The Beauty of Patagonia

I have never been to the real Patagonia, but every few months it shows up on my doorstep in the form of a catalog. You know the drill. When you pick up the mail there are no less than half a dozen catalogs from various companies, many you have never heard of. While most of these go unnoticed and end up in the recycle bin the next day, one has continually struck me as being more interesting than the rest. Not only is this catalog well designed with clean layouts and gorgeous, artistic photography, but it goes beyond the mission of selling clothing by incorporating stories about some extreme outdoor excursion and the inevitable test of the human condition; the sort of exhilarating idea everyone is searching for when they embark on such a journey. The care and thought put into producing such a seemingly ordinary object makes me more enthusiastic about their products, that is if I had enough money to even consider making a purchase. For the time being, I'll enjoy the catalog.

Street Arts: A Celebration of Hip Hop Culture and Free Expression

"While graffiti is often dismissed as simple vandalism, it is useful to look more deeply into the communities which expressed themselves this way and try to discover lessons to be learned from the writing on the wall." ~Andrew Connors, Guest Curator, Art From the Coasts

"Street Art is synonymous with experimentation and it's inherent dissidence asks us to question our materials, the 'truth' of art history and the role art plays in society and human interaction." ~Francesca Searer, Exhibit Curator, The Populist Phenomenon

*Note that street art is public art and meant to be understood: "I am a person, I am thinking about something and I want you to think about it too." While graffiti is considered a closed code, one which only a certain group of people are meant to understand the message.

On Saturday I worked at the opening of Street Text: Art From the Coasts and The Populist Phenomenon at the 516 Arts gallery downtown. The exhibition is part of a series of events in October and November celebrating art in the urban environment, freedom of speech, and collaboration. Street Text features work from a handful of local and international artists including Shepard Fairey, Chaz Bojorquez, Lady Pink, and Thomas Christopher Haag (one of my favorite local artists).

"The Rainbow Bandit" and Public Art

In August the Alibi published a feature story on the city's most recent controversial public artist. A month before he painted (or rather dripped) a rainbow on an abandoned downtown building that had been taken over by the city. Within a few days it was all over the news, but the rainbow got such a positive response that the news teams couldn't report anything negative, so they stopped. When I went downtown last week to photograph, I was happy to find the rainbow was still there, though a block down the street I spotted the Graffiti Removal Team...

I too am a fan of the rainbows and what they represent. Public art is able to reach a wider audience and affect more people than if it was displayed in the traditional sense. It brings attention to places that have been ignored, therefore people are forced to confront ideas and feelings they may otherwise be able to avoid. The first two photos were taken obviously around election time two years ago. I used to pass by this building frequently, and every couple weeks or so there would be something different painted on the wall. Oftentimes the previous artist's work was not covered up, but simply added on to, creating a collage of varying styles, colors, and subjects. It is art on a different kind of canvas, perhaps a more interesting one.

Globalquerque

Emeline Michel, Haiti

Kenge Kenge, Kenya

Rahim AlHaj and Little Earth Orchestra, Iraq/Albuquerque, NM

Non Stop Bhangra, India/San Francisco, CA

I have missed the last few years of this festival due to my absence from Albuquerque and was excited when I did not have go another year without experiencing Globalquerque. From the program: "Globalquerque 2010 presents a potpourri of unique and compelling artists from many corners of the planet including Kenya, Peru, Norway, India, Iraq, Portugal, Brazil, Palestine, Mali, Basque Spain, Mexico, the Mohican and Zuni Nations, USA, and of course, New Mexico." I only attended one night of the two-day music extravaganza, but it was enough to make me want to keep coming for years. My favorites of the evening were Kenge Kenge, and a hip-hop/reggae group called Non Stop Bhangra. Not surprisingly I saw a lot of people I know, many from the African dance crowd.

Missing The Broadway Cafe

While I was in school in Kansas City, I made it an almost weekly ritual to walk to my favorite coffeehouse, The Broadway Cafe. I would go mid-morning and stay for a couple hours, working on schoolwork of course, but the environment was what stimulated me. Saturday and Sunday mornings at 9a.m. Broadway was buzzing. The smell of freshly roasted beans filled the air and an eclectic playlist amused the ears. It wasn't uncommon for me to run into dozens of familiar faces due to its proximity to campus. I would also see many people who, like me, made a habit of coming there regularly. I have yet to have a latte that rivaled the look and quality of the ones I ordered at Broadway. The delicate heart or leaf drawn on top of the crema would show until the last sip. A few months ago a friend introduced me to another one of these coffeehouses. As we poured over sketchbooks filled with stories from passersby, I was reminded of days spent at The Broadway Cafe.

Fruits of Summer

At the end of July, I took a week-long road trip to Colorado. I stayed at my mom's cousin's house in Fort Collins. Irene exchanged grass in her backyard for 10 raised beds, where she grows pretty much everything under the sun: herbs, vegetables, fruits, and edible flowers. It was definitely an inspiration for me when I have my own house and garden.

Nearly everything we ate for dinner and breakfast was grown in the garden, not to mention the home-made granola... YUM!! She is also very much in to composting, with worm poo (also known as vermiculture.)Along the way I shot some pictures as painting inspiration, both landscape and abstract.

"Are You Getting Your Fest On?"

This was the question posed to my mom and I at the grocery store after the checkout guy spotted our RockyGrass wristbands. "Oh yeah!" we laughed, and began to chat about the goings-on around town. Lyons was buzzing with festivarians; everywhere we looked there were people carrying lawn chairs and pulling wagons or coolers full of necessities for three days of music in the mountains. When we arrived at the campground the host stuck us in a space no wider than our car, just big enough for the tent and folding table. He referred to one group of people camping next to us as "a bunch of bacon-cooking, beer-drinking hillbillies, but they're nice guys." As summer comes to a close, so does one of my favorite seasons: that of the outdoor festival. I have just returned home from yet another festival, The Four Corners Folk Fest, my last for this year. We saw The Black Lillies perform twice, once at the Pagosa Brewing Company and at the festival the following day. Every year I am introduced to some amazing band I've never heard of. These guys were, without a doubt, my favorite.

I was exposed to the euphoria of summer festivals at a young age. From the time my brother and I were in diapers until age 5 my parents took us to the Telluride Bluegrass Festival almost every summer. My love of the folk and bluegrass genre didn't develop until I was in college, as I remember when I was in high school and I stayed home when one of my now favorite bands came to play in Albuquerque (earlier this summer I drove to Santa Fe to see them perform). The festival scene is a world in itself. There is something magical in the air during these three day events, whether it is being in the presence of so many talented musicians, dancing and hula-hooping under the stars, or walking through the campground listening to late-night jam sessions.