New Mexico Artists at Work (Hardcover)

Through photographs and interviews, this book is an extraordinarily intimate glimpse into the creative spaces and minds of fifty-two New Mexico artists whose work environments are as varied as the artwork produced in them. Among those represented are contemporary painters, sculptors, printmakers, ceramic and textile artists, video and conceptual artists living in the art capitals of Taos and New Mexico and in many remote locales throughout the state. These artist studios defy generalisation, and the interview-based portraits and photographs document a range of creative approaches, both practical and aesthetic, that these artists bring to the task of organising and inhabiting their creative spaces. Influential Santa Fe artist Eliseo Rodriguez was born eighty years ago in a house on Canyon Road, in Santa Fe's historic art district. He and his family 'hand-dug' what became a two-room adobe studio, since expanded to thirteen. He believes he has painted in every one of the rooms. Taos painter Earl Stroh has a cabinet with eighteen narrow drawers holding pastels organised by colour -- a legacy from his tutor and friend Andrew Dasburg. restored Victorian hotel in Belen. Chicago's studio is an old parlour, stripped down and painted white. For Agnes Martin, balance is found in a small Taos studio, her third New Mexico art space. At 91, in three and a half hours of painting a day, she continues to paint the way she sees.