Twenty-First Annual Honrar A Nuestros Hé�oes
ARTES CONTENTS / LETTER FROM THE EDITOR
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MARK MAGGIORI GIVESBACK By Lynne Robinson
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FOSTERING THE LAND By Taylor Hood
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THE METAL WEIGHT By Arielle Christian
From the Editor I’m a native New Mexican, but I didn’t actually move to the Taos area until recently. One of the first things that I heard was from local sculptor TJ Mabrey. She told me, “What’s good for art in Taos is good for Taos.” That about sums up the relationship between art and our community. They are intimately linked. There are few places in this world that exhibit the artistic soul that Taos embodies. We are a community tucked into a small oasis in the Rocky Mountains. We sit on a wide volcanic plain, bracketed by snow-capped peaks to one side and a deep, awe-inspiring gorge on the other. Our valleys are carved by clear streams and our sky is so big it makes Montanans gawk. Is it any wonder that artists have flocked to these lands for inspiration for centuries? So it seems only natural that part of our annual Tradiciones series would be devoted to art, or “Artes.” This is a special year. We are trying as a community to get restarted after the long break of COVID. Despite the fact that the virus is still raging throughout the world, Taoseños want to enjoy as much of their former lives as possible. That means getting out and seeing what some of the local artists are up to. For example, Gus Foster’s panoramic photos have grabbed attention across the art community for years. Now this Taos artist is getting a new show at the Harwood Museum of Art. The show will be a special love letter to Gus’ home, Northern New Mexico. We are also taking a look at local sculptors Christina Sporrong and Christian Ristow, who are making names for themselves with their geometric, abstract, metal sculptures. So sit back and enjoy a look at some of the art happenings here in Taos, right from the comfort of your breakfast table. There is, of course, no shortage of art stories to tell, so rest assured, we are already planning next year’s issue of Tradiciones: Artes for you. Stay safe out there and remember, we are all in this together. Sincerely, Taylor Hood, magazine editor
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Sept. 30, 2021 TRADICIONES 3
ARTES
When Tempo introduced Mark Maggiori to our readers recently, we exposed but a fraction of this French ex-pat’s proverbial iceberg. We heard about his first road trip across America at age 15 (with the same uncle who later encouraged him to study at the Academie Julien in Paris) and his arrival here in Taos, but there is so much more to discover beneath the surface of things where Maggiori is concerned. So, to remedy appearing irreverent, one day, last summer I paid the artist a visit at his new studio overlooking Taos Mountain from its wellhidden, verdant spot in the valley. A large, comfortably appointed space with vaulted ceilings (he raised them), the expanse of windows letting in the stark northern light that painters treasure so.
Mark Maggiori gives back by Lynne Robinson
BILL CURRY
4 TRADICIONES SEPT. 30, 2021
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MARK MAGGIORI GIVES BACK ARTES
A tall, good-looking, and charming man, Maggiori cuts a charismatic figure with his sartorial choices; a modern riff on iconic Western-style that nods to Spaghetti Westerns and Americana. This afternoon he was sans hat, in a shirt, well-worn khaki pants and suede moccasins. A painter’s apron was wrapped around his waist. He was working. We were joined by Ashley Rolshoven of Parsons Gallery, and Davison Koenig from the Couse Foundation (pictured below), both of whom have become integral to Maggiori’s sojourn in Taos; introducing him to tribal members from the Pueblo who would become models, guides and ultimately close friends. The symbiosis works both ways. Maggiori has responded in turn by being a very generous and hands-on benefactor to the arts program at Taos Day School. In partnership with Parsons Fine Art and The Couse Foundation, he created Taos Pueblo Art Education Fund. They have since raised over $15,000 for Taos Pueblo Day School. He has also launched a mentorship program in his new studio to share his skill and love of art with others. “A lot of people come here and paint the Native people and the landscape, and then they leave,” Rolshoven noted. “Mark not only gives back, he lives here. He is a part of the community, just as the TSA were.” Rolshoven, whose mother is Lakota, has a deep commitment to the First Nations, plus she spent much time at the Pueblo, growing up here in Taos. Ashley Rolshoven also happens to be a descendent of one of the Taos Society of Artists’ early members (Julius Rolshoven) and is the stepdaughter of Robert Parsons. With her innate eye for fine art, and mentoring from Parsons, Rolshoven, together with Davison Koenig, has played a big role in Maggiori’s “Taos Period.” In the fall of 2020 a virtual show of his work was held at Parsons and sold out fast. Part of the proceeds was gifted to the aforementioned Taos Day School’s program.
Together We Make A Powerful Difference “We knew opening a charitable fund with Taos Community Foundation was a strong move in honoring our son’s life. The Jason Knight Memorial Fund allows us to support the community projects that were important to him.” – Lynn and Billy Knight
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ARTES MARK MAGGIORI GIVES BACK
Maggiori was also for a time, the artist in residence at the Couse Foundation, where he painted in the Sharp studio while his own was being completed. I asked whether the ghosts bothered him. “I heard them/him every day,” he exclaimed. “There is totally a presence there.” Painting in the space that had claimed his heart upon first sight, was a dream come true for the artist, who studied at the Academie Julien, a hundred years after his predecessors who then came to Taos. Like them, he brings classical training to the mythical light and landscape of the West, in turn interpreting it now, during this time, a century after they “discovered” it. His trajectory in the Southwestern art world has been nothing short of stunning; after visiting Oklahoma with his wife, a chance visit to a museum show of Walter Ufer’s work gave him pause. After doing a little research, he decided there was a niche for him within the genre of Southwest art. A visit to Taos, and the Couse Foundation, and his mind was made up. He began to paint the West in earnest.
The exchange of ideas continues into this time, with Maggiori signaling freedom of sorts with these pandemic paintings made in Taos; freedom from lockdowns and the urban paranoia that comes from living one on top of another. These vast and open landscapes, peopled by Black cowboys and Pueblo tribesmen, are a stark contrast to those concrete canyons and deserted boulevards, and yet as comfortably diverse. Why not decamp to Taos, indeed?
“A romanticized West,” I noted. “Yes,” he responded, “romantic and very distinctive – I was already painting cowboys,” he said, “and initially I was drawn to them because of the clothes they wore, the fashion.” I noted that he himself occasionally dressed as if he were from that period in time, when the West was won and mentioned that several young people have recently relocated here, recognizable by their mode of dress; almost in costume for a Western movie.
Traveling back in time is thematic in the painter’s oeuvre, it appears, with a focus on the tragedy of cultural heritage dying out with consumerism and fast-everything. Yet he and his work are very current; pop-cultural influences apparent in his bold gesture and highly saturated, technicolor canvases. A contradiction in terms, much like the times we live in, Maggiori straddles two worlds – one informed by technology and the future, the other by nostalgia for a more innocent time.
Maggiori’s Instagram account is hot; the painter is a rock star, and in fact, that is what he aspired to be as a kid, he told me early on in our interview but has accomplished so much more. He is arguably He looked out at The Mountain in the distance, one of the top five contemporary Western artists; before turning back to look at me. in demand by collectors all over the world. His “But right now I’m here,” he said as interpretation of the Western landscape is both he adjusted the small painting on his easel. timeless and modern all at once. His wife came in to let him know she was home His leap of faith taken after that encounter with after taking her mother to see the Gorge Bridge. Ufer’s work in Oklahoma had put him on another Clearly, the couple had guests, which made little path to fame of another kind. It seems Maggiori windows of time all the more precious. The afterhas the Midas Touch. noon light beckoned. It was time to take my leave “Not as a filmmaker,” he laughed, which is what and let the painter paint. he came to L.A, to be. “I had big dreams,” he “May I take a photo?” I asked. said. A polymath, Maggiori was a successful rock musician and videographer prior to his decision to paint exclusively.
It’s as if he’s stepping into Couse’s actual shoes.
villages they left behind in Italy, to paint them as they were then, before the wave of emigration at the beginning of the 20th Century. “
Instead, he met his wife, fellow artist Petecia Lefawnhawk, and fell in love. Lefawnhawk, who is from Arizona, introduced him to the West. They moved here from Los Angeles with their 2-year-old daughter and opened a store called People of the Valley, in Cabot Plaza. Lefawnhawk who is also a fashion designer keeps a studio behind the boutique.
“I need a hat,” he said, laughing like a true member of the Insta Generation, putting one on as I snapped away on Rolshoven’s phone.
“It took a while to get here,” Maggiori recalled, “We both had a lot going on in L.A., but after visiting the Couse-Sharp site on a trip here, we always had it in mind, like – ‘wouldn’t it be cool to live here one day?’ “ The pandemic made it possible, along with the support of the formidable team of Rolshoven and Koenig in place. Since relocating, Maggiori has been even more deeply immersed in his research of the history and culture of the region and has been using period textiles and objects from the Couse-Sharp Historic Site and Tres Estrellas Gallery, in his paintings. He’s also worked closely with models from Taos Pueblo, including the jeweler Lyle Wright. His interest in expressing the diversity of the West led to him donate a painting of Black cowboys to the Briscoe Museum in San Antonio, thereby ensuring an historically underrepresented community would be finally acknowledged. Paying it forward seems to be integral to the way Maggiori approaches his work.
Currently, Maggiori is getting ready for a few actual exhibitions, including a solo show – Mark Maggiori: Taos Pueblo Portraits, which opens Oct. 2 as the inaugural show in The Lunder Research Center at the Couse-Sharp Historic Site. “Western fashion seems to cycle in and out of style,” He has also been working with CSHS archives – he said, “but I think the current appeal for places using original Couse contact prints as inspiration like Taos happened during the lockdown on both for a new body of work. coasts.” “It’s as if he’s stepping into Couse’s actual shoes,” “People looking at my Instagram for example (his Koenig explained. “It’s an extraordinary opportuniInstagram account is a huge part of his brand), ty to bring these photographs to light in a contemwhile stuck in a tiny apartment in the city, see porary manner.” Koenig has expertly steered the these wide-open spaces and big skies, and they Couse-Sharp expansion so it is positioned to be are already working remotely, so why not there?” one of the most important archival libraries of its kind. His quiet influence on the artist’s direction is I recall after the first lockdown, one of my daughunmistakable. ters said she’d noticed an “infestation of hipsters” in town. She was right, it was as if whole blocks of “The Taos Pueblo portraits will be a bit looser,” Silver Lake and Williamsburg had relocated by way Maggiori said, “more impressionistic.” of the Universal Back Lot’s wardrobe. “And small, they are small pieces,” he added. I looked up at the huge buffalo hide stretched on What’s next for this contemporary master? the western wall of Maggiori’s studio, and thought about the long, historical connection between the “I’m of Italian heritage,” he told me. “My grandparFrench and the Americans, not least of which is ents emigrated, but ended up in France and not Lady Liberty herself. A French trapper could indeed America – so I’m French with an American Dream,” have been the source of the hide, or one just like it. he quipped, “but I would like to explore those
BILL CURRY
To discover more about Mark Maggiori visit him on the web at markmaggiori.com or on Instagram @markmaggiori.
6 TRADICIONES SEPT. 30, 2021
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Carson National Forest – Working With You
Piedra Lumbre Visitor Center Land Transfer After a multi-year process, the Carson National Forest, the New Mexico Land Grant Council, San Joaquín del Río de Chama Land Grant, Merced Comunitaria de Juan Bautista Baldés, and Merced de Los Pueblos de Tierra Amarilla are celebrating the sale and transfer of the Piedra Lumbre facility. “The acquisition of the Piedra Lumbre Visitors Center property from the Carson National Forest provides the land grants-mercedes of San Joaquín del Río de Chama, Tierra Amarilla and Juan Bautista Baldés the ability to engage in economic development opportunities that will create local jobs and provide resources that can be utilized for reinvestment in community services for each land grant-merced.” – joint statement from Leonard Martinez, President, San Joaquín del Río de Chama Land Grant, Higina Gallegos, President, Merced Comunitaria de Juan Bautista Baldés, and Steve Polaco, President, Merced de Los Pueblos de Tierra Amarilla. “The Forest Service
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recognizes the immense economic, ecological, and social vitality for the community and we are so pleased to be a part of the celebration.” the Southwestern Regional Forester Michiko Martin stated during the celebration event, ”We look forward to the future of the Piedra Lumbre facility and the potential economic development opportunities.” This project exemplifies the Carson National Forest vision of continuing to connect people to the land and their heritage and the Forest Service values of service, interdependence, and diversity. “It’s amazing to witness the power of community collaboration, it is what makes what seems impossible, possible. The Piedra Lumbre Visitor Center land transfer is a strong display of the commitment by many local, state and federal partners working towards the common goal of better serving our community,” said Carson National Forest Supervisor James Duran.
USDA Forest Service photo by Ivan Knudsen
For more information about the Carson National Forest, visit: www.fs.usda.gov/carson
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Sept. 30, 2021 TRADICIONES 7
ARTES
RECLUSIVE TAOS ARTIST GUS FOSTER SHOWS NEW WORK AT THE HARWOOD MUSEUM
Fostering by Taylor Hood
For Gus Foster and his camera, there are no limits. At least that’s the idea. Since 1976, Foster has been taking awe-inspiring, panoramic photographs of Northern New Mexico (along with areas in Utah, Arizona, California, and throughout the Southwestern United States.) These sweeping images break free of the boundaries of the camera frame, with prints often stretching across entire walls. Numerous images are seamlessly juxtaposed to create Foster’s art and combined with the high-definition quality of the images, the end result puts viewers as close to the wide-open expanses of Northern New Mexico as possible without actually being there. No stranger to the Taos art scene, Foster is once again exhibiting his panoramic shots of Northern New Mexico at the Harwood Museum, where he
8 TRADICIONES SEPT. 30, 2021
has been involved on various levels for decades. The exhibit, Gus Foster: Panoramic Photographs of Northern New Mexico will be featured at Harwood from Oct. 23, 2021 to Apr. 17, 2022. This isn’t Foster’s first show, or his first show at Harwood Museum, in fact he has been a leader in working to expand the Harwood facility for years, but this show gives the artist a chance to share his love letter to his adopted home. According to the Harwood Museum release, “Gus Foster: Panoramic Photographs of Northern New Mexico includes works beginning from the artist’s first years in Taos in the 1970s working with antique panoramic Cirkut cameras using black and white film, and moves through the 1980s-2000s when he began using cameras with new technology,
color film, a unique enlarger for the large negatives, and a custom color darkroom of his own design and fabrication for 16-foot long photographic prints. The exhibition concludes with Foster’s recent digital camera work, no longer panoramic in format, but still exploring themes of time and space.” Foster has been focusing his craft on panoramic photography since the 1970s, and though he has tried different media, the way the landscape lent itself to wide-angle photography was too perfect to pass up.
He has always loved art. From finger paints as a child, all the way to graduating from Yale University in 1963 with a bachelors degree in art history, he has been consumed by his love of humanity’s creative pursuits. His career in art is
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FOSTERING THE LAND ARTES
Gus Foster, Sunset, Moonrise, Highline Ridge, Taos County, New Mexico, 1980, 403°. Courtesy of the artist.
Gus Foster, Taos Pueblo Christmas Eve, New Mexico, 198e, 315°. Courtesy of the artist.
g the land THE SIZE
Gus Foster makes his art from 5” x 25” negatives. Though they can range in size, and posters are available at his store, gusfoster.com, some of the photos can be as large as 36’ x 144.” Specialized
THE SKILLS
equipment is sometimes needed to mount them. To that point, Foster has had to invent some of his own equipment in order to take and develop some of his photos.
not a fluke or a whim; it is a craft he has concentrated on and gained experience in for the last half century.
After Yale, Foster became the curator of prints and drawings at the Minneapolis Museum of Art. After 10 years there, he decided to strike out on his own. He packed his bags and moved to Los Angeles, California to set up his own photography studio. His travels continued until 1976, when a trip to Northern New Mexico stole his heart. He moved to Taos and has been sharing his love of the region ever since.
Though a somewhat reclusive artist, Foster is still very involved in the Taos community. Through his work with local artists and his efforts to expand the Harwood Museum, Foster has shown his love of
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Gus Foster is an amazing photographer, sure, but that isn’t the only skill required to do what he does. Because his art captures remote and often hard to
THE SKILLS
access regions of the world, Foster has spent a lifetime learning survival skills and has become a wellknown member of the mountaineering community.
Gus Foster is known most for his work exhibiting the natural beauty of the American Rockies. But he has much more in his portfolio than that.
We once documented his 300-mile trek along the Tokaido
Road in Japan. He has a Time Photography series in which he uses a .35mm Globuscope camera, which makes a 360degree revolution in .8 seconds and allows him to capture a split second moment in life.
this land both on the proverbial canvas and off. And because his work is displayed around the world, including in the Smithsonian, he is one of Taos’ brightest stars and best ambassadors.
Check out Foster’s newest exhibit at the Harwood Museum this fall. His photo book can also be purchased on Amazon or by visiting his site, gusfoster.com.
EXHIBITION DETAILS
Gus Foster: Panoramic Photographs of Northern New Mexico Oct 23, 2021- Apr 17, 2022 Harwood Museum of Art, 238 Ledoux St. | harwoodmuseum.org
Sept. 30, 2021 TRADICIONES 9
ARTES
The metal weight
by Arielle Christian
SPITFIREFORGE.COM
Christian Ristrow and Christina Sporrong
The Heron Project
The Flybrary
Christina Sporrong feels the weight, heavy as steel. Three gigs cancelled in the past week. No more PASEO Festival, where she was going to show her huge metal heron sculpture with its moving head and rigs to support aerial performers. No more Berlin with “Flybrary.” The 40-foot-tall, 18,000-pound human face, which doubles as a walk-in library where you can read a book on free thought or the Earth, was once alive with humans at the Burning Man Festival in Nevada and now it lays disassembled in mega-pieces amongst the sage at Sporrong and artist Christian Ristow’s mesa studio.
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CHRISTIANRISTOW.COM
The Hand of Man
It joins a host of iron ghosts — waiting, like Ristow’s sculpture of a large hand, with joints kinetically intact to crush cars with an audience-controlled remote, for example. Over the years,
that piece has taken the couple to almost every continent. Now some hoses on it are starting to sun rot. With events disappearing into the haze of another smoky September day,
which melds into the hollow haze of this past year and a half — Go! No! Go! No! Go! No! No! No! — Sporrong and Ristow have done some artistic reevaluation.
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2021–2022 | galleryguideoftaos.com
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ARTES THE METAL WEIGHT
Ristow — a machinist since he was a kid (back then motorizing cardboard dinosaurs he’d crafted) — has bridged into clay sculpture, oil painting. He’d considered painting back in his 30s in L.A., but stuck to special effects in film and building combat robots. Lately he’s been watching painting fundamentals YouTube videos, going to a local figure drawing class and battling his insecurities about putting an image on a canvas.
CHRISTIANRISTOW.COM
“When I get an idea for a sculpture, it’s simple for me to say, ‘Great!’ And, boom! Within an hour or a day I’m working on it. There are far fewer mental blocks,” says Ristow, who likens his style to narrative-oriented magical realism. “Painting is like therapy. I’m understanding myself better through it.”
Sporrong is more prone to color, gesture and feeling. She describes herself as “an idea lady with old world skills.” The hot, dirty work of welding and blacksmithing are Sporrong’s “happy place.” Her focus has shifted from the past decade’s festival-heavy circuit to teaching at UNM, and Vista Grande High School (where she helped build a metal shop and installed a forge), and, her favorite, at her home workshop leading womenspecific classes, demystifying the intimidation factor in the male-dominated field. (This workshop where both she and Ristow work is filled top to bottom with long steel pieces and welding helmets way up high and furnaces and past prototypes — y’all seen the railing at World Cup? — and even surprise mannequins.)
Capsule
MORGAN TIMMS/TAOS NEWS
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Sept. 30, 2021 TRADICIONES 13
ARTES THE METAL WEIGHT
“I want to do public art,” says Sporrong, who moved to New Mexico in 1996 and started her shop, Spitfire Forge, a couple years later. “The future for me is making work that is accessible to everyone.”
Like “Capsule.”
spitfıreforge.com
| christianristow.com
“The universe was looking down on us that night,” says The mechanical sculpture, Sporrong, whose light eyes sponsored by Arroyo Seco Live and The PASEO Project, was remain bright despite the dark, tenuous theme of these on free display in Seco between past couple years. August 2020 and May 2021 in response to the pandemic. It And, so, who knows for now? was the couple’s — both in their Sporrong has learned to put “late 40s plus a few years” — first question marks after art plans. time working on a sculpture “England?” She does what she together, and one specially-built can do: Gets her 10-year-old for Taos. son to school, does some archiAs soon as the project was tectural design work, prepares proposed, Sporrong’s ideas for upcoming classes, and — many of which come intuitively tries not to freak out about from dreams — flowed fast: “It the climate crisis while Ristow should be something that holds tinkers with the motor in an old people’s emotions! We’ll use rust-red International Scout he’s fire as a catharsis to purge the hoping to sell off, or perfects effects of COVID!” the angered woman’s face in his The piece is two hulking hands painting, or struggles to read with slots to insert communitywritten notes — expressing grief, “The Master and His Emissary.” joy, fear, etc. — loosely hugging a They do what makes them spark, which is make big hard stuff metal and glass core. In a public demonstration once COVID spark in the workshop, but less restrictions had been lifted, so, since there’s nowhere these notes were fuel for a fire, to show it. the heat activating the mechani“When you make stuff, it should cal opening of the hands, and be meaningful and done with the a cheering celebration from most care and love and intenonlookers. tion,” says Sporrong. “Otherwise, “We were so proud it worked,” why waste all this material? says Ristow. “There was a certain element of chance. There I think about this a lot working in metal, which is expensive and wasn’t a button to push and it not the best medium for the goes. It was related to gravity Earth. I have a responsibility and weight and burn rate. We didn’t know when it would open.” to do it right and well.”
MORGAN TIMMS/TAOS NEWS
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The Shepherds of Northern New Mexico By Larry Torres
i
t is commonly said that anyone wanting to be considered for citizenship in this country should not list his chosen profession as doctor or lawyer because there is already a glut of them in the United States. If an applicant wants to attract the attention of the American immigration bureau though, he should try filing his special talent as ‘sheep herder’ and, there’s a better chance that he will be moved to the top of the list of those being considered. The United States is in dire need of sheep herders, especially in the Southwestern States from Texas to Wyoming. It is a skill which has declined steadily throughout last
few decades and even more recently when everything is automated and digital.
Northern New Mexico’s 2021-2022 Cultural Guide
LAND WATER PEOPLE TIME The sheep raising days tend to be long and solitary and if the herder does not own his own flock, the pay is not stellar.Yet, the ballads of this area attribute a certain beauty to working with passive flocks and following in the footsteps of the shepherd, King David. The long days often provide ample time for thinking, praying, composing or carving while taking in fresh air and eating organic produce and wild greens. However, something that began making such tranquil living difficult to maintain, was The
Read it now at: taosnews.com/landwaterpeopletime 26
Taylor Act of 1934. It was a federal law meant to regulate overgrazing on public lands.It severely curtailed access of National Forests to sheep flocks and became the impetus which launched the infamous Raid at the Tierra Amarilla Courthouse of June 5, 1969, by Reies López Tijerina.Suddenly New Mexico ceased to be a land of sheepherders and became a place more suitable to tourists and cattle barons. Despite idealized versions of sheep raising in New Mexico, such as in Joseph Krumgold’s 1966 book titled, “And now, Miguel,” from the very onset, trying to raise sheep here, was rather difficult to maintain.
When Francisco Vásque his flocks on the hoof in in his entrada of 1540, he the presence of alligators which he needed to cros Mexico into this territory do’s horse wagons and ox Río Samaniego, the shee obliterated by the caima population. With lack of wool stuffs to keep them winter of 1541 by Arenale ent-day Albuquerque,wa European settlers.
land water people time 2021-2022
taosnews.com/magazines/artes-tradiciones
Sept. 30, 2021 TRADICIONES 15
ARTES
2021 Taos Pueblo Governor Clyde M. Romero, Sr.
Artes: The art of living in balance with our surroundings for more than 1,000 years. Taos Mountain Casino is proud to honor those who both exemplify the best of the past and who help us weave it into the future. These people are our own links in what continues to be an unbroken circle of tradition at Taos Pueblo.
COVID-19 UPDATE: In these unprecedented times, we’ve been proud to respond swiftly to the Covid-19 crisis. Taos Pueblo remains closed but we look forward
to welcoming you when it’s safe. Taos Mountain Casino is proudly open, keeping you safe with masks and temperature checks.
16 TRADICIONES SEPT. 30, 2021
taosnews.com/magazines/artes-tradiciones