SANTA FE - FIRST FRIDAY ART WALK

Santa Fe's First Friday Art Walk is just plain fun. The streets are filled with people, the atmosphere is festive...

Photos by C. Whitney-Ward

Mariachi music filled the air...

Folks dressed for the occasion...

And the gallery windows were all feted out in style.

                                       

 Even an Ark in the window of the Windsor Betts Gallery...

 And, best of all, you got to meet some amazing artists...

Artist J.D. Challenger - at Huey's Fine Art  - is as colorful as his paintings.

And some artists were creating art ...

Also at  Huey Fine Art

Beginning in clay...

And then casting in bronze...

Can't wait till the next First Friday.

Q & A'S OF SANTA FE - GREG HELTMAN

                                     Photo by C. Whitney-Ward

Greg Heltman, the delightful Founder & General Director of the Santa Fe Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, has a deep passion and commitment to music and the Santa Fe community. A New Mexico native, Greg was raised in a musical family - his mother was a vocal teacher and his father a conductor  - and by the age of twelve he knew that his life dream was to follow in his parent's musical footsteps.

In college he embraced the trumpet, graduating magna cum laude from the University of the Pacific.  He played with the Israel Sinfonietta, the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival and the Santa Fe Opera Orchestra, and in 1984 he founded the Santa Fe Symphony Orchestra. For more than a quarter century he has been a champion of orchestral music in Santa Fe and this year he takes on an additional  role - President of the Rotary Club of Santa Fe.

Q. If Santa Fe were a symphony, who would have composed it?

Ottorino Respighi.  He was a 20th century Italian composer whose music is colorful and free in its use of descriptive melodies and harmonies. But his approach is immediately understandable.

Q. If you hadn't grown up here, what would have drawn you to Santa Fe?

The sense of possibility. Santa Fe allows a person to be entrepreneurial and adventuresome and to express their dreams.

Q. Describe your Santa Fe in three words.

Welcoming.   Genuine.   Comfortable.

Q. What surprises you most about Santa Fe?

The range of dichotomies that make up every aspect of Santa Fe society.

Q. If you had only one window in your house, what vista would you choose?

Looking west toward the Jemez Mountains...they're expansive. It's always nice to be reminded of the treasures that can be taken for granted.

Q. What do you like best about your job?

It fulfills my belief in the criticality of being actively involved in one's community. I was on the Santa Fe 400th Board or Directors; I conducted the Santa Fe Community Band, first established in the 1860's; and now I'm working with the Rotary Club, an organization committed to service to the community. 

Q. If you could invite any historical music figure to Santa Fe, who would it be?

Elmer Bernstein (1922-2004). He wrote over 200 film scores - Magnificent Seven, The Ten Commandments, To Kill a Mockingbird. He was an accomplished composer, writing for the concert hall as well as the movies. He championed the value of a full symphony orchestra to accompany film.

Q. Where would you go if you only had an afternoon to spend in Santa Fe?

If there was water in the Santa Fe River, I'd pack up the family and go up river near Patrick Smith Park.

THE SANTA FE SYMPHONY AND CHORUS

www.santafesymphony.org

505.983.3530

SANTA FE GLAM

NOT EVEYONE IN SANTA FE WEARS COWBOY BOOTS!

  

                            

A V.P. @ Ironstone Bank clearly dresses for success. 

These lovely gams were spotted @ il piatto.

Snazzy shoes worn by a Dallas babe at First Friday.

Photos by C. Whitney-Ward

THE SPIRIT OF A STUDIO - GEOFFREY GORMAN & HIS EXTRAORDIARY BEASTS

Geoffrey Gorman has a vibrant imagination and when he creates one of his evocative, primordial animal sculptures they seem to have time  traveled from another dimension. Fashioned from sticks, old canvas, wire and found objects, these amazing creatures look as if they just emerged from an ancient forest hallucinated by Edward Gorey and Dr. Seuss.

                                                         Photos by C. Whitney-Ward

"I think I'm channelling my childhood," laughs Gorman, who grew up on an abandoned horse farm outside of Baltimore. "There were five old, two-story barns filled with rusted metal and wood. I was always building things and could feel the passage of time whenever I held an old piece of wood in my hands."

Geoffrey's studio, tucked into the back of his house just off Osage Avenue, is small and simple. There's a band saw, an electric drill, a gaggle of old wood carving tools...

and lots and lots of stuff  - everywhere.

What jump started this love affair with extraordinary beasts?

"When I was fifty I went to hike the Himalayas. It was a very profound trip. I allowed myself to realize all of this (referring to his wondrous menagerie). I went in the spring and in the fall I began making art."



What inspires each piece?

Just about anything says Geoffrey. It  could be a book, a casual conversation with a friend or a charming picture of a 16th century fruit bat in the NY Times. "That bat had such a teddy bear face,"remembers Geoffrey, "and I was inspired by his wings.  I imagined they held all his incredible bat journey memories." 

For his bat wings, Geoffrey used an old studio apron that had blemishes and memories of its own. "It's all about transformation. I love taking all the materials that I'm collecting and transforming them into something else. A mountain bike tire becomes the skin of an armadillo... It's a metaphor for life. I think that the human condition is constantly about transformation."

GEOFFREY GORMAN

at

JANE SAUER GALLERY

505.995.8513