Spring 2016 – El Palacio

Painting depicts an aerial attack on a coastal military landing, with planes in the sky, ships approaching shore, and explosions on the beach. [gen-ai]

Everything New is New Again

BY CINDRA KLINE LLOYD HENRI KIVA NEW’s life as designer, artist, scholar, and visionary educator remains a call to creative souls still listening to what New frequently referred to as “the sound of drums.” In celebration of his influence, and honoring what would have been his 100th birthday, a collaborative effort between three Santa Fe museums spotlights the man and the motivation he has provided to so many individuals.

By Cindra Kline and Lloyd Henri Kiva New (Cherokee, 1916-2002)

Categories: Featured, Staff favorites, Visual art

A black and white image divided into four panels, each showing a distorted, rippling surface resembling water or glass. [gen-ai]

Along the Pecos

BY DANIEL KOSHAREK One of the staples of desert life is the presence—or scarcity—of water. Its importance can be seen across eastern New Mexico, where the Pecos River strives to quench a fragile, 926-mile riparian environment. In Along the Pecos, photographer Jennifer Schlesinger and the late composer Steven M. Miller use images and sound, respectively, to impart an emotional sense of the river, with a goal of highlighting issues of ecology and our relationship to place.

By Daniel Kosharek

Categories: Framework, Visual art

Large wooden doors feature a traditional Indigenous Pacific Northwest Coast design in red, black, and tan, depicting stylized animal and human figures in symmetrical patterns. [gen-ai]

More Than Doors

BY PENELOPE HUNTER-STIEBEL How many times had I passed through the doorway into the Neutrogena galleries at the Museum of International Folk Art barely noting what registered only as a handsome architectural decoration on either side? Then suddenly, emerging from the exhibition The Red That Colored the World, with my eye attuned to seeking out the color, I focused on the red elements of the 7-foot-tall carved and painted doors that flanked the entrance.

By Penelope Hunter-Stiebel

Categories: Visual art

Adobe-style building with wooden accents, two flags (USA and New Mexico) on the roof, blue sky, and landscaping in front. [gen-ai]

Doña Teresa Confronts the Spanish Inquisition

BY FRANCES LEVINE Summer, especially those without the cooling monsoon rains, can be long and hot in New Mexico. The sun sears your skin, and the dirt beneath your feet can scorch right through the soles of your shoes. For centuries it has been the time of year when native peoples dance and pray devoutly for rain, and when farmers and ranchers of other cultures do the same, following their own traditions.

By Frances Levine

Categories: Uncategorized

Typed letter dated September 25, 2015, from Patricio to Maria Jose Urbina Estrada, expressing gratitude for support and friendship during a difficult time. [gen-ai]

Love Letter to the World

Love Letter to the World, a social-art project, was performed at The PASEO art festival in Taos in September 2015 and in Santa Fe at Everywhere Night Market in August 2015. The project included a letter-writing component and a performance in which Edie Tsong broadcast these letters to the world via bullhorn from atop a 12-foot ladder. [wonderplugin_slider id="81"]

By Edie Tsong (Taiwanese American) and Michael Lorenzo Lopez

Categories: Poetry

A close-up of a library card catalog drawer labeled Navaho, containing typed index cards about natural history in Spanish America. [gen-ai]

O Catalog! My Catalog!

BY KATE NELSON Chances are you didn’t notice the seismic shift on September 30, 2015. I did, but only because I happened to be standing in the New Mexico History Museum’s Fray Angélico Chávez History Library. Its full force nearly buckled my knees. “See these?” Librarian Patricia Hewitt asked, waving a narrow stack of cards at me. “These are the last cards we’ll ever get for the card catalog.

By Kate Nelson

Categories: Uncategorized

Two people sit at a table examining and discussing colorful abstract artwork illuminated by overhead light in a dim room. [gen-ai]

Lloyd Kiva New: Art, Design, and Influence

BY TATIANA LOMAHAFTEWA-SINGER Lloyd Kiva New: Art, Design, and Influence, at the Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA) Museum of Contemporary Native Arts (MoCNA), celebrates the work of the famed Cherokee artist, designer, and educator, who is still discussed and admired for his modern and innovative foresight and artistry one hundred years after his birth. [wonderplugin_slider id="78"] (more…)

By Tatiana Lomahaftewa-Singer (Choctaw/Hopi)

Categories: Visual art

Three women in vintage clothing pose outdoors; one stands in a pencil skirt, one kneels in a wide-brimmed hat and dress, and the third stands in a floral dress and heels near palm leaves. [gen-ai]

A New Century

BY TONY R. CHAVARRIA A New Century: The Life of Cherokee Artist and Educator Lloyd “Kiva” New, at the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture, commemorates the 100th anniversary of the birth of a Native pioneer in fashion design, entrepreneurship, and cultural art education. He blazed a trial that many are just beginning to tread. [wonderplugin_slider id="77"] (more…)

By Tony Chavarria (Santa Clara Pueblo)

Categories: Visual art

A vintage photo of two people and a cow is overlaid on a southwestern U.S. map with red stripes and graphic shapes. [gen-ai]

Finding a Contemporary Voice

BY CARMEN VENDELIN In the collection of the New Mexico Museum of Art, a group portrait by Fritz Scholder, based on a ca. 1966 photograph, depicts early faculty members who helped shape the curriculum, mission, and direction of the newly established Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe. [wonderplugin_slider id="76"] (more…)

By Carmen Vendelin

Categories: Visual art

A group of fourteen men and one woman, some standing and some seated, pose together against a plain background in a stylized, colorful illustration. [gen-ai]

Love and War

BY TOM IRELAND When the American Academy of Poets made April National Poetry Month, they must have had T. S. Eliot’s poem The Waste Land in mind (“April is the cruellest month”). During April we celebrate poetry as practiced not only by career poets but also by the man and woman on the street, in the American vernacular. (more…)

By Tom Ireland

Categories: Editor's Letter