More Arts

• Despite violence, Iraqi art gallery perseveres
• Actress embraces soul of the controversial Rachel Corrie
• Albuquerque theaters welcome five plays spanning dramatic spectrum

MOST RECENT TRIB STORIES

• ABQTrib.com to remain available
  08:48 a.m., February 25, 2008
• Congressman is indicted
  08:37 a.m., February 23, 2008
• Series of attacks target Green Zone
  08:36 a.m., February 23, 2008
• Iran is defying U.N., agency says
  08:35 a.m., February 23, 2008
• Waterboarding approval probed
  08:34 a.m., February 23, 2008

TRIB IN THE BLOGOSPHERE*

• Ty Murray Invitational thrills fans in Albuquerque
• Is Rome Burning?
• Ominous Skies
• The Road to Invalidation
• Albuquerque company participates in “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition”

*Note: The Tribune does not create and is not responsible for the blogosphere's headlines and stories. These links to blogs talking about ABQTrib.com are automatically generated. Use them at your own risk.

STORY TOOLS

• E-mail story
• Comments
• iPod friendly
• Printer friendly

SHARE THIS STORY [?]

One look at Corky Frausto's vividly painted South Valley scenes, and you know he's got it right.

It's not difficult to imagine yourself ordering the bean and chili burrito special at the window of "Kathy's Carry Out" or hosing off your ride at the "Jesus Loves You Car Wash."

Frausto's style could not be confused with photo realism, but his settings, spirit and atmosphere are dead on. You figure he's a South Valley native.

Wrong.

Frausto, 52, has lived in Albuquerque just 19 years - 13 of them in the South Valley. He grew up in Eagle Pass, Texas, a border town southwest of San Antonio. He moved to the Duke City when his social work job in Austin ran out.

"I was looking for something new and kind of threw a dart at the map, and it landed near Albuquerque," Frausto said during a phone interview this week.

Still, he feels very much at home in his South Valley neighborhood.

"It's very similar to the small towns I grew up in in Texas," he said. "This is a lot like home with the pigs and the geese and the horses in the yard. That's like my grandparents' house in south Texas."

Frausto feels comfortable enough in his surroundings to have opened his South Valley house and yard to a folk art and music festival the past few years.

CorkFest, as it is called, marks its fourth anniversary Saturday.

Twenty-six artists and crafters will set up their booths in the shade of elm trees and along the adobe and wood walls that trace Frausto's property.

On the north side of his house there will be meat cooking on a grill and a table of food. And outside his back door is where seven bands will perform their sets. There's a space there for people who want to dance.

CorkFest is descended from Yard Fest, a festival artist Steve White used to stage at his Albuquerque home so artists and crafters, most of whom are not represented in galleries, could show and sell their work in a free and friendly atmosphere.

CorkFest succeeded Yard Fest when White moved to Georgia several years ago. White is back, but CorkFest goes on. In fact, White is one of the artists who will be there Saturday.

Frausto figures 200 to 300 people attend CorkFest. A lot of them walk through his house, which, with the exception of a few rooms, is open to the public so people can see art displayed in there.

It's all very communal. Admission is free, musicians donate their time, and people bring food to share.

Entertainment varies, whether the one-man-band Daddy Long Loin or actor Jeff Hudson's Front Seat Theater. Hudson performs a brief play in the front seat of his car for audiences of however many people can fit in the car's back seat.

The art and the crafts for sale also vary widely, whether Goldie Garcia's bottle cap creations or Frausto's dead-on South Valley paintings.

"I did a painting of a ditch bank recently," he said. "Someone saw it and said he needed a painting like it because the ditch looked like the one by his grandmother. Maybe it is the one by his grandmother."