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Fall 2010 / Winter 2011
Features
48
Fritz Scholder in Galisteo
As his fame grew, the controversial Native artist lived the paradox of a double life, asserting and denying the Indian identity he questioned. By Keiko Ohnuma | Photos by Peter Ogilvie
56
Brad Cloepfil, Critical Regionalist
Architectureâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s rising star refuses categorization, letting each space and its needs dictate a response through the sensibilities of a college boy from Oregon. Art lovers are listening. By David Dâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Arcy
66
The Land Still Speaks
The artists of tiny, endangered Jemez Pueblo are using creativity to unearth the secrets of a buried culture. By Nancy Zimmerman | Photos by Kerry Sherck
76
Usonia, New Mexico Style
Frank Lloyd Wright designed only two homes in New Mexico, but they demonstrate the breadth of his influence. By Keiko Ohnuma and David Prince | Photos by Kate Russell
KATE RUSSELL
CONTENTS
TA M M Y G A R C I A The River Delivers Bronze 47"h x 18"w x 18"d (with base)
B LU E R A I N GALLE RY Santa Fe, New Mexico www.blueraingallery.com 505.954.9902
Departments 22 FROM THE EDITOR; FROM THE PUBLISHER
24 CONTRIBUTORS 28 FLASH
A classic car show comes to Santa Fe; SITE Santa Fe’s new director; the Paolo Soleri; guitarist Ryan McGarvey makes his debut
34 Q&A
Albuquerque Museum curator Andrew Connors looks for a Duke City art scene. BY KATHRYN M DAVIS PHOTOS BY PETER OGILVIE
121
42 ALBUQUERQUE LIVING
Founders of The Collector’s Guide take living with art to the next level. BY WESLEY PULKKA PHOTOS BY PETER OGILVIE
THE ART OF FILM
A New Mexican setting lends unique strengths to independent film. BY AMBYR DAVIS
90 CONSCIOUS BUILDING
Serendipity was the architect of a home blending Asian and Southwest influences. BY GUSSIE FAUNTLEROY PHOTOS BY KERRY SHERCK
96 ARTIST STUDIO
Portrait painter Jack Smith; glass blower Flo Perkins BY KEIKO OHNUMA PHOTOS BY BILL STENGEL
100 WINE/DINE
Agave drinks take root in the desert. BY BILL NEVINS
TRENDSOURCE
109
Fashion Fusion Southwest architecture meets local clothing design. PHOTOS BY KATE RUSSELL
123 Profiles in Design
The best in contemporary Santa Fe design PHOTOS BY KATE RUSSELL
144 END QUOTE 98
About the cover: Indigo men’s knit by Katherine Maxwell, wrist bands and buckles by Cody Sanderson; ice princess gown with open sleeves by Katherine Maxwell, silver armband by Cody Sanderson PHOTO BY KATE RUSSELL
The Mediterranean by artist Flo Perkins CORRECTION: A sculpture pictured in “A Road Like No Other,” an article about Canyon Road in the Spring 2010 issue, was misidentified. Lunar Pulse, at the Karan Ruhlen Gallery, was made by Sally Hepler. Trend regrets the error.
FROM TOP: KATE RUSSELL; ADDISON DOTY
86
Markinson residence, Santa Fe
KENTWILLIAMS EKLEKTIKOS |
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From the EDITOR
Beyond Trendy
L
ocal, green, organic—as well-intentioned as these slogans may be, they have become just that, slogans that only promote new consumption. In this issue of Trend, we go a little deeper to consider what it genuinely means to be local and organic in architecture and design—something beyond the choice of earth-toned palettes. America’s master architect, Frank Lloyd Wright, conceived of local and organic much as the Zen masters do: design based on harmony with the environment, wherever that might be (page 76). Wright advocated the ecological notion that well-being depends on integration with the environment, so he riffed on nature in his use of space, light, water, building materials, even shapes and colors. As animals and plants thrive in specific climate zones, he argued, so do humans thrive by responding best to the best around us—nature. Swinging to the contemporary end of the organic spectrum, David D’Arcy considers the controversial, brilliant architect Brad Cloepfil (page 56), who defines regionalism against its contemporary opposite: not European excess (as in Wright’s day), but the flattening effect of globalization, which turns everything uniquely local into just another choice of style. It’s no wonder that both of these architects underline their origins as American, since America has been the epicenter of both democratization and globalization. There is a trap, however, in trying to distinguish between organic as slogan and as a genuine practice, and it has to do with local tradition. Art forms that have developed indigenously nowadays get reduced by the needs of tourism marketing into kitschy stereotypes that end up being part of the same global shopping mall. Former Trend editor Nancy Zimmerman reminds us that a truly local, organic art is a practice focused on understanding—not image management—and it proceeds from close observation to careful thought and a creative response. At Jemez Pueblo, she finds Native artists practicing art as part of a living tradition searching for its own roots (page 66). To underline our point, we introduce in this issue a different kind of fashion feature, representing myriad creative responses to the meeting point of culture, body, and our arid environment. Clothing, jewelry, houses, artwork—there are as many ways to respond to our Southwest home as we can imagine. May these help you to find yours. Keiko Ohnuma Editor
From the PUBLISHER
Doing What You Love and Buying What You Love
I
choose to live near and work in Santa Fe, Albuquerque, and Taos because I love it! I love the independent business owners who are striving to bring the very best choices in unique art and design. I love the artists, musicians, architects, and craftspeople who dig deep into their souls to reflect creativity and innovation. I love the weather, even when it is raining and snowing. I know you are reading this magazine because you have some connection to these places. With the time I am given, I strive to bring you in-depth focus on these special places I call home, adding to your knowledge of what’s available to enhance your own journey. It’s time to support the communities you love so they can prosper and continue to bring you unparalleled choices in the best imaginable. Buy what you love—be it artwork, design services, or personal accessories. Help invest in these communities so we can grow and thrive. Please tell our advertisers when you visit that you were inspired to do so by Trend, as it will help us continue to bring you this excellent magazine. I hope you enjoy our expansion into lifestyle. Trend has always been about the meeting point of art and design; we have added a section to keep you up to date on what’s happening in local fashion too. Thank you for your appreciation of this magazine. Cynthia Canyon Publisher 22 Trend » Fall 2010/Winter 2011 trendmagazineglobal.com
CONTRIBUTORS
Bill Stengel shoots assignments regularly for American Art Collector and Western Art Collector magazines, Bad Dog Design, and the Northern New Mexico Connect annual report. After graduating from Pratt Institute with a BFA in photography, Stengel fled the East Coast for Santa Fe. When not attached to some manner of digital device, he is chasing his one-year-old daughter.
Rima Krisst is a writer, photographer, and producer. As owner of Rocket Productions, Santa Fe, she books, promotes, and handles publicity for musicians of varied genres and cultures. She is also head of publicity and development for Santa Fe Bandstand, the award-winning summer-long music festival held on the Santa Fe Plaza. She has worked as director of PR and communications for Indian Affairs for the state of New Mexico and is extremely knowledgeable about the issues that concern our Native American communities, regularly visiting local tribes.
Bill Nevins came to Albuquerque from Philadelphia in 1996. He has no plans to leave. He writes about music, film, culture, beverages, and travel for AlbuquerqueARTS, Z Magazine, Local iQ, RootsWorld, and other magazines. He teaches composition and creative writing for the University of New Mexico, and he’s made films, including Committing Poetry and the recent Breakin’ Blue Burque Brew, a parody of the hit TV show Breaking Bad.
April Reese is a freelance writer and disc jockey based in Santa Fe. Her stories and essays on environmental issues, science, music, and travel have appeared in a variety of publications, including The New York Times, Land Letter, Greenwire, High Country News, New Mexico Business Weekly, and Backpacker magazine. When the sun goes down, she segues into disc jockey mode, spinning tunes on KBAC 98.1 Radio Free Santa Fe. Reese holds a master’s degree in environmental studies from Yale University and undergraduate degrees in English and geography from Frostburg State University in Maryland. R
24 Trend » Fall 2010/Winter 2011 trendmagazineglobal.com
FROM TOP: BILL STENGEL; DEON DANLEY JAMES; DRU NADLER; COURTESY OF BILL NEVINS; PETER WEISS
Photographer Kerry Sherck recently moved to Santa Fe from the New York City metropolitan area after falling in love with the desert landscape. She began working as a photojournalist in southern Connecticut in 1999, during which time she covered a wide variety of assignments and people, from presidential visits to the everyday lives of immigrant laborers. Her work style includes documentary, fine art, portraits, and interiors.
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Manufactured and printed in the United States. Copyright 2010 by Trend, LLC. All rights reserved. No part of Trend may be reproduced in any form without prior written consent from the publisher. For reprint information, please call 505-988-5007 or send an e-mail to perform@santafetrend.com. Trend (circulation 35,000) is published two times in 2010, with Spring/Summer and Fall/Winter issues. To subscribe, send $15.99 for one year to Trend, P.O. Box 1951, Santa Fe, NM 87504-1951. Direct editorial inquiries to editor@trendmagazine global.com. Trend, P.O. Box 1951, Santa Fe, NM 87504-1951 (505) 988-5007
26 Trend » Fall 2010/Winter 2011 trendmagazineglobal.com
LUXX HOT E L
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FLASH n e w s , g o s s i p , a n d i n n u e n d o f r o m a r t / d e s i g n / a r c h i t e c t u r e
Start Your Engines
S
rounds out the judging trio—with a promise to bring one of the designer’s scores of precious cars. Automotive stars will include the Wisconsin Special, a 1954 OSCA driven to victory by Moss, a Mercedes 300 SL Gullwing—along with a 1923 Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost, a 1933 Bentley Drophead Coupe, a 1925 three-wheeler Morgan Motorcar, and their modern equivalents, as befits the theme “Then and Now.” Local car clubs are invited to bring dozens more “second-tier” cars, the kind the organizers themselves own. Entry cars, by contrast, are valued at $100,000 to $1 million, and are usually transported by trailer—though they must be drivable to enter. That’s part of the beauty of the antique car, the historic magic of its mechanics. It is also why, in another sense, “cars are not like art,” McCluggage says of the experience of investors who jumped in a few decades ago and drove up prices, taking many rare vehicles out of circulation. “They’re living creatures. They have to be fed and driven, or the value goes down. So they discovered that cars are not the ideal investment.” When the Asian markets collapsed in the 1990s, she says, a lot of those same cars came back home. McCluggage, who is senior contributing editor at AutoWeek and still passionate about cars at age 83, shatters little-old-lady stereotypes as well as speed records (she topped out at 180 mph) when describing the thrill of racing. “It has to do with being in the center of something more powerful than you are, that could bite you! And there are all kinds of vectors meeting,” she marvels. “It’s the sense of being in control, knowing that you are on the edge.” The thrill is kinesthetic, she says, just as in skiing and sailing. Having been firmly behind the steering wheel since age four with nary a crash, McCluggage offers that for this little old lady, “there’s still nothing like getting crossed up in a Midget on a dirt track.” Concorso attendees will have an abundance of non-automotive events to choose from that weekend, too, including the annual Santa Fe Wine and Chile Fiesta—a week of tours, tastings, demos, and restaurant events—and the Design Santa Fe Pop-Up Boutique, featuring furnishings, creative finery, and wearable art at the Jay Etkin Gallery at the Railyard. The Pop-Up Boutique is open Friday, September 24, through Sunday, October 3, with a “design crawl” on September 28–29, a self-guided tour of designer homes October 1–2, a luncheon October 1, and a gala closing party October 2. The full schedule of events is available from designsantafe.org. Racing legend Denise McCluggage, top, will be one of the judges at the first Santa Fe Concorso, an exhibition of one-of-a-kind automobiles at La Mesita equestrian ranch. —Keiko Ohnuma 28 Trend » Fall 2010/Winter 2011 trendmagazineglobal.com
COURTESY OF CONCORSO (2)
erious car lovers describe their passion as fine art—not only because of the beauty of rare old vehicles, but because they are showcases for the art of engineering. “It’s moving sculpture,” says Denise McCluggage, journalist, race car driver, and automotive legend. So it should come as no surprise that car enthusiasts, like art lovers, are ready to put Santa Fe on the serious collector’s calendar. A group of local car aficionados is rolling out a grand event in September that has been years in the making. The Santa Fe Concorso aims to become a car show to rival the top three: Amelia Island, in Florida, and the Quail and Pebble Beach, on California’s Monterey Peninsula. And like the organizers of the SOFA art exhibit last year, they are counting on the atmospheric appeal of Santa Fe as an intriguing backdrop to show off, ogle, and talk about rare, exotic cars. “We’re aiming for quality the first time,” explains organizer Dennis Little, a former lead designer at Cadillac. Only 60 cars have been invited for judging at Pojoaque Pueblo’s exclusive La Mesita equestrian ranch, where the cars will find a rare oasis of greenery to frame their curves and chrome. The three-day event, September 24–26, will include a party Friday night, a tour of the cars along the High Road to Taos on Saturday, and judging (or concorso, a Spanish twist on the usual concours) on Sunday. Exhibitions of horsemanship and vintage motorcycles are also planned. General admission starts at $45, to set a high tone. “This is a very high-end event,” says organizer Paul Kalenian, adding that he hopes to turn the show into a car auction next year. “You dress nicely; a lot of the cars are works of art.” For star power, legendary Formula 1 race car driver Sir Stirling Moss is coming from England to serve as lead judge, recruited by his friend McCluggage. Ralph Lauren automobile curator Mark Reinwald
Handcrafted INTE R IORS The perfect touch for every surface
One Degree of Separation: Irene Hofmann to Helm SITE Santa Fe
LAKAY
T
he cities of Baltimore and Santa Fe have more in common than you might imagine, given their differences: a population of nearly three million in the former, versus about 150,000 in the entire county of Santa Fe; a major seaport versus lonesome mountain country; John Waters, The Wire, and The Corner as opposed to . . . er, Indian Market? Baltimore has a good half dozen major art schools; the College of Santa Fe, the only local BFA program outside the Institute of American Indian Arts, just barely survived a recent financial scandal. When it comes to art, however, both cities struggle to keep emerging artists in their communities. Baltimore is more likely to lose new grads due to the lack of a collector base; for Santa Fe, it’s the high cost of living and low wages. And as serendipity would have it, Laureate Education, which helped save the College of Santa Fe, is based in Baltimore—as is Irene Hofmann, SITE’s new Phillips director and chief curator. Hofmann leaves Baltimore’s Contemporary Museum in much better shape than she found it five years ago, when she came on as executive director. She said she feels an affinity with SITE already, because the mission at both organizations is similar: to be “a lab, a place of experimentation where the artists enjoy a sense of freedom and excitement.” At the Contemporary, she’s shown work that has nowhere else to show. “We’re scrappy, ambitious beyond our twenty-five hundred square feet,” she says, adding that SITE obviously offers “a bigger platform, a larger scale” than her current staff of three—counting Hofmann herself. Her MO can be described with a single word: collaboration. The summer exhibition Bearing Witness, a mid-career retrospective of works by husband-and-wife team Bradley Irene Hofmann McCallum and Jacqueline Tarry, partnered the Contemporary with seven other local venues. Before Baltimore, Hofmann did a stint at the Orange County Museum of Art (OCMA) in Newport Beach, California, where she developed Orange Lounge—a trendy space in a shopping mall dedicated to video, sound, and new-media art. Before that, she spent time at the esteemed Cranbrook Art Museum. Exhibitions on her résumé include Cell Phone: Art and the Mobile Phone at the Contemporary in 2007; Girls’ Night Out, a national touring exhibition that she developed for OCMA in 2006; and Weird Science: A Conflation of Art and Science at the Cranbrook in 1999. As for her new job, starting October 1, Hofmann says she’ll sit down one-on-one with staff members and ask for a wish list. Now is the time to start fresh, she feels, to take advantage of her arrival and move the institution forward. “The next step is already on my mind: What kinds of exhibitions and programs do I want to put in place immediately?” She has a half dozen artists in mind, but for the immediate present there are a couple of initiatives she wants to put in place. “One focuses on helping to further the careers of exceptional Santa Fe–based artists,” she says. “It’s very creative, and right now I can’t reveal the details, but it’s going to be really good!” Around mid-September, Hofmann and her partner, Max Protetch, and her Bernese mountain dog, Hannah, will head westward. When she learned that Santa Fe is a real “dog town,” Hofmann was enthusiastic. “I love how you meet people outside of your social circle when you walk your dog,” she says. Maybe a collaboration with the dog park is in SITE Santa Fe’s exhibition future? —Kathryn M Davis trendmagazineglobal.com Fall 2010/Winter 2011 » Trend
29
505.986.1551 info @ k r i s l a j e s k i e d es ign . com www.k r i s l a j e s k i e d e s i gn .com
FLASH n e w s , g o s s i p , a n d i n n u e n d o f r o m a r t / d e s i g n / a r c h i t e c t u r e
I
It’s 30 minutes before showtime, and Lyle Lovett’s crew is eating dinner backstage at the Paolo Soleri Amphitheater before what may be the final concert held here. As the men clean their plates, a drop of water falls from the ceiling onto the table, just missing a half-eaten brownie. Soon the drops become a slow, steady drip. “This place does need a lot of work,” says one crew member, looking up at the leaking ceiling, which has taken on the mottled hues of an abstract watercolor painting. The cracks in the ceiling are just one of many infrastructure problems contributing to the 44-year-old amphitheater’s $4.5 million maintenance backlog. The Paolo Soleri Amphitheater, an intimate, 2,900-seat outdoor venue on the Santa Fe Indian School campus known for its unusual half-dome shell, may be a one-of-akind mecca to concert-goers, but to school administrators it’s a financial burden the school can no longer afford to maintain. “At this point, we pretty much have closed the amphitheater,” says Jessie Medina, the school’s chief financial officer, who oversees the building. “There are a lot of things that need to be addressed— plumbing, sewage, wastewater—and it’s not compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act. We want to make sure it’s a safe facility.”
Even Lyle Lovett, who has played the amphitheater more times than any other artist and says it “truly is a wonderful-feeling theater to play,” has noticed its state of disrepair. “It would be quite an endeavor to save the Paolo Soleri, to spend the money to renovate it—it would be a huge project,” he says, sitting in his tour bus after what may well be his last show there. The rent the school receives from concerts like Lovett’s, which bring in about
Santana kicks out the jams at the Paolo Soleri in August 1998. Top: Eliza Gilkyson performs in 1991.
30 Trend » Fall 2010/Winter 2011 trendmagazineglobal.com
$10,000 per show, is not enough to keep up with maintenance costs, Medina says. The school itself uses the venue only twice a year, for graduation ceremonies. And some concerts, such as the Damian Marley show June 2, 2010, attract concertgoers who violate the campus’s drug-free policy and may negatively influence students, Medina adds. The school underwent an extensive makeover and reconfiguration in the past two years that put new dormitories near the amphitheater. Initially, school officials and the All Indian Pueblo Council, which oversees the school, had planned to demolish the amphitheater. However, music fans, former students, and others who value the significance of the venue began a campaign to save it. (See the Facebook group Save the Santa Fe Indian School Paolo Soleri.) Even Paolo Soleri himself, now 91, has expressed his dismay at its loss. But in the end it was the offer of assistance from New Mexico’s two senators, Democrats Jeff Bingaman and Tom Udall, that convinced the school and its board to keep the amphitheater standing. “Hopefully we can meet with them and see what we can do together,” Medina says. Federal funding is far from assured at this point. “It’s not looking very likely to start the process now and get it into the spending bill for 2011,” says Jude McCartin, a spokeswoman for Bingaman, referring to the annual congressional budget cycle. “We’re still in the process of figuring out how we can help and whether our help is wanted.” Under a series of federal laws and court cases dating to the 1800s, the federal government has “a duty to protect” Indian nations, as well as general oversight of Indian property, resource management, social services, and other concerns, although the tribes themselves are sovereign nations. In their July letter to school administrators and the council, the senators were careful to note that the final decision on the venue’s fate rests with school officials.
LISA LAW (2)
Paolo Soleri Amphitheater Faces Uncertain Future
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Young Albuquerque Guitarist Takes World Stage Just 23, Albuquerque guitarist Ryan McGarvey beat more than 4,000 bands worldwide to win the Ernie Ball Play Crossroads contest this year for a chance to play at Eric Clapton’s Crossroads Guitar Festival in Chicago in June. The one-day concert put him on stage with Clapton and friends, including Steve Winwood, Jeff Beck, B.B. King, Buddy Guy, ZZ Top, and others. The Albuquerque native recalls picking his first tune on a guitar at age six or seven. He never studied music formally, but learned to play at home from his father on a steady diet of classic rock and blues. His playing style ranges from delta slide playing to hard rock and soul; he also writes and sings. Trend spoke with the guitar phenom not long after his performance in Chicago, which has brought new attention to his debut album, Forward in Reverse, from 2007. “Dream big and shoot for the stars,” he advises other young musicians. “You never know what all can be attainable by your own hard work and perseverance.”
RK: How has the experience changed your life so far? RM: It’s been very surreal. It was a huge notch in our belt and musical résumé. I got to be in the presence of, and acknowledged as an equal by, some of the greatest musicians I can name. Since then it’s helped seal up some really incredible endorsements and line things up in the future that are just fantastic as well. RK: If you had to pick highlights from the festival, what would they be? RM: Getting to stand with Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, Vince Gill, Jonny Lang, John Mayer, and such an endless list of great musicians all in one room is definitely huge for me—particularly standing with Clapton. Meeting Jeff Beck was an incredible achievement. Our set we played was great. We had an amazing crowd and sound system that just rocked. Another Crossroadsrelated highlight would be at the pre-party the night before at the House of Blues in Chicago, when I was asked to sit in with Los Lobos. It was totally unexpected and fun. RK: Did the Crossroads players ever perform together as a group? What did it feel like to be among such rock royalty? RM: There was one point when I looked around, and there were so many top guitar players and just overall musicians in the one room, it almost felt unreal. Artists had their families and friends with them just hanging out having drinks, eating, and playing games. It was just something that you almost couldn’t really imagine. RK: Who are your biggest influences and inspirations, as a guitarist and as a singer songwriter? RM: My friend Joe Bonamassa has definitely been a big inspiration to me. I grew up listening to contemporary blues-rock artists like Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Ian Moore, Chris Duarte—that and the obvious classic hard-rock idols like Beck, [Jimmy] Page, SRV [Stevie Ray Vaughan], and Hendrix. Currently there are so many incredible guitarists. Of course there are phenomenal guitarists like Eric Johnson and Robben Ford that I always come back around to listening to also. Writing can come from anywhere, and the inspiration or style of the song can come from anywhere as well. As singers I have always admired Dan Dyer from Austin. My other good friend Ian Moore has been one of my favorite singers as well, and Paul Rodgers from Bad Company. I think B.B. King still is one of the most powerful and just all-around great vocalists of all time. RK: What’s next in your career? RM: I’m in talks with all sorts of people about everything you can name. I just signed to a new management, and we are really working on getting things rolling in bigger and better ways. Honestly, I can’t wait to see where and what will have happened within the next ten years. —Rima Krisst
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“We would like to offer our assistance in preserving the future of the amphitheater should you decide that is the appropriate course,” the senators wrote. Seen by many as an architectural treasure, the Paolo Soleri Amphitheater was the vision of artist and educator Lloyd Kiva New, president of the Institute of American Indian Arts when it inhabited the site. In 1964, two years after IAIA opened, he commissioned Italian architect Soleri to design the venue. Soleri built the open-air theater from mostly natural materials, enlisting the students to create a showcase for Native American art and theater. Later, after the Santa Fe Indian School took over the amphitheater, it began renting it out for concerts. Local promoter Jamie Lenfesty, who has brought many shows to the amphitheater over the years, including Santana, Jethro Tull, Lucinda Williams, Michael Franti and Spearhead, and others, says he recognizes the practicality of closing the venue, but remains hopeful that it can be saved. “Funding should come from outside,” he says. Medina maintains that administrators are looking into the possibility that the school might be able to find uses for the amphitheater that more closely integrate it into the life of the school. He says a plan just completed for a resurrected Paolo Soleri that would add a rain cover and other improvements would bring the venue up to code and make it more inviting for visitors. The plan adds about $400,000 to the original $4.5 million renovation estimate. He doesn’t rule out concerts at the amphitheater in the future. But if live music shows do continue, the school would have to have a say in which acts are booked, he says. Meanwhile, some in the community have suggested that building a new Paolo Soleri Amphitheater elsewhere in Santa Fe might make the most sense. As deliberations continue, Lovett says he respects the school’s right to decide its fate. “It’s a wonderful venue, but there truly are some things beyond our control. So what will be, will be.” —April Reese
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Q&A
BY KATHRYN M DAVIS | PHOTOS BY PETER OGILVIE
For Locals Only When it comes to art scenes, Albuquerque boasts more than one—and the freedom to function outside the tourism market Trend sat down in the paper-cluttered office of one of Albuquerque’s cultural movers and shakers: Andrew Connors, curator of art at the Albuquerque Museum. During the winter and spring of 2009–10, the museum exhibited Albuquerque Now, Connors’s survey of works by the city’s top contemporary artists. Having practiced as an art historian in the Duke City since he arrived fresh from the Smithsonian Institution in 1999, Connors serves as our go-to guy when it comes to art in New Mexico’s largest city.
KD: Who comes to mind when I ask you to name—off the top of your head—some of Albuquerque’s foremost artists practicing today? AC: I’m afraid I won’t be coming up with many surprises. Joel-Peter Witkin, Patrick Nagatani, Antoine Predock, Jaune Quickto-See Smith, Judy Chicago. There are so many terrific artists in this city, which is exactly why we had to include 161 artists in Albuquerque Now, because I couldn’t narrow it down. It’s politically a hot potato as to where I draw the line. Others who are lesser known but so fascinating are Tom Barrow, the retired University of New Mexico professor of photography; he’s a real intellect in the community. Recently arrived is Jack Ox; she’s a professor at UNM in arts and 34
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technology. Jack has been doing things for years in a synesthetic mode, creating visual responses to music. She did a visual response to a Kurt Schwitters poem that he wrote without words. Jack created visual analogues to the sounds, and did a performance at the university with a female vocalist performing the poem while Ox’s images were flashed on the screen. That leads to the whole interdisciplinary arena of arts and technology, and what they’re doing is so smart, so interesting, and so complex that I can’t wrap my head around it all. That, to me, is intriguing. KD: I notice that the first two you listed as foremost contemporary artists are photographers. UNM has a great reputation for its
photography department—is it pure coincidence that you mention this medium first? AC: Actually, to tell you the truth, I think the weakest medium for my comprehension is photography. Maybe I’m so daunted by it, and what it is that photographers and photographic curators are doing, that it simply intimidates me into awe. Witkin, for example, makes classical compositions. His work speaks volumes about using traditional forms of art—Renaissance composition, Baroque drama, chiaroscuro—and incorporating them into photography that Albuquerque Museum curator Andrew Connors stands on the roof of the museum, designed by architect Antoine Predock in the late 1970s and renovated by the Albuquerque architectural firm Rohde May Keller McNamara in 2005.
is in no way retard à terre; it doesn’t look backward. How can you not celebrate something like that? They are just beautifully crafted works. KD: It doesn’t seem that you are out to create an “Albuquerque art scene” so much as to validate it. AC: I think that Albuquerque has numerous art scenes, most of which are very vibrant. They range from the university— always a promising, fresh crop of young minds and the professors who are leading them in varying directions. Then we have 516 ARTS, downtown on Central—they’ve done so much to be a center for contemporary art here. Their exhibitions are just packed; their openings are real events. Then there are these really quirky spaces, like the Normal Gallery and SCA Contemporary Art, that show really great stuff. I wonder, How do they support themselves? I think not so much by sales, but more by sheer willpower. KD: One of the chief differences between Albuquerque and Santa Fe is the issue of affordability. Artists can still open up a cheap space in Albuquerque and do what
they’re driven to do. AC: An advantage that we have is that Albuquerque did have an industrial past, so we have these wonderful remnants—in some cases still actively industrial areas— of the city and they provide some great spaces for studios, or astoundingly imaginative institutions, such as the Church of Beethoven [churchofbeethoven.org]. It’s not visual art, but it certainly reflects on the cultural community. KD: You’ve made clear that there are several art scenes here. I think that’s one of the most exciting differences as compared to, say, Santa Fe and Taos. How do you compare Albuquerque, Santa Fe, Taos, and other areas of New Mexico? AC: I don’t want to draw too clear-edged distinctions, but I do think that one of the differences, at least emotionally, for those of us participating in the arts communities, is a matter of consumption. The art scene in Albuquerque is pretty much designed to be self-consumed. Albuquerque is not designing programs for a tourist market, or to satisfy an outside visitor’s objective. Even here at the museum, next to Old Town, we don’t really think of our exhibits in terms of, How
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The permanent exhibition Common Ground: Art in New Mexico highlights the evolution of art in the state from the late 19th century to the present with works from the museum’s permanent collection.
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will they serve the tourists? I tend to think of the exhibitions in terms of how they will serve the local community. There are a few examples of tourist-based events here, such as ¡Globalquerque!, the flamenco festival, and certainly the Balloon Fiesta, but everything else seems to be produced by us so that we can celebrate it locally. I think that gives us a liberty: We don’t have to meet an outside objective for what Albuquerque art really is. We create the culture and we consume it here. I don’t get that sense as much in Santa Fe.
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KD: Would you say that part of that is the result of a greater population here, with Albuquerque being the largest city in the state? Santa Fe and Taos, for example, despite that fact that they are known for the arts—those scenes are not supported by locals, chiefly because there is still, underneath the facade of tourism, a great deal of poverty, especially in Northern New Mexico. AC: Albuquerque has just as much of its share of poverty, as does the state as a whole. One thing that has made and is continuing to make a huge difference is Janet Kahn and her fine-arts program in the Albuquerque Public Schools district. Her program and the teachers who work with her are so great at maximizing resources here in the city. By raising young people who are comfortable going to a museum, you’re building your next generation of arts participants and customers. A lot of organizations in Albuquerque try to fill those gaps that public funding just can’t cover. I think that’s really important. There’s nothing better than seeing a young person bring their family back to the museum and seeing them acting as the tour guide, or docent. I love the fact that in Albuquerque there is at least one artist doing everything you can possibly imagine, just as there is a restaurant serving every type of food you can imagine. We do have a heft of population in the state here, but that population is so diverse, and people celebrate that diversity. I think there are a number of historians, Estéban Rael-Gálvez being one of them, who say, “Stop talking about the three cultures; we’re so much more than
In the North Sculpture Atrium are, at left, Sky Hook by Greg Reiche, made of glass and stone; and Labyrinth of Gravity by Ron Cooper, of bronze.
three cultures.” And those three cultures never existed in isolation without intense crossover. In Albuquerque you see evidence of that all the time. You see Hispanic furniture makers who are making absolutely modern steel and plywood furniture that would look good in any New York City apartment. You see Native American artists who are creating jewelry that might have initially come out of the Navajo tradition, but is galactic in its universality. Those sorts of things really make the arts community a constant bowl of surprises. You never know what you’re going to encounter at the next exhibition or performance. KD: You came to Albuquerque in 1999 as the founding curator of visual arts at the newly opened National Hispanic Cultural Center. What can you tell us about Chicano art from the point of view of the curator of art at the city’s museum? AC: Again, building on that diversity of aesthetic traditions in Albuquerque, Latin artists, Hispanic artists, and Chicano
artists working in Albuquerque are working in every field you can possibly imagine, from digital film to avant-garde furniture, and from experimental architecture to traditional arts. You can find a traditional Chicano-style painter in Albuquerque, but you can also find a Chicana who is making digital photography that’s the equivalent of the best anywhere in the country. We have all of this diversity, and again, because there’s no specifically Chicano tradition in Albuquerque, artists are free to do the sort of work they want to do. We’ve got furniture makers, jewelers, installation artists, playwrights, and musicians, all pushing in these different areas. The same is true of Native American artists in this city. As a woman who did a radio show here used to say, “Albuquerque is so disorganized that there’s no ‘in’ crowd; we’re all ‘out’ together.” There are many different arts communities here, but they don’t fight. People get along and like each other; they just happen to move in different circles. There’s that sense of forced gestation that comes from constant interaction. KD: It seems you’re saying that Albuquerque has the vibrancy of any large city, but also has the distinction of a cultural tradition of art and the history to support it, especially modern and contemporary art. AC: We’ve got all of the benefits of a large city in terms of diversity, and most of the advantages of a small town because everybody runs into everybody here. Unlike a huge city, such as Los Angeles or New York with its thousands and thousands of artists, here everyone’s running into each other in a positive, creative, sometimes bombastic way, and I think that helps with the cross-feeding of each other’s enthusiasms. There’s no such thing as the typical Albuquerque person. That’s why we call it Quirky ’Burque. Everybody comes to this city, or grows up in this city, with their own unique sense of identity. They can feel proud of that identity, and other people applaud them for their independence. I think it’s a city that’s got incredible potential, and is on the rise in terms of arts because artists feel comfortable here. R trendmagazineglobal.com Fall 2010/Winter 2011 » Trend
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Albuquerque
LIVING
BY WESLEY PULKKA | PHOTOS BY PETER OGILVIE
An Artful Approach The founders of The Collector’s Guide practice creativity in every aspect of their lives
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s philanthropists, art collectors, radio show producers, and founders of the highly regarded Collector’s Guide, Don and Pamela Michaelis have been on an extraordinary journey for 25 years. The adventure took them from being simple art lovers to becoming advisers, directors, and community catalysts for New Mexico arts institutions, as well as founding gallery directors for Albuquerque’s former Artspace 116. Pamela also wrote and hosted a weekly radio program on the arts for KHFM from 1988 through 2008, and the couple amassed their own eclectic 800-piece art collection. In 1995, Don took The Collector’s Guide online with help from webmaster Bruce Gresham, who designed the America’s Cup Web site. The site now gets 5,000 views per day. “The radio program made it possible for us to let people know what was happening in the arts community on a more immediate basis than the annual Collector’s Guide,” Pamela says. Their own art collection began with American Indian and Hispanic works, with an emphasis on pieces related to Saint Michael. What started as an exploration of the family name and local culture expanded to include a beautiful, predominantly blue mural by the late architect and abstract painter Robert Walters, an iconic sculpture by the late Melissa Zink, and a life-size figurative mosaic sculpture in the round by Beverley Magennis, known for her many public commissions and completely tile-covered Albuquerque house, now occupied by her daughter. The collection has shrunk considerably in recent years, however, through direct sales and donations, leaving the Michaelises with some 600 objects, many in storage. Opposed to cluttered, salon-style display, they have accented their new home in Albuquerque’s North Valley with subtly and boldly placed pieces throughout, offering delightful surprises to roving eyes rather than a gallery-like effect. Many of the works in storage are earmarked for public collections in the future. The sale of their Collector’s Guide two years ago and move from the Four Hills neighborhood on the city’s east side a year ago does not, however, signal a fishing-pole-on-the-riverbank retirement anytime soon. “I do hope to find time to write, do more reading, and just sit in my chair, but I find myself in the midst of thirteen organizations that I truly believe in,” Pamela said recently. The couple has also earmarked their dynamic stone, steel, and glass modernist home overlooking the bosque not to showcase their art, but to support a variety of humanitarian causes through hosting benefit receptions. Built by custom home designer Steven
Ode to an Ordinary Ecstasy, by the late Melissa Zink, is one of the artist’s enigmatic mixed-media works replete with literary references. Opposite, above a stream running along the living room wall, are three (untitled) polyester resin panels by the late Florence Pierce, who would pour multiple layers of colored resin on Plexiglas mirrors. On the adjacent wall is Kristen #3, a charcoal drawing by Heidi McFall.
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Albuquerque
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Built-in cabinetry and seating in the kitchen ruled out much artwork display except above eye level, while a wall of windows along the front of the house (left) also made wall space scarce, forcing careful choices from the Michaelises’ collection. Below the arch (far left) is Bosque Blades, a painting by Charlie Burk, above an untitled porcelain sculpture by Brad Miller. In the hallway, at right, is Waiting for Messages, a painting by the late architect and pioneer Abstract Expressionist Robert Walters.
Williams, who grew up in a house designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, the house departs from Wright’s strict aesthetic tenets but shares his concept of bringing the surroundings inside. The entire front of the house is plate glass, facing the bosque. From a seat in the living room, one views the trees and grasses outside with perfect clarity. The design creates a virtual garden in the mind’s eye. Recent charitable events held at the house include fund-raisers for Working Classroom, a downtown arts program for at-risk youth, and for the Albuquerque Youth Symphony. The high-energy couple, who have backgrounds in marketing, fund-raising, and the arts, came from Minnesota, where they met 36 years ago. Their move to New Mexico was seeded on a frigid winter day in 1985. Pamela, who had just turned 40 and quit smoking, was gazing out her frost-covered, icicle-festooned bedroom window in St. Paul to a bitterly cold, steel-gray February landscape with the
thought that spring would not arrive until June. She was in bed recovering from back surgery, and Don had taken a job with a private company that he had rapidly grown to hate. “Our daughter, Annie, had just turned three, and we suddenly realized that we all needed a real adventure to shake things up,” Pamela says. The die was cast when Don provided Pamela with several lapfuls of research materials on the best places to live, including the first-ever Rand McNally Places Rated Almanac. The bone-chilling breezes outside inspired Pamela to turn her attention toward the Southwest, using phone and fax (before the age of Internet) to research and explore possible locations in California, Arizona, and New Mexico. “We surveyed several places, including Tucson, but our friends in Albuquerque urged us to visit and finally settle here,” Pamela says. “Albuquerque with its temperate climate and surrounding trendmagazineglobal.com Fall 2010/Winter 2011 » Trend
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beauty is not too big and not too small, so we feel comfortable here,” Don adds. With the location decided, things fell into place for them quickly. “Once we decided to leave St. Paul, serendipitous events kept occurring,” Don recalls. “Because of the relatively weak economy, Pamela and I decided against separate full-time jobs in Albuquerque and began looking for alternatives that we could do together. When I saw the ad in the Albuquerque Journal regarding the sale of the Santa Fe and Taos Arts Guide, I realized that arts publishing was a perfect fit for our mutual skills. So we took the plunge.” The Michaelises acquired the Santa Fe and Taos Arts Guide for the notso-princely sum of $34,000, and closed on their home in Four Hills. In July 1985, the trio from the north was resettled in the enchanted land. Initially their goal to produce a high-quality publication for artists, gal-
The landscaping includes raised vegetable and herb gardens that almost exclusively feed the Michaelises during the growing season (he is vegetarian; she is nearly so). They enjoy cooking (top) and preserve fruits and vegetables for the winter. A fertility goddess by mosaic artist Beverly Magennis (middle) helps ensure a bountiful harvest. 46
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leries, and collectors was not met with great enthusiasm. But Don and Pamela persevered with a vow to completely transform the arts guide, and soon won wide support. “We focused our energy on the visual arts in Santa Fe, because it is the engine for all the arts in New Mexico. In Santa Fe and Taos we also met and got to know many knowledgeable and interesting people. So along with working hard, we were having a wonderful time putting the Arts Guide together,” Pamela says. Evolutionary steps included eliminating all non–visual arts advertising. The original publication included hairstylists, clothing stores, vacuum cleaner dealers, and restaurants. With the shift in focus, a name change, and visual purification through the use of high-quality photography and printing, success was on the horizon, but it was still a struggle in the early years. On one of hundreds of sales trips to Santa Fe and Taos, Pamela’s mother, who was along for the ride, recognized that her daughter was under stress, and asked if $10,000 would help. “It was an emotional moment. I had to pull off the freeway to cry until little Annie broke the tension, saying, ‘It’s all right, Mommy, you should just say thank you to Nonna,” Pamela recalls. “What really touched my heart was my mother’s total support for and confidence in what Don and I were doing.” Don and Pamela moved forward until annual advertising sales grew from less than $100,000 to more than $1 million. Circulation expanded from 50,000 copies of a 32-page publication to 180,000 copies of a 370-page book. With their daughter married after earning her doctorate in public health administration from Johns Hopkins University and landing a job with the William J. Clinton Foundation, it might be time for Don and Pamela to find their easy chairs—but don’t count on it. The phone has just rung with a request for advice and help raising money for a brand-new arts project. Smiling, Don and Pamela look at each and shrug. After saying “can do” for the past 25 years, why end the adventure now? R trendmagazineglobal.com Fall 2010/Winter 2011 » Trend 47
P.M.WATERLILY Patricia Michaels, owner/designer 575-779-5322 575-751-9675 www.pmwaterlily.com h2owaterlily@gmail.com
Fritz Scholder in Galisteo People remember the celebrity and the parties. But Santa Feâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s most controversial Native artist had another side.
BY KEIKO OHNUMA | PHOTOS BY PETER OGILVIE
Galisteo Landscape with Trees, an oil painting from 1984, shows a stormy exit from the village, heading south. It is one of a small number of works Fritz Scholder painted of his home outside Santa Fe. Right: The artist at home in Galisteo, around 1980. He called the village “as close to the land as an artist can get.”
RIGHT: ROMONA SCHOLDER
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leepy, windswept, and often deserted, the remote village of Galisteo, New Mexico, shows few traces today of what was once its most famous resident, an artist so glamorous he was more like a rock star. And if Fritz Scholder’s ghost still roams the grounds of his old hacienda here, it is more quiet than the painter ever was in real life. Behind the thick adobe walls of his former home, his wife of 27 years, Romona Scholder, lives a peaceful existence in what most resembles a museum or shrine whose neatly arranged books and artifacts testify to the artist, collector, reader, and traveler that her ex-husband was. But nothing signals the big parties, admiring fans, the national éclat he sought all his life—and which seem to wait, like the house itself, for the full story of Fritz Scholder to be told. The most controversial Indian painter America had known, and its most reluctant, Scholder was a paradox in his time, and remains one still. His story parallels the ambiguous place of Santa Fe on the contemporary art map. He arrived in the late 1960s to teach painting at the brand-new Institute of American Indian Arts, in what was then a quiet art colony. Scholder was a product of his times: an Abstract Expressionist who studied under Wayne Thiebaud in Sacramento, California, and embraced the trends toward Pop Art, minimalism, and color field painting; he did landscapes and butterflies. Ambitious and serious, he told his Native students at IAIA they would get nowhere painting their subject matter. Scholder did not realize what Santa Fe had in store for him, how it would mark the turning point of his artistic career. The Indian power movement was building energy that would stun the nation in 1969, and Scholder was trendmagazineglobal.com Fall 2010/Winter 2011 » Trend
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readily drawn into the fiery debate and creative engagement of the “artist-warriors” at IAIA. Revisionists today question whether he was truly an original or a follower in the move to merge modern art with Indian subject matter. There can be no question, though, that Scholder ran with it fastest and furthest, powered by the force of enormous talent and hard work. “He was ruler of the roost,” declares an old friend, Santa Fe art collector Jonathan Abrams. “There’s no question that he was the ruler of Native American art—and he loved it.” Scholder’s jarring portraits of Indians dashed with wild brushstrokes, fields of outrageous color, and distorted proportions shocked a community accustomed to the flat, detailed, serene figures for which Indian painters had long been known. His Indian with Beer Can still raises blood pressure in Indian Country today, and nearly everyone has seen some of the startling series of Indians wrapped in the American flag. Fritz and Romona married when he was still an unknown painting teacher, and bought a home on Canyon Road in 1969. As his name soared, they graduated to twin adobe homes in 1972, in Galisteo and in Scottsdale, Arizona. The Arizona address gradually gained favor with Fritz, where he moved among glamorous art patrons who knew him as “the Indian Andy Warhol.” But friends remember Galisteo, too, for its lavish soirees. Immediately upon arrival, Fritz erected a huge tepee in the yard and invited
The entrance to Scholder’s studio is seen, with Dying Indian, an acrylic he painted on the day he left the Institute of American Indian Arts, in 1969. Top: Romona, an oil painting from 1975, is shown with a sculpture of the same title. Right: Paintings, lithographs, and an etching from the 1970s to 1990s are shown in the artist’s studio, including White Girl with Cherokee Pendant, 1970.
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Scholder did not realize what Santa Fe had in store for him, how it would mark the turning point of his artistic career.
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A view of the living room in the 200-year-old adobe home includes some of Scholder’s collectibles: Indian pottery and a buffalo head. Below: Fritz and Romona Scholder in the 1970s.
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Indians, he soon felt trapped in a Native stereotype. “I was mislabeled an Indian artist because I had done a series on the American Indian when I came to Santa Fe . . . because all painters who go to Santa Fe become immediately seduced by this very strange and foreign little town,” he said in a 1996 interview. Although his grandmother was Luiseño (a California Mission tribe), and his father worked for the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Scholder was not “raised Indian” and did not self-identify as Native. He often remarked that he looked more Indian than he was. It was at IAIA that he first became aware of what he called “real Indians” and their “whole different mindset.” And it was only at home, within the walled compound so far from Santa Fe that the 23-mile journey was made at night in complete darkness, that Scholder could set aside his pose of famous Indian artist—or not-Indian artist—and simply respond to what moved him. “This was the interior side, the interior space,” Hoback says of a
BOTTOM: COURTESY OF ROMONA SCHOLDER
They hosted Jackie Onassis and her sister. “The whole Santa Fe party scene would transport itself here,” says their friend.
friends to sample his old family recipes, Romona recalls. They hosted Jackie Onassis and her sister, the Chinese minister of culture, with a retinue of thirty. “The whole Santa Fe party scene would transport itself here,” says their friend Priscilla Hoback, a ceramic artist who still lives across the street in the village of 150 people. Romona would bring in flamenco dancer Maria Benitez, Hoback recalls, who “would come to dance for, like, fifteen minutes on her way to something else.” This was the Fritz Scholder that the world knew: driven by a sense of destiny, “serious about making it, becoming a famous artist,” says Romona; “a great painter but also a great salesman,” adds his friend Skip Holbrook, who taught with him at IAIA. A man who had time for everyone, “even the idiots who wanted to drape an arm around him for a photo,” says Holbrook; an artist who was “very precise about assembling a good biography.” But recognition came at a price for Scholder, one that continues to be paid by his legacy. Lauded for his revolutionary depiction of
small number of paintings she saw that spoke of a “more intimate, vulnerable, revealing” Fritz. Paintings of animals, of Romona, or the color-field landscapes from a previous time, she found moving because they were so rare. “They were so deep, an emotion so different than the fierceness of his other work— but as intense.” During the summer months, when they were in Galisteo, Romona says she and Fritz would drive into Santa Fe for the day to take care of business, then come home for a quiet supper before he retired to the studio until midnight. “He loved painting in the evening,” she says, even though his studio here was rich in natural light. Holbrook remembers that “he was a demon in the studio.” He worked furiously and fast, leaving behind hundreds of paintings, prints, sculptures, and illustrated books. “He was a force of nature,” marvels Abrams, the collector, producing so much so fast that detractors wondered if he was “overdoing it.” Gregarious by nature, Scholder felt immediately the isolation of their 200year-old adobe shaded by cottonwoods on two acres near the Galisteo church. Romona recalls him lying in bed on one of their first nights in the house and wondering aloud, “Where is Thirty-one Flavors? Where is Pizza Hut?” Galisteo was then a traditional Spanish village, and none of the artists who have made it a haven—Agnes Martin, Bruce Nauman, Woody Gwyn, John Massee, Judy Tuwaletstiwa, the critic Lucy Lippard, and Hoback herself—had yet discovered it. “I am part of this village and I’m not,” Scholder told a New York Times reporter in 1977. “I keep open but I keep a private world. It was like stepping back in time to move here, because Galisteo . . . hasn’t changed that much over the years. It’s as close to the land as an artist can get.” As Scholder shifted his center of operations to Scottsdale, near his gallery (Elaine Horwitch), he moved away from Indian subject matter to themes that
From top: Romona in Galisteo, 1983, acrylic on canvas, shows Romona and her dog Matthew in front of the house. Priscilla’s Dog, acrylic on canvas, is one of several portraits Scholder painted of Queenie, who belonged to neighbor and friend Priscilla Hoback. Leading into the bedroom is a display of colonial Spanish religious objects, one of the Scholders’ early collecting interests.
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A color lithograph, The Rose, from 1980, is one of many varied flower images made over the years. Opposite: Red #5, a large acrylic painting from 1994, in Scholder’s studio
caused discomfort among his Native fans, such as death and skulls, angels and demons, and the “mystery woman” series, often illustrated from his vast collection of shamanistic, sometimes taboo objects. The artifacts followed him to Scottsdale; gone from the Galisteo home are the outrigger canoe from New Guinea, the Egyptian mummy baby in a glass coffin, and the room full of skulls described in earlier reports. Fritz and Romona divorced in 1994, after years of living apart. With a lifelong career as a psychotherapist, Romona had remained as devoted to her patients as to being a famous artist’s wife. In 2002, Fritz married gallery employee Lisa Markgraf, just three years before his death from complications of diabetes. His widow retains the estate and most of his artwork; Romona has just the Galisteo home—a whisper from a much earlier time, but one that feels increasingly formative. In his old studio here, a large painting called Galisteo is displayed—one of the few from his earlier style, with bands of pure color, all observation and emotion without any of the later cynicism. A bronze bust in the garden is called simply Romona. The house had been, from the time they saw it, Romona’s. “It’s a lovely house,” she remembers telling him, “but it’s my house. It’s the perfect setup in the wrong place.” Fritz Scholder was just not an artist who would be drawn to privacy and isolation. “He was like, ‘Bother me, please,’” Romona says of the artist-showman. “He loved contact with other people, giving autographs; he liked that regular people saw and loved his art.” Fritz Scholder never achieved the name recognition of some of his peers in New York, where he relocated in the 1980s to cement his success. And he remains obscure today outside the Southwest, which he took by storm in the 1970s. “I would say the career we
expected of him never happened,” concludes Abrams. But history may yet redeem the not-Indian artist, albeit under a chapter labeled “Native America.” In 2008 and 2009, the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of the American Indian mounted a double exhibit of his work titled Indian/Not Indian in New York and Washington—its first-ever solo retrospective— cementing Scholder’s place in Native American cultural history. He was able to capture like no one else a moment when Indians quit assimilating and began to reclaim their traditions, the curators noted. By portraying the ambiguities of Native identity, Scholder prefigured postmodernism’s central concern with how cultural identity is constructed. In his insistence that he was not Indian—“I’m very proud of being one-quarter Luiseño,” he said in 1996, “but you can’t be anything if you’re a quarter”—he also presaged ongoing debates about what qualifies as “authentic” Indian art. It seems clear today that Scholder was able to transform Native art precisely because he was both Indian and not Indian, seeing them from outside while being treated as inside. Romona describes his instant reaction to spotting a buffalo dancer at Santo Domingo Pueblo eating an ice cream cone, the inspiration for his Super Indian No. 2. “He picked up on that Indian-as-mythical-being and Indian-as-ice-cream-cone-eater,’” she said in 2008. “And I think that’s why this painting is quintessentially Scholder.” He was fond of saying that the Indian is the ultimate cliché, that everything one paints has become a cliché. In his paradoxical double life, gregarious and private, the Indian Warhol and the first artist to “get” Galisteo, Scholder in his precocious identity as selfconsciously Indian tried on every cultural cliché while refusing to inhabit any of them. R
Gone from the Galisteo home are the outrigger canoe, the Egyptian mummy baby, and the room full of skulls.
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A guesthouse designed by Cloepfilâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s firm in Dutchess County, New York, as part of an art-collectorsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; compound has won multiple awards for the way it frames the surrounding forest. A steel frame contains the boxlike volumes of the two-bedroom cottage in poured-in-place concrete walls.
Brad Cloepfil, Critical Regionalist The controversial but hugely successful architect plumbs the intersection of human desire and natural landscape BY DAVID D’ARCY
magine an architect having to defend a building that critics said should have never been built, that some suggested demolishing. That was Brad Cloepfil’s unenviable position in 2007 after he opened the Museum of Arts and Design (MAD) on Columbus Circle in Manhattan, a controversial $86 million makeover of the quirky and classic Huntington Hartford Museum by Edward Durell Stone. Critics called his redesign “mind-numbingly dull,” “a structure that would not look out of place as an annex to a suburban outpatient center,” and so “dull and lifeless” as to “make even the slick steel-and-glass facade of the Time-Warner Center next door look lively.” Despite such widespread condemnation, Brad Cloepfil, of Allied Works Architecture, is still completing project after project, and clients (mostly in the West) are seeking him out. And he still has an office in New York. There is life after MAD, even in Manhattan. “When I work somewhere, I try to find what’s inherent in that place,” Cloepfil, 54, explains by telephone from his office in Portland, Oregon. “What can the architecture serve in that place that it can only do there? And I think that exists everywhere.” Everywhere may be the right term. Cloepfil has just completed a house for an art collector in Dutchess County, New York. His Clyf-
DEAN KAUFMAN; OPPOSITE: JEREMY BITTERMAN
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ford Still Museum in Denver, budgeted at some $29 million, unveiled final drawings in July for a project to be finished in 2012— his fifth museum commission. He is building a new studio for Pixar in Emeryville, California, and his just-commissioned National Music Centre of Canada in Calgary is an installment on a new cultural district in that petroleum-rich city. He also has a house under construction in Ketchum, Idaho, and a park in Vancouver, B.C., in collaboration with a local firm. And Cloepfil’s office produced an imaginative design for a museum in Quebec City that Allied Works did not get, through no fault of ingenuity. Not bad for an architect whom some wanted to reduce to rubble. But Cloepfil isn’t really a fighter. If anything, his culture is New Age, with an infusion of critical regionalism assimilated while he was getting his master’s degree in architecture at Columbia University. The guru of the school, Kenneth Frampton, for whom Cloepfil was a research assistant in the 1980s, advises avoiding “the optimization of advanced technology and the ever-present tendency to regress into nostalgic historicism or the glibly decorative”—which translates to tech wary, fad-phobic, and anti-global. Cloepfil fits well enough into the regional-critical mold. His work isn’t sculptural, at least not in the sense of gestural buildings
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DEAN KAUFMAN
He built buildings, but his inspiration was landscape.
Situated on a small rise below the main house, the 1,300-square-foot cottage was conceived as a series of six rectilinear bays, making for a â&#x20AC;&#x153;perceptual game,â&#x20AC;? as one reviewer calls it. Spaces range from private to semiprivate, open and semi-open, offering from any spot in the house not only a view, but a view within the view.
by Frank Gehry or I. M. Pei or Santiago Calatrava. It isn’t selfconsciously complicated, like the buildings of Jean Nouvel. It doesn’t radiate, like structures by Renzo Piano, and it isn’t the serene brand of Tadao Ando. Cloepfil’s region is Portland, where he grew up. “When I started my office, I came back from Columbia and started here.” You could describe him as a man of two Columbias, the river and the university, both of which shape his work. “I thought there were probably two places who would hire me to do the type of work I wanted to do. One was Wieden Kennedy, and one was Nike. And when Wieden Kennedy called up, the conversation had already started in my mind, and I knew them so well, they were almost like a family. So there was a kind of shorthand from the very start that helped us a lot.” Cloepfil would design the ad firm’s new home in Portland. From the beginning, there have been paradoxes in Cloepfil’s work. He built buildings, but his inspiration was the landscape: the Columbia Gorge, where his sculptural structure Maryhill Overlook rises as a set of massive linear concrete slabs out of a bluff above the deep canyon. It was dramatic at the time—it still is—as a state-
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ment that emphasizes gestural form over function, and respects its site. “It’s a space that was carved out of rock when the glaciers melted, and it’s just an incredible, incredible environment,” the architect says, acknowledging that a structure so bold still can’t compete with nature’s work beneath it. The metaphorical bridge to nowhere remains his most sculptural work built. Ask him what museums he admires, and he hesitates. “There’s always the Kimbell [Museum in Fort Worth], which is absolutely exquisite. And I like the Picasso Museum in Paris—it is completely idiosyncratic.” Notice all the landmarks that he doesn’t mention. As for artists, he once expounded, “I saw Richard Serra’s Circuit at MoMA, and it is just four pieces of steel propped up in the corners of the room. The physical presence and the mass of the steel and its ability to radiate space into the small gallery was for me a very architectural experience that I could relate to, much easier than the so-called architecture that was being produced at that time. The experience is about the material and the way that the material is made. It was also easier to learn from the artists because their work is so pure. “Buildings tend to be more complicated,” he elaborated. “It is hard
HÉLÈNE BINET (2)
Cloepfil’s home for a San Francisco philanthropist in Sun Valley, Idaho, is meant to be both an intimate retreat and a gathering place for long visits with extended family. The four-bedroom home is divided into discrete public and private zones, such as the second-story transparent pavilion of glass and wood that houses two bedrooms.
to understand buildings when you are young. . . . A building is full of program, structure, stairs, and support spaces that are necessary for the function of the building, but very different than the direct experience of seeing work by Serra or Irwin. As a young student, art was more accessible. It was easier to understand what the artists were thinking about, and what they were pursuing in their work.” One of Cloepfil’s first major jobs, the corporate headquarters of Wieden+Kennedy, which makes commercials for Nike and Microsoft, was a box with a wide wood-paneled atrium at its heart and rising, bleacher-like levels that foster meditation—or random meetings. This is more monastery than Mad Men. Cloepfil recalls taking a priest to the building when it opened. “He told me that it was the most spiritual place he had ever been in.” “As a younger architect in Oregon, you did not have any budget,” Cloepfil recounted in an interview several years ago. “You were practically making up your own projects. In every project, we tried really hard to figure out if there was one clear idea that we would be able to express.” All his designs, Cloepfil says, are a response to landscape. “The landscape that I was responding to was the building itself,” he says of the Wieden+Kennedy project. “And the problem there was how to re-create that building from the inside out, create an internal world that had auditorium space to light. And it was really the forces of the culture—you can see that institution that generated that architecture.
“I think there’s an ethic in the Pacific Northwest,” he continues. “I know that’s a dangerous word, but . . . people want to do things that matter, and they want to do things thoughtfully and carefully. I think that creates a design culture. I don’t think Nike created that so much as that’s what created Nike, in that kind of will to do things that no one else was doing. It’s the same at Wieden Kennedy.” In his museums, Cloepfil addresses culture head-on. His design at the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis created a deep horizontal space where exhibitions could be trucked in and out. As with the Maryhill Overlook, he used the metaphor of a ribbon. “It’s a noncollecting art museum, so it really is an open pavilion that could have any form of art possible. And then also that landscape! I mean, the building is conceived as a kind of ribbon of concrete. It has a very ambiguous boundary of where the city starts and stops, and where the institution starts and stops. So I really tried to join that building to the city, to the site. It was almost like an open urban prairie that I hoped would just sort of roll through the building.” At the Seattle Art Museum, where the challenge was to create exhibition, storage, and office space, Cloepfil’s solution was a 16-floor structure (defying the bias against high-rise museum design) with two-story spaces within to accommodate massive works of art. Context needed to be observed in Ann Arbor at the University of Michigan Museum of Art, which Cloepfil slotted into a grid of existing academic buildings.
The 4,000-square-foot house includes generous public areas filled with natural light to display the owner’s significant collection of modern art. The perfectly smooth, poured-concrete walls contain offsets and apertures that allow for multiple views and terraces opening on Mount Baldy. To the south (right side) is a living room terrace with sheets of glass and a cantilevered eave; to the east, an intimate dining terrace that opens right onto the landscape. trendmagazineglobal.com Fall 2010/Winter 2011 » Trend
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His latest museum project is the Clyfford Still Museum, where more than 5,000 paintings and works on paper will be exhibited, studied, and stored. (Allied Works Architecture got the $29 million commission after Denver won a competition among cities that sought the museum.) The exterior of Cloepfil’s design is a rough surface that replicates the abrupt strokes of paint on Still’s canvases—though Cloepfil himself might reject such a literal parallel. “When we start a museum project, we get to know the collection in conversations with the curators, to really think of how the building can best serve not just the art itself, but create a context so the creativity of the curation can really blossom. Because good work can be shown badly, you know. So we try to make beautiful spaces in which the curators can really do their best work in interpreting that collection.” Reverting again to landscape, he notes that Denver gets 300 days of sunshine a year. “And I just got very excited from the start about seeing a Clyfford Still in daylight. So that was an inspiration for me, as well as how to ground a building in that kind of wildly varied architectural context. And how to show that work in a way that none of us had ever seen it before. “I’ve been sort of working my way up to the Rockies, from the
school in Dallas [Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts] that I designed a few years back, and then the arts district,” he muses, “and then to Denver, right when the Libeskind [design of the Denver Art Museum] was being finished and the Adjaye project [the Museum of Contemporary Art] was built, and now to Calgary, where we’re doing the new National Music Centre of Canada. And it’s interesting to watch cities come into cultural maturity at various points and various times. I mean, Dallas probably began that thirty, forty years ago.” Cloepfil’s most imaginative design to date was for Quebec, a city in search of cultural maturity. AWA’s plan for a new pavilion for the Musée National des Beaux-Arts du Québec aimed at lifting the place out of its historicism. In a city of stone and steeples that clings nostalgically to its distant colonial past, Cloepfil stood triangular shapes on their sides with shell-shaped roofs facing upward, and linked them in what he calls a braid. In a city of harsh weather and scant winter light, he clad the triangles in glass, and connected the spaces underground. “It’s next to a neo-Gothic cathedral that has tremendous historic context. The original museum was a historic neoclassical building, so I wanted the building to have a strong form to be able to fit as a contemporary piece with these other very, very strong forms—but
Allied Works’ design for a new pavilion at the Musée National des Beaux-Arts du Québec was conceived as a bridge between city and museum, architecture and landscape, old and new. Soft natural light bathing the building would provide a sense of connection to nature in a northern city bound by Old World traditions.
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COURTESY OF ALLIED WORKS ARCHITECTURE (2)
A conceptualization shows the building from one end, as it snakes into a series of interlocking triangular shells—transparent spaces that offer views out to the canopy and the courtyard. The idea, says Cloepfil, was to synthesize building, city, cloister, and park. He still considers the never-built project the best design the firm has done.
also at the same time have it feel somewhat transparent to connect to the park and the fields in the neighborhood. And then the quality of light—again—for the curves of the shells on the roof is really bringing in natural light into the galleries.” The plan more than hinted at Frampton’s critical regionalism. “I think it’s the best thing our office has ever done,” Cloepfil declares, though AWA did not get the job. His firm transitioned to a mini-museum of sorts with the Dutchess County residence. Here, on a hilly wooded site some 90 minutes north of Manhattan, he designed a house for a contemporary art collector who desired anonymity, with a guesthouse and a “barn” for art. Once again he faced a paradox: the need to balance transparency and wall art display competing with a desire for light. Spaces are rectilinear, as in art galleries. The difference between the house and a museum, Cloepfil notes, is intimacy. “I mean, it’s a house. And I guess there was some tension in it, because they’re major collectors and they want to show the work, but it is a house and it needs to have the intimacy of a house. And then it’s also in a fantastic landscape where you need a lot of glass to take advantage of the landscape. So there’s always been a kind of tension between being a country house that’s about the landscape, and then also being a place, because they have so much more area now, to show the work than
they do in Manhattan.” Cloepfil won’t name the client. But he did identify another client: “Cissie” Swig, the San Francisco philanthropist, for whom he designed a house in Ketchum, Idaho. “She collects art as well, so she just wanted a beautiful house on the site. But it was a modest site, in a kind of older area of Ketchum. We opened up the landscape but closed off elements of the context as well. “We chose concrete because of the austerity of the place. It’s high desert-ish, I guess, very severe environment. It’s very hot and very cold simultaneously, day to day, almost.” The arid topography called to mind the Southwest, where AWA had entered a competition for the Santa Fe River Park, an award that eventually went to Mary Miss and Ken Smith. Yet Cloepfil, who shut himself away at the Mabel Dodge House in Taos this spring to work on a new book about AWA (the forthcoming Allied Works Architecture: Brad Cloepfil, Gregory R. Miller & Co.), remains undeterred. “I think there’s a tremendous amount of work to be done architecturally responding to the specific—the specificity of that [Southwest] landscape, and the light and the climate—that is not addressed in the sort of current adobe architecture,” he says in a tone of warning. “I think the obsession with historicism there denies the nature of that place. It doesn’t support it—it denies it.” Just wait until he finds a client in town. R
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BY NANCY ZIMMERMAN | PHOTOS BY KERRY SHERCK
The Land Still Speaks t Jemez Pueblo, art and survival are essentially one. Throughout a tumultuous history that threatened to deplete the culture almost to the point of extinction, this conservative Pueblo of some 3,400 people has looked to its art as a means of overcoming the decimating effects of dislocation and disruption. Of course, highly symbolic design functions as a cultural constant among all the Pueblos of New Mexico, but it plays a particularly important role at Jemez, where people have experienced a greater disconnect than many of their counterparts. The Towa-speaking Jemez (or Hemish, a more accurate transliteration of their name) migrated from the Four Corners area to the red-rock mesas and canyons of the Jemez Mountains west of Santa Fe in the late 13th century, building stone fortresses made up of as many as 3,000 rooms each. These huge settlements, now in ruins, were surrounded by smaller houses of one or two rooms spread out over hundreds of miles and used as seasonal base camps for hunting and farming. At the time of first contact with the Spanish explorers in 1541, the Jemez population numbered around 30,000—almost ten times what it is today. By 1696 the Jemez nation was overtaken by the Spanish, who sought to subdue the Pueblos and Christianize them, and its residents were forcibly moved to the village of Walatowa, their current home. In 1838 they were joined by the people of Pecos Pueblo, also Towa speakers, who had abandoned their lands to escape Spanish domination and Comanche raids. Despite centuries of subjugation and turmoil, the Jemez people have demonstrated a remarkable resilience, which they attribute to the enduring wisdom of their culture as transmitted through their art and language, both assiduously nurtured by elders. At many other Pueblos, native dialects are slowly dying out, but Jemez has made a conscious effort to maintain the use of its ancestral language: Some 95 percent of its people speak the language not just ceremonially but conversationally. With a richly evocative vocabulary to describe the physical environment, Towa shapes the
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collective perception of the natural world and informs the visual language of today’s artists. Pueblo resident Felix Vigil is a fluent Towa speaker and classically trained artist of Jemez and Jicarilla Apache heritage, whose work includes painting, sculpture, film animation, architecture, and literature. “My ideas come out of the ceremonies, songs, and stories of my people,” he says. “My work is inspired by concepts that are very old, but which are still very relevant today.” He adds that the Towa language helps to inspire him by linking the essential spirit of the culture with the landscape in a way that encourages artistic expression. “The ancestors were close observers of their environment,” Vigil explains, “and they were very clever in adapting the world around them to their needs. Take corn, for example. They figured out how to domesticate a seed grass to make the corn, and to this day it’s an important crop. They developed ceremonies and songs to pay homage to life-giving elements like corn, water, and the sun, and they appreciated all they’d been given. “At Jemez, we continue to pay homage to these aspects of our existence by keeping their ceremonies alive,” he adds. “That feeds my work, because observation and appreciation of my environment are central themes for me. My art evolves as I come to understand more, and my visual language becomes more succinct, more distilled, the longer I work at it.” The resulting simplicity is something sought by artists of all cultures, he notes—that elemental truth evident in, say, the masterful skin tone created by Rembrandt with a single brushstroke. “I try to achieve simplicity because that’s where truth lies; it’s what keeps the work honest,” says Vigil. “If it gets too busy or too embellished, you’re just showing off. To get back to basics, I use my culture as a touchstone to connect with the timeless truth that comes from within.” Vigil’s paintings are contemporary meditations on ancient themes that deconstruct the traditional symbols, stripping them to their essence and bringing them to life via saturated colors and
Practicing art as a form of listening, the tiny Pueblo of Jemez is rebuilding its fractured culture.
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The Pueblo of Jemez is located in Walatowa, in north-central New Mexico, and is home to 3,400 tribal members. Opposite: Using a charcoal pencil, Jemez Pueblo artist Felix Vigil makes a sketch for a painting representing the different stages of a butterfly.
stylized representations of animals and geographic features of the landscape. Each piece evolves incrementally, its components emerging according to their own “life cycles,” as he puts it. “The paintings are like a journey, and each step is another leg in the journey. I receive my guidance from the spirit of my ancestors.” Pueblo governor Joshua Madalena has also sought guidance and inspiration from the Ancient Ones in his efforts to revive and promote the traditional black-on-white pottery that the Jemez people made until the 18th century (see “Ancestral Inspiration,” Summer 2006). Madalena says it used to upset him to hear archaeologists suggest that there was no living art at Jemez Pueblo. He knew that the decision to stop producing the highly symbolic pottery of his ancestors some 300 years earlier had been a conscious one. “Jemez black-on-white is the root, the identity of our people,” he says of the thin-walled vessels decorated with symbols that represent key aspects of daily life. To avoid having such cultural repositories appropriated by the Spanish for their personal use and thus desecrated, the Jemez stopped making the ceremonial pieces in favor of utilitarian pottery for daily use. “Unfortunately, over time the secrets of where to find the clay and how to produce the pottery were lost,” Madalena says, “so I began my effort to revive the lost art as a way of finding and asserting my cultural identity.” He recalled the stories of his grandmother, and consulted other elders for their stories, which revealed clues to the locations of the clay, the plants, and the tuff needed to sculpt, paint, and fire the pots. After six years of trial and error, in 2005 Madalena succeeded in accurately reproducing the proper slip color, clay con68
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sistency, firing techniques, and ancient designs without the benefit of scientific analysis—an accomplishment hailed by archaeologists as a historically significant achievement on a par with Maria Martinez’s revival of Tewa polished black pottery, but even more complex. “The production of this pottery serves to strengthen our way of life, our language, and who we are,” says Madalena, “and it reinforces our traditions and identity among our young people. For example, through the designs we can retrace migratory routes because they mirror the petroglyphs and pictographs our people left behind along the way. The designs tell a lot of stories, and serve as records of life at that time. Through them we know what they were thinking about, what was important to them.” In fact, Madalena says, “when I go to museums now and see old pots on display, I know why a pot came out a certain way, and what the artist went through to make the pot. It helps me to feel close to my ancestors, to feel their spirit.” He’s been teaching his children, Alecxandria, 16, and Daniel, 25, to carry on the art form, which he executes in contemporary designs as well as traditional ones. “After all, what is contemporary? What is traditional?” he says, noting that what’s contemporary today will be considered traditional a hundred years from now. For stone sculptor Cliff Fragua, who grew up far from the Pueblo and settled there only after high school, the strong connection he found to Jemez has been a nourishing creative force that he, too, seeks to share by teaching at the Southwest Stone Carving Workshop, held annually at the Pueblo. After graduating from high school in San Francisco in 1974, Fragua moved to Jemez with his
RIGHT: ADDISON DOTY
Felix Vigil works on his painting. Right: Vigil’s Heart of the Sun.
Joshua Madalena, the governor of Jemez Pueblo, with a black-on-white olla, or water jug, that he created using clay and materials found in the ancestral sites of his people in the Jemez Mountains. Left: Madalena uses traditional designs for his black-on-white pottery, as shown in this kiva seed pot (top) and medicinal bowl.
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CLIFF FRAGUA
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Cliff Fragua at his Singing Stone Studio. Opposite: Canyon Passages, Utah calcite.
father and then enrolled at the Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA) in Santa Fe, studying under renowned sculptor Allan Houser. Upon returning to the Pueblo, he established Singing Stone Studio, where he crafts monumental sculptures representing cultural symbols, as well as smaller, more contemporary interpretations. “My motifs are all Pueblo-rooted,” Fragua says. “I use a lot of the designs from pottery and jewelry, as well as some of the Anasazi motifs.” Fragua credits these designs and his close relationship with the stone itself with his success, which includes the prestigious commission to sculpt an image of Po’pay, the hero who led the successful Pueblo Revolt of 1680 against the occupying Spanish. The seven-foot marble statue now stands in the National Statuary Hall in Washington, D.C. “When I select a piece of stone, first I tap it,” he says. “If it rings, that tells me it’s solid, with no fissures. The stone comes in different pitches, which is why I named my studio Singing Stone. For my designs, I generally work with the natural shape, looking to find the image, the spirit within the stone, in order to release it. The process involves a lot of energy that flows between me and the stone, as well as between me and the tools, and the tools and the stone—a triangular flow of energy. Sometimes the idea can change; the stone dictates what it wants to be, so when I try to do something I have to see if the stone accepts it. I just go with it until the stone, the tools, and I have come to an agreement. Then I can say I’m finished. “It can be an exhausting process,” he concedes. “I replenish my
energy by tending my garden, where I grow squash, chili, melons, and corn—traditional foods. If I get too focused I become too intense, almost obsessive, so the garden helps to ground me.” Fragua’s monumental pieces include a statue of a woman wearing a tablita (headdress) that represents clouds, with her long hair symbolizing the rain they release. Her necklace is turquoise, like the sky, and water flows into a jug at her feet. Another female figure wears parrot feathers on her head as an homage to water. “Parrots come from tropical climates where there is a lot of rain, so we use these feathers in our dances to invoke the warmth and water of these places,” Fragua says. Although conservative bordering on secretive in its efforts to protect its culture from appropriation, Jemez Pueblo is a friendly place. There’s a prohibition on photography or sketching, and very few shops to entice motorists to stop on their way through the village, but visitors will find most residents happy to include them in their feast day celebrations and proud to share aspects of their culture. Art serves as a starting point for this conversation, expressing through its symbols a cosmology and worldview whose complexity is belied by the apparent simplicity of their humble dwellings and modest lifestyle. “To me, to be an artist is to feel the guiding spirit of our ancestors deep within our hearts,” says Fragua. “We give them offerings because it’s a gift for us to be chosen to do what we do, and we hope it will touch others.” R trendmagazineglobal.com Fall 2010/Winter 2011 » Trend
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ARTsmart presents the 14th Annual ™
Santa Fe A G use re a t a C Ti m e f o r a C re a t i v e
Join us for a weekend of fine ART, FOOD, WINE, FASHION & HOMES benefiting ART programs for Santa Fe’s youth SAVE THE DATES! February 25–27, 2011 Friday February 25
Sunday February 27
Fashion Show & Luncheon 11:30 am – 2 pm, Inn & Spa at Loretto, $100
Artists’ Champagne Brunch & Auction
For Gentlemen Only Lunch
11:30 am – 2 pm, Bishop’s Lodge Resort, $75
11:30 am – 2 pm, Rio Chama Steakhouse, $100
Art of Home Tour
Edible Art Tour 5 – 8 pm, Railyard, Downtown & Canyon Road, $35
12– 4 pm, free admission
Feast or Famine 8 pm, Coyote Café, $15 or free admission with EAT ticket
Saturday February 26 Art of Home Tour 12 – 4 pm, free admission
Gourmet Dinner & Auction 6 pm, Encantado Resort, $175
Purchase Tickets at artfeast.com 505.603.4643, info@artfeast.com and at the ARTsmart office, 102 E. Water Street, Santa Fe, NM 87501
ARTsmart is a volunteer organization that believes the visual arts are critical to a child’s development. Through charitable donations and events, ARTsmart funds art programs for Santa Fe schoolchildren. Our annual fundraiser, ARTfeast, is a community project that also promotes economic development. ARTsmart is a 501c3 nonprofit corporation that works with the Santa Fe Gallery Association.
Usonia, New MexicoStyle Frank Lloyd Wright homes prove that no one does local, green, and organic like the master BY KEIKO OHNUMA AND DAVID PRINCE | PHOTOS BY KATE RUSSELL
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The Frank Lloyd Wright â&#x20AC;&#x153;Pottery Houseâ&#x20AC;? in Santa Fe is so called because of the large pot-like hearth dominating the courtyard, which holds fireplaces both inside and out. The house, inspired by Native American pots, is the only Wright design to use adobe. With the recent passing of original owner Edie Soeiro, the home is being offered for sale for the first time (flw-potteryhouse.com).
In New Mexico especially, it is Wright’s vernacular that ends up expressed across the environment.
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s the nation’s greatest architect, Frank Lloyd Wright had such a thorough influence on American home design that his mark has become practically invisible today. But walk through any “spec” home on the mesa, and you will find him codified into cliché: the great room, the central fireplace, indoor-outdoor living, rock walls formed out of poured concrete, slanting rooflines and walls, expanses of windows and skylights. In New Mexico especially, where the rich and retired fantasize their dream homes, it is Wright’s vernacular that ends up expressed across the desert or mountain environment. To pay tribute to his work is to look further, however, at the roots of his genius, which draws inspiration from the natural world and the contours and characteristics of the landscape—an idea that is so rooted in modern design that we hardly question it anymore. Wright insisted on using native materials, and building to take advantage of natural phenomena for heating, cooling, and light—practices that are only gaining acceleration now. With time we recognize what the cocky, controversial architect never doubted in his lifetime: that he was first and foremost a visionary. Wright designed a staggering number of works (more than 1,100), of which 532 were built and 409 still stand. But his most important contributions and central preoccupation were with the art of the private home. Born in rural Wisconsin in 1867, he took to architecture early and apprenticed to the highly regarded commercial architect Louis Sullivan, whom he acknowledged as an important influence. From Sullivan, Wright adopted the idea of an American architecture, based on democratic ideals and American experience rather than outdated European traditions. This is the origin of such Wright trademarks as the Prairie house, a style that developed in the Midwest but is now associated largely with him. Designed simply to fit the flat landscape of the suburbs surrounding Chicago (where he settled with his family), these were low-slung homes with gently sloping roofs, deep overhangs, walls of windows, and a skyline that merged the horizontal homes with their surroundings. Interior spaces without walls were among the first “open” floor plans. Wright regarded the living room with its hearth as the physical and spiritual center of the home, and often built hallways and rooms radiating out. He relied on natural materials in their raw state, with plentiful skylights and windows to bring the outside in—a stark contrast to other architects of the time. Not surprisingly, Wright did not stop at designing homes, but often dictated to his wealthy suburban clients how they should decorate them, designing their furniture, dinnerware, and linens, and even advising inhabitants on how they should dress. He wanted his houses to instill a sense of peace and quiet, a life in harmony with the natural surroundings. “Whether people are fully conscious of this or not, they actually derive countenance and sustenance from the ‘atmosphere’ of the things they live in or with,” he wrote. “They are rooted in them just as a plant is in the soil in which it is planted.” He thus insisted that his designs be organic, meaning not only that they worked harmoniously with nature, but that the materials and motifs themselves would repeat to form an organic whole. It was Frank Lloyd Wright who coined the term organic architecture. Stunning examples of his collaboration with nature can be found across the country. Of the Prairie houses, probably the best known are Taliesin, which he built for himself and his lover in 1911, and Fallingwater (the
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Curving lines, curved wooden ceiling beams, and what appear to be portholes in the curved walls have led observers to comment on the ship-like theme of the homeâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;conceivably a wry twist on the origins of the high desert as a vast prehistoric ocean. Built-in sofas were inspired by Wright designs.
The ovoid, eye shape of the home itself is echoed throughout the design, in keeping with Wright’s concept of “organic architecture.” The blending of natural materials is also one of his signatures, in this case brick, wood, and plastered adobe.
He wanted his houses to instill a sense of peace and quiet, a life in harmony with the natural surroundings.
Kaufmann House), near Pittsburgh, built directly over a waterfall. In the late 1920s Wright moved out West at a low point in his career, when he had been evicted from Taliesin and was nearly penniless. A former draftsman sought his help with the Biltmore Hotel in Phoenix, launching the second phase of Wright’s career, which lasted until his death in 1959. Most of his two dozen projects still standing in the West are in Arizona, where he found new inspiration with the desert’s “intoxicating air, sweeping mountain vistas, and astonishing cactus plant life.” The radical change in surroundings gave him new opportunities to experiment with materials and structures not found in the temperate East. The most famous example, of course, is Taliesin West, a sprawling multi-building complex that echoes the patterns, colors, and textures of the desert, begun in 1937 and altered continuously until his death. This and other ambitious projects were made possible through the Taliesin Fellowship, established by Wright’s third wife, Olgivanna Lazovich, in which apprentices—up to three dozen at a time—would pay to work for Wright, migrating between the Taliesin houses over the course of the year. The practice continues at the Taliesin Fellowship today. New Mexico has just two homes that are known to be designed by the architect, in Pecos and Santa Fe. The Frank Lloyd Wright “Pottery House” in the foothills of the Sangre de Cristo mountains (flw-potteryhouse.com) was originally commissioned in 1928 by a couple in El Paso, Texas, but wasn’t built until the plans (which had been housed in the Wright Archives) were unearthed by builder Charles Klotsche and executed in 1984 in Santa Fe by apprentice Charles Montooth, of Taliesin Associated Architects. The design was enlarged by 2,400 square feet and adapted to the needs of the time. The only Wright house to use adobe, the home illustrates both the architect’s practicality and his imaginative fancy in creating with materials and methods native to the environment. An immense, pot-like hearth dominates the home at the edge of a courtyard formed by two curved wings meant to protect the occupants from high winds and weather. Wright described the design, inspired by Native American pottery, as “a patio surrounded by a house.” The curving, concave walls are formed by 24,000 adobe bricks and punctuated by eye-shaped cutouts offering glimpses into the courtyard. The other Frank Lloyd Wright home in New Mexico is also part of his Usonian series, so called because these houses were designed to fit the U.S.: small, cost-effective, with passive solar heating and natural cooling and lighting. In the forest above the Pecos River, it was 82
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built in 1947–48 for the Friedman family of Pennsylvania, to be used as a vacation home. Here the architect took inspiration from New Mexico’s piñon pines, designing a pyramidal-roof house he called the Fir Tree. It was his first implementation of a tepee-like roof he had envisioned for a house in Lake Tahoe 20 years earlier. Set on a sloping site with views of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, the house was built with exposed rafters of rough-hewn pine, and walls of local stone. Since it was not meant to be used in winter, the house has no heat or insulation, but there are fireplaces in every room. The diamond grid design is a shape repeated throughout the home, which again clearly draws its inspiration from the environm ent, beautifully expressing Wright’s concept of indigenous architecture. Wright always advised his apprentices to study nature; “it will never fail you.” “From the point of view of the psychology and spiritual aspect of architecture, he was the biggest architect of them all,” concludes architect Michel Marx, of Santa Fe, an apprentice and protégé of Wright in the 1940s. “His concept was to make a house a living space. He used to say that we should study nature, learn from the flowers.” Born in Paris to Jewish parents, Marx was involved in the French Resistance as a teen, helping to rescue Allied pilots who had been shot down. He was captured and tortured by the gestapo, and sent to Buchenwald and Auschwitz-Birkenau. “When I came out of the camps, I was hardly a human being, and he set me in a different direction,” Marx says of his mentor. “Instead of being hypnotized by death and torture, he taught me the meaning of beauty, of hope and building for the future.” Offered a scholarship to attend the Taliesin Fellowship after the war, Marx studied with Wright until the early 1950s. His current home, southeast of Santa Fe, is a clear homage to his mentor, marked by a sense of calm and peacefulness throughout and designed in warm, autumnal colors. The focal point is the living room, with its slightly elevated fireplace, from which the other rooms radiate. There’s even an echo of Fallingwater via a stream running beneath the main hallway. “I am definitely biased because he was so gracious to me,” Marx says of Wright’s influence. “But he was a genius. Before he came along, architecture was more about monument. After him, it is now about the human scale, about life itself.” R Double rows of clay drain pipes set into the adobe wall were meant to serve as air ducts in Wright’s original plan, and were retained by architect Charles Montooth as an important decorative feature.
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K A R A N
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Artist opening: September 24th 5 -7pm
R U H L E N G A L L E R Y
AscenciĂłn
18 x 15 x 15.5 inches
hand-fabricated steel
Melissa Haid In Nine Segments Fused Glass/Steel
Photo: Kate Russell Joie De Vivre
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26 x 26 x 20 inches
hand-fabricated bronze
225 Canyon Road ÂĽ Santa Fe, NM 87501 225 Canyon Road ÂĽ Santa Fe, NM 87501 www.karanruhlen.com ÂĽ 505.820.0807 www.karanruhlen.com ÂĽ 505.820.0807
225 Canyon Road Santa Fe, New Mexico 5 0 5 . 9 8 2 . 3 0 3 2 8 0 0 . 8 8 4 . 7 0 7 9 w w w. k a re n m e l f i . c o m
“Spirit of the Sunrise” Lisa Smith Clay sculpture
The Art of FILM
BY AMBYR DAVIS
Naturally Enchanting New Mexico’s independent filmmakers draw from the land and its roots
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COAD MILLER
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ight hundred miles from the glamour and glitz of Hollywood, a new movement is emerging in independent cinema. Amid the arroyos, mountains, and mesas, filmmakers are tapping into their ancestral roots and capturing intimate stories that resonate far beyond state lines. Among this year’s homegrown New Mexican films in various stages of production are several projects that may seem to have little in common, yet share that essential quality of being (to quote producer Joel Silver) “uniquely familiar.” That is, they offer a universal theme, but do so through authentic perspective and detail, creating an essence that is original and fresh. And it’s this quality that is powering the New Mexico film industry’s strength in independent cinema. A prime example can be found in Talmarc Productions’ The Rez, which is currently in preproduction. A captivating tale of international drug trafficking, a profound clash of cultures, and what initially seems a basic good-versus-evil journey, The Rez surmounts mediocrity through its setting on a culturally fractured Indian reservation facing extreme poverty and straddling the international border. The wounds of the population, which must be healed amid the action-packed drug smuggling tale, lend depth to a familiar plot. Thadd Turner’s Santa Fe–based production company thus brings a singular perspective to a story that proves to be more than meets the eye.
The Year One was shot on location at White Sands National Monument in Alamagordo, New Mexico, in 2008.
The beautifully executed script will be helmed by incendiary cinematographer Andrzej Sekula, of Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs; this will be his fourth feature as director. Sekula plans to capture the banal desolation of the border with grays and earth tones, juxtaposed with a warmer, vibrant look to portray the Native American culture as seen through its dances and heritage. The film must mirror the disparate worlds of New Mexico itself, because as Turner sees it, “Native Americans are caught in the middle. They’re squeezed in between the politics, the threat to their traditional values, and the necessity to feed their families in the midst of a profound clash of cultures.” With several more homegrown projects on its slate, Talmarc Productions is bringing universal stories with New Mexican flavor into the dialogue of cinema, paving the way for other local independents. The state also serves as a backdrop for intimate stories from around the world. Stan Rodman, of Santa Fe, has produced The Other Bank, a U.S./Georgian co-production, which addresses the hardships faced by Georgians since the fall of the Soviet Union. Rodman traveled to Eastern Europe to shoot the tale of Tedo, a 12-year-old boy who must go in search of his father after his mother turns to prostitution in the former Soviet republic’s capital city, Tbilisi. Filming itself was disrupted when the South Ossetia war broke out after trendmagazineglobal.com Fall 2010/Winter 2011 » Trend
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principal photography, but Rodman was able to bring the project back to New Mexico for postproduction before its world premiere at Berlinale. With this film now on the festival circuit, Rodman is moving forward on a New Mexico independent film titled The Rule of Law. He says he prefers to work within the state’s filmmaking community because “you can engage people in the filmmaking process on a more personal level that enables a higher level of creative energy.” Filmmakers here seem to share that energy and promote one another passionately, as veteran location manager and grassroots activist John Meade has done for Debra Anderson’s film Split Estate. This powerhouse documentary addresses the health and environmental effects of natural gas drilling when property owners—many of whom do not own the mineral rights to their land—are forced to allow drilling on their property. Gas is extracted by “fracking,” fracturing the soil by pumping chemicals into the earth, which endangers residents living near drill sites. Ramifica88
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tions of the motto “Drill, baby, drill” are brought to the surface in points of view that juxtapose ironic wit with heart-wrenching accounts, making a little-known issue real and personal. Split Estate provoked resistance in Anderson’s own community when the Galisteo Basin was in danger of becoming a Tecton Energy drill site. Given the state’s long history of cultures wedded to the land, it makes sense that respect for the land turns up as a major theme in New Mexico independent film. The in-progress documentary Land Water People Time ambitiously attempts to capture the essence of living in New Mexico through the words of more than 60 interview subjects. Director David Lindblom and producers Cynthia Jeannette Gomez and Daniel Valerio illuminate universal cultural values through true personal stories. “This place triggers passion. Insight pours out of people, even if it’s only through facial expressions captured on screen,” explains Gomez. “The depth of their love for the land, the traditions, the heritage—it’s all there. It’s about people’s relationship to
place”—something that reaches beyond New Mexico to indigenous links to land and ancestral history worldwide. In fact, all these independent films exhibit an ability to reveal universal truths through personal stories by way of the ancient tradition of oral storytelling; Land Water People Time simply captures it on film. Trading their own labor for interviews, the filmmaking team has made it their mission to preserve the state’s cultural heritage. “With each generation, there’s an increasing loss that’s happening,” explains Gomez. “If these stories are not shared, we are suppressing transference of all that wisdom to future generations.” Oral tradition is woven into the very fabric of New Mexican culture, along with love of the land and what devolves from it, a respect for tradition and roots. Homegrown independent film is thus able to transcend thematic clichés with both ancestral wisdom and authentic perspective, crafting stories that should resonate long after their images have flickered off the screen. R
CLOCKWISE FROM LEFT: COAD MILLER (2); COURTESY OF LAND WATER PEOPLE TIME
Clockwise from left: Actors seek seek shade during filming of The Gift at Garden of the Gods in Cerrillos, New Mexico, in 2009; awaiting playback during filming of And All Things Nice at the College of Santa Fe’s Garson Theater; filming of Land Water People Time
THE WORLD BUYS IT FROM
Gallup
Š Lisa Rodriquez
The craft of the Navajo weavers, the Zuni silversmiths, and the pottery of the Hopi, Laguna and Acoma people are but a sample of what you can experience.
There is a place where the land and people understand each other, and the result is an artistic expression that stands alone in the world of quality and design.
800.242.4282
www.gallupnm.org
Conscious BUILDING
SPIRITUALLY GROUNDED Santa Fe serenity meets Asian curvilinearity in the perfect marriage of temperaments
BY GUSSIE FAUNTLEROY | PHOTOS BY KERRY SHERCK
spots for items they already owned, and perfect design elements for the home they envisioned. The result is a striking blend of Santa Fe style using local and eco-friendly materials in organic flowing forms, with Asian touches that borrow from both Chinese and Japanese traditions. The couple dubbed the aesthetic Santa F’Asian. Casa Sagrada incorporates such Asian-inspired features as a circular living room, round windows, graceful round interior doorways called moon gates, and slightly curved but strong ceiling beams known as spirit or character beams, made from standing dead ponderosa pines. Japanese temple forms, including a temple gate leading to the entrance courtyard, are intimated in the architectural details of the 3,600-square-foot home. From Beijing’s Summer Palace came the idea for a hallway lined with small, variously shaped windows, sited to frame beautiful views. Sie was raised in New Jersey by her Chinese father and Italian stepmother. Not long ago her father returned to China to visit his
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uilder Doug McDowell stood contemplating the teakwood entertainment center being created for the living room of the Sie-Hoffman Santa Fe home. Gazing at the section where cabinets had been planned, he nixed them for an open display area. “I picture a scroll there, with flowers and a vase in front of it,” he mused. In fact, Debbie Sie (pronounced See) and Justin Hoffman already had an authentic Chinese scroll. It was one of several treasures the couple had brought back from China along with their adopted baby daughter, Shaela, now five. The scroll is adorned with koi, like the ones now swimming in an indoor rock-lined pond in the home’s atrium. It was perfect for the spot. As the living room progressed, a small, high window was cut to bring in more light from an adjacent exterior stairwell. Wanting to add character to the window, Hoffman and Sie remembered another item they had purchased a few years before—a carved, wooden, low-relief wall piece featuring a Buddha surrounded by an open filament pattern. It turns out the piece fit perfectly into the window opening, allowing light to filter through the carved areas, whose delicately curving shapes coincidentally echo the cloud patterns carved into the entertainment-center doors. Then there was the matter of the rose-colored granite. When Sie and Hoffman attended the Tucson Gem and Mineral Show earlier this year after settling into their new home, they were drawn to a particular vendor who told them emphatically, “You have got to get this stone.” It was a lovely pinkish red granite “with energetic qualities for the awakening of heart awareness and co-creating with the Divine,” recalls Sie. Yet her intuition said told her not to buy it. Later the couple found out why: Their home, on 20 acres of rocky foothills southeast of Santa Fe, is perched atop large quantities of the very same stone. And so it went. As they planned, built, and furnished the home they call Casa Sagrada, or Sacred House, serendipity seemed to follow them—or lead the way—from room to room, finding perfect
Debbie Sie and Justin Hoffman with their daughter, Shaela, and their dogs Kobi, left, and Tara, right, in front of the main entrance to their home. Top: Wildflowers scattered along the path to the entry keep the environment looking natural. Opposite: Casa Sagrada features Asian-inspired elements including round interior doorways called moon gates.
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An unusually shaped window inspired by the Summer Palace in Beijing. Left, from top: The living room is connected to the kitchen through a moon gate; curved ceiling beams add to the character of the house; local artist Christoph Neander created the table in the living room and the bed, the centerpiece of the master bedroom.
ancestral village, whose communal structures, he reported, are round. “It’s built into your DNA!” Hoffman laughs, referring to his wife’s strong attraction to round shapes and color, especially red. For his part, Hoffman, who grew up in Maryland, brought to the design a penchant for natural and naturally shaped wood. A major inspiration was the masterful woodwork found throughout Santa Fe’s world-renowned spa Ten Thousand Waves. “We wanted a natural, environmentally sound home,” he points out, “but we also wanted it to be aesthetically beautiful and finished-feeling, rather than rustic.” Creating a home that matched their vision was made possible through close collaboration between the builder, architect Jon Dick, of the award-winning firm Archaeo Architects, and the homeowners, who did the interior design themselves. It started with the land, which Sie and Hoffman chose for its many trees and rocks on a hillside overlooking a canyon filled with ponderosa pines. The couple spent months getting to know the site, walking, performing blessing ceremonies, and determining the best spot to build. 92 Trend » Fall 2010/Winter 2011 trendmagazineglobal.com
The couple brought back tiles from China that set the theme for their daughter Shaela’s bathroom.
“We felt like stewards of the land even before we built,” recalls Sie. “That’s why we picked Jon as the architect. He was very sensitive to the trees. We wanted to incorporate the house into the land.” Construction included removing as few trees as possible. One tree that died just before building began found a second life as a slightly irregular corner post for a small Zen garden outside the dining room. Sie and Hoffman are practicing naturopathic physicians with experience in environmental medicine (Hoffman in particular) and energy balancing (especially Sie). They brought to their home project an emphasis on green building, nontoxic materials, and environmental sustainability. Exterior walls are made of energy-efficient Durisol insulated wall block. Sustainably harvested wood was used for flooring, including Brazilian cherry for the living room floor, while other floors are made from eco-friendly cork. Water harvested from a rooftop catchment system is stored in underground tanks and used for irrigation, and a Piranha system uses bacteria to break down household black and gray water for the same purpose. Landscaper John Cort and
witty proportions for seriously small spaces 1512 Pacheco St. Suite C104 Santa Fe NM 87505 505.983.3007 www.santafebydesign.com
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landscape consultant Rick Phelps guided the transformation of a steep hillside into a terrace patio below the homeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s large rounded portal that, in turn, overlooks a lower terrace featuring a walk-in underground root cellar and a large grow dome. Fruit trees, transplanted aspens, and a profusion of wildflowers planted around the home add a touch of lushness to the rocky, pine-forested environment. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t want it to look manicured,â&#x20AC;? Sie remarks. The couple met as students at the Southwest College of Naturopathic Medicine and Health Sciences in Tempe, Arizona. Sie had been working in the medical field for 20 years and would graduate as a licensed naturopathic physician, while Hoffman would go on to become a licensed doctor of Oriental medicine with a degree from the International Institute of Chinese Medicine in Santa Fe. After marrying in Tempe and moving to Santa Fe in 2001, they founded the Light & Love Naturopathic Center. Sie remembers Hoffman as a student who was always smiling. (Smile crinkles appear around his eyes as she says this.) A â&#x20AC;&#x153;seriously academicâ&#x20AC;? student herself, she was intrigued by this thoughtful and apparently â&#x20AC;&#x153;blissed-outâ&#x20AC;? classmate, and determined to get to know him. The two soon discovered that they were exceptionally compatibleâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;which explains how they can spend virtually every moment together, at work, at home, and in caring for their daughter. That compatibility also manifests in the easy melding of their tastes in designing their home. As a reflection of the coupleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s outlook, Casa Sagrada is sprinkled with reminders of the serenity and balance they seek in life. Lighted wall nichos hold Buddhas; a statue of the intertwined Hindu gods Rama and Sita stands in the Zen garden; and Chinese symbols are carved into the wood of interior doors, conveying such messages as Happiness (Shaelaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s room), Enlightenment (the study), and Good Omen (the guest room). In the living room a large metal gong used for vibrational healing sessions sends out deeply resonating tones. Stepping away from it, Sie grows animated as she points to the strikingly deep-blue Viking range and hanging glass light fixtures over the center island in the kitchen. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve got to have my cobalt blue!â&#x20AC;? she exclaims. In the evenings, the semicircular covered portal, with its cool slate tile floor and sunset views, makes for a favorite resting spot, while breakfast in the dining room, with its large round window, is perfect for watching the sun come up. â&#x20AC;&#x153;And every time we go out the front door, thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s that beauty,â&#x20AC;? Sie adds. The entrance courtyard, in fact, merges several design threads. A tree in the center couldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t be saved, but the architect conceived of a rock-filled dry creek meandering through the space instead. A winding walkway crosses this flow by means of a small, arched Japanese-style wooden footbridge. Aside from their visual appeal, the bridge and snaking walkway serve to deflect negative energy away from the home, Sie explains. She stops and gazes across the courtyard to the slopes and trees beyond. â&#x20AC;&#x153;This is a sacred mountain,â&#x20AC;? she says. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We feel really blessed.â&#x20AC;? R
Artist STUDIO
BY KEIKO OHNUMA | PHOTO BY BILL STENGEL
A Thousand and One Words
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bohemian and a gentleman, messenger from a more gracious era, Taos artist Jack Smith paints portraits—the old-fashioned, realistic kind, using materials popular with the Old Masters: black oil medium, lead salts, and copper plate. But with subjects drawn from the streets of Taos, these paintings carry an edge that takes them beyond the conventional genre to become, in his words, “compelling artwork instead of just a picture of someone.” It was his award-winning 2004 Taos Portraits series that brought these strengths to light. Just six inches square and showing only a head, the fifty studies zoom in at odd angles not only on the faces of the riotous cast, but at something beneath the wild headgear, posed attitudes, and tribal tattoos—a common humanity that confronts the viewer peering closely at the intimately sized plates. “The hands, feet, background are superfluous,” Smith explains of the series. “What we’re after is the essence, the person’s essential
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nature.” Portraiture traditionally served as a marker of status and was compelled to flatter, but Smith works under no such constraints. “If you want a likeness, have a photograph taken,” he declares. “Photoshop is a great tool if you want that, but it’s not me.” Rather than display the ideal image his subjects hope to project, Smith develops a nuanced portrait that considers both self-image and what is revealed by voice, movement, and manner—shades of disappointment, resignation, or defiance all written with his confident but controlled expressionistic brushwork. The muted colors and ambivalent facial expressions immediately bring Lucian Freud to mind. But Smith cites equally the influence of a predecessor, the more obscure British painter Stanley Spencer, known for biblical scenes set in his idyllic childhood village and frank nude portraits of himself with his estranged second wife. Like Spencer, Smith was influenced early on by writers, whom he cites as his most important mentors. “Writers have the best work
LEFT AND RIGHT: COURTESY OF THE HARWOOD MUSEUM CENTER: COURTESY OF WENDY GERBER COLLECTION
Taos Portraits, from left: Portrait of Ron Cooper, 2003; Portrait of Bob Watkins, 2002; Portrait of Annapurna Sydel, 2003; all oil on copper plate
Jack Smith’s modern-day portraits suggest the brush may be mightier than the pen
BILL STENGEL
Jack Smith at his studio. Left: The Stockwell Portrait, oil on canvas, 2010. Right: Portrait of Dennis and Henry Lee Hopper, oil on canvas, 2009.
habits of anyone I know,” he says. “They spend time with the work every day, and that’s what’s required.” Maybe that’s what accounts for the narrative subtext of people and their objects in his paintings, their gazes appealing for a vast, wordless understanding. Commissioned portraits have always been Smith’s bread and butter—everyone is interesting, he says, on some level—but what he seems to enjoy most are his historic series. He has painted American poets, including W. S. Merwin and the Nobel laureate Derek Walcott; musicians such as David Crosby; and currently he is painting artists he admires, the prototype of which is his longtime friend and Taos renegade, the late Dennis Hopper. Smith first came to Taos in 1972, a hippie kid with a used car, a Great Dane, and a toothbrush, as he puts it. Over the years he kept returning, until he and his wife moved here in the mid-’70s—and back to Michigan a couple of times so their kids would know their extended families. Now he and his wife call Taos home for all but
the long winters, when they travel. Smith paints every day, “usually maniacally,” focusing on one painting at a time in his immaculate warehouse studio on the edge of town. Better known nationally than at home, selling mostly out of galleries on the coasts, he seems accustomed to the artistic struggle. He has always treated painting as a livelihood, as anyone who’s serious would, he says. Back when he had a young family to support, Smith would do odd jobs to supplement his income from painting portraits. One day, exhausted by manual labor, he swore to his family that he would never again do anything but paint, even if they starved. “This is what I’ve chosen in life, and this is what I’m going to do,” he says with conviction newly tested by a difficult year in the art market. “Once you say that, your world changes, and it becomes possible,” he says with a smile—not only to make a living painting portraits, one might add, but to make portrait painting into art. R trendmagazineglobal.com Fall 2010/Winter 2011 » Trend
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Artist STUDIO
BY KEIKO OHNUMA | PHOTO BY BILL STENGEL
Dangerous Beauty
BILL STENGEL
Flo’s seductive glass art often includes spikes
I
ADDISON DOTY
n the macho world of glassblowing, Flo Perkins is like the tomboy who isn’t content to knock every tattooed stud out of the ring. No, she has to do it with flowers. Over the past three decades, her sensuous colored-glass botanicals have proved impossible for all but the masters to imitate, combining such laborintensive Italian techniques as granulare, murrina, and reticello with an unmistakably female aesthetic. The look that puts her pieces in the fivefigure range at retail has not come without a lot of sweat, as any glassblower will tell you. Opting to go it alone and build her own “hot shop” in rural New Mexico in the early 1980s, Perkins literally pulled people off the street to assist her at a time when the sexy new medium was spawning hippie havens of creative experimentation, almost exclusively male. “It’s always been clubby and
cliquey, and I was never part of it,” she says, dismissing the sexist scene at glass hubs like Pilchuck Glass School, in Seattle. Tough as any torch-wielding apprentice, Perkins showed twice the determination. Twenty years ago she set out to learn eso-
teric Venetian glassblowing techniques, and talked her way into the secretive cult of craftsmen on the island of Murano. Her go-with-the-flow American work style infuriated the meticulous Italians, but master glassblower Lino Tagliapietra liked the difference in her approach, and became a mentor. Perkins “started all over again,” learning to blow glass the Italian way—no easy task when you live with two dogs, two sons, and a husband down a dirt road in Pojoaque, New Mexico. “What I’m good at is, what translates into this process?” she says of her ongoing love affair with hot glass, still considered a craft medium in many museums and galleries. Perkins wanted to make sculpture, not vessels, and evolve out of the “glass ghetto” of production tableware into fine art. Her trademark succulents, bent bowling pins, and orange danger cones cleverly make that leap, blooming and wilting with the grace and power of the liquid medium. “When this thing is going, I’m just as happy as I can be,” she says of the fourth hot shop she has built at her sprawling compound 20 miles north of Santa Fe. These days, Perkins has to leave her furnaces idle for much of the year for want of a team of skilled glassblowers to assist her with each piece. In winter, she brings in
blowers from Seattle, or travels there to hire a shop and a team at a cost of about $3,000 a day, netting a few usable pieces. The rest of the year, “so I don’t go totally crazy,” she spends fabricating—welding or casting metal (little skills picked up along the way) or adding woodworked pieces to her glass succulents. By any measure, Perkins has reached the top tier not only of glass but of sculptural art: She is the only glass artist in Santa Fe’s Chiaroscuro Gallery; she shows with Dan Dailey and Dale Chihuly at Imago Galleries in Palm Desert, California, and with Tagliapietra and Dante Marioni at Galleria Marina Barovier in Venice, Italy; and she has a series of her succulents in production at the venerable Italian glass factory Venini. “It’s made in Pojoaque and sells in Venice—how cool is that?” she laughs, an East Coast swagger poking through half a lifetime in the rural West. “So if I die tomorrow, I’m happy.” Until then, Flo Perkins seems compelled to work like she’s on fire. “I got into this thing of proving that I’m as good as the
From left: Pin Muff (2006), blown glass, cold-fabricated; Esmeralde (2007), blown glass, hot-fabricated, and marble; Pinvert (2005), blown glass and wood.
guys,” says the former lacrosse player and admitted jock. “It was the most athletic thing I could do in art.” Like the guys, she got addicted to the process, the materials, the muscular moves by the fire. “I’m just lucky that people like what I make.” R trendmagazineglobal.com Fall 2010/Winter 2011 » Trend 99
Wine/Dine
BY BILL NEVINS
Agave Elixirs Putting Down Roots in New Mexico T
he spiky, succulent, sacred maguey (ma-gay) plant, also known as agave, is reclaiming respect through the efforts of two dedicated New Mexico beverage importers: Del Maguey, of Taos, and the Santa Fe Tequila Company, makers of SilverCoin tequila. Mass-produced tequila and mezcal have gotten a bad rap for harsh taste and hangovers. However, the products offered by New Mexico’s maguey purveyors are neither cheap nor shoddy. Quality control and even an artistically refined sensibility are their trademarks. Ron Cooper’s Del Maguey Ltd. Co. Web site, mezcal.com, proclaims, “Del Maguey Single Village Mezcals embrace the notion of alcohol as a gift from the gods. Unblended and produced from the heart of maguey and soul of the village. The finest and purest available in the world.” Cooper offers a toast with small clay cups of a Tobalá-style mezcal, one of about seven products made in small villages and bottled by Del Maguey, as we chat in his Ranchos de Taos art studio. He first pours a tiny amount on the ground as an offering to the goddess of fertility, adding reverent words in the Zapotec language. He recalls sharing this ancient style of mezcal with indigenous friends in Oaxaca. “You mention Tobalá to a Zapotec, and he goes, ‘Oh wow, that’s what my ancestors drank!’”
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Social Networks Graphic Design Opposite: A mountaintop of maguey welcomes one to the gateway to San Luis del Rio. Clockwise from left: A Zapotec mezcalero forms bubbles from a bamboo pipette, showing the proof and purity of his mezcal to Ron Cooper; a ceremonial clay sipping cup used to sample Del Maguey mezcal; a sign greets visitors with a mezcal-toting calavera and the message “Welcome to my homeland.”
Web Design
COURTESY OF DEL MAGUEY LTD. CO.
E-Publishing Del Maguey’s mezcals reveal subtle shades of smoky flavor. They are a rare treat, to be savored in good company. Their marketing slogan is “Sip it, don’t shoot it”—especially since it ranges from about $30 to $200 per bottle retail, depending on rareness. Carried in scores of bars, restaurants, and retailers around the nation and world, the product has 30 purveyors in Santa Fe, including Coyote Café, Geronimo Bar and Grill, Inn and Spa at Loretto, and Evangelo’s. “We get six hundred bottles of Tobalá per year,” Cooper continues, “and it’s won the highest score ever—double gold—three times in blind tasting competitions.” His latest product, Mezcal Vida, is named for his granddaughter, Vida Sunshine Cooper. The native Mexican art of distilling spirits was encouraged by 16th-century Spanish conquistadors, Cooper explains. He strives to preserve the village-based Oaxacan handcrafting that distinguishes his mezcals from factory-made varieties. Distilled to proof, Del Maguey’s imports display their Certified Organic labels and are refined and given enhanced flavor through such traditional methods as distillation through cooked chicken breast, for the delicious Pechuga style. Cooper, a sculptor since 1965, shows a lamp he made in the profile of his late friend Dennis Hopper. His work has appeared in collections including the Whitney and Guggenheim museums in New York, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, and Bibliothèque nationale of France in Paris. The 67-year-old California native has resided and worked in Taos for the past 26 years, but visits Oaxaca, he says, at least eight times a year. His art attempts to “turn the mind onto itself and its emotions.” Each Del Maguey bottle is decorated by famed Taos artist Ken Price, and some are presented in handwoven palm-fiber estuches (baskets), an ancient Zapotec tradition. trendmagazineglobal.com Fall 2010/Winter 2011 » Trend 101
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Turning others on to the elixirs is an art project in itself. “I’ve never been a capitalist,” Cooper says. “I view Del Maguey as an ongoing social art project. Actually, I just wanted to bring back good mezcal from Mexico to enjoy with my many friends. But legally I could only bring one liter per trip, so I had to get an importer’s license to bring more.” Cooper’s thirst for mezcal started in 1963, when he was an art student in Los Angeles. “We used to cross the border to Ensenada and drink bad mezcal, with the worm in the bottle—a marketing gimmick. I was the fool sucking the worm out. Then in 1970, two buddies and I shared a bottle of good tequila with art dealer Rico Mizuno. Soon we were on the road bound for SilverCoin tequila, by Santa Fe Tequila Company Panama. We stopped along the way in Oaxaca, in a small weaving village, where we made good friends and discovered the true ritual use—and the real flavors—of mezcal in Zapotec culture.” Cooper speaks with good-humored missionary zeal about his Oaxaca-based nonprofit organization, which supports indigenous craftspeople: “Each year we put on the Semana Cultural de Mezcal, a week of celebration of the culture of mezcal that includes lectures, tastings, and promotion of the old traditions.” Down the road in Santa Fe, Christopher Webster, of Santa Fe Tequila Company, waves off self-revelation. “I’d rather talk about the product than about me,” he says with a smile. That product, as stated on the SilverCoin Web site, santafetequilas.com, is “pure blue agave tequila, distilled to proof to retain all its natural flavor.” Holding a small glass up to the light in his Santa Fe Plaza office to reveal its distinct color, the 30-year-old Santa Fe native explains that this means SilverCoin tequila is never diluted. “Tequila is produced in Jalisco, either in the plains or the mountains. We chose the Los Altos highlands, where the plants have a higher content of natural sugars, which distills into a much smoother, sweeter, more flavorful tequila than that produced in the lowlands closer to the town of Tequila.” Though it makes a fine sipping silver tequila, Webster explains, SilverCoin has been developed specifically for Silver Coin margaritas, a Santa Fe favorite. “We hand-select the plants, and we very carefully process them under our supervision. I visit Jalisco frequently myself.” Webster explains that his company started in 2007 and has gone through a number of changes. “This past year has been great for us. We’ve been actively participating with the Santa Fe 400 celebrations and the Santa Fe Film Festival. Doing fun, artistic, communitybased events is part of our business model.” Whether sipped reverently in honor of tradition or mixed into a signature margarita to share with an evening of friends, the ancient gift of the maguey plant is gaining a foothold as a hometown New Mexico pleasure. R 102 Trend » Fall 2010/Winter 2011 trendmagazineglobal.com
COURTESY OF SANTA FE TEQUILA COMPANY
Wine/Dine
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Geronimo
724 Canyon Road, Santa Fe, N.M. 505-982-1500/geronimorestaurant.com BY LESLEY KING | PHOTOS BY DOUGLAS MERRIAM
S
ince its inception, Geronimo has been driven by passion. When it opened twenty years ago, the goal was to be a boutique restaurant. “We wanted to support boutique American wineries and artisan food producers,” says general manager and partner Chris Harvey. Although their wine list now includes Old World offerings, the focus is still on wine and food created with true passion—that’s classic Geronimo, for which the restaurant has long been known. “At Geronimo there is no compromise,” says Harvey. “It’s all quality—quality atmosphere, quality people, and quality food we buy and serve.” The setting in the historic Borrego House, built in 1756, is opulent, with thick adobe walls, viga ceilings, and cushy chairs and booths. The precisely trained staff caters to diners’ needs, reliable yet unobtrusive—true professionals, as Harvey puts it. The menu offers New American dishes with French and Asian touches. Executive chef Eric DiStefano prepares such delicacies as an oven-roasted bass with diver scallops and local vegetables on jasmine rice, and a peppery elk tenderloin with applewood-smoked bacon and roasted-garlic potatoes with brandied mushroom sauce, a perennial favorite. Dinner might be followed with white chocolate mascarpone cheesecake, a perfect finish to a meal that provides, as Harvey calls it, “an experience the diner will remember.”
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Wine/Dine Advertisement
100 Kachina Road, Taos Ski Valley, N.M. 575-776-8020/thebavarian.net
KATE RUSSELL
The Bavarian
CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: COURTESY OF THE BAVARIAN; KATE RUSELL (2); GABRIELLA MARKS
BY RACHEL PRESTON
W
ith 280 sunny days per year, Taos Ski Valley is the perfect place to play . . . and playing here is the perfect time to shed the skis or hiking boots at the Bavarian, the valley’s favorite place to relax and enjoy a sociable environment with excellent food and drink. Named one of this year’s “30 Best Romantic Getaways” by Travel and Leisure magazine, the 15-year-old timber-framed lodge recalls the atmospheric alpine restaurants of Europe’s finest ski resorts. Thomas Schultze and his wife, Jamie, offer a unique fusion of Old World accommodations and savory fare. Visitors are invited to soak up the sun on the spacious deck with a view of 12,480-foot Kachina Peak, or get toasty warm at the massive Kachelofen tile stove inside while enjoying Spaten beer on tap, exceptional wines, and hearty German delicacies served up by staff in lederhosen and dirndls. The refined German fare includes succulent jagerschnitzel, käsespätzle served in a sizzling aromatic iron skillet, delicious fresh sausages, and a spicy goulash with tender morsels of meat bursting with flavor. Commitment to quality keeps locals and visitors alike traveling up the mountain for a dining experience unlike any other—Old World hospitality in a spectacular New World setting.
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Wine/Dine Advertisement
La Plazuela at La Fonda on the Plaza 100 E. San Francisco Street Santa Fe, N.M. 505-982-5511 www.lafondasantafe.com
F
resh guacamole prepared tableside by veteran server Lupe Marrufo is one of the intimate touches that bring local diners back time and again to La Plazuela, their home away from home. The recently remodeled restaurant combines centuries-old tradition with eclectic New World whimsy, reflected in the mix of hand-carved Southwestern furnishings and hundreds of hand-painted windows. The menu ranges from authentic New Mexican cuisine to contemporary fusion, with an award-winning wine list. Executive Chef Lane Warner makes gourmet fare of such New Mexican standards as enchiladas, rellenos, tamales, and fajitas. Consider, for example, pork carnitas or red snapper tacos with asadero cheese and red, green, and papaya salsas. Dinner entrees include a roasted whole rainbow trout with lemon-cilantro vinaigrette and artichoke-fingerling potato hash, or a roasted chile poblano stuffed with sautéed vegetables, served with roasted piñon couscous, sweet pea flan, and roasted tomato coulis. Many of the employees date their tenure at La Plazuela in the decades, which accounts for the Old World attentiveness and subtle flair that result from being at the center of Plaza nightlife. Bartender Kelly Rael has been shaking cocktails for more than ten years, for example, serving up his signature margaritas with the finest tequilas while diners enjoy a cowboy two-step in the neighboring La Fiesta Lounge. 106 Trend » Fall 2010/Winter 2011 trendmagazineglobal.com
BY BILL NEVINS | PHOTOS BY DOUGLAS MERRIAM
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El Farol 808 Canyon Road Santa Fe, N.M. 505-983-9912/elfarolsf.com
BY RACHEL PRESTON | PHOTOS BY DOUGLAS MERRIAM
I
t’s no wonder that El Farol is known as “one of the best bars on Earth,” according to The New York Times. Step past the 175-year-old wooden bar on a Saturday night, and you are sure to hear applause, clapping, and the rhythmic steps of live flamenco dancing. Staged in a private room in the Spanish tradition, the highly charged Flamenco Dinner Show sets the tone for the whole restaurant: leisurely, convivial dining in the European tradition. Flickering candles give breath to dancing figures painted across the walls, while the scent of fresh herbs and roasting meats fills the air. Owner David Salazar was the first to introduce tapas to New Mexico, turning El Farol into the first destination for authentic Spanish cuisine and excellent wines. Head chef Genovevo Rivera has spent nearly two decades perfecting a menu of gutsy delicacies rich in smoked paprika, saffron, chipotle chilies, piquillo peppers, capers, and caper berries. Diners savor his paella of saffron rice with scallops, shrimp, mussels, clams, chorizo, and chicken, or the parrillada mixta of grilled lamb, chorizo, and shrimp with roasted potatoes and chimichurri sauce. For an evening of lively entertainment and leisurely fine dining, or just tapas sampled with a glass of wine on the patio, El Farol has been a Canyon Road favorite for 25 years, winning local honors multiple times as being among the Best of Santa Fe. trendmagazineglobal.com Fall 2010/Winter 2011 » Trend 107
modern home decor contemporary & ethnographic art interior design jewelry & accessories custom furniture design
L ? 9 JE H ? 7 FH?9; Whj Z[i_]d
photos: Eric Swanson (showroom) and Chris Martinez (kitchen)
1512 Pacheco Street Building B Pacheco Park Santa Fe, NM 87505 505-982-8632 victoriaprice.com
Spot-on Design
The curving lines and earthy materials of the Frank Lloyd Wright “Pottery House” in Santa Fe set off the bright, flowing clothing of several local designers.In the following pages, we combine an ingenious, classic response to landscape with inspired new takes on the architecture of the human form. (For more about the architect and home, see page 76.)
PHOTOS BY KATE RUSSELL
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Fashion Fusion
African mud cloths from CasaNova with neck piece by Melanie DeLuca. Previous page: Azmina wrap top and gypsy skirt by Spirit of the Earth, Opla drop earrings by Tony Malmed for Spirit of the Earth, shoes from Goler; hand-dyed silk shirt from Origins, wrist cuffs by Cody Sanderson, DJP shoes from Goler. Opposite: Hand-loomed dress in recycled silk, cotton, and hemp by Katherine Maxwell, silver cuff by Cody Sanderson. Designers, page 122.
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TRENDSOURCE
Fashion Fusion
Indigo hand-knit shirt by Katherine Maxwell; coral cuff and wrist bands, custom belt buckle by Cody Sanderson. Opposite, from left: burn-out button-down Citron shirt from Spirit of the Earth; hand-loomed dress in recycled silk, cotton, and hemp by Katherine Maxwell, silver cuff by Cody Sanderson.
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TRENDSOURCE
Fashion Fusion
Train skirt in wool with feather appliqué and leather bustier with feather by Pilar Agoyo, jewelry by Cody Sanderson.
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Fashion Fusion Arlena and Marty Markinson’s house on a ridgetop outside Santa Fe was inspired by the classic Tuscany villa. Built in 2003, the home took three years to design and finalize with Santa Fe architect Richard Martinez. The 6,000-square-foot villa overlooking an arroyo and distant hills is constructed of adobe walls covered in stucco. It’s a classic design, Martinez says, with an entry courtyard and auto court at the front of the home, and the public rooms arranged around a landscaped interior courtyard containing a fountain. A portal in back allows for outdoor dining and entertaining. Inside, the rooms have vaulted plaster ceilings or wood trusses. Interior designer Susan Dupepe worked closely with the owner, Arlena Markinson, who joined her on trips to Mexico to select antiques and stonework. “Getting down to the house was a feat in itself,” Martinez recalls. “We spent a lot of effort and money to put the road in that goes down to where the house is.” The owners wanted the house to sit away from the road, isolated in the landscape. This was accomplished by a long, dipping road.
Left to right: Linen button-down shirt with patent design by Pilar Agoyo; wide leather pant, sheer long-sleeved blouse, and signature eagle feather scarf by Patricia Michaels, sunglasses from Goler; black cloak with shawl stand-up collar by Patricia Michaels, shoes and sunglasses from Goler; gray jacket by Pilar Agoyo with silver buttons by Cody Sanderson, sunglasses from Goler. 1972 Silver Shadow Rolls-Royce, Tom Linton, Collector Cars of Santa Fe
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Fashion Fusion
Hemp satin shirt, cream blazer and pants in linen and cotton by Conscious Clothing, silver cross and beads by Rocki Gorman, shoes from Goler.
From left: Tapestry jacket from Spirit of the Earth, beaded shoes by DJP at Goler; red and gold hand-printed silk chiffon dress with asymmetrical neckline from Origins, turquoise rings by Rocki Gorman, red satin shoes from Goler.
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Fashion Fusion
Justine Olympus Parrish pleat dress and Azmina vintage hooded silk jacket from Spirit of the Earth, silver drops on long hoops by Tony Malmed for Spirit of the Earth, turquoise ring by Rocki Gorman, shoes from Goler.
120 Trend Âť Fall 2010/Winter 2011 trendmagazineglobal.com
From left: Butterfly top with cocoon coat from Origins, turquoise drop earrings by Rocki Gorman, shoes from Goler; Carter Smith hand-dyed silk shirt from Origins; green/aqua chiffon wrap by Selene Narov for Spirit of the Earth, jewelry by Rocki Gorman, electric-blue shoes from Goler; satin shirt from Spirit of the Earth.
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Fashion Fusion
STYLIST Katherine Maxwell STYLING ASSISTANT Joaquin Gonzales MAKEUP AND HAIR Jeanna Gienke and Carrie Horrowitz of Adorn Hair Studio MODELS (in order of appearance) Megan “Jade” Boril Radoykov Tailinh Agoyo Joaquin Gonzales Kasey Christie DESIGNERS AND BOUTIQUES Pilar Agoyo pilaragoyo.com Casa Nova 505-983-8558 casanovagallery.com Conscious Clothing by Chrystal Miller 505-982-7506 getconscious.com Goler Shoes 505-982-0924 golershoes.com Indigo men’s knits by Katherine Maxwell, wrist bands and buckles by Cody Sanderson. Right: Turquoise and silver heart necklace and earrings by Rocki Gorman.
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Rocki Gorman 505-983-7833 rockigorman.com Katherine Maxwell Inc. 505-920-0415 katherinemaxwell.com Patricia Michaels 575-751-9675 pmwaterlily.com Origins 505-988-2323 originssantafe.com Cody Sanderson codysanderson.com Spirit of the Earth 505-988-9558 spiritoftheearth.com SPECIAL THANKS TO: Andrea Soeiro Frank Lloyd Wright “Pottery House,” Santa Fe Arlena and Marty Markinson Villa del Alma, Santa Fe 1972 Silver Shadow Rolls-Royce, Tom Linton, Collector Cars of Santa Fe
TRENDSOURCE
Profiles in Design Santa Fe style today is defined by the myriad cosmopolitan talents who have chosen to call this city home. It brings together eclectic global influences with the rooted traditions of the mountain West. In the following pages we introduce you to some of Trend’s favorite boutiques and design services, and the personalities that make them unique to our home—and yours.
PHOTOS BY KATE RUSSELL
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Profiles in Design
Visions Design Group “I like to celebrate the here-ness,” declares David Naylor, owner of Visions Design Group, a full-service interior design firm in Santa Fe whose resources include a 5,000-square-foot showroom and woodworking shop where artisans create custom furnishings and architectural elements. In Naylor’s vision, however, the sense of place that distinguishes Santa Fe and the Southwest is enhanced by “selected furniture, fabrics, accents, and one-of-a-kind items from our trusted sources around the world,” both ancient and contemporary. Naylor established Visions in 1997 for residential and commercial clients doing both new construction and remodels. His interest in Old World design reflects a love of fine craftsmanship that also uses highquality reclaimed wood, he notes. In that same spirit of respect for the past, he enjoys repurposing clients’ existing antiques and other items, creating excitement through a “visual tension” of opposites—European luxury, for example, with a Zen touch. 111 North Saint Francis Drive, Santa Fe, N.M. 505.988.3170 visionsdesigngroup.com
Casa Nova Growing up in South Africa, Natalie Fitz-Gerald was collecting African art and artifacts long before cultural and aesthetic fusion came into vogue in the world of design. In 1998 she settled in Santa Fe, having expanded her aesthetic sensibility to skillfully mix Asian, American, Native American, and other cultural artifacts and art. Santa Fe homeowners and designers began reaping the benefits of Fitz-Gerald’s experience when she opened Casa Nova in the Santa Fe Railyard in 2003. Describing her approach as “the art of living and living with art,” Fitz-Gerald often collaborates with local African artisan cooperatives, helping to raise living standards while showcasing the best of contemporary and traditional African art. She notes that Casa Nova’s eye-catching fusion works beautifully in homes with contemporary or Southwestern furnishings and design. “I’m bringing new things in all the time,” she adds. “Watch for surprises!” 530 South Guadalupe Street, Santa Fe, N.M. 505.983.8558 casanovagallery.com
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Advertising Section
La Mesa of Santa Fe If you remember old Santa Fe, you’ll know La Mesa of Santa Fe originally brought together the work of exceptional local artists creating tableware in ceramics and glass. If you’re familiar with the store these days, you’ll know La Mesa of Santa Fe carries exceptional art not only for the table and the walls around it, but the table itself—and other handcrafted furniture—as well as sculptural and wall art for every room in the house and outside. It’s an eclectic mix, featuring the talents of more than 60 artists working in a wide range of materials and styles, including functional and sculptural ceramic and glass art. Yet it works together visually, remarks owner Mary Larson, thanks to a focus on extraordinary color and design. “We’re very selective with new artists,” notes Larson, who co-founded La Mesa in 1982. “Any new work has to mesh with the existing art and create a flow.” 225 Canyon Road, Santa Fe, N.M. 505.984.1688 lamesaofsantafe.com
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Profiles in Design
The Firebird When Gene Butler and his wife, Mary Blake-Butler, bought The Firebird in 1988, the hearth industry was a plain-Jane affair. Well-built woodstoves, always black, did their job of providing home heat from a renewable resource—an honorable contribution to the world. But as The Firebird attests, today’s highly efficient woodstove (or propane or natural gas stove or insert) can also make a design statement, serving as an integrated part of a home’s furnishings in a range of colors and styles. While The Firebird’s hearth product lines have expanded along with the changing industry, the whole store looks to the outdoors in summer. A knowledgeable staff educates customers in garden-related and water-conservation products such as outdoor grills, drip irrigation, and rainwater catchment. “We really try to take care of our customers,” Butler says. “We’re here for the long haul.” 1808 Espinacitas Street, Santa Fe, N.M. 505.983.5264 thefirebird.com
Clemens & Associates Well before the phrase “outdoor living space” became popular, Clemens & Associates was creating it, notes the firm’s president, Catherine Clemens. In 1980 she established the company with her then-husband, Jess, bringing a background in art, gardening, and stonemasonry to a business that provides full-service design, installation, and maintenance service for outdoor living spaces and gardens. Santa Fe’s climate and architecture make it a natural for al fresco gatherings of family and friends in courtyards with bancos and portals, says Clemens. To maximize these traditional elements, her team includes professionals in landscape architecture, design, construction, and irrigation, with a focus on water conservation. Xeriscaped outdoor living areas might incorporate well-chosen plant and water features with such architectural elements as stonework, metalwork, and garden ornamentation. Whether projects are large or small, Clemens notes, “Our intention is to provide good, thoughtful design.” 1012 Marquez Place #201, Santa Fe, N.M. 505.982.4005 clemensandassociates.com
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TRENDSOURCE
Profiles in Design
Statements in Tile/Lighting/Kitchens/Flooring In choosing lighting or tile for a new home or remodel, people often are drawn to the look of a product without considering its function and role within a space, notes Kim White, owner and president of Statements in Tile/Lighting/Kitchens/Flooring. Years of experience in the field allow White and her staff to help clients realize their vision by guiding them through the broad range of products on the market. Before purchasing Statements in 1999, White worked for several years as the showroom manager. Today the company caters to homeowners, interior designers, architects, and builders with an extensive product line that includes “very green” items. Working with local artisans offers opportunities for custom-designed items—a choice less costly and time consuming than most people believe, White points out. “Basically, anything you can imagine, we either have or can get.” 1441 Paseo de Peralta, Santa Fe, N.M. 505.988.4440 statementsinsantafe.com
Kris Lajeskie Design Group, Inc. Rancho Alegre, a 26,000-square-foot adobe ranch and estate south of Santa Fe, launched Kris Lajeskie into the world of building and design in the late 1990s. As lead designer on the project for five years, Lajeskie understood the value of incorporating handcrafted architectural and interior design elements by local master craftsmen. Reverence for the Southwest’s traditions informed the project’s design, materials, and construction. As a result, whether a residential or commercial project is in Santa Fe, Manhattan, or Paris, Lajeskie’s aesthetic vision is driven by authenticity and a sense of place, an approach that has drawn clients to her award-winning firm from around the world. Among her most significant projects was the redesign of Santa Fe’s Hotel St. Francis, a National Historic Landmark whose serene, monastic-themed remodel combined her talents with her faith, as part of—as she describes it—“a remarkable journey we are on.” 1012 Marquez Place #304A, Santa Fe, N.M. 505.986.1551 krislajeskiedesign.com
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Profiles in Design
Barbara Felix Architecture + Design Everything in Barbara Felix’s background coalesced with the founding of her architecture and design firm in 1998: a jeweler mother and an engineer father who gave her strong right-left brain balance; a degree in architecture; and extensive work for architectural and interior design firms, including a Chicago company that also did product design. So when it was time for Felix to start her own business, it made sense to provide residential and commercial clients with the full range of services—a complete package that also incorporates the client’s stories, beliefs, passions, cultural aesthetic, and historic roots. This approach, which Felix trademarked as Woven Architecture, has informed her work with such clients as La Fonda on the Plaza (for architectural and interior elements in remodel projects) and the Pueblos of Zuni and Acoma. The result, as she puts it, is a “unique sense of place with deep personal meaning and cultural significance.” 428 Sandoval Street #104, Santa Fe, N.M. 505.820.1555 bjfelix.com
Santa Kilim Karim Saidi was born of Berber heritage, an indigenous North African culture known for its ancient weaving tradition. He grew up in the “beautiful, magical” Moroccan city of Fez, founded in the ninth century. So it was only natural, when a “strong wind” blew him into Santa Fe, as he laughingly puts it, that Saidi would enter the import business, specializing in textiles. He established Santa Kilim in 1991. Today, in its downtown location, Santa Kilim offers much more than authentic kilim and other types of rugs. Furniture, architectural elements, custom upholstery, and brass, copper, and glass chandeliers and sconces are among its extensive selection of imports. Saidi selects tribal arts such as these on his visits to Morocco, while other items originate in Central Asia, Anatolia, and Persia. Among Santa Kilim’s newest offerings is an expanded selection of mosaic tabletops made from Moroccan hand-cut tile, perfect for outdoor living spaces. 125 West Water Street, Santa Fe, N.M. 505.986.0340 santakilim.com
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Victoria Price Art & Design Weaving together the threads of her own creative, culturally rich background—steeped since childhood in both design and fine art, thanks to a designer mother and actor/art collector father—Victoria Price brings that same sophisticated blend of aesthetics to her interior design consultations and retail shop. Since 2003, Price has blended contemporary art and home furnishings with a regional and international sensibility. This translates to a blend of elements including European furniture, historic American Indian textiles, accents by local artisans, and cutting-edge art in both the showroom and residential and commercial interior design service. Price also designs custom furniture and textiles for her clients. As she describes it, the eclectic, highly livable look is “very much a twenty-first-century continuation of Santa Fe style.” New this fall are European contemporary fine furniture lines in an affordable price range. 1512 Pacheco Street #B102, Santa Fe, N.M. 505.982.8632 victoriaprice.com
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Profiles in Design
Santa Fe By Design Aesthetically speaking, you might not want your bath designed by a plumber. Yet expertise in the technical end is essential when making choices for the bath. The staff at Santa Fe By Design is knowledgeable in both aspects of high-quality bathroom fixtures for residential and commercial applications—which is why the company has earned the loyalty of numerous Santa Fe architects, builders, and designers, notes co-owner Kathy Anne Fennema. Fennema established Santa Fe By Design with Bob Schwarz in 2002. In 2008 the company was named Showroom of the Year by the Decorative Plumbing & Hardware Association. This year it was selected by Axor Design Studio to be the first showroom in New Mexico to introduce new product lines by such major international designers as Philippe Starck and Patricia Urquiola. Other exclusive offerings include fixtures by Zucchetti, Laufen, and Sigma. Santa Fe By Design was founded on a strong design orientation, and “we continue to do that,” Fennema says. 1512 Pacheco Street #D101, Santa Fe, N.M. 505.988.4111 santafebydesign.com
The Accessory Annex Who knew there could be such an infinitude of styles, materials, and looks in cabinet hardware? The owners of Santa Fe By Design knew, and in 2004 they opened The Accessory Annex, a separate showroom across the parking lot from the business’s main space. The Annex’s long list of designer lines, from hacienda style to sleek contemporary, is augmented with accessories by local artisans, including hand-forged hardware. A more recent addition to the Annex carries vanities such as those by Waterfall Bathroom Furniture, built with sustainably harvested woods and other environmentally friendly materials. Other “green” lines include Spectra Décor, featuring recycled glass. “Really cool stuff!” declares showroom and sales manager Nancy Hardwick. Along with cabinet hardware for the entire home, the Annex offers bathroom accessories such as magnifying mirrors, towel warmers, and towel bars. As Hardwick points out, “You can change the look of a whole room by changing out the hardware.” 1512 Pacheco Street #C104, Santa Fe, N.M. 505.983.3007 santafebydesign.com
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Constellation Home Electronics It’s a rare individual who has a strong focus in childhood and carries that passion into adulthood, translating it into a successful business. But that is what Jason Suttle has done with home electronics. Suttle worked in the field for more than ten years in Santa Fe—including six years managing Candyman Electronics—before opening Constellation Home Electronics in 2000. Constellation is a full-service home entertainment business offering everything from televisions and speakers to home theaters and complete home automation systems. On the front edge of changes in the industry, the company features 3-D TVs and custom-programmed universal remotes. Along with installation and service for all products, Suttle and his staff of sixteen provide full design, engineering, and pre-wiring for large systems. As the name reflects, Constellation combines diverse components into complete systems. “Plus our service is out of this world,” Suttle laughs. But he’s serious. 215 North Guadalupe Street, Santa Fe, N.M. 505.983.9988 constellationsantafe.com
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Profiles in Design
Starr Interiors Susanna Starr first visited a traditional Zapotec Indian weaving village in Oaxaca, Mexico, in 1974 and fell in love with the people and their weavings. Since then, she has worked with the master weaving families of the village—including second- and thirdgeneration members. She hand-selects the highestquality hand-loomed rugs, wall hangings, and pillows for Starr Interiors’ showrooms in Taos. “The personal connection with the weaving families over the decades has been very meaningful,” she notes. Over the years, Starr has added cross-cultural designs and new colors of richly saturated, handdyed 100% wool, keeping alive the village’s weaving tradition while creating an extraordinary range of choices in color, design, and size. Along with weavings, which have been featured in such publications as Architectural Digest , Starr Interiors also offers primitive furniture handcrafted by New Mexican artisans, home decor such as lamps and mirrors, and the Amy Starr line of classic gold or silver filigree jewelry. 117 & 119 Paseo del Pueblo Norte, Taos, N.M. 575.758.3065 starr-interiors.com
Kitchens by Jeanné Here’s a concept: Design a kitchen so what you need is close to where you use it most. Then you spend minimal energy walking, bending, and lifting—and more time enjoying cooking. Combine this intuitive space organization with eye-pleasing aesthetics and high-quality materials and appliances, and you’ve got the recipe for successful kitchens from Kitchens by Jeanné. Jeanné Sei grew up in Albuquerque, where she studied food science at the University of New Mexico. Of Italian heritage, she merged her passion for cooking with a levelheaded look at what makes a kitchen function well, establishing Kitchens by Jeanné in 1981. The firm offers complete design services for new or remodeled kitchens and other rooms where good function is important. Kitchens by Jeanné provides everything from artistic vision to appliance consultation, architect and builder referrals, and installation management. As Jeanné puts it: “It’s your world. Design it for living!” 631 Old Santa Fe Trail #1, Santa Fe, N.M. 505.988.4594 kitchensbyjeanne.com
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Profiles in Design
Four: A Decorative Arts Collaborative The aesthetic vision, professional services, and decorative inventory of four designrelated businesses have combined in a new studio with a showroom in Pacheco Park. Robin Gray is a practicing licensed architect who works with weavers in several countries (none of whom employ child labor) to produce rugs from her contemporary designs inspired by African, Native American, and other ethnic traditions. Aquila Stanley brings to the mix her services as a graphic and interior designer with 34 years of experience in advertising and branding. She also presents jewelry and inspired decorative arts for interiors.
1512 Pacheco Street, Santa Fe, N.M. 505.995.8411
Nedret Gürler is a Turkish-born rug importer with 25 years of experience in antique carpets. Gürler deals in classic Persian and Turkish carpets and contemporary rugs produced in Nepal, Iran, Afghanistan, and elsewhere. And Michael Ouellette specializes in authentic, original, quintessential examples of furnishings and decorative arts from various time periods and places around the globe. Oullette summarizes the collaborative’s eclectic and exciting mix: “It’s how we live!”
Nedret Oriental Rugs nedret@nedretg.com 505.490.2324
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robingraydesign.com (rugs) robingray.net (architecture) 505.995.8411 Aquila Designs, Inc. aquilaranieri.com 505.341.3641
Michael Ouellette rivermeetstheocean@yahoo.com 505.570.1124
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Barbara Felix Ar Architecture chitecture + Design
W Woven o v en Ar Architecture chitectur e ™
505 820 1555 + 505 820 1527 F bjfelix.com 511 AGUA AGUA FRIA FRIA STREET SANTA SANT TA FE,, NEW NEW MEXICO 87501 katerussellphotography.com katerussellphotogra phy.com
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AllBright & LockWood It sounds like an accounting firm—and the owners, Arthur and Judith Reeder, do have excellent business sense, as they owned a Los Angeles graphic design and commercial printing company for 20 years before buying AllBright & LockWood in 2002. But this company is all about bright(as in lighting from more than 80 manufacturers) and locksin wood (door and cabinet hardware), along with a broad spectrum of tile in stone, glass, ceramic, and metal, plus bathroom accessories, fans, and other products for the home. Working with designers, architects, and contractors, as well as homeowners, the Reeders offer a one-stop shopping experience with knowledgeable staff and personal service, Arthur notes. Adds his wife: “What basically turns all of us on is getting into people’s heads, finding the right fit, and making them happy—that collaboration is what we look forward to every day.” 621 Old Santa Fe Trail #5, Santa Fe, N.M. 505.986.1715
when details matter
Lisa Samuel ASID, IIDA NMLID #313
Samuel Design Group Lisa Samuel’s connection with Santa Fe runs four generations deep. The only Santa Fe native to head a comprehensive Santa Fe interior design firm, she established Samuel Design Group in 2006 after 15 years of working in the field in her hometown. Today she leads a team skilled in all aspects of design, including lighting, textiles, architectural elements, and custom-designed furniture produced by local artisans. An HGTV Design Challenge winner, Samuel frequently collaborates with team member and interior designer Jennifer Ashton, formerly of Los Angeles, who is similarly Hispanic and brings an ethnic aesthetic to the mix. “I love the creative energy, and having two heads and four eyes,” Samuel notes. The pair is skilled at marrying timeless cultural elements with clean-lined modernism in an elegantly livable style—while always being guided by the client’s personal vision, Samuel adds. “I’m very good at getting inside my client’s head.” 703 Camino de la Familia (Railyard Art Lofts), Santa Fe, N.M. 505.820.0239 sdginteriordesign.com
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comprehensive interior design sdginteriordesign.com 505.820.0239 ArtYard Lofts at the Railyard
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Profiles in Design
Tent Rock Inc. In the construction business, where almost every aspect of a job tends to be contracted out, Tent Rock Inc. is something of an anomaly. The award-winning company employs its own highly experienced, smoothly functioning team of craftsmen, woodworkers, metalworkers, and masons. The result: “a good working relationship and trust” between the builder, homeowner, and architect, notes company president Joel Muller. Muller established Tent Rock in 1993. A New York native, he moved to Santa Fe for its art community and stayed to combine a creative sensibility and hands-on building skills with expertise in design and construction. The company maintains a strong focus on historic restoration, clean-lined contemporary design, and environmentally friendly building techniques and materials. Among its best known projects is the restoration of the historic Georgia O’Keeffe house at Ghost Ranch. Recent honors include the City of Santa Fe’s Heritage Preservation Award and top awards including First Runner-up and Best Craftsmanship from Haciendas: A Parade of Homes. 1 Ceramic Court, Santa Fe, N.M. 505.474.9188 tentrockinc.com
Destination Dahl Once you’ve selected your dream building site, Destination Dahl can assist in completing every phase of your project, from on-site utilities and water catchment to custom hardware for the front door. Dahl was established in the late 1960s and currently is owned by the 150-year-old Hajoca Corporation, with showrooms throughout New Mexico and Colorado, and elsewhere around the country. While the company’s focus is plumbing, heating, and cooling products for new construction and remodels, Destination Dahl also offers a wide selection of “green building” products and those aimed at LEED certification, such as energy-efficient solar hot water systems, geothermal heating, water conservation and treatment, and residential fire protection. The Santa Fe showroom includes almost two dozen brands of bath and kitchen hardware and accessories, making it onestop shopping for home designs of all budgets. 1000 Siler Park Lane, Santa Fe, N.M. 505.471.1811 destinationdahl.com
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AD INDEX
ANTIQUES, HOME FURNISHINGS, RUGS & ACCENTS Casa Nova casanovagallery.com 505-983-8558 .............................1, 124 Constellation Home Electronics constellationsantafe.com 505-983-9988 ...........................26, 133 The Firebird thefirebird.com 505-983-5264 .........................126, 129 La Mesa of Santa Fe lamesaofsantafe.com 505-984-1688 ...........................84, 125 Michael Ouellette 505-570-1124 ...........................35, 136 Nedret Oriental Rugs 505-490-2324 ...........................35, 136 Robin Gray Design robingraydesign.com 505-995-8411 ...........................35, 136 Santa Kilim santakilim.com 505-986-0340 .........................127, 130 Shiprock Santa Fe shiprocksantafe.com 505-982-8478...........Inside Front Cover Starr Interiors starr-interiors.com 575-758-3065 .........................134, 137 Victoria Price Art & Design victoriaprice.com 505-982-8632 .........................108, 131 Visions Design Group visionsdesigngroup.com 505-988-3170 ...........................11, 124
ARCHITECTS, DESIGNERS & LANDSCAPE COMPANIES Aquila Designs aquilaranieri.com 505-341-3641 ...........................35, 136
ARTISTS & GALLERIES Blue Rain Gallery blueraingallery.com 505-954-9902 ...................................19 Charlotte Jackson Fine Art charlottejackson.com 505-989-8688 .....................................7 Cody Sanderson codysanderson.com ............Back cover David Richard Contemporary davidrichardcontemporary.com 505-983-9555 .............................16–17 Douglas Coffin dougcoffin.com 575-685-4510 .....................................4 Evoke Contemporary evokecontemporary.com 877-995-9902 ...................................21 Galleries at Lincoln Avenue...............14 Glenn Green Galleries glenngreen.com 505-820-0008 ...................................33 James Kelly Contemporary jameskelly.com 505-989-1601 .....................................9
Marcy Street.....................................22 Poeh Cultural Center & Museum poehmuseum.com 505-455-5041...........Inside Back Cover Sanbusco Market Center sanbusco.com 505-989-9390 .................................135 Santa Fe Concorso santafeconcorso.com........................36 Santa Fe Film Festival santafefilmfestival.com .....................94
FASHION, JEWELRY, SALONS & SPAS Charlotte Jewelry charlottesantafe.com 505-660-8614 ...................................10 Cody Sanderson codysanderson.com............Back Cover
Karen Melfi Collection karenmelfi.com 505-982-3032 ...................................85
Goler golershoes.com 505-982-0924 .....................................2
La Mesa of Santa Fe lamesaofsantafe.com 505-984-1688 ...........................84, 125
Katherine Maxwell katherinemaxwell.com 505-920-0415 ...................................38
Niman Fine Art namingha.com 505-988-5091 ...................................15
Lucchese Boot Company lucchese.com 800-871-1883 ...................................12
Parks Gallery parksgallery.com 575-751-0343 ...................................39
Origins originssantafe.com 505-988-2323 .................................143
Railyard Arts District...........................6
Patricia Michaels pmwaterlily.com 575-779-5322 ...................................47
Clemens & Associates clemensandassociates.com 505-982-4005 ...........................93, 126
Zane Bennett Contemporary Art zanebennettgallery.com 505-982-8111 .....................................8
BUILDERS, DEVELOPERS & MATERIALS Destination Dahl destinationdahl.com 505-471-1811 ...........................31, 140
Kris Lajeskie Design Group krislajeskiedesign.com 505-986-1551 ...........................29, 128
The Firebird the firebird.com 505-983-5264 .........................126, 129
Samuel Design Group sdginteriordesign.com 505-820-0239 .................................139
Tent Rock Inc. tentrockinc.com 505-474-9188 ...........................40, 140
Tent Rock Inc tentrockinc.com 505-474-9188 ...........................40, 140
CITIES, EVENTS & MUSEUMS
Victoria Price Art & Design victoriaprice.com 505-982-8632 .........................108, 131
Lincoln Avenue Arts District .............14
Conscious Clothing getconscious.com 505-982-7506 ...................................36
William Siegal Gallery williamsiegal.com 505-820-3300 .....................................5
Kitchens by Jeanné kitchensbyjeanne.com 505-988-4594 .............................134–5
Gallup gallupnm.org 800-242-4282 ...................................89
Karan Ruhlen Gallery karanruhlen.com 505-820-0807 ...................................84
Barbara Felix Architecture + Design bjfelix.com 505-820-1555 .........................130, 137
Four: A Decorative Arts Collaborative 505-995-8411 ...........................35, 136
Design Santa Fe designsantafe.org .......................72–74
ArtFeast artfeast.com 505-603-4643 ...................................75
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Rocki Gorman rockigorman.com 505-983-7833 ...................................40 Spirit of the Earth spiritoftheearth.com 505-988-9558 ...................................13 Stump Rippel stump-rippel.com 505-986-9115 ...................................65 Volume Salon 505-983-6138 .................................141
KITCHENS, TILE, LIGHTING, ELECTRONICS & HARDWARE The Accessory Annex santafebydesign.com 505-983-3007 ...........................93, 132 AllBright & LockWood 505-986-1715 ...........................41, 138 Destination Dahl destinationdahl.com 505-471-1811 ...........................31, 140
Kitchens by Jeanné kitchensbyjeanne.com 505-988-4594 .............................134–5 Santa Fe by Design santafebydesign.com 505-988-4111 .............................3, 132 Statements in Tile/Lighting/Kitchens/Flooring statementsinsantafe.com 505-988-4440 ...........................95, 128
PHOTOGRAPHY, DESIGN SERVICES Flavorgrafix flavorgrafix.com 505-316-0237 .................................101 Peter Ogilvie Photography ogilviephoto.com 505-820-6001 ...................................64
BANKS & MORTGAGE COMPANIES Los Alamos National Bank lanb.com 505-662-5171, Los Alamos 505-954-5400, Santa Fe ...................37
RESTAURANTS, CATERERS & LODGING The Bavarian thebavarian.net 575-776-8020 .........................104–105 El Farol elfarolsf.com 505-983-9912 .................................107 Geronimo geronimorestaurant.com 505-982-1500 .................................103 Il Piatto ilpiattosantafe.com 505-984-1091 ...................................23 La Boca labocasf.com 505-982-3433 ...................................24 La Plazuela lafondasantafe.com 505-982-5511 .................................106 Luxx Hotel luxxhotel.com 505-988-5899 ...................................27 Rouge Cat rougecat.com 505-983-6603 ...................................25 Saveur 505-989-4200 .................................102 Taos Inn taosinn.com 888-532-8267 .................................141
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Janis Joplin and Tommy Law, Truchas, New Mexico
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PHOTO BY LISA LAW
Photo: Cody Sanderson
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