Bailey and Sanchez in their foyer, just inside the front door of their wonderland. Behind them, a ropero (wardrobe) is faux painted to represent their idealized selves. Opposite: The gardens in bloom (top), and one of Bailey’s newest pieces, Peace Angel (bottom). The “birds” were a gift from Christy Hengst, who transposes historic articles about war and peace onto her porcelain works. The glass “feathers” are remnants of the late Henry Summa’s glass work.
an interior wall, celebrates her journey to Santa Fe. The piece has a charming “outsider art” effect. Assorted ceramic pieces interspersed with objects add to the three-dimensional “picture” of her travels. Although she and her dog completed the trip in a U-Haul, in the mosaic they are setting off in a bright green canoe. “We were going down the river of life,” Bailey explains. She went on to create other representational pieces, culminating in a salute to Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. “That story and those characters have always had a special fascination for me,” she says. “The fact that we share the same first name probably drew me in to begin with.” The mosaic’s colorful array of characters are overlaid along the perimeter of an outdoor deck at the home’s second floor, where stairs lead to the courtyard. Scenes include the Mad Hatter’s tea party, the grinning Cheshire cat, the Queen of Hearts (whose head, in fact, comes off, to be stored for the winter) and, of course, the White Rabbit and Alice. The project took more than five years to complete and is the reason Bailey and Sanchez refer to their home as “Wonderland.” Bailey gets her materials from five local ceramic artists who regularly donate their breakages to her. She describes the
hours she spends creating mosaics as “an open-eyed meditation experience.” Primarily, she’s interested in the interplay of color and texture, something she has explored through many mediums, the earliest being clothing and costume design. “My mother taught me to sew when I was 11 years old,” she says, “so that’s why I got involved with textiles to begin with.” She progressed from theatrical costumes to fashion wear, textiles, hand-painted silk scarves, and jewelry, finally arriving at her latest interest in mosaic arts. She’s now putting together a collection of small sculptural pieces to be displayed indoors. “I learned the hard way that ceramics don’t survive outside in the winter,” she says ruefully. She and Sanchez remain committed to their home as their largest art piece, and significant items, or suggestions, often appear as birthday or holiday gifts. Sanchez recently discovered a massive boulder and had it delivered to Bailey as a surprise. “We’d talked for a while about creating a major outdoor water feature of some kind,” she explains, “and when Ricardo saw that boulder, it was like, that’s it! That kind of thing happens all the time.” As it happens for this home, wonderland is ever in the making. R
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