folk arts alive, the way they learned to do them in the countries they left behind.This weekend, Ogale and Lee will be among two dozen Utah craftspeople who will demonstrate their skills at Salt Lake City's Living Traditions Festival. It's the festival's 10th year, which puts it squarely in the realm of a tradition itself now.
In that decade, as the size and variety of Utah's ethnic communities have grown, Living Traditions has grown, too. The little festival that started on a rainy, blowy weekend in 1985 at Pioneer Trail State Park has since moved down
to the heart of the city, drawing more than 30,000 people.
Living Traditions is sort of the county fair of cultural diversity: full of the crafts and sounds and foods of everyday people. This year there are two dozen craft booths, from Armenian carpets to Washoe Paiute drums, 20 food booths and nearly 50 performing groups.
Vaishali Ogale will demonstrate Mehendi, an Indian body painting worn by brides on their wedding day. The process is so elaborate that it will take Ogale four or five hours to paint just one pair of hands.
Ogale lives in West Jordan now, in a new house still without lawn, at the edge of a subdivision that may look as different from her hometown of Bombay as a place can look.
In India, she says, most brides - and their mothers, bridesmaids and aunts - still have their hands and feet painted for weddings, as they have for the past 400 years.
When Ogale herself was married 18 months ago in Bombay, the design on her palms included a groom riding atop an elephant, as grooms did long ago - although Ogale's groom, Pushkar, actually arrived at their wedding in the Indian version of a Geo Metro.
Mehendi is full of intricate designs using a green concoction of powdered leaves, curd, tea and lime. Now that she is in America, Ogale squeezes the concoction out of a Ziploc bag she has fashioned into a pastry cone. When the entire design is completed, she then tops it with sugar so it will stick; after about 12 hours the sugar and green frosting are removed, leaving a red design on the skin, something like a temporary tatoo.
William Lee's art is more permanent, but no less intricate. His traditional Chinese paper cutting - done with sharp knife blades on a single piece of paper - require patience, a steady hand and the ability to create interlocking designs.
Lee was able to fashion more detailed paper art when he lived in Taiwan, where an artist could easily find the necessary tiny blades and could have them sharpened. Since moving to Utah 16 years ago, Lee has had to rely on Exacto knives, and now uses construction paper instead of rice paper.
Chinese paper cutting started on the Chinese mainland, in the days when windows were made of paper. You couldn't wash the windows on special occasions, but you could decorate them with paper designs, which gradually became more and more elaborate. Like these early designs, Lee's use simple themes: pandas, fishermen, flowers.
Lee is an engineer who has always preferred being an artist. In college, 20 years ago, he won prizes for his traditional Chinese painting. He took up paper cutting when his mother, who is also an artist, asked him for help designing patterns.
These days, paper cutting is popular in Taiwan, but in those days it was a vanishing folk art. Lee and his mother have helped revive interest in it in Taiwan, and now Lee is keeping the tradition alive in Utah.
He will demonstrate the craft, along with Chinese watercolor, at the Living Traditions Festival on Saturday, May 20, from noon to 6 p.m. Vaishali Ogale will demonstrate Mehendi on Sunday, May 21, 1 to 7 p.m.
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ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
Festival hours
The 10th annual Living Traditions Festival opens at 5 p.m. Friday, May 19, on the grounds of the Salt Lake City-County Building, 450 S. 200 East. The festival continues Saturday, May 20, from noon to 10 p.m. and Sunday, May 21, from noon to 7.
Friday's special guests are Prince Eyango et Les Montagnards D'Afrique, performing music and dance from the West African nation of Cameroon. The festival also features Utah performers - ranging from black gospel choirs to polka music and contemporary Hispanic dance music - plus two dozen crafts and 20 types of ethnic foods.