On Confluence: Field Findings in Northern New Mexico
The summer of 2023 marked my return to the Taos mesa, and with it, an opportunity for deeper immersion in its complex and varied ecosystem. The world of Taos is one of confluence: of people and cultures, of climates and ecologies. Where the high desert of the southwest meets the alpine foothills of the Sangre de Cristo mountains, the omnipotent daytime sun yields to a moonlight chill that sharpens the clarity of the sky, just as its milky starscape begins to illuminate. The age-old presence of the Pueblo Native American community lays the foundation for what has become a distinctive cultural atmosphere, layered with influence from 16th century Spanish settlers, 18th century frontiersmen led by the storied Kit Carson, and most recently, artists and outlaw-bohemian types of the 20th & 21st centuries. In Taos, the sweet musk of sagebrush blends with the tingly aroma of smoky chiles, textures of rough adobe meet surfaces of smooth turquoise, and the howls of coyotes swirl together with those of the wind as they sweep across the vast mesa.
Some visitors to Taos claim evidence of an energy vortex in their midst. Others, a persistent, low-frequency drone dubbed the “Taos Hum.” What I can say with certainty is that Taos possesses a quality - perhaps a perfect confluence of natural, sensory, even spiritual elements - that makes it conducive to a subtle but indisputable force, an ever-present undercurrent of energy that I haven’t felt in other places. I find easier access to morsels of revelation about nature’s truths in that high desert, and I experience moments of clarity in which my sense of union with nature and with the universe feels extraordinarily strong.
In the summer of ‘23 my attention was again drawn to the region’s geological formations, particularly those that comprise the walls of the great Rio Grande Gorge. Inside the canyon, sunlight flashes off of surfaces and shadows fling themselves dramatically across ruts and around soft curves. The sensual experience for me was almost jarring - I was consumed by the majesty of the gorge, by the forms that emerged from the canyon walls and by the colors that ebbed and flowed, transforming constantly before my eyes in the high-contrast light.
In my latest works, I aim to transmute the sensory experience I felt in the gorge and the greater Taos landscape into a visual representation. Small scale ‘gorge studies’ and the larger works that will follow represent an entry into new territory, both physically and on a technical level in my practice. Ideologically, too, I am exploring a new dimension in my thinking around the grand ecosystem of the universe and the fundamental truths that I believe to be held in nature. In my new paintings and textile works, I hope to capture the notion of confluence - echoing the blend of sensory elements in Taos, I attempt to use interactions between form, light, texture and color in the work to achieve a unique vibration.
As I stood so many afternoons in the depths of the Rio Grande Gorge, my feet planted in the flesh of Mother Earth’s great wound, I was perhaps closer to her heart than I have ever been before. As I continue following the path of discovery on which my work leads me, space for coincidence continues to wane.