Openings Connecting: Women of Santa Fe

Friday, May 24, 2013

Women of Santa Fe

the many faces

of this adobe walled city on a warm

summer's day

5 comments:

Caterina GiglioMay 24, 2013 at 12:38 PM
oh my such a great post!! I saw this on FB, but for some reason did not realize that you had a blog post up! just wonderful bella....
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SethMay 25, 2013 at 7:23 AM
So much variety to be found in every one of these beautiful faces. The personal history of each one is seen through their eyes and their smiles.
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TheaMay 25, 2013 at 1:14 PM
Familiar and fascinating beauty of New Mexico women. Nice work Neva.
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rivergardenstudioJune 28, 2013 at 2:18 PM
Dear Neva, what fascinating portraits of the women of Sante Fe... each one beautiful, each with a story.
roxanne
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layersSeptember 14, 2013 at 9:20 PM
It has been so long since I have been around to other blog posts that you posted this in May and I am now here to leave a comment in September. I am sure each of these women have a history and story to tell... just like you and me. take care
donna
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FOUR DIRECTIONS/FOUR VISIONS: Two Graces: First showing for me, JUNE 3, 2011

With no directions home, I found Taos in the late 60s. It felt like home immediately. It still does. I know this sentiment is familiar to countless others.

The mountain stopped me in my tracks, and I stayed for several years. Since that time, I circle back annually.

To me, that circle is symbolic of this body of work at Two Graces. This is a time in my life when I've been fortunate enough to experiment with art making. Not surprisingly, I found myself drawn back to the images in the Ektachrome slides that I'd taken in the early 80s of Chaco Canyon, the San Francisco de Asis Church, dusty roads, and the ever changing skies of Northern New Mexico. The spirit of this adobed land lingers in my core and manifests itself within these works.

This past Michigan winter was spent creating enlarged negatives from my thirty year old slides, pulling part of my past into the present via today's tools of scanner and computer. Using traditional silver-gelatin darkroom processes, these resurrected and modified negatives acquired a new life. The majority of these prints are the result of this mediated reincarnation.

The smaller images took me into photographic processes from the mid-1800s. These handmade platinum/palladium prints are created coating vellum, for translucency, with these metal salts and exposing them to ultraviolet light. They are then bathed in the alchemy of the darkroom. The tonal qualities are unique in each print. Finally, 24k gold is layered to the backs of the prints, emanating the warmth, glow, and depth of these beloved places.