http://www.blueraingallery.com The Artists from Blue Rain Gallery en-us http://www.blueraingallery.com/rss PHP webmaster@blueraingallery.com http://blueraingallery.com/artists/tony_abeyta/ Tony Abeyta is considered one of the finest young contemporary painters today. Abeyta explores a variety of mediums including oil, charcoal, and sand. Because he experiments with techniques and images so much, his creativity transcends any label that may be used to identify his work. Abeyta was commissioned to create the signature image of the National Museum of the American Indian‘s groundbreaking opening in Washington, DC. Many of Abeyta‘s highly original works are depictions of complex Navajo beliefs; they evoke the notion that there is power in everyone and everything. Avid collectors will consider their Abeyta piece to be a gift from a higher power. blueraingallery - 15 http://blueraingallery.com/artists/joe_ben_jr./ blueraingallery - 130 http://blueraingallery.com/artists/john_berger/ blueraingallery - 87 http://blueraingallery.com/artists/mike_bird_romero/ Mike Bird Romero didn't start his jewelry career until his early thirties. Prior, he served in the U.S. Marine Corps and spent several years as a salesman. This sales experience accustomed him to talking about and explaining his work to clients, something regular Romero followers have come to relish. Serious collectors follow his jewelry waiting to see what he will do next. His booth at Santa Fe's Indian Market is proof of their enthusiasm; it is often 12-people deep with buyers scrambling to see and collect his new work. As a young boy, Romero observed other jewelers hard at work. Ultimately however Mike Bird is a self-taught artist who possesses a mind that never ceases to absorb and process knowledge. His use of stones and metal, predominantly sterling silver, create simple and dramatic necklaces, earrings, bracelets, pins and other accessories. His sketches of the dynamic petroglyphs from the canyon walls of San Juan Pueblo (where he lives) and of Barrier Canyon in Utah enhance the mysticism and magic of his jewelry. His work combines tradition and innovation. With the help of his wife Allison, Romero also researches antique pieces of Native American jewelry, collects and repairs them. Replicating styles from the past, like replicating the Masters, gives an artist the knowledge to create his own contemporary work. blueraingallery - 42 http://blueraingallery.com/artists/tammy_garcia/ The two-thousand-year-old tradition of southwestern ceramics has been infused with a new energy and enthusiasm that has surprised and excited collectors and artists alike. Thoughtful and demure on the outside, Tammy Garcia contains an inner fire to create pottery that crackles with a spirited vivacity original to the art form. Anyone who sees one of Tammys works is struck by her ability to stretch the boundaries of the clay to contain her vision. A potter's art is generally limited by the size and shape of the vessel he or she designs. In Tammys case, it is as if the clay itself attempts to expand to better convey her dramatic design work. Part of that sense stems from the amazing proportions of Tammy's pots. She thrills at self-imposed challenge, and this often leads her to create pottery of almost unheard-of size. The other part, however, comes from a true symbiosis between Tammy and her medium. Pottery has been an outlet of creative personal expression for two millennia; Tammy was brought up in a family steeped in the tradition, and is both respectful of, and thankful to, the powers that allow her to share her exquisite talents. In exchange, it seems she has been rewarded with clay and ash that yearn to hold the voluptuous shapes she molds and display her intensely animated designs. The artwork that Tammy produces is at once instantly recognizable, yet difficult to categorize. This is the mark of a true artist; her work is constantly changing and reinventing itself, pushing the envelope and altering the medium of pottery for all who follow. She took the pueblo tradition of carving bands of design into vessels and shattered the rigid format of her ancestors. Her designs come spilling out of her in such a rush that she eagerly uses the entire surface of her pots as her canvas, as opposed to etching motifs into a single band around the circumference, as had been the custom. She adapts and redefines cultural motifs into stylized structural carvings that explode across the surface of her works. Tammy may take a leaf pattern, reverse it, rotate it, and send it undulating along the façade of an urn until the dizzying theme covers the exterior. She might then offset this barely restrained chaos by completing her pot with an unadorned, fluted lip. This flexibility and embracing of extremes is a trademark of Tammys revolution. Her dynamic creations have set her squarely at the forefront of contemporary pottery. blueraingallery - 8 http://blueraingallery.com/artists/gustavo_victor_goler/ Gustavo Victor Goler was raised in Santa Fe, New Mexico, among a family of Latin American art conservators and restorers. Goler's early years were spent apprenticing in is family's conservation studios where he was taught to carve. This was the segue to his interest in saints. He attended the University of New Mexico and later earned a degree in Graphics and Advertising Design from the Colorado Institute of Art. Currently, he researches the works, techniques and history of New Mexican, European and Latin American carvers but devotes much of his time to exploring his own artistic pursuits. Victor's work is considered to be progressive and his increasing knowledge of iconography and religious themes as well as his growing ability to manipulate his medium have made him a popular sculptor. In addition to bultos and retablos, Goler has mastered other media including lithographs. His skills as a wood carver have elevated him to an award winning artist - including numerous First Place awards and two Grand Prize awards at Spanish Market in Santa Fe, NM. Goler has also consulted on and lectured about Santero techniques and history at notable venues including the Smithsonian Institution. His work can be found in publications, museum collections and churches across the country. Victor resides in Talpa, NM, with his wife Whitney and young daughters Margot and Grace. blueraingallery - 191 http://blueraingallery.com/artists/cavan_gonzales/ blueraingallery - 473 http://blueraingallery.com/artists/norma_howard/ Self-taught watercolorist Norma Howard touches the heart with poignant stories of her Choctaw and Chickasaw ancestors in Oklahoma. She transports you to an earlier time by capturing moments of everyday life - a grandmother stitching a star quilt on a porch, or a boy fishing with a cane pole at a cypress-filled lake. Her style recalls the pointillism of the Impressionists, but instead of dots, she painstakingly layers tiny, basket-weave brush strokes to produce a vibrant depth of color rarely seen with watercolors. Howard, who started by painting miniatures, has moved to larger canvases that demand countless strokes to achieve her trademark richness of color and detail. "These subjects about how people survived in hard times and in everyday life that every tribe can relate to, wherever they lived. People tell me it‘s the details that draw them into my paintings and capture their feelings. My inspiration will always be to tell my ancestors‘ story and honor the way they lived." Sys Howard. blueraingallery - 84 http://blueraingallery.com/artists/hyrum_joe/ blueraingallery - 175 http://blueraingallery.com/artists/randall_lagro/ "Down an ordinary alley off one of the busier streets in Taos is a shabby door in need of paint. Open it, and one enters a room full of fantastical paintings, monotypes, and panels, all awash in the clear northern light falling from a wall of windows. The work seem visions from Gothic fairytale, or half-remembered images from a haunting childhood fever dream. This is the studio of Randall LaGro, an artist and printmaker graced with the unusual talent of creating works that are often equal parts of the conscious and subconscious world. Hanging from every wall, leaning in corners, set on easels, and stacked on tables, LaGros pieces resonate with mystery and beauty. His works are peopled by the common and the extraordinary, the transcendent and the loathsome. As a viewer, one feels the images are disturbingly familiar. It is as if LaGro is able to paint the dreamscapes and nightmares of humanity, and they are all gathered together in this high-ceilinged Cathedral of the Soul. LaGro works most often with paintings and monotypes, two distinctly different methods that allow him great freedom in attempting his goals. ""I want to speak to the poets, artists, and philosophers, but I dont want to lose the guy on the tractor. Art has always been language to me - thats its power."" The power inherent in the paintings of LaGro is overwhelming. Using predominantly rich and somber tones on large-scale canvasses or wood panels, LaGro introduces viewers to figures of uncommon translucence, unsettling anguish, and uncertain perspective. There is a musician seen through a rain-washed window; the dim androgynous shape in a blurred field leaning toward a bright, clear cluster of flowers; the blind artist working in his dark room, only vaguely aware of the demon lurking behind him. Much of the power of these works is in the ethereal atmosphere surrounding even the most mundane of subjects. LaGro also plays with reflective surfaces, such as glass and water, at times forcing the viewer to re-evaluate what his eyes may be seeing. LaGros monotypes are arguably his most unique creations. First covering a Plexiglas plate with sepia-toned ink, he has four to six hours to swab, wipe and scratch at the surface, slowly removing ink to reveal shapes and images of each work. He then transfers the creation to paper by running the plate through an etching press. These works, more than LaGros others, are drawn from the subconscious. These are the monochromatic pieces that seem snippets of dreams, featuring the bare backs of women sprouting wings, pools of water thick with snakes, and strange reverse writing obscuring Venetian archways. There is great depth to these monotypes. Images are dynamic, coming into and sinking back out of focus as if momentarily bobbing to the surface. One of these monotypes was entered in the prestigious 16th National Biennial of the Los Angeles Printmaking Society. From a field of fourteen hundred entries, only seventy-five works were chosen for the show. LaGro won an award for excellence in the medium." blueraingallery - 99 http://blueraingallery.com/artists/jeremy_lepisto/ Portland based glass artist, Jeremy Lepisto, utilizes cast glass to "highlight the simple components and ordinary workings of everyday situations to capture the complex in the common." His planar forms are minimal and imbued with renderings of architectural structures, landscapes and people. Some of these works will focus on what the artist calls, "a detailed idea in juxtaposition to its general surrounding." New works coming soon. blueraingallery - 489 http://blueraingallery.com/artists/shelley_muzylowski_allen/ Animals such as horses and elephants occupy the artist‘s mind, surfacing in the work of Shelly Muzylowski Allen. With a fine art degree in painting, Allen never considered glass until a co-worker remarked that her paintings would translate well to the translucent and moldable medium. This inspired her to apply to the Pilchuck School of glass, where it quickly became evident that her co-worker was right. Her glass sculptures and paintings are adorned with rusted metals and hair, focusing on the strength as well as the stillness of animals. Muzylowski Allen‘s goal is to work flawlessly between the two mediums, mixing both painting and glass often in the same piece of artwork. New works coming soon. blueraingallery - 487 http://blueraingallery.com/artists/les_namingha/ Les Namingha credits his aunt, renowned Hopi potter Dextra Quotskuyva, for guiding him through the process of pottery making, which served as his artistic foundation. As a prolific contemporary artist, Namingha thrives on traditional motifs with modernist influences. Constantly manipulating form and design, every Namingha piece takes cultural symbols and brings them adeptly into present day, making the artist a true innovator bound only by his imagination. The painting on his pottery is unique in its small size and tight detail, the extent of which is rarely seen in the medium. Owning one of Namingha‘s works offers Native-inspired significance to any collection. blueraingallery - 22 http://blueraingallery.com/artists/jamie_okuma/ Jamie Okuma began working with beads at a very early age, inspired by the pow wows she attended. In high school, Okuma made her first miniature jingle dress, which she subsequently mounted on a doll figure. Historical authenticity, exemplary workmanship, and attention to every detail are the hallmarks of her dolls or "soft sculptures". Generally taking up to four months to complete a figure, Okuma‘s focus tends to be on the most elaborate garments and accoutrements that were part of the late 19th and early 20th-century classic ceremonial attire of Plains and Plateau people. A work by Okuma is much more than a traditional craft, but a piece of fine art for discriminating collectors. blueraingallery - 193 http://blueraingallery.com/artists/sean_oneill/ A series of dots, ocular anatomy, or objects found in nature are often engraved into blown and slumped glass forms by artist, Sean O‘Neill. O‘Neill works with shades of gray, black and white. His forms are minimal, yet convey a great deal about patterns found in nature observed through the lens of daily life. With glass as his canvas and several cold-working techniques intended to reproduce the erosive effects of nature, the artist makes a subtle statement about the effects of time through his art—ultimately creating something aesthetically pleasing. New works coming soon. blueraingallery - 488 http://blueraingallery.com/artists/_pahponee/ Pahponee‘s Kickapoo name, Pahponee translates into "Snow Woman." Sheis a self-taught clay artist who has re-learned the traditional pottery methods of her Woodland Culture as well as learning contemporary pottery making techniques. Pahponee‘s inspiration to learn about pottery making came from a life changing experience. "I was taken to see a White Buffalo mother and her White Buffalo calf. White Buffalo are sacred to Native people. It was an auspicious occasion to be in their presence." After their meeting, Pahponee had a dream about a White Buffalo pottery vessel. "I would keep dreaming this one specific pot and other beautiful pots, but I didn‘t know how to make them." Pahponee spent years experimenting with hand dug clay and commercial clay as well as primitive outdoor dung firing and contemporary kiln firing. "The first several years were rough, until I began to develop a better understanding of the rhythm of earth, water, fire and air." Her experimentation and research has resulted in technical excellence in clay properties, tools, hand building, and firing techniques. Mastering several pottery techniques has provided the platform for Pahponee to create distinctive pottery that expresses her own personal style and innovative spirit. "By working with clay from a variety of locations, I have learned that all clay is sacred and alive. Whether it is hand dug or purchased commercially, working with clay is a sacred activity for me. This involves personal interaction between clay, myself, and as Native people say, All My Relations." Her pottery continues to be inspired by her dreams, personal life experiences, and is still being guided by the White Buffalo. "When I work on my pots, the rest of the world falls away. It is like being in a dream where each pot tells me its story." Today, Pahponee is one of the top Native American potters. She is recognized by peers and continues to receive awards from nationally juried shows. She continues to experiment with new techniques always striving for excellence in her work. blueraingallery - 123 http://blueraingallery.com/artists/turid_pedersen/ blueraingallery - 194 http://blueraingallery.com/artists/al_qoyawayma/ Nothing quite like Al's pottery has ever existed before. As with Native traditions, his pottery traditions run deep. Contemplative by nature, studiously quite at times, and at other times he is quite gregarious, especially when describing his passion for the clay and its heritage. As a descendent of the Coyote Clan, Qöyawayma (pronounced ko-YAH wy-mah) is a direct recipient of the Sikyatki tradition of ceramics which traces to 1400 A.D., and earlier. His style has its roots in the low shouldered forms of the Sikyatki culture; most likely of Keres speaking peoples, rather than Hopi. The Sikyatki tradition was first discovered by the Smithsonian in the early 1890s. That discovery became the inspiration for Nampeyos (Tewa) creative style and subsequently her influence on todays Tewa-Hopi pottery tradition. Al learned from his aunt Polingaysi Qöyawayma (aka Elizabeth Q. White) the aesthetics and philosophy of their ancient tradition. Another major influence in his artistic approach was his relative Charles Loloma, a major innovator in ceramics and jewelry, as well as Als father, Poliyumptewa, a painter. Collectors describe Als ceramics as timeless, sensuous, sublime, elegant and perfected, reflecting the hues and shadows of the high desert landscape. In his original sculptural/repousse technique Al describes himself as an experimentalist creating in an eclectic minimalist style. His goal is to reflect a timelessness in style, and the migrations and the origins myths in the americas. Perhaps best known of his work are the architectural series and large vases with dancing figures. More recently Al has added a new carved polychrome style. Feathers, dancers, insects and other symbols are carved in relief, incised, and sometimes on recessed planes. Thus, several individual surface plains and textures may be present in the same piece. In a new and unusual step some of the polychrome surfaces are painted and polished in a continuous gradient of many colors, such as might be obtained in oil painting techniques. Influenced by his Native culture Al sees little differentiation between culture, the arts, science and the spiritual worlds. His creations are diverse: They vary from patented high technology work to his innovative art. His education and interests are equally diverse. Al sees education as a key survival strategy for Native peoples. He has served a six year Presidential appointment as Vice-Chairman of the Institute of American Indian Art (IAIA). That was balanced by serving as the co-founder and first Chairman of the American Indian Science and Engineering Society (AISES), a 25 year old international membership organization serving Native students and the new cadre of Native professionals. A current visual and written review of his work may be viewed at his art educational website: www.alqpottery.com blueraingallery - 14 http://blueraingallery.com/artists/deborah_rael-buckley/ Deborah Rael-Buckley was born in Albuquerque, New Mexico in 1953. She finished her BA in the history of art and architecture with honors at the University of Illinois-Chicago in 1996. After a move to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, she began taking art studio courses and discovered a profound interest in ceramics. She completed her MFA in ceramic sculpture at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in 2000, receiving awards and fellowships along the way. Her award winning narrative sculptures explore a blend of exciting architecturally informed shapes, culturally significant imagery, and richly textures surfaces. The dramatic open spaces, reveal the building process while creating negative spaces that interact with light and shadow. Rael-Buckley‘s sculptures are coil built without benefit of armatures or forms, and feature a vocabulary of imagery including branches, bones, ropes, text and culturally significant symbols to express her thoughts on family, culture, memory, and religion. blueraingallery - 480 http://blueraingallery.com/artists/mateo_romero/ blueraingallery - 192 http://blueraingallery.com/artists/yellowbird_samora/ Yellowbird, an avid skier and kayaker, is "attracted to water," he says, to "fluid, liquid forms." He works "the shapes of traditional Pueblo pottery into something totally contemporary, with less emphasis on design and pattern than on the elemental form of the pottery. I try to leave something to the viewer to interpret. People say it looks like human forms; other viewers see moving water. I want it to have an organic feel…something of Pueblo pottery and something of what the viewer brings to it." The future of his work, he says, will involve "the pottery dictating its own form. I am always developing a closer relationship with the clay; it‘s a constant process of patience, trial, and error." blueraingallery - 101 http://blueraingallery.com/artists/maria_samora/ blueraingallery - 136 http://blueraingallery.com/artists/russell_sanchez/ blueraingallery - 129 http://blueraingallery.com/artists/kevin_a._short/ Kevin a. Short boldly paints the point where the abstract and the real converge. His New Mexico landscapes serve as a portal to a magical place and moment "where something beautiful and odd happens, where the sky looks red and rocks look green." "I stitch the border between impressionism and expressionism," he explains, masterfully reconciling these opposing styles. He paints outdoors, recording an ephemeral moment and the transient effects of light and color in a familiar landscape. But his work expresses the emotional essence of a scene rather than a faithful rendering of it. "I focus on capturing the quirkiness of our life today - urban culture or mundane things, and I try to make them rich and beautiful without becoming too romantic. New Mexico is stunning canyons and high plateaus, but also broken-down fences and tourist traps. I paint the way the world is now, with Native Americans driving SUVs and using cell phones. I don't paint old visions of cowboys and Indians," Short says. Struggling to "get more paint on my brush," he applies oil paint thickly in big, blocky brushstrokes. Up close, an abstract storm of brushstrokes dominates your vision, but when you stand back and gaze at the image, the reality of the scene emerges. Just the perspective you would expect from someone whose first look at New Mexico was from 10,000 feet, as the pilot of a hot air balloon. "Whether I was gliding quietly over farmhouses or skimming pinons atop mesas, I was having a different interaction with the place than others, and developing a different eye. I am still drawn to painting at dawn or dusk, calm times that are best for ballooning," he explains. "I'm sure my penchant for having chaotic brushstrokes form harmony and order from a distance was born in ballooning." You don't learn the desert in a few days, says the California native, who moved to New Mexico in high school and stud- ied art at the University of New Mexico before graduating from the Art Center College of Design. "The light is completely different. Because the vistas are big, the sky is vast, and colors are subtle, New Mexico begs you to paint large. There's an elusive quality about the desert that draws you to paint the same subject over and over. A quiet voice that keeps calling you." Using a palette of warm and cool colors, but never black, he creates subtle tone changes within the same color. He fear-lessly brightens colors to reproduce "how the place felt." Because scenery changes constantly, he does numerous color studies of moments in nature and synthesizes them in the studio to create a single large painting. "I want to inspire an emotional connection with the viewer, not just to the place, but how they feel about that place. Collectors of my work often tell me that a painting has created a catch basin of memories for them about a place, even if they've never been there. I try to under paint, to leave details up to the viewer so that more of their imagination comes into it and they end up being a part of the piece," Short says. blueraingallery - 154 http://blueraingallery.com/artists/preston_singletary/ Preston Singletary is likened to master glass artist Dale Chihuly. If you appreciate glass work, you wish you‘d purchased a Chihuly in the early days of his career. Singletary is one of just a handful of Native Americans that work in glass. He has been a pioneer, using previously undeveloped etching techniques to revolutionize a new art form in glass sculpture with cultural influences. Buying a Singletary piece today will yield enjoyment and distinction for years to come. blueraingallery - 16 http://blueraingallery.com/artists/richard_zane_smith/ Richard Zane Smith draws on inspiration from spirituality and the humility shown by the Navajo which translates into breathtaking pottery unlike anything most people have ever seen before. Many collectors believe, upon first glance of Smith‘s work, that they are looking at a finely woven basket given the intricate design created with Smith‘s unconventional contours and contemporary color and design. Smith uses perspective, color, and space to trick the eye into assuming three-dimensional space on a two-dimensional plane, creating a visual delicacy few artists achieve and equally few collectors have the privilege of calling their own. blueraingallery - 35 http://blueraingallery.com/artists/larry_vasquez/ Larry Vasquez was born in Roswell, New Mexico on "the same day aliens landed." The events of his birthday, his spirituality and his cultural heritage all inform his exquisite wearable art. Vasquez blends his own gold and mills it for fabrication to create vividly colored 18 to 22 kt. golds, which he refers to as "treasure gold" for a hue reminiscent of an Aztec treasure. He hand crafts all of the beads in his necklaces, grinding them down from their natural form and rolling and polishing them into beads, requiring an average of 16 steps to make just one bead. Vasquez includes a poem with each piece of jewelry he creates calling it a "birth certificate" for the proud collector. blueraingallery - 453 http://blueraingallery.com/artists/felix_vigil/ Felix Vigil is a contemporary painter from the southwestern United States. He was born and raised on the Jemez Pueblo northwest of Albuquerque, New Mexico. Felix, who resides on Jemez Pueblo and is an active member of its community, relates, "Living at Jemez affords me the opportunity to live a very traditional life-style. The language is strong and the ceremonies are still a major part of our lives." Felix has displayed his work in many prestigious exhibitions throughout the country. He recently received a first place ribbon for painting at the 2000 Santa Fe Indian Market. A former instructor at the Institute of American Indian Art in Santa Fe, Felix Vigils paintings are mixed medium collage on canvas. His imagery is based on Native American mythology and themes. Over the years his work has become more esoteric in its symbolism and composition. In addition to the popular imagery of his southwest native culture, Felix has been incorporating motifs of Northwest Coast tribes into some of his paintings. Felix states: "There are many similarities in the philosophy of the designs between the Northwest Coast peoples and the Southwest. Paying homage to the animals is the central theme. The spirit of the animals is where our strength comes from. We emulate their character and pray that we can attain their powers. "Within the scheme of the design there is an interdependency and relationship that exists between each design element and symbol. This speaks of the relationship that is evident in the world around us. Each creature is dependent on another to live and survive. And we, as humans, depend on these creatures to live." From an early age Felix was exposed to the art of his father Francis, whom was a highly regarded Native American painter working in oils, watercolor and later in acrylics. When Felix reached his early twenties he attended the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore, Maryland. He graduated in 1980 with a BFA in painting. blueraingallery - 2 http://blueraingallery.com/artists/jim_vogel/ Jim Vogel deftly weaves color and emotion, detail and shape into paintings that reflect life and land in New Mexico. Vogel hails from a family of storytellers, so each of his works tells its own tail of the land, the culture, and the common man's struggle. Vogel's storytelling continues including paintings which depict New Mexican folklore and myths that have crossed cultures and been told for generations. "I'm trying to put images to these stories I've heard over and over from my mother and father," says the artist. Vogel is also well known for his paintings featuring New Mexican landscapes and rural life, many of which feature beautiful hand-made tin frames. blueraingallery - 155 http://blueraingallery.com/artists/ben_wright/ blueraingallery - 153