Cynthia returned to work today, so I hitched a ride to Santa Fe & went walking around looking at art. On the walk to the plaza, there was a Bataan War Memorial with names of the places where WWII veterans came from. You know the Indians were fighting! Down the block there's another memorial for the Indian fighters at the plaza....you know that sucks & it makes me think of the massacre at Taos Pueblo. It sucks how the land was taken...okay, back to art.
After checking out the indigenous artists from the surrounding pueblos at the Governor's Plaza--another side track--my friend tells me that the Indian artists had to fight to keep their spots at the Plaza. A woman there told me they arrive early at 8 am for a lottery ticket for a spot that's probably only 4' X4' against the one wall... kind of amazing considering all the galleries surrounding it are very upscale...it's like Sausalito in the desert, but bigger... I don't remember it being so big. Santa Fe has changed a lot. It doesn't have the same feel as I remember when I first came out here the first time.
Oh yeah, the ART! Next stop was the Institute of American Indian Arts--lots of contemporary art & I really liked it! The curator had his own show & it's too bad I already ate because they had a huge spread--I only had water, not even a glass of wine. The piece that stood out for me was a beaded mixed media piece with messages like: Drink the water, it's toxic (sorry, my short term memory might have gotten that wrong...) but it was cool to see the Indian beading tradition with messages about how rotten we have treated the earth. I thought it was powerful!
What I loved in the show was: Fritz Scholder: An Intimate Look...here's a link to some of his work below:
http://www.scholder.com/scholder_bio.html
The website is okay, but the show was excellent! I loved his prints & paintings & it made me feel like I really need to start printmaking again... or at least do some more paintings... hey, someone pinch me when I get home so I can get off my FAT...
I next went to the Georgia O'Keefe Museum, which was cool because you can see paintings that are not necessarily published most of the books I've seen. The show there was: Modernists in New Mexico: Works from a Private Collector. Got to see a good John Marin & Stuart Davis, so I guess that was worth it...& best of all--it was a free Friday event...the art patrons started really rolling in after 5pm.
http://www.okeeffemuseum.org/home.aspx
I missed looking closely at the other work I wanted to see which was gourd art work by Robert Rivera & it was astounding... another hit... go to these gallery websites for a peek:
http://www.torresgallery.com/
http://www.toh-atin.com/artist/rivera-robert
Anyways, the area is very developed now, doesn't have the feel it used to, but there's lots of art to see &&& if you miss the native artists at the plaza or at the pueblos, one artist told me they sometimes sell at the gas stations....
