Friday, April 25, 2025

East Rotunda Gallery, New Mexico Capitol

The current show at the Roundhouse (New Mexico Capitol) is, 'Go Figure' Women Painters and The Figure, a group show featuring a group of ten women artists of New Mexico. I installed this show, as I have done for the last 25 years, and it is the most impressive show I have had the privilege of mounting in this space. Cynthia Sanchez, Executive Director of the Capitol Arts Foundation, curates these exhibits, as well as maintaining the Capitol's permanent collection, which include 2-D and 3-D works throughout the building and sculptures on the grounds. The top floor also houses the Governor's Gallery with permanent and temporary works on display. All told more than 600 New Mexico artists are represented here.

This show represents a diverse group of women, proving it can still be done. This group includes the multigenerational legacy of an indigenous local family, artists from other parts of the US who call New Mexico home, as well as artists originally from Mexico and Japan. The pieces use a variety of mediums on linen, canvas, wood, claybord and aluminum panel.

Buffalo and Deer Dance, Pablita Velarde, Casein on paper, 28.5X50

Pablita Velarde,(1918-2006) was born Tse Tsan (Golden Dawn), at Santa Clara Pueblo (Kha'p'oo Owinge), and was taught flat style painting by Dorothy Dunn at Santa Fe Indian School. Through her friendship with Tonita Peňa who was from San Ildefonso pueblo she began an association with the Public Works of Art Project, part of the New Deal, for which Pablita produced over 80 works.

Velarde's early paintings were exclusively watercolors, but later in life she learned how to prepare paints from natural pigments using a process similar to, but not the same as fresco secco. She used these paints to produce what she called "earth paintings". She obtained pigments from minerals and rocks, which she ground on a metate and mano until the result was a powdery substance from which she made her paints.

From <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pablita_Velarde>

Untitled, Helen Hardin, Casein on Paper, 29X15.5 each panel

Helen Hardin, (1943-1984), born Tsa-Sah-Wee-Eh (Little Standing Spruce), daughter of Pablita Velarde and mother of Margarete Bagshaw.

"Helen's artwork consisted of meticulous drawings of colorful abstracted images of Katsina figures and of Native American daily struggles. In 1975 she won the Avery Memorial Prize at the Heard Museum in Phoenix, Arizona. A California art dealer came to Helen in 1979 to propose the idea of doing etchings of her now time-consuming images, which she agreed to do. Her efforts were well received and she enjoyed the medium. She was again chastised by the Tewa elders, this time for showing too many of the secret spiritual symbols represented in their mythology. But to Helen she was only illustrating the deep spiritual connection she felt with the Katsinas and her culture."

From <https://www.medicinemangallery.com/blogs/biographies/helen-hardin-1943-1984-biography>

Women In Red, Margarete Bagshaw, Oil on Board, 2014

Margarete Bagshaw,(1964-2015) granddaughter of Pablita Velarde and daughter of Helen Hardin continued the line of artists in this family. Margarete considered herself a Modernist rather than a Native painter, though, as you can see in this painting she often incorporated the iconography of her indigenous roots. Though flat, her works often incorporated many layers of various mediums and techniques, a technique likely gleaned from her mother.

Her canvases grew as wide as 12 feet. Her process became a full-body exercise of hands, arms and legs. She applied layer upon layer of oil paint, scratching, combing and burnishing it. Mixing math and mysticism, she manifested an interior world of katsinas, avanyus, pharaohs, feathers and, most famously, a chorus of women, their mouths opened in prayer, chant or song.

She began her Mother Line series with a haunting portrait of three katsinas representing herself, her mother and grandmother. It catapulted her popularity as well as her confidence. Big, bold paintings—elegant, ethereal and sometimes saucy—became her trademark, along with an extraordinary pace that often found her working on numerous paintings at a time.

“Painting is our language,” she wrote in her memoir. “Used by and understood by all three of us. … We communicate past to present, present to past. They both left unfinished paintings on their tables. … What was left unsaid?”

You can find out more about these three remarkable women by reading Margarete's memoir, 'Margarete Bagshaw: Teaching My Spirit to Fly', Pablita Velarde: In Her Own Words, by Shelby Tisdale and Helen Hardin: A Straight Line Curved, by Kate Nelson.

From <http://www.mbagshaw.com/>

A Prayer for Rain-Moki Snake Dance, Kathryn Stedham,Oil on Belgian Linen, 29.75X41.5

"What is important to me, is that I feel the viewer must see the hand of the artist. I’m not concerned with realism. I’m also not concerned with an accurate representation of a scene. I’m a painter’s painter, meaning for me it is about the paint, about that expression, what a place feels like rather than what it looks like. I love the idea of a painting going from the eye to the hand, no brain interference, it’s just what comes through me."

From <https://www.kstedham.com/about>

Mystery of Birds, Rimi Yang, Oil on Canvas, 69X48

Yang’s paintings -mostly figurative, but with a playful approach to abstraction- reveal an intuitive, contrast-rich take on Eastern and Western art history. It is as though they are struggling to make sense of dualities which simultaneously inspire and confuse us in their attempts to structure the world. Pleasantly suspended between familiar polarities like east-west, male-female, high-low and old-new, the viewer can’t help but be moved by the artist’s apparent search for meaning.

“Mankind tries to order the un-orderable, explain the inexplicable. Do we really always need to reason, understand and structure, or could we instead seek out the vibration that connects all life in an instant?”

From <https://www.rimiyang.com/about>

American Schoolboy (Abdulrahman al-Awiaki), Erin Currier, Mixed Media Collage on Board, 60X48

Aminatou Haidar, Erin Currier, Mixed Media on Panel, 36X48

" What compels my artistic practice is the desire to convey that which I have found to be true in all of the countries I have traveled to: that our commonalities as human beings far outweigh our differences. The bond between brothers, the love between mother and child, the kinship shared through creative endeavors; these run like threads in the great fabric of generations.

The reasons behind my use of recycled material are multilayered. First, artists have always used materials close-at-hand; I use what is most readily available to my era—waste from our globalized consumer culture.

Secondly, my use of trash is a spiritual practice in the sense that it is re-transfigured into something of beauty.

Finally, using post-consumer waste is a socio-political act: it is a form of recycling that expresses our interconnectedness as human beings—in what we value, share, consume, and cast away." -Erin Currier

From <https://www.erincurrierfineart.com/statement-resume>

Honey In The Desert, Irene Hardwicke Olivieri, Oil on Pine with Teddy Bear Cholla Cactus, 62X17

One Hundred Bright Smiles, Irene Hardwicke Olivieri, Oil on Claybord, 78X54

"An ongoing theme in my work is rewilding the heart, to inspire deeper connections to wild animals and wild lands. Many of my paintings are about love, obsessions; parts of life which are often subterranean. I grew up at the mouth of the Rio Grande River in south Texas and after taking some tributaries over the years, I’ve moved upstream from my childhood home. Today I live near the Rio Grande River in northern New Mexico in an off the grid adobe house surrounded by sagebrush."

From <https://irenehardwickeolivieri.com/bio/>

Meditation on the Holocene, Robin Jones, Oil and Gold Leaf on Aluminum Panel, 43.25X31.25

We Are Just Visitors to This Time, This Place, Robin Jones, Oil and Gold Leaf on Aluminum Panel, 42.5X54.5

"I choose to paint girls and women, as from the beginning- and continuing into the present time — they have been at the forefront of the environmental and animal rights movements. I choose to paint young people, as they will inherit the planet we leave them. They are also among the strongest and most influential voices in environmental activism today. I like to think of my paintings as ‘portraits of the future’ — the subjects of my paintings will be impacted in the future by the decisions and choices made now.

For much of my life I’ve been a professional theatre actor, which instilled in me an appreciation for the power of story, for the diversity of human expression and experience, and for the power of empathy — imagining worlds unlike my own. This artistic practice informs my work as a painter. My passion lies in painting others — both human and non-human animals — and their worlds.

I feel compelled to make art that asks us to consider how we move through the world, what we consume, how we use the land, and how we treat our fellow species."

From <https://www.robinjonesart.com/about>

These works will be on display until August 22, 2025. If you find yourself in Santa Fe, New Mexico this summer, make the effort to see this exhibit.

  I took this photo last July when local and regional musicians gathered for an Elton John tribute show at the Santa Fe Railyard Plaza. It was taken during sound check. Sound check was a more drawn out affair than usual because there were more moving parts than usual.

   I arrived early so I wouldn't have to park a mile away. I roamed around Railyard Plaza taking pictures of trains and tracks and buildings.

   Getting there early is what made this photo possible. On the stage tonight would be a swarm of musicians in multiple configurations. There would be piano, guitars, basses, keyboards, horns, vocals, backup vocals, drums and percussion. Little room to move when the full complement was arrayed across the stage.

   Players move on and off the stage singly or in groups as the sound levels are dialed in. Some of the songs played for the sound check are Elton's, but not all. The singer pictured here chose to sing a song written by Prince, 'Nothing Compares 2 U'.

   This all took place on July 28, 2023. The date matters. Sinead O'Connor had died two days earlier. I had her picture as the lock screen on my phone, as I greatly admired her courage and loved her voice.

   I'm in the 'zone', swinging one or the other of the two cameras I carry for live performance, and rotating from portrait to landscape, and back again. I'm listening to the music, but that part of my brain is not keyed in to really hearing.

   My soul is listening and hearing though…I am looking through the viewfinder, intent on getting the image…I realize that tears are streaming down my face…all the loss and longing that Sinead conveyed so achingly in this song, is being given all the beauty and pathos it deserves by this singer.

   While all the lyrics were sung, what I heard was, "I love you…Goodbye".

   I am tearing up now just remembering that magic moment.

“I am always listening, and sometimes I hear”

Jim Watley

Doc, Becky, Mom

   Fall, for me, brings a wave of mixed emotions. Fall is the time of my birth and as today is my 72nd birthday, I contemplate not only my good fortune, my good health, those who love me and who I love in return, but also the steady march toward my own mortality. An egocentric jumble of 'me, me, me' feelings.

   Fall is also a time of death and sadness in my family. My sister Becky (2 years older) passed away 3 days before my 14th birthday. My father passed away in late August 2005 and his memorial was on September 2nd. My mother passed away in August 2013 and her memorial was on the 27th of that month.

   Mom and Dad (Doc and Margaret) having been born in 1922 and 1923 had long, full and complex lives that took them from the dust bowl of the Texas Panhandle and a small East Texas farm to Syracuse, New Haven, Boston and Denver before their return to Texas. In the year following Becky's death the family moved to southeastern Kentucky. Doc and Margaret returned to Texas again in the mid-70s along with my younger sister and my two foster sisters. Mom made everyone who came to our house family, quite literally in two instances. Doc and Margaret lived the rest of their lives in Beaumont, Texas, which is where they were both living when their journeys ended.

   Becky's journey was far too short. She had health issues from birth and outlived expectations. Treatment for her condition was not yet widely available and was prohibitively expensive. But look at that smile! The strength and spirit with which she lived should have been an inspiration to me, but as a young boy to whom baseball and motorcycles were all encompassing distractions, I have seen what Becky was, in all her glory, only in retrospect.

   The unsettled emotions I feel at this time of year, while brought on by the absence of family members and my own eventual end, is reinforced by regret, born of the self-absorption that kept me from knowing them more fully. And, yes, I recognize the tendrils of self-absorption entwined throughout this missive. For some of us it is a life-long companion, sometimes benign, and sometimes a hindrance to deep meaningful connections to others.

   Will I ever stop imagining the questions, the conversations, the laughs, the tears we could have shared, had I been more conscious as a younger man?

   No.

   What I can do is treat the beginning of a new year of life the way I sometimes treat a new calendar year and start it off with a resolution.

            "I resolve to teach the self-absorbed, self-righteous and arrogant

part of me just sit down and shut up"

      This resolution has been made before. Maybe this time it will take root.

                                               Happy Birthday Jimmy

“I have been talking, now I will listen”

Jim Watley

View large…phones take great pictures but suck at displaying them

  This is the La Bajada Mesa section of El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro (The Royal Road of The Interior Land) in New Mexico. The story of this unassuming road of packed dirt and clay began over 4 centuries ago and played an important role in Native, Spanish, Mexican and U.S. history. The road was in regular use until the late 1880s. The deep narrow ruts to the left of the hard pack were likely made by horse-drawn wagons more than a hundred years ago. The  New Mexico section of the road takes you through Bureau of Land Management and National Forest land and cities and towns from the Mexican border to Ohkay Owingeh, near the confluence of the Rio Grande and Rio Chama.

   The power lines to the left of the road were erected in 1929. The hills in the distance are the 'Sangre de Cristo' (Blood of Christ) mountains of the Southern Rockies, at the base of which sits the city of Santa Fe.

   El Camino Real ran from what was then (1598) the center of Mexico City to Ohkay Owingeh, which the Spanish called Pueblo de San Juan, just north of present day Santa Fe, New Mexico. The road was nearly 1600 miles long and the northern 400 miles of the road crossed land that would become U.S. territory and then a state.

   The road was initially established as a series of trails for trade and hunting and by 1000 C.E. trade along this network ranged from Mesoamerica to the Rockies. The Spanish arrived around 1520 and began to use the trails and paths long in use by the indigenous peoples, much of which they widened for use by wagons.

   In the late 1500s a colonial governor was appointed for the province of Santa Fe de Nuevo Mexico and at first the colonial capital was at Espanola before being relocated to what the Spanish named, 'La Villa Real de la Santa Fe de San Francisco de Asis' (The Royal Town of the Holy Faith of Saint Francis of Assisi).

   For the Spanish, it was hoped this would be a road to riches, and for many it was. For the peoples already inhabiting this land it was a road leading to colonization and subjugation, bloodshed and degradation.

   A Papal Bull issued by Pope Alexander VI in 1493 (The Doctrine of Discovery) stated that any land not inhabited by Christians was open to claim and exploitation by Christian rulers. Not only did this doctrine become the basis of European claims in the New World, a unanimous decision in Johnson v. McIntosh in 1823 used this doctrine in its finding that European settlers/invaders had a god given right to all of the lands of this continent. The people indigenous to the New World, in our eyes, had only a right of occupancy, which we could and did revoke at will.

   In 1680 the Pueblo peoples of Spanish colonial New Mexico revolted against their colonizing oppressors, and led by Po'Pay, a holy man and War Captain of Ohkay Owingeh, drove out the Spanish. The only such repudiation of colonial rule to take place in North America. This uprising kept the Spanish out of the region for 12 years. The Spanish did return and brokered an uneasy peace. The Pueblo Revolt of 1680 is seen by some as having insured the survival of the Puebloans to this day and beyond.

   The roads more recent and more benign history includes being named 'State Highway 1' when New Mexico became a state in 1912, and in 1926 'Route 66' was built over parts of 'El Camino Real'. It is also included in the National Trails System.

   I travel part of it here in New Mexico frequently, exploring the BLM and National Forest lands of la Bajada Mesa and the Caja Del Rio (Box of the River) Plateau.

“I am always looking, and sometimes I see.”

Jim Watley

CONSTRUCT #3 View Bigly

 Well…maybe it can, but I certainly don't have the language skills required to explain this to a bleeping machine.

   How would I describe the light and dark speckling in parts of the image, where to place it and how much or how little it stands out? How would I define how I want the intimated but not distinct border on the bottom and sides?

   Could I relate to an inanimate object the lighting effects and the lens flare? Could the 1s and 0s understand my description of the smokiness?

   (Beginning of Rant).

   I am not interested in relinquishing the use of my own hands and mind to accomplish a task, either creative or mundane.

   Do I use tools? Absolutely! I have spent my life working with my hands and my mind, from running a bicycle shop to building houses, cabinets and furniture. Tools are certainly more advanced, and modern woodworking tools are typically controlled by a PLC (programmable logic controller) but you still have to drive them to accomplish a given task. And you have to not only learn how to drive them, but how to troubleshoot and repair them.

   I am not interested in having my car drive itself. Hell, I don't even like ABS, as it tends to engage randomly on the washboard dirt, rock and gravel two tracks I drive on BLM and National Forest land. I have been driving since I was 11 and in the car I am the driver, I am in charge.

   While this may change, so far humans have programmed all of this stuff and you know what a freak show we have shown ourselves to be. I for one do not look forward to machines playing an even greater part in their own creation seeing as how they learned everything they know from us.

   (Rant Over).

   Oh! Wait! I forgot to yell "get off my lawn".  

   I have always had more time and mechanical aptitude than money, so I do everything for myself. (Well, not dentistry or colonoscopies).

   So…what the hell is this strange image, anyway?

      I can tell you part of what I did to create this image, but a lot of what I did was just hit-or-miss, trial and error in Photoshop. Isn't a Photoshop filter algorithm like AI you query? According to Dr. Mir Emad Mousavi "The key difference, is that an algorithm defines the process through which a decision is made, and AI uses training data to make such a decision". I am making the choices, not the machine.

   This is 'CONSTRUCT #3'. It is part of a series I call 'Scanographs'. I arrange objects on a flat-bed scanner and cover with cloth, or, in this case, a box lined with cloth. I scan the objects and the result is entirely unappealing until tweaked by the human imagination. You may, of course, still find it unappealing.

   OK, so what strange objects have been bombarded with bright white light and processed to become this magnificent image we find ourselves contemplating in awe?

   The base with the vertical stripes and the large piece standing on the center of that part are scraps of Bubinga (African Rosewood) left over from building a bed and nightstands. The two round objects to the left and right of the vertical piece are small river stones. The higher round object is a marble. The 'Eye of Sauron' at the top is a small oval piece of obsidian.

   A random assortment of ordinary things re-imagined by wetware, assisted by software.

   Will machines eventually 'imagine' things they have never ‘seen’ ?

   As Philip K Dick asked; 'Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?' Can Deckard imagine he is not human?

“I am always looking, and sometimes I see.”

Jim Watley

View photo as large as possible

The rotunda of the New Mexico Capitol, known as 'The Roundhouse', so known because the building is in fact round. The only round capitol building in the US. The design incorporates elements of New Mexico Territorial, Pueblo and Greek Revival.

   (Note to photographers of architecture; yes, the perspective is all wrong, but I hated the 'corrected' version. The skylight completely dominated the image.)

   The stone is New Mexico Travertine marble. The stained glass skylight is a native basket pattern symbolizing sky and earth. The layout of the building mimics the sun symbol of Zia Pueblo, which is also the symbol on New Mexico's flag. The Zia sun represents the four cardinal directions, the four seasons, the four stages of life and the four sacred obligations: a strong body, a clear mind, a pure spirit and a devotion to the welfare to others.

   The Zia symbol was appropriated and used by the state for 75 years before the issues surrounding its use were partially resolved through the diplomacy of Bill Richardson (US House of Representatives, Ambassador to the U.N., Secretary of Energy and 30th Governor of New Mexico) working with Zia Pueblo. I suspect there will always be some resentment of this cultural appropriation.

   The building was dedicated in 1966. I like the building and have spent hundreds of hours working in it. But among its chief detractors was a head groundskeeper whose job, as he saw it, was to hide 'that ugly building'. I will say that the landscaping is very nice.

   The Capitol Art Foundation, founded in 1991, manages the Capitol Art Collection which displays works by over 600 New Mexico artists. As well as all the art visible in this photo, art lines every hallway in the building. There is a walkway, partially below ground, lined with art that connects the Capitol to the Capitol Annex, which also has art on display, and the grounds are home to many sculptures. The 'Roundhouse' is the first place I send people who want to see New Mexico art. Even the furniture in the hallways and alcoves outside offices and committee rooms was made by New Mexico artisans.

   My connection to this building began in the late 90s when I was hired by a small cabinet and furniture shop. The shop owner secured a contract with the Legislative Council Services shortly after the creation of the Capitol Art Foundation. This contract was for fabrication and installation of materials used to display the art collection throughout the building. This included backboards for framed works, pedestals for three dimensional objects and weird custom mounts for weird art. Hanging pieces are protected by a Plexiglas shadowbox, and 3-D works on pedestals are covered by a Plexiglas vitrine. These are fabricated by a shop in Albuquerque.

   In addition to the work on permanent display, we installed 2-3 temporary shows a year in a large alcove . These exhibits varied widely, including displays of paintings, fiber arts, book arts, art quilts (not your grandmother's quilts), African American art, printmaking, photography, multi-media and more. Most of these shows included wall hung pieces and pieces on pedestals. The people you can see on the lower floor in this photo, are in fact attending an opening of one of these temporary shows. Last year we installed just one show which remained for most of the year. It featured three well known New Mexico artists and their daughters, who had also become well known artists.

   As well as being responsible for making these display items and installing newly acquired work, we performed maintenance as needed, or as dictated in one case, by an emergency.

   It was the end of a workday and we were hanging around the shop chatting when the call came in. A 3 inch water main had broken and water was cascading down some third floor walls and soaking the floor, which was made up of areas of carpet bordered in stone. We loaded up some tools and rushed to the Capitol. When we arrived a local business that handles fire and water damage and mold remediation was already on scene, and had deployed large portable squirrel cage fans to dry the carpeted areas.

   We set to work, removing the acrylic covers, unlocking the art, and moving everything into a committee room, where it would be stored until we could put it all back up again. A few of the pieces were quite large. It took a few weeks for maintenance to repair the walls so we could rehang everything.

   As a reward for this valiant service, we went down the block to 'The Bull Ring', famous for great steaks and filet mignon, and frequented by legislators and lobbyists whose deep pockets are filled with other people's money, and we feasted on the Governor's dime.

I will have more to share about specific New Mexico art in later posts.

“I am always looking, and sometimes I see.”

Jim Watley

View as Large as Possible…our phones may take great pictures, but they suck at displaying them.

 This is Joy Harjo of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation playing at one of last year's Indigenous Ways Festivals at Railyard Park, in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Joy is a poet, a musician and a teacher.

   Though born in Oklahoma, Joy has a lifelong connection to Santa Fe. She began studying at IAIA (Institute of American Indian Arts) as a teenager, when it was a  Bureau of Indian Affairs boarding school on the grounds of the Santa Fe Indian School.

   Both she and the school grew in stature and accomplishment. IAIA moved into the old Federal Building (post office) at 108 Cathedral Place, where it remained until moving to a 140 acre campus south of Santa Fe. The old post office now houses the Museum of Contemporary Native Art.

   Joy received an undergraduate degree from the University of New Mexico and an MFA in creative writing from the University of Iowa. She has also taught at both IAIA and UNM and several other universities. She has written nearly a dozen books of poetry and three children's books and released 7 albums.

   Joy Harjo served three terms as the 23rd Poet Laureate of The United States from 2019-2022. She has received nearly every poetry honor available, and honestly, a catalog of her accomplishments and the accolades she has earned are far too numerous to list here.

   Suffice it to say, her work is worthy of your attention. Check out her music with her bands Poetic Justice and Arrow Dynamics. And introduce yourself to her poetry with "She Had Some Horses".

Jim Watley

“I’m always looking, and sometimes I see.”

View as Large as Possible…our phones may take great pictures, but they suck at displaying them.

  I took this photo at The Santa Fe Renaissance Faire in 2013 and it remains a favorite to this day.

   The fair takes place at El Rancho de Las Golondrinas (The Ranch of the Swallows), an historic ranch now operating as a living history museum. The ranch is located on what was once the main route for trade, conquest and conversion between Spain's colonial capital in Mexico City and its northern frontier in Santa Fe, New Mexico. This trail was known as El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro, "The Royal Road of the Interior". The name is typically shortened to El Camino Real today. This 'road' was more footpaths and wagon ruts for much of its existence, and was just over 1600 miles long.

   Digression over (for now). So...back to the topic at hand.

   These beautiful young women are belly dancers. They are performing, not on stage, but in an alley between vendor booths. This is great because it puts all three of us at ground level. Photographing performers on stage typically involves looking up at a raised stage or down from a sloping auditorium floor.

   Now we can dance. I say 'we' because photographing live performance is a dance between subject and photographer. Whether it is dance or music or any other physical act, you need to be in sync to anticipate the next moment. I call this dancing. A lifetime of listening to and often playing music has prepared me for this rhythmic connection.

   I love these moments when the subject recognizes the connection and engages with the lens, and with me behind the lens. It is an acknowledgement of a shared  experience, however brief.

   The photographer must be fully immersed in the events unfolding before them and ready to capture this lightning in a bottle. As soon as you realize it is happening…poof, it's over.

   So grab your phone or your camera and go out and find live, local performances that are up close and personal.

   And just dance.

   Jim Watley

"I'm always looking, and sometimes I see." 

Corn Dancer

  Last fall I decided to go down to the Santa Fe Plaza for the third and final day of Santa Fe's Indigenous Peoples' Day Celebration with a couple of cameras and lenses. This is my preferred setup for photographing performances. This day was to be the Santa Fe Indigenous Center's first Intertribal Powwow. I only managed to photograph for an hour as the crowd encircling the drummers and dancers grew until I couldn't get a decent photo without elbowing my way to the front.

     I grew up with black and white film and still use it today, and most of the time my digital camera's monitor is set to display monochrome. I find it easier to see and understand light and shadow in monochrome. By shooting in RAW I still have access to full color images and since the RAW file has greater latitude for post processing, I convert this file to monochrome for my digital black and white images. Of course I can choose to keep the image in color.  I 'aged' this photo with sepia tone, vignetting, grain and an obscured background, though I haven't completely eliminated references to the present day such as folding camp chairs and a young woman filming with her cell phone.

   This young dancer is performing a corn dance. Corn dances happen several times a year. At planting time the dance is a plea for the conditions necessary for a good growing season, and, as this dance is happening in October and the dancer holds a fully grown ear of corn, this dance gives thanks for a bountiful harvest providing fresh corn for now, cornmeal for the winter and seed for the next year.

    Many of the methods developed and still in use by the Pueblo and Hopi and Diné (Navajo) people, who grow corn, squash, melons, chilis, beans, cotton and tobacco using irrigation, crop rotation, companion planting and wind breaks, are also used today by gardeners and farmers throughout the region.

   The indigenous peoples of North America are still spread across all of the U.S., Mexico and Canada, though many of us are unaware of their continuing contribution to the nations we all now inhabit.

   There are 19 Pueblos in northern New Mexico most of which are arrayed along the Rio Grande. Taos Pueblo is believed to have been inhabited continuously for 1000 years. Each of these Pueblos is considered sovereign, that is, they have a right to self-determination while also having rights and responsibilities as part of the United States.

   The ongoing visible presence of local indigenous peoples whose continuous ancestry here dates to around 200 CE anchors the American southwest in more than just the "discovery" and colonization phase of this continent's history, which first happened in this area with the arrival of the Spanish in 1541. I will not go through the history of conquest, expulsion and reconquest that occurred here but if you would like to know more, (I always want to know more), the history of New Mexico page on Wikipedia is thorough and informative.

   My thoughts and feeling about this photograph are informed by my having lived in the American southwest for 46 of my 71 years, and by the experiences I have had here. You may simply see a young native dancer. We all bring a point of view, based on our experiences and our inventory of visual ideas. If a photo of mine does speak to you, I hope it speaks in your voice.  

   I may experience some of these thoughts and feelings in the moment I take the picture. I may not. I may experience them at some later date. I may not. Some of my photos only say; 'Here's where I stood and here's what was in front of me'.

   I don't take a photo to express a specific idea. I don't take a photo to express myself.

I take a photo to express that which is photographed.

    Jim Watley

   "I'm always looking, and sometimes I see"

                                           The Hare and The Dog

   Beginning in 1968 I worked four summers in Pine Mountain State Park, founded in 1924 as Kentucky's first state park. The park was known for its annual production of 'The Book of Job' created by Orlin and Irene Corey and performed by their company, The Everyman Players. Irene and her niece Suzanne Lockridge would later be responsible for (or guilty of) designing Barney the Dinosaur. Each summer the company would also put on a play intended for children. The year I took this photo it was Aesop's 'The Tortoise and The Hare'.

   My boss was a renowned magician, hypnotist, and one time President of the International Brotherhood of Magicians, known professionally as Preston. Preston was born in Kentucky, and like his friend Harland (Colonel) Sanders, he was also a Kentucky Colonel.(An honorary title bestowed by the governor that is shared by Ansel Adams, Muhammad Ali, George Clooney and many others.) He once introduced me to that king of fast food fried chicken.

   I made it a habit not to look Preston in the eye when he gave me directions, for fear he would have me strut around and quack like a duck. Sometimes, in conversation, he would raise his hand and a coin would appear and fly around between his fingers only to disappear, then reappear and repeat.

   The theater was a mountain cove with a reflecting pool and an 80 foot vertical backdrop of rock and plants. A narrow and steep stone staircase built against this wall, and hidden by bigleaf magnolia and mountain laurel, ran from the rear of the stage area to the stone and wood dressing room.

   Reserved seating consisted of several rows of canvas armchairs.  General admission patrons sat on hewn wooden benches supported at the ends by small boulders. These seats are laid out on a green sloping meadow. The stage is a large flat area of grass, and in the center is a multilevel riser, painted flat black.

   My first job here was directing cars in the parking lot and applying 'Book of Job' bumper stickers. My day job was driving or riding all over southeastern Kentucky, eastern Tennessee, southern West Virginia and western Virginia with Preston's son, distributing publicity materials to other tourist spots. We also nailed painted signs to the wooden posts of road signs, probably illegally.

   The third summer was a family affair. One of my older brothers was theater manager, my mother worked the ticket booth and the gift shop, my younger sister was an usherette and I was general factotum. (A dogsbody, if you are fluent in Britspeak.)

   The fourth summer I was theater manager, overseeing the usherettes and the parking lot crew. I stocked the gift shop and the vending machines. Each night after closing I had an armed Park Ranger escort me down the mountain to the park headquarters to lock up the night's earnings. I  occasionally had to cover the mountainside with a poisonous mist from a gasoline powered insecticide fogger that I wore like a backpack. Somehow I am still alive and have lungs strong enough to play the trombone.

   I took this photo during dress rehearsal for 'The Tortoise and The Hare' in the summer of 1969 or '70 when I was 16 or 17 years old. That makes this one of my first photos of live performers, a photography genre I came to love and to which I have devoted many hours.

   I can't say I was enough of a photographer when I took this picture to be aware of the reflection in the pool, which, for me, is what makes the image interesting.

   I recently found the negatives from which I scanned this image. I did not remember that I had been drawn to this kind of photography that long ago. Many more performances to come.

                                                 Jim Watley

                       "I'm always looking, and sometimes I see"

   Not quite Rembrandt, but an attempt at  photographic chiaroscuro (light-dark) in  a dance performance photo from March of last year.

   Chiaroscuro is a visual style using strong contrasts of light and dark, begun in the Renaissance but more  closely associated with art of the Baroque Period. (See works by da Vinci, Caravaggio, Rembrandt and Vermeer et al.)

 "The Red Shoes" is a literary fairytale by Hans Christian Andersen which has been made into ballets and movies. It is a story about vanity, temptation, desire, and the choices we make that determine our fate. If, having given into these drives we break their hold on us, we may find or receive redemption.

   There is mystery in the darkness, and even though our eyes tend to target the brightest part of the image, we cannot help but be drawn into this darkness, in order to  plumb the depths of its mystery.

   What is obscured there in the dark? Why is it the object of our protagonist's gaze, and why does it compel her into its embrace?

   It is the vain desire to possess and be possessed by the power of the red shoes. A power that takes far more than it gives. An allure the dancer finds impossible to resist. An allure that leads to the direst of circumstances, and yet, in the end, our young dancer is granted redemption. I say 'granted' because she is redeemed by angelic intervention, not by the strength of her own resolve.

   The red shoes dance on.  

   I am James Cleveland Watley. I have been playing with cameras off and on since I was 9 years old in 1960. My father gave me a camera and limited instruction and turned me loose. We lived in a tiny town on Route 66 in the Texas panhandle. My father was the only doctor for 30 miles in any direction and he turned a small old grocery store into a clinic. This included a tiny closet for immersion processing of x-rays. He also had reel tanks for 35mm and medium format. Developing trays and an enlarger could be set up in the exam room where there was a sink.

   Me and a few friends would roam our little town with our cameras. My favorite subject as a young boy was the drag races in Amarillo. At only twelve or thirteen years old I could get a pit pass and wander around and watch the cars being prepped for a run. This also meant I could be so close to the cars blasting off the starting line I would get rubber dust on the lens from the smoking tires. These photos and negatives were all destroyed in a house fire when I was 17. With no evidence to the contrary I will claim they were nearly all masterworks of a budding genius.

   In 1994 after living in Santa Fe for a few years I became friends with an artist who was a photographer, and a painter working in airbrushed acrylics.

Hanging out with him and taking photos and talking about them was stimulating and informative. His kind and positive assessment of my photos was a real confidence booster. He also introduced me to Photoshop and gave me my first bootleg copy of the program. Those of you with a discerning eye may have picked up that the self-portrait above has been ever so slightly modified in Photoshop.

   This led to a more dedicated and studious approach to photography. At

the time there was a great used camera store here and I bought a Canon T90, the last and most advanced of the Canon FD line. I already had a few lenses as I was using a Canon AE-1 at the time. The T90 was 10 years old when I bought it and at 38 years old it is still going strong.

   I took lots of landscapes and clouds and cabinetwork and friends and floral macros. Then I found my love…live performance. Santa Fe has free outdoor performances 4 to 5 times a week all summer and I am there as often as possible. The first 6 years was all on film, taken with the T90 and a few lenses I swapped out on the fly.

   I went through a few Canon dslrs, a 50D and a 7D MKII, before settling on my current setup which is a pair of Canon 5D MKIVs. I usually have a 24-105 f4 on one, and depending on venue, a 100-400 f4.5-5.6 or a 135 f1.8 on the other. The Sigma 135 Art is a fantastic lens for isolating a single performer or you can zoom with your feet and get a great portrait style image. Sometimes I will substitute my Canon 1V HS or 1N HS for one of the MKIVs and use black and white film.

   Then spring of 2020 happened. New Mexico shut down in the second week of March a few days before I was scheduled to photograph a local Irish dance school's annual St. Patrick's Day performance.

   What I thought would be a break of a few months dragged on and on, and with no end in sight, I chose to retire from 30+ years of building furniture and cabinets and museum displays, a year earlier than planned, at the end of 2020.

   At this point I was unable to photograph live performances so I took the opportunity to develop my landscape skills. I put some work into my old four wheel drive and started exploring miles and miles of dirt and gravel roads and two tracks on BLM (Bureau of Land Management), and National Forest Land.

   Not until 2023 was I able to return to photographing live music and the other outdoor events that happen so often in Santa Fe: the Ren Faire, Spanish Market, Indian Market, 4th of July, International Folk Art Market, Pride Day, Fiesta, Indigenous People's Day, Indigenous Ways Festival, Las Posadas, the Canyon Road Christmas Eve Walk and more and more.

I could stay within the boundaries of my state and never run out of new subjects to photograph, and to find new ways to see the places I return to time and again.

   In 'one Picture one Story' I will share one photo at a time and ramble on about it. My story for each image may include what I experienced when taking the photo and/or what I experience now in viewing and thinking about it. Unless there is something particularly technical about how the photo was captured, I won't write about technical details. You are welcome to ask for these details in the comments.

   Unless noted at the beginning of a post, every photograph will have been taken by me. I may occasionally share historical family photos because I find them intriguing both personally and photographically.

   I hope everyone who stumbles onto my musings finds something of interest in my photos and words.

                                                       Jim Watley

                            "I'm always looking, and sometimes I see"

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