ADOBE ROAD
I. SIMPLY SANTA FE
ADOBE ROAD
I. SIMPLY SANTA FE • II. MUD POETS • III. PARTLY CLOUDY
IV. SHADOW DANCING • V. TAOS • VI. HAPPY TRAILS
Photographs by Roger Arvid Anderson
I’m not one to deny destiny, but I took my time in getting to Santa Fe...
The American Southwest has it’s magic. Being born there is one thing, but coming from far away ... well, it’s the seductive power of legend. The temptation began early. First, I come from Minnesota where it’s cold and flat. I’m also not a one medium artist, so I am responsive to a variety of cultural as well as geological charms...My father was a jurist, but also a rock hound and a nature photographer. He gave me my first camera. He soon said I was a natural, which meant I had an eye for composition, But I also had an eye for the hunt, which came from hours scouring gravel pits for agates. Down the road, that agate proved to be Santa Fe...
I came close to getting there on any number of occasions... As a child our family vacationed in Georgetown, Colorado, which was an old mining town mired in the past... At that time we visited a gift shop in Colorado Springs and I had my father buy me a black-fired ceramic vase by Teresita Naranjo of the Santa Clara Pueblo. I had no idea she was a master potter. I was just a curious boy with an eye...After graduating from Dartmouth and Cambridge University in England, I moved to San Francisco in 1972. I lucked out and found an apartment on Russian Hill, with a view of the bay from a garden courtyard. Over 50 years later I’m still there... watching the boats and seasonal rainbows. I added painting and sculpture to my artistic ventures, and began casting bronzes in 19I also began flying across the country, and developed a window-seat eye for topography. In 1983 I started a series of topographic discs that I called Metaphysical Landscapes... Now landscape is a common theme in painting and photography, but not as much in sculpture... In my case I got the idea from Chinese jade mountains and scholar stones.
In October of 1987 the collector Mitchell Wolfson invited me to join his private train car tour of the Copper Canyon in Mexico. I met the train in San Antonio where we got a moonlight glimpse of the Alamo... We crossed Texas and then crossed into Mexico at El Paso... We visited the archaeological ruins of Casas Grandes, and later in Chihuahua city we visited the museum with its collection of Casas Grandes ceramics made by the Mogollon culture of the Southwest... Mickey said my bronze discs reminded him of the Southwest landscape and he thought I’d appreciate the trip. I’d call it an immersion event... next stop Santa Fe...
Yet it still took awhile, but in 2007 Bay Area actor George Maguire, with family in Albuquerque, asked me to join him on a visit to New Mexico... That included a visit to the Acoma Pueblo with its breath-taking site... and a visit to Santa Fe. I was hooked... Ann Hosfeld of New Concept Gallery on Canyon Road invited me to show my bronze Trail Markers for a show in the autumn of 20Of course, my camera was at my side... and my hunt for visual agates began in earnest... have a look!
ADOBE ROAD
I. SIMPLY SANTA FE • II. MUD POETS • III. PARTLY CLOUDY
IV. SHADOW DANCING • V. TAOS • VI. HAPPY TRAILS
Photographs by Roger Arvid Anderson
Introductory text by Roger Arvid Anderson
Published by Roger Arvid Anderson www.RogerArvidAnderson.com www.RogerArvidBooks.com
Roger Arvid Anderson 1048 Union Street #1, San Francisco, California 94133
© 2024 Roger Arvid Anderson
All Rights Reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner without written permission of Roger Arvid Anderson, except brief portions in the context of reviews.
Editor: Roger Arvid Anderson • Book Design: Andreas Jones • Set in Times New Roman
Library of Congress Cataloging In-Publication Data
Anderson, Roger Arvid, 1946Adobe Road, I. Simply Santa Fe / Roger Arvid Anderson ISBN: TK
