elritolibrary.org| Artist Catalog
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Introduction
Thank you all for supporting Libraries!. This catalogue is for the record only. Please come by our library where Vincent Campos's and Randall LaGro chairs are now on view!
The El Rito Library
Live and Silent Auction Results
Saturday, December 5th, 2009
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The Catalog of Artists
Barbara Campbell • Vincent Campos • Robert Chavez • David Coleman • Dick Combs • Suzanne Derrer • Viki Edward • Jack Edwards • Alexis Elton • Beth Ferguson • Susan Guevara • Rik Gonzales • Gary Griffin • Jim Harford • Nicholas Herrera • Norbert Hufnagl • Juanito Jemenez • David Michael Kennedy • Randall LaGro • Tracy McBride • Carol Martin Davis • Sabra Moore • Linda Oldham • Todd Oldham • Roberta Orona-Cordova • Plano B • Spanish Colonial Woodworking Group ~ Robert Chavez, Rik Gonzales, Juanito Jemenez • Larry Sparks • Jett Spencer • Kathleen Vanderbrook • Terry Vanderbrook • Julie Wagner • Fred C. Wagner • Steven Williams
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Abstract Mimbres designs in polychrome tones |
Barbara Campbell
Live Auction Starting Bid: $150
Retail: $1,500
Buy Now $1,500
Sold at $300
weblink: elritostudiotour.org
I have lived in El Rito for over thirty years. I helped get the library started shortly before Betsy MacIntosh moved to town and really became the power behind the library's evolution. I served on the first board of directors along with Viki Edwards, Marion Wollam, Josie Martin, Geraldine Campos. Then Betsy came along with all her fire and energy and knowledge of how to get funding and put it all together. Michael Hennerty's wood working class at the college built all the shelves and many, many of the townspeople got together to shore up the floors. I particularly remember Robert Alire getting under the building and placing the support beams.
Statement about the artwork
The chair I have painted is off white (slightly gray-white) with abstract Mimbres designs in polychrome tones over all in black and red.
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Vincent Campos
Live Auction Starting Bid: $300
Sold at $300
weblink: elritostudiotour.org
I am 21 years old and currently a student at NNMC in Espanola working toward a degree in Business Administration with an emphasis in Marketing. I was raised in El Rito and attended schools in the Mesa Vista School District, graduating in 2006. I simply enjoy drawing/painting retablos my way. As a student, I have participated in several art competitions and my work usually earned recognition and awards. Literacy and its importance has always been a part of my upbringing. I recall my mother taking my sister and I to the El Rito Public Library to checkout books for summer recreational reading. It is truly a feel-good effort to participate in the ERPLCharity Chairs benefit in support of our own public library and the literacy of our community.
Statement about the artwork
My chairs depicts San Lorenzo /Saint Lawrence, the patron saint of libraries and librarians. This is an original interpretation done in acrylic paints on an El Rito Elementary School-donated surplus slightly-damaged solid oak chair which was repaired as a sturdy oak chair. The lower portion of the chair is stained ebony and mica chips highlight the retablo backdrop. San Lorenzo first served as an archivist and keeper of the church treasure, hence the communal cup and bible on the stand. He became a martyr when he was grilled to death on a gridiron for not turning over the church treasure. San Lorenzo remained undaunted and steadfast to his faith by crying out to his persecutors, "This side is done, turn me over and have a bite" San Lorenzo is also the patron saint of comedians, and my depiction of him reflects my style of having fun with the saints in retablos and their expressions. He is depicted peering over his shoulder at the chair slate "gridiron" and at his fate saying "YIKES!"
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David Coleman
Live Auction Starting Bid: $125
Sold at $275
weblink: elritostudiotour.org
When I first heard about this project I knew it was something I wanted to do. The library is an amazing resource and gathering place for all of us in the community. And what a fun way to support the library—by making an art chair!
I started with a broken down second hand chair that I thought was a little too severe, too serious and wanted to transform it into something more fun and light. My background as a potter over the last 15 years has led me to working with wild and wooly branches for my teapot handles. I’ve always been drawn to nature’s beauty. It was clear to me that I wanted to use the willows that grow on our El Rito creek-side property. I knew I wanted to work with the branches in a way that makes the chair strong and comfortable. I used a double layer of willow branches and a tension system to pull the seat into a contoured position. Because it’s for the library, I had to go literary. I used poems, book pages and book covers on the back of the chair.
When I make a teapot it’s important to me that it be beautiful and very functional. It’s the same for me with this chair. Try it --you’ll want to sit in it!
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Dick Combs
Live Auction Starting Bid: $25
Sold at $55
Dick Combs is an architect that we hope will draw plans for our new entrance way. We are very happy that he stopped in on our "Death By Chocolate" fundraiser.
Statement about the artwork
While on the El Rito Studio Tour Dick Combs came to our library and found a remnant of an old chair donated by Veronica Ortiz. He has turned this chair in to a small painted sculpture ornamented with buttons.
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Suzanne Derrer
Live Auction Starting Bid: $100
Sold at: $195Suzanne Derrer is an artist living in El Rito who loves the Library almost as much as her guinea fowl.
Put a feather in your cap.
Bid on this chair and feather your nest.
Birds of a feather flock together
and support the Library
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Viki Edwards
Live Auction Starting Bid: $150
Sold at: $260
Viki discovered weaving at the University of New Mexico in 1970 and has been weaving ever since. Viki and Jack moved to El Rito in 1975 with their 4 year old son Miguel, now an artist in Seattle. The move was to find a place where they could have a studio, build weaving looms and create weavings. Our second son, Teggart, was born in El Rito. Teggart lives in Seattle where he is an artist/carpenter/adventurer. Most of Viki’s work has been in the slit tapestry technique with hand dyed wool weft on a linen warp. She has sold weavings internationally and has been selected for many “1% for the Arts” purchases. She is also a quilter and has been a member of the El Rito Quilters Guild since its beginning in 2000. When the library was first started it was determined the floor joists were not strong enough to support heavy bookshelves. Viki along with Robert Alire, David Genth, Chris Woolam, Barbara Campbell and Andy Lopez crawled under the library and shored up the floor. They found all the old pencils that kids had stuffed through the knot holes when the building had been the El Rito Elementary school.
Statement about the artwork
Viki's chair shares many elements from her textile designs. The design takes its inspiration from African beadwork and coral snakes.
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Jack Edwards
Live Auction Starting Bid: $350
Retail: $1600
Sold at $1050
Jack Edwards is a wood worker/artist. He lives in El Rito and has for 34 years. He is mostly known for the exquisite weaving looms he made. He is currently working in wood combined with steel as well as other traditional forms.
Statement about the artwork
With all of those luscious chairs around I decided to be a mesa (table).
Attached are some sketches for “Butterfly Mesa”. This mesa is 30 inches high by 23 inches wide by 46 inches long. The legs are welded steel. The top is one solid piece of native ponderosa pine. While getting wood for flooring in our house at a local saw mill I spotted this large plank, 2 ½ inches by 24 inches by 14 feet. I inquired about it and found that it was a cutoff from making the beams for the new Santa Fe Community Convention Center. I said yea, “but from where did the tree come”, because I know there is just not much of this class of timber around anymore. I learned that it had come out of the Jemez Mountains where it had to be removed for a road project.
The piece I chose for this mesa had a big knot and I have inlaid a piece of African walnut in the shape of a butterfly over the knot. The layered mesa motif is also echoed in the shapes of the steel stretchers. The edge is carved in a double diamond chip carving form which is the shape of a wood workers “butterfly”. So the table abounds in double entendres, contrasts and harmonies.
Butterfly Mesa is being made at standard table height but can be cut down for a coffee mesa.
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"Guest Check: two-top" |
Alexis Elton
Live Auction Starting Bid: $75
weblink: alexiselton.com
Sold at: $110
Alexis came to New Mexico on a tour of earthwork sculptures in the west and wound up in Quentin Wilson's class working on an adobe building in Nambé. One of her first jobs was repairing the exterior stucco of the El Rito Library. As an installer for Site Sante Fe she has applied her adobe skills building a wall along with the fabrication of many of the works seen there in the past year. Alexis ran a workshop in earthen art and architecture at the last years' Adobe Conference on the campus of the Northern New Mexico College with the Plano B architectural group and collaborating with the Plano B earthen work "Learn things that don't happen again" placed at Abiquiú lake. She presently has established the "Tantillo" apple farm in Chimayo where she now resides and keeps a studio and is an active member of the "Gemini" farming group well known at the Santa Fe Farmer's market for making carrots, beats and winter squash works of art.
Statement about the artwork
Guest Check: two-top
For whom do we serve? There is a separation between those sitting & standing, spectating & participating, serving & receiving. Oh, the hierarchies we create. Are these just co-dependencies that are needed to succeed? “Guest Check: two-top,” nullifies these classifications. The guests seem to have lost their table completely and their cake on the ground. Can’t we all just want to have our cake and eat it too?
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Beth Ferguson
Live Auction Starting Bid: $100
Sold at $250
I was inspired to take on this char-ity project because of my admiration for the El Rito Library and the many community-spirited volunteers who enthusiastically work with dedication to support this important resource. I’ve contributed to previous Library auctions, borrowed books and attended events. Books and libraries have been a fundamental part of my life since I was a kid, and I believe all people need such a friendly welcoming library nearby.
This project provided a fun challenge for me. After checking out several resale shops and finding either wobbly inexpensive chairs or expensive solid chairs, I finally bought a wooden folding chair at Mexico Lindo Furniture. It was sturdy, made in Mexico, and exuded character. Sanding the wood gave me tactile experience with the forms and the horizontal planes. Priming the wood introduced me to all the chair’s nooks and crannies. One morning I wakened with a partial image that belong on the chair seat – so I had a place to begin. I’ve named this work Sun Rising since the sun seems to emerge from the horizon initially casting brightness from below on land forms. Thus this chair resonates with my current work exploring the underlying geometry of landscape forms and primal memories that are full of color and energy.
A number of these newer images of mine can be seen at the Ghost Ranch Winter Invitational Art Show, hung at the Florence Hawley Ellis Museum of Anthropology, through March 20, 2010. Beth's painting work have been favorites to the many of the area studio tours for some time.
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Gary Griffin
Live Auction Starting Bid: $500
weblink: metalmuseum
Sold at $1000
Gary is a practicing metalsmith living and working in El Rito, New Mexico. Griffin was born in Wichita Falls, Texas in 1945 and grew up in Southern California and the Southwest. He received his Bachelor of Arts Degree from California State University, Long Beach and his Master of Fine Arts degree from Tyler School of Art, Temple University. He recently retired after 32 years of post graduate teaching as Artist in Residence and Head of the Metalsmithing Department at Cranbrook Academy of Art, Bloomfield Hills, Michigan (1984-2006) and previously at the School for American Craftsmen, Rochester Institute of Technology (1974-1984). The recipient of two National Endowment for the Arts grants, Griffin has exhibited extensively in the United States, Mexico, South America, Japan and Europe.
His work has been shown at the American Craft Museum, the Denver Art Museum, the Laguna Art Museum, the Milwaukee Art Museum, the J. B. Speed Museum and the Virginia Museum of Fine Art, the Mint Museum, Charlotte, The Detroit Institute of Arts and JewelersWerk Galerie.
In the Summer of 2004, Glenn Adamson of the Chipstone Foundation interviewed Griffin for the Archives of American Art/Oral History Program, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. In 2005, Griffin was elected to the American Crafts Council College of Fellows. In 2007, he was a resident artist in the John Michael Kohler Co. Arts and Industry program and in 2008 he was given the Master Metalsmith Award by the National Ornamental Metal Museum in Memphis, TN.
The El Rito Library is honored to have his creative craft applied to our entrance. We now have a much improved gate system that promises to get more artful in the future, all thanks to Gary's generosity.
Statement about the artwork
Gary has constructed a "Tub Chair" made from tub parts from Kohler supply factory with rebar as it's support system.
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Book Rocker |
Susan Guevara
Live Auction Starting Bid: $350
Sold at: $700website: susanguevara.com
Susan is the illustrator of many children's books including the "Chato" series by Gary Soto. Several of her works are known and awarded for meeting the need for picture books set in Latino culture. Susan has called El Rito her home at two different periods of her life and now resides in Santa Fe where she has a studio and is presently illustrating a northern New Mexico version of Little Roja Riding Hood. She is an active board member and has been commissioned to be the library's school liaison for the El Rito Elementary School. Susan helped institute the El Rito Library Auction 4 years ago which has become one of the library's most successful fundraising events. Her recent book "Numero Uno" was illustrated here in El Rito with the modeling help of some of the local residents.
Statement about the artwork
The imagery on this little oak rocker is filled with things that helped me as a child. The entire natural world was filled with my helpers, storytelling was my entertainment, and Spirit was my closest companion. These are still the things that bring meaning to my life and inform my bookmaking. And it was with gratitude for all these things, and for the El Rito Library and the kind and independent people in El Rito, that I painted this chair.
The "Book Rocker” has a lift-out blank book in the seat, an attached hand carved "chipping sparrow", and a view of the Sangre de Cristos from town on the back of the headrest.
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Jim Harford
Live Auction Starting Bid: $50
Sold at: $76
website: jharford.com
Jim first showed up at the El Rito library around 2002 to put screens on the windows of the community room. He got to know the underside of the library in his effort to get hot water to the bathroom and to get the heaters moved into the North and South room renovations. With the wise help or Quentin Wilson's adobe class and the practical knowledge of Marcie Coronado at the Medanales Post office he was able to repair the melting adobe wall of the North Room.
He is now the President of the Board and it was his friends Pati D'amico and William Warren at the Blackmur Library who gave us the "Chair-ty Chair" idea. They will be having their own auction on the same weekend.
Jim has a long list of favorite libraries in which he has spent many hours for research, contemplation and just some good sleep. The El Rito Library is now on the top of his list.
About the chair
Jim has a BFA in Television and film and his professional background has been in corporate artworks. His chair incorporates a familiar character from the animated world and has been used in many of his pieces in the past that clock "For the Time Being". It is titled "The setting of the age of Pisces". It contains a barren Northern New Mexico landscape with a singular road passing over el rito as the male figure wave's "That's all Folks" in the traditional Warner Brothers typeface. It also includes the El Rito Library logo on the back. This is a reference to a discussion with the local metaphysicist Lorna Green in which she times us in a new age that is decidedly feminine. Jim came to El Rito in search of valuable work.
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"Willpower" |
Nicholas Herrera
Live Auction Starting Bid: $2,000
Sold at: $3200
weblink: elritostudiotour.org
If you live in Taos, Nicholas is part of "DIME CON QUIEN ANDAS" (Tell me who you hang out with and I'll tell you who you are), at the Parks Gallery with Gustavo Victor Goler and Arthur Lopez. This is a must if you are unfamiliar with his work.
If you live in Santa Fe, Nicholas has a large collection for viewing at the Manitou Galleries. This should help with understanding the value of this work.
Nicholas is an internationally known artist born and raised in El Rito. His ancestry is currently being charted back 300 years. He has been an inspiration to all who have tried to make their way through what can be perilous paths. You will find him about town in one of his fantastic refurbished classic cars, trucks and motorcycles. His artwork is based in the local tradition of religious iconography mostly in the form of painted wood retablos and santos. His images reflect the deeply spiritual presence that surrounds the everyday object, landscape or human character.
We keep a copy of Nicholas Herrara: Visiones De Mi Corazon - Visions of My Heart on our shelves, by Barbe Awalt and John Thomas Demme, publishers that specialize in New Mexican Devotional art and is a great documentation of his work through essays and photographs published in 2003.
The work of Nicholas Herrera is in the collection of the following museums:
- Arkansas State University Museum, Jonesboro, Arkansas
- Haggerty Museum of Art, Marquette University
- Harwood Museum, Taos
- Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts, Tempe, Arizona
- National Museum of American History, Washington D.C.
- National Museum of Mexican Art, Chicago
- Millicent Rogers Museum, Taos
- Museum of International Folk Art, Santa Fe
- Regis University Collection of Santos, Denver
- Sheldon Museum of Art, Nebraska
- Taylor Museum, Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center
Statement about the artwork
Nicholas has taken an open armed wooden chair donated by Susan Guevara and added carvings of delicate hands to the arms, two hearts and a crucifix. He has also added tin candle holders made by Carmen Campos, with an attached icon on the spine and a painted icon on the seat. Painted ornamentation traces every line of the chair. This is a precious piece.
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Norbert Hufnagl
Live Auction Starting Bid: $100
Sold at: $220
Website: earthentouchbuilders.com
Norbert's journey to El Rito has been a long an interesting one. Starting out in Germany with an electrical and mechanical engineering background he abandoned the corporate world in the U.S. and began working an organic farm in New Jersey delivering organic produce to the NYC Union Square Market. After migrating west He was first noticed at the library working with his partner Carolyn Reige and the late Terry Moffit finishing the walls of what is now known as the "Non-Fiction Room". It now has a hard troweled, natural mud and straw plaster that has to be seen to be believed! Norbert is an established builder of natural homes all over the Southwest and is presently finishing his own home in Protrero just north of El Rito.
Statement about the artwork
He has wanted to design furniture for a long time and this bench is his first. It is of his own mill worked wood that comes from Protrero (a suburb of El Rito). It is a very simple but beautiful Pine Bench roughly 3'x1.5'x1.5'.
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"I'm Going Home" |
David Michael Kennedy
Live Auction Starting Bid: $150
Retail:$4,500
Sold at: $310
weblink: davidmichaelkennedy.com
Working in New York in the 1970s and 80s, David developed a successful career in advertising, editorial, album cover and portrait photography.
In 1986 leaving his commercial career behind to concentrate solely on his personal, work he moved to northern New Mexico where he began to produce a new body of work based on the landscape and peoples of the southwest. This included a major project photographing the Pueblo and Lakota Indian’s Ceremonial Dances that resulted in two portfolios. “Dancers of the Eight Northern Pueblos” and “Lakota Dance”. This work was done with permission from all Tribes involved and David donates a portion of all sales back to the Tribes.
In March 2004 he left New Mexico and began a two-year journey through America. Traveling and living in a vintage 1960 Airstream Trailer. He traveled 70,000 miles photographing the landscape and people. His aim was to photograph what is left of an America that exists quietly outside the frantic Zeitgeist of this era, where people haven't entirely forgotten that the principle business of life is to enjoy it.
Now he is back in New Mexico, living in El Rito and working on the Images from the Road. He works exclusively with analogue processes.
David teaches private landscape and platinum/palladium darkroom workshops as well as workshops with the Santa Fe Photographic Workshops.
Statement about the artwork
My chair resides in the now defunct Gas Chamber at the New Mexico State Penitentiary. It is titled "I'm Going Home" as this was the last words of the last man to sit in it. Along with the print you will get a laminated newspaper clipping of the specific information of the last execution along with a photograph of the last man executed.
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"Remnant" |
Randall LaGro
Live Auction Starting Bid: $500
Buy Now! $4500
Sold at $500
website: randalllagrostudio.com
Randall is a fine artist that is well known as a painter and printmaker. He is a long time resident of Taos and where he he gives workshops and keeps his studio. We are honored to have his work generously given to us upon the request of our Board Member and long time LaGro fan Susan Guevara. We like the way Randall "drew" with wood on canvas.
Statement about the artwork
Mixed media (includes wood, oil, fabric and gold leaf on wood panel) Size: 36"x30"x3" The chair is titled "Remnant". It's an iconic representation of the layers and tapestry of our lives. And acknowledges how sometimes, the most unassuming pieces of our lives fill us with rich memories. I remember the exhilaration I first felt as a young man in front of a blank piece of paper. The miracle of writing and reading gave me the potential to convey my feelings and ideas. I felt overwhelmingly rich to be blessed with literacy. All the world's knowledge was open to me. I'm pleased to donate to such a worthy cause.
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Carol Martin Davis
Live Auction Starting Bid: $0
Sold at $150
weblink: elritostudiotour.org
My first library experience was at age 8 and I've been a big fan ever since. Imagine, a whole building full of books and stories, free for the reading. When my husband and I moved to El Rito 12 years ago one of the first things we did was go the one room library and get cards.
I'm an artist who's medium is fabric, and a member of the El Rito Quilter's Guild. I like the idea of chairs that Psychologically difficult to sit on.
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Tracy McBride
Live Auction Starting Bid: $100
Sold at: $300
weblink: abiquiustudiotour.org
Tracy came to New Mexico from the Eastern U.S. via the Ghost Ranch. Determined to live here she enrolled in the adobe program at Northern New Mexico and designed and built her own extraordinary desert home with local talented craftworkers. She is a long time contributer of works to the Abiquiu and El Rito Studio tours and she has been an instrumental board member for the El Rito Library.
Tracy writes "Libraries have always played a precious role in my life. My parents would choose books for me on their evening trips to the library and I would find them the next morning on the special library-book shelf at home. What a gift they were, taking me into realms of fact and fancy, history and humor, and paths of creativity I never thought I'd wander.
The El Rito Library embodies all the qualities of a resource treasure trove: books and more books, online services, beautiful doors and shelving in a gorgeous building, warm service, comfy sofas and chairs, and that special low-buzz atmosphere conducive to lingering, browsing and discovering. It is a genuine pleasure each time I enter this jewel of Northern New Mexico!"
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Sabra Moore
Live Auction Starting Bid: $100
This Item will Benefit The Abiquiú Library and Cultural Center
Sold at: $300
website: sabramoore.com
The Texas-born Sabra is well known to many in Northern New Mexico as an artist, author, teacher, farmer and a tireless worker in many community projects. Living in her hand built adobe home and working out of a strawbale studio in Abiquiu. She is a long time board member of the Abiquiu Library and manager of the Espanola Farmer's Market. Her work is appreciated by those who care about the basic needs of rural living. We at the El Rito Library are indebted to her inspirational design and traditional plastering skills that she applied to our fiction room during it's restoration.
Statement about the artwork
This reconfigured object is a sturdy full-sized found chair which I have painted and varnished with acrylic and inscribed with an 1861 poem by Emily Dickinson, “I’m Nobody- Who are you?…”. Its joints are clad with recycled tin. A chair supports us, the way reading and art can empower and strengthen our daily lives. I am donating this chair in the hopes that this artwork can support our local libraries. “Emily Dickinson keeps me grounded” is written on the back rails to reflect these ideas.
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"Stick and stones will break your bones, but words will never harm you." |
Linda Oldham
Live Auction Starting Bid: $100
Sold at $300
website: lindaoldham.com
I enjoy all aspects of nature and find it a never ending source of inspiration in my work. We are surrounded by so much beauty here in New Mexico and that keeps me constantly inspired.
I am a self taught artist and enjoy working in varied mediums.
I was inspired to do the chair for the library because of my love for books and desire to help all libraries keep going. I was fortunate to visit a small town library at about eight years of age and it was a lasting memory for me and hopefully, children will find it a life changing experience.
Statement about the artwork
Title: Stick and stones will break your bones, but words will never harm you.
My chair came to me a little wobbly and had the appearance of being "much used". The branches that serve as the support for one side of the back and the braces for the seat were cut from the bosque near my home and the "rocks" were made from clay. The title saying was what inspired my treatment on the chair, most especially the part that "words will never harm you".
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Todd Oldham
Live Auction Starting Bid: $125
Sold at $245 with the copy of Kid Made Modern.
website: toddoldham.com
Todd is a well-known designer whose career spans more than 20 years. Distinguished as an innovator of accessible design, Todd Oldham is the founder of Todd Oldham Studio, a multifaceted, full-service design studio.
Originally a New York fashion designer, and the host of "Todd Time" on MTV's House of Style, Todd is currently the mentor on Top Design, Bravo's reality competition series spotlighting interior design. Todd's career has evolved to include all areas of design, from interior design, film and photography, to furniture, graphic art, and a collection of floral designs for FTD.com. Todd is the author of Hand Made Modern, and has hosted HGTV's "Hand Made Modern" series of specials. In 2002 and 2003 Todd designed his own line of dorm room furnishings for Target.
He designed The Hotel and Wish restaurant in South Beach. In his latest design endeavor, Todd turns his creative eye to carpet, collaborating with Durkan Hospitality to produce a series of flexible, versatile floor coverings. The first collections of the aptly named T.O.D.D (Todd Oldham Designs Durkan) series launched in the spring of 2008.
Todd is also the author of several books including a 400 page monograph on the life's work of artist Charley Harper; a unique series called Place Space that explores brilliant, singular places and the uncommonly devoted people that create them; an artist's monograph on the brilliant, warped work of Wayne White, and most recently, Kid Made Modern. (all published by AMMO BOOKS).
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Roberta Orona-Cordova
Live Auction Starting Bid: $100
Sold at $115
PLACE A BID or mail to: erlcharitychairs@gmail.com subject: "I want Roberta's Chair"
website: California State Northridge
Roberta is a new member of the El Rito Library board. She grew up in Albuquerque, works as a professor in Los Angeles, and proudly claims that her heart is in El Rito. She was a student and boarder at the Normal school the first time when she was 12 years old, then again as a sophomore in high school. Her claim to fame was as head B-squad cheerleader for the El Rito Eagles, and later was asked to join the A squad. Roberta finally graduated from an all-girl's school at St. Vincent's Academy in Albuquerque so she could prepare to enter a convent- the place where she figured she would get her college education. As life would have it, she found herself moving to the Bay Area where her daughter was born; as a single parent she enrolled in U.C. Berkeley and earned a B.A. in Rhetoric and Literature.
Roberta dreamed of returning to El Rito someday, and after many, many years she bought an old jacal four and a half years ago. In 2009 she became involved with the El Rito Campus Committee (ERCC), and serves as a member of ERCC's Charter School Subcommittee.
Statement about the artwork
"Libreria en la Esquina" (Translation: Corner Bookstore) is the theme of this chair. The text is bilingual. On the front across the lower half you have the title in Spanish. On the four vertical bars you have the words "Lee," "Piensa," "Aprende," "Escribe."At the top you will see books in the abstract. On the back of the chair is the translation of the Spanish words; for instance, "Read," "Think," "Learn," "Read," and "Corner Bookstore." This chair honors Chicana (Mexican-American women), who started writing in the 60s and came into their own in the 1980s. Their names are written out in the "book" that rests across the seat of the chair.
Book Titles: I am working on getting copies in our El Rito Library.
Borderlands La Frontera: the New Mestiza by Gloria Anzaldua
The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros
Death at Solstice by Lucha Corpi
Calligraphy of the Witch by Alicia Gaspar de Alba
Across a Hundred Mountains by Reyna Grande
Mother Tongue by Demetria Martinez
Infinite Divisions by Tey Diana Rebelledo and Eliana Rivero
Loving in the War Years by Cherrie Moraga
The Holy Tortilla by Carmen Tafoya
These authors are merely some of the Chicana writers; there are many more. I listed the ones that I typically use in the Chicana/o Literature class. I teach every semester and during the winter and summer session this class is offered online.
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Plano B
Live Auction Starting Bid: $0
Buy Now! $125-175
None available for auction
website: planob.com
About 10 years ago Eduardo Carvalho took the adobe class with Quentin Wilson at what was then Northern New Mexico Community College. He built a small Romanesque domed structure entirely out of mud brick. This building still stands in the college's shop and is the model for what is now the Adobe Programs most popular class, Arches Domes and Vaults and is the reason for the many domed structures that have appeared in Santa Fe and north in various states of completion. Eduardo has since returned home to Portugal and has established the extraordinary Plano B architectural group. He returns to El Rito during the semi annual Adobe Conference with Luis Gama to discuss their earthen building work and to give rammed earth workshops.
Statement about the artwork
O.K., here we go: Plano B has responded to a request for a chair by manufacturing items from basic manufactured materials. These are easily shippable anywhere in the world. Consider these to be prototypes before they are released to the market or consider them unique designed artworks from a group who's skewed vision of PROGRESS have left a trail of ephemeral work across the United States. Pouffe, is this the sound that comes from a designer that makes something from nothing?
The Recycled Edition, all recycled materials from animal foodstuff packaging.
Includes:
1. One pouffe made from recycled plastic packaging;
2. Personalized greeting card from Plano B.
The Luxury Edition, all brand new and beautiful plastic materials.
Includes:
1. One pouffe made from plastic fabric (available in 12 colours);
2. Personalized greeting card from Plano B.
Extra
For all bids over $150.00 we’ll add a complimentary wire structure to turn your Pouffe (Luxury or Recycled Edition) into a lamp.
They have donated the two versions to us and have offered the library up to 8 more items at the BUY NOW price that will be shipped from Portugal. Straw is not included. This would make a great seat for milking a cow, painting a chair or...you name it. Maybe we can talk them into adding a carry strap so it can triple as a laundry bag for another $25?
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"Frida at Pedernal" |
Spanish Colonial Woodworking Group
Rik Gonzales, Robert Chavez, Juanito Jimenez of the
Northern New Mexico Spanish Colonial Furniture Department
Live Auction Starting Bid: $150
Sold at $375
website: elritostudiotour
The Spanish Colonial Furniture makers of Northern New Mexico College in El Rito are known all over the state for their woodworking shop. Under the lead of Rik Gonzales, the shop produces fine craftsman and great examples of traditional furniture. They are one or the favorite stops on the El Rito Studio Tour. The Library is very pleased to have their work as doors, tables and desks throughout the library. And we are honored to have a collaborative piece done for this auction on such short notice.
Statement about the artwork
The chair is approximately 28" high 15" deep 14" wide and is child size. The chair was designed by Rik Gonzales and built Robert Chavez. The chair was carved and assembled by Rik Gonzales. The back of the chair was painted by Jaunito Jimenez.
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Larry Sparks
Live Auction Starting Bid: $50
Buy Now! $n/a
Sold at $200
Larry is a retired Santa Fe contractor. He is now an artist working mostly in Stained Glass. He has owned a home in El Rito since 1990 and is an avid hiker. He was part of the crew that installed our new gate. Thank you Larry!
Statement about the artwork
Larry has painted the seats of elegant black metal chairs with a colorful abstract expressionism.
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Jett Spencer
Live Auction Starting Bid: $45
Sold at $65
Statement: The idea of coming upon an empty chair or two in the forest or on a barren ridge top or some other unlikely site as if in anticipation of someone coming along to sit on it has intrigued me for many years.
I opened JETT, a gallery of contemporary jewelry, in Santa Fe in 1980 and have been designing and making jewelry since the '60's. I've lived in El Rito since 1990 when the library was only a small dark room off of the clinic. Look at it now! Let's keep it going and growing.
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Edgar's Chair |
Kathleen Vanderbrook (Vanderbrook Studios)
Live Auction Starting Bid: $55
weblink: elritostudiotour.org
Sold at $65
Terry and Kathleen moved to El Rito in 1982.They remember what it was like without the library. The El Rito Library has improved the quality of life in so many ways. Kathleen has participated in the children's programs in the past: pottery, papermaking, and a Christmas Card workshop. The El Rito Quilters Guild have met at the Library every week since Jan.2000. Kathleen is part of that group that originally formed as a fund raiser for the Library.
Statement about the artwork
Kathleen's black and white print of a handmade chair was originally drawn in 1969 as a study for a painting called:"Green Box of Dream". When she heard about the Charity Chairs, she remembered "Edgar's Chair", the drawing,(which was a favorite) that she had saved.
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Hope in Dark Times: |
Terry Vanderbrook (Vanderbrook Studios)
Live Auction Starting Bid: $25
Buy Now! $200
Sold at $55
Terry is the other half of Vanderbrook studios. A many time contributer to the El Rito Studio tour and dedicated artist. The Vanderbrook studios in the center of town always invites the adventurous traveler to a place to see the artists in the their solar adobe home studios.
Statement about the artwork
Terry's colored print of a drawing he did titled:"Hope in Dark Times:Ladderback Notes" The inspiration for the drawing was the shadows made by the sun streaming on his mother's rocking chair.
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Miniature "Priest's Chair" |
Fred C. Wagner
Live Auction Starting Bid: $55
Sold at $100
This is an heirloom work of a miniature chair (scaled inch to the foot) made by Julie Wagner's father (Fred C. Wagner 1911-2000) in 1988. He had a masters in microbiology from the Univ. of Wisconsin and worked for the A&P Tea company for years. When he retired, he became a volunteer with the International Executive Service Corp and traveled all over the world as a volunteer consultant for food processing plants. I started making adobe style dollhouses in 1975, and soon after he started making dollhouse furniture to go with them. He used photographs of old Spanish Colonial pieces to make reproductions scaled inch to the foot, using fairly primitive tools (like putting a dowel in the chuck of an electric drill mounted in a vise to use as a miniature lathe). He often visited us in El Rito, and loved New Mexico, although he lived in North Carolina and then Connecticut at the end of his life.
Statement about the artwork
It is made of pine, stained and waxed. It is a reproduction of an eighteenth century chair, commonly referred to as a Priest's chair. The dimensions are h. 3 3/8", w. 2 5/8" and d. 2 3/8".
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Julie Wagner
Live Auction Starting Bid: $155
weblink: elritostudiotour
Sold at $215
I have been involved with the library almost from the day it opened. I have taught many workshops in drawing and bookmaking to both children and adults. I was on the library board when the work renovating the building to house the library first began. I directed the children's art program for three summers, and have donated art work to the auctions from the very beginning.
After earning a BA from Oberlin College and an MFA in Sculpture from the Rhode Island School of Design, I lived in New York City for 5 years and then moved to northern New Mexico in 1972. My husband, Michael Hennerty, and I have lived in El Rito since 1977, raising our daughter, Molly, here. I have made sculpture, paintings and artists' books since that time, showing my work in galleries, museums, and alternative spaces around the United States. My work is always based on the natural world in some way. I am represented in private and public collections, with my books finding homes in many university special collections and museum collections. I just returned from a two-week artist's residency at the Ragdale Foundation in Lake Forest, Illinois.
Statement about the artwork
The chair I have made is a simple slat-backed chair, painted and antiqued, with a padded cloth seat. The painting is based on a series of drawings I have done in walnut ink called "Re: Marks".
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Steven Williams
Live Auction Starting Bid: $100
Retail: $2500
Website: stevenhwilliams-art.com
Sold at: $250
Steven first made himself noticed at the library helping out with the adobe restoration of what is now our fiction room. He presently sits on the Library's board and has been an appreciated chef at our "pancake breakfast" for the last few years. Steven comes from an L.A. advertising career and has adapted to the neighborhood by building a very modern two story adobe structure that is now a favorite on the Abiquiu Studio Tour. He applies his talents to all kinds of found materials and for the Auction he has completed a "Children's School Desk."
Statement about the artwork
The Charity Chair started life as a metal school desk. The plywood seat, desktop and backs had long since rotted away, much like many school children's thirst for knowledge. I rebuilt the lost parts with brightly painted wood reclaimed from old window casing. There is great value and wisdom in learning from pieces of the past. On the top, a new student has carved "I love books" surrounded by a heart. From the back of the chair erupts a fantastical shower of magic and energy representing the joy of learning through books. Books have the capacity to open the mind to knowledge of all kinds - information, adventure, history, art, hope and so much more. This kind of knowledge should be available to everyone through the books in our library.
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