Be Bold, Live Richly

As winter approaches and the cold Taos weather sets in, I have been furiously going through my attic and closets trying to decide what I need to get rid of. Every year at this time I develop an urgency to purge my household of “under-appreciated possessions” (a.k.a. junk), in order to make room for the impending Christmas gifts. Having a small child around, as I’ve discovered, simply fuels this urgency—a mother can only stand so many stuffed animals, model airplanes, and beeping gadgets under her roof. But how does one make the difficult decision about what is and isn’t worth keeping? For me, there is a single litmus test—I ask myself, “Does (the possession in question) enrich my life and/or the life of my family?” If the answer is yes, I keep it. No, and it goes to someone who can better appreciate it.

I also try to approach my purchases in this same way. Gone are the days of tentative shopping trips where I waffle over a purchase, buy it, and decide later that I really didn’t want it in the first place. In the same breath I can also say that I’m done saying ‘no’ to items I desperately want to have, and then later being forced to live with the regret of not having spent the money. How many times have I been in the presence of something exciting, deeply comforting, or that which was a rare glimpse of perfection—and I foolishly passed it up? These forsaken gems still haunt me: The handmade hat with the angora trim at a 1998 Renaissance Fair, the juicy painting of our beloved canyon at the 2007 Pilar Studio Tour, and the exotic yarn tapestry at this year’s Taos Wool Festival all have been, sadly, reduced to regrets. I’m still kicking myself for not listening to that voice that was screaming, “This is it! It’s right, it’s right. It’s so right.”

I think especially now, in this strange time of economic uncertainty, it is important to consider these ideas. How are our lives the richer for our purchases? From my own experience, I know that it doesn’t take a lot of money to live richly; it’s about the choices we make on a daily basis. By giving up those things that mean very little to us (Starbucks habit, magazine subscription, fancy cell phone plan, etc.), we can make room for bigger, bolder, and more beautiful things to fill those spaces… And what can be more enriching to our lives than that which we find beautiful?

Melissa Glarner

Currier’s new studies

Parks Gallery has just received six new studies by Erin Currier. Click here to go to our site.

View all new Passenger Safety Drawings

The studies are a continuation of the Passenger Safety Series that hung along side Currier’s 2007 exhibition, “America Below“.

Over the next three months Erin will be making her way through Morocco and Africa, among other places, in preparation for her next Parks Gallery exhibition that will take place in August, 2009. If you would like more information please feel free to contact the Gallery directly.

An invitation to write about a Jim Wagner experience.

One of the most interesting aspects about our artist Jim Wagner is that so many people know him, or relate to him through his art and have had an interesting experience that others would enjoy hearing about. I want to invite anyone who has a Wagner experience about him or his work that was typical of his uniqueness, to write to us. You can submit your stories to us by e-mail at stevestorz@parksgallery.com or right here to our blog. For those of you who might wish to delve into Jim Wagner’s history through 1993 in book form, you can order the Rancho Milagro publication: Jim Wagner-An American Artist by Stephen Parks on the Parks Gallery website http://www.parksgallery.com/bpc_info.php?artistID=1

Or call us, we’d be happy to take your order by phone at 575-751-0343.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Steve Storz, Parks Gallery

Zink Guardians; a new home in Durango

The Durango Public Library will be adding three of Melissa Zink’s Bronze Guardians to their collection as they celebrate the grand opening of their new 42,000-square-foot building.

Through the formation of The Guardians Project family and friends of Melissa Zink have helped raise money to purchase the sculptures. The three Guardians will be installed by the Parks Gallery at their new home, watching over the second floor of the library, on November 21st. The figures, whose surfaces are textured with various words, phrases, and passages, are indeed a fitting addition to the library’s collection of fine statuary.

To read more about the new Library please visit the Durango Library web site or follow the link below to read the on-line article written in the Durango Telegraph: 

Brushing up the library
by Jules Masterjohn

“The Rally” as historical painting

Having just witnessed political history last night with the election of Barack Obama as our next President, I find myself thinking about how politics is reflected in art, and in particular, how that connection is revealed in a painting we have available here at the Parks Gallery. Last nights coverage on PBS held a tone that, until almost the very last, seemed to express a sense of “I’ll believe it when I see it.” I recalled the figure in the foreground of Susan Contreras’s painting The Rally and thought of the way he looks. He’s standing, arms crossed, sort of a glum look on his face, a mask actually, and has a bit of a defiant pose, while those  around him cavort, jump and dance excitedly. He seems to be pondering the same question.

I wonder how he feels now that the election is over. Is he ecstatically jumping around like the others around him? Is he put off, moping off down the road, disgruntled? The Rally was done in the months just prior to the 2008 Presidential election, so it’s more about the spirit of the event than an historical recreation. But so was Declaration of Independence by John Trumball, one of the most significant paintings of the history of the founding of the United States of America. The scene Trumball depicted never actually took place, and yet emotionally, it captures the feeling of the historic event. In the case of both these paintings, the artist has set down a record, in color, form and style, of an historical moment that can be referred to in no other language, than that which the artist has chosen and executed, making it a treasure.

                                                                                    -Steve Storz

 

The Rally, by Susan Contreras