Both Mabel Dodge Luhan and I arrived in New Mexico with similar cavalier assumptions and an absence of prior research before buying land and building homes. There was a great deal neither of us considered or understood about the place. But the thing is, we thought we knew.
being an artist
Isabro Ventura “Charro” Ortega, at Home in the Clouds
Isabro seemed to embody the spirit of what used to be, bearing history and the generations, in his bones. He was of this place. He was ancient and he was a child. A force of nature.
So You Think Artists Are Lazy?
I didn’t paint for 26 years after college, where I was a painting and drawing major and a printmaking minor. Coming back to painting took a tremendous commitment and no small amount of effort.
Giving Birth to Art
This is where the abstracts were born. They waited years to show themselves—until I came to New Mexico, where the mountain scooped me up and held me in her deep, cool, embrace.
Transitions and the Place Between
A birthing was taking place and my paintings reflected all of it—the growth, the pain and the confusion.
An Uncomfortable But Compelling Push-Pull
That first visit to Truchas changed my art forever. Something about it pushed me into full-blown abstraction. I went home to Utah and painted my first abstract show titled, Soul Fire: A Journey Home
New Mexico Isn’t for Sissies
This is one of my first Truchas paintings. I was quite happy with it. But when a local artist said it looked like wallpaper, I had my first glimpse of raising the bar.