Buffalo Ranch Studio & Gallery

Encaustic Class Forming

Sign up now for an exciting two-day encaustic workshop being offered at the Buffalo Ranch Studio, "where imagination runs wild."

(Image left: a bison cow and her calf from the Picuris Pueblo's tribal herd).

The studio is located at Picuris Pueblo, an Indian reservation in northern New Mexico that has been continuously inhabited for more than five centuries. Tiwa, the language spoken at Picuris, is also the language of Taos Pueblo to the north, and Isleta Pueblo south of Albuquerque.

The studio was loving constructed for painter Harriette Tsosie by her husband Carl, a longtime tribal member at Picuris, whose father is full blooded Navajo and mother, Picuris. Carl sunk the studio below grade and joined two ends of an L-shaped house, calling the resulting space his "quarter-hogan." Seven large studio windows (image above right) look out on the northern New Mexico landscape, featuring gentle mountains and the prominent Jicarita Peak. The East-facing studio door greets the rising sun, Navajo style.

The other end of the studio is a reception area, featuring Harriette's work and giclee prints from her petroglyph series.

(Image left: studio reception area).

Students can relax and take breaks in this area during the workshop and it is where we will have lunch.

The workshop will begin Friday, July 11th, with a review of safety basics, making the encaustic medium (melting the wax, adding a hardening agent), preparing surfaces to accept the encaustic, painting, scraping, and fusing techniques, using both heat gun and propane torch.

(Left: "Global Warming #2," 2007.
Copyright Harriette Tsosie.
All rights reserved.
(Created by fusing with a propane torch.)

On the second workshop day, Saturday, July 12th, students will learn alternative encaustic techniques, such as embedding objects in wax, collaging with encaustic, transfer, and working with encaustic on paper or other surfaces.

"Divorce Diptych," 2007 ( Left).
Copyright Harriette Tsosie.
All rights reserved.
Dried poppy stems and heads embedded in wax using heat gun technique.

Workshop instructors Harriette Tsosie (right) and Nicki Marx have more than 25 years combined experience in working with encaustic and other media.

Cost for the two day workshop is $350 plus a $25 materials fee. Registration is non-refundable. Single day registrations are not available. Special alumni rates are available for students of prior Buffalo Ranch Studio workshops. Contact Harriette for details.

Classes will run from 10:00 AM - 4:00 PM daily with a break for lunch. Class size is limited to six students. Register now, the class is filling up fast.

To register, contact Harriette or Nicki by one of the methods below:

Harriette Tsosie
505/587-0427
hftsosie@earthlink.net
www.buffaloranchstudio.com

Nicki Marx
505/587-2383
marx@laplaza.org

Cradle Project exhibition/sale opens June 7th

The Cradle Project exhibition and sale opens with a preview reception on Saturday, June 7th from 1:00 - 5:00 PM on the Eighth Floor, 219 Central Avenue Northwest, Albuquerque. Continuing through Saturday, June 28th, the cradles will be on view Thursdays - Saturdays from 1:00 - 5:00 PM. The purpose of the Cradle Project is to raise funds to help alleviate the plight of an estimated 48 million children in sub-Saharan Africa, orphaned by AIDS and other diseases and victims of unrelenting poverty. My entry into the exhibition is a coffin/cradle. I chose to make the coffin/cradle for two reasons. First, the image powerfully represents the precarious plight of the African orphans, who face death each day and whose cradles could momentarily become coffins.  Second, I knew the coffin/cradle image would work artistically, because coffins and cradles have a similar shape.

The mummy inhabiting my coffin/cradle is female, because it seems to me that African women are 'wrapped' with the burden of their culture.  They are often infected with AIDS by their husbands and boyfriends, who have slept with prostitutes carrying the virus. The women pass AIDS on to their own children when they give birth or sometimes while the child is even still in their womb.

Historically, the  Egyptians created mummies in two phases: embalming and wrapping. During embalming, the brain — thought to be useless except for producing mucus — was pulled from the head through the nostrils and discarded. The heart, which the Egyptians thought of as a person's soul, remained in the body. Four other organs, believed to be needed in the afterlife, were each placed in a canopic jar, the lid of which depicted the god charged with guarding that organ. The man-headed god, Imsety, guarded the liver. Hapi, the baboon-headed god, protected the lungs. Duamutef, the jackal-headed god watched over the stomach, while Qebehsenuef, the falcon-headed deity, was responsible for the intestines. (Click to enlarge photos)

The Egyptians placed various amulets within the mummy wrapping, but for artistic purposes, these charms are on top of the mummy sculpture and the mummy is wrapped in gauze rather than linen. The rattle, symbolizes lost childhood; the stick bundle, represents immortality, and the medallion — painted with a diagram of the AIDS virus — tells how the child died. Handprints painted on the mummy wrapping represent the care givers, who lovingly watched over the child during her brief lifetime and just as lovingly wrapped her body after death. The colors of the handprints represent the so-called human 'races,' which are all infected with AIDS. The cradle board on which the mummy rests is painted with African-like designs and is also a reference to the native culture in which I now live.

My thanks to David Lerner of Precise Framing for constructing and donating the coffin/cradle, friends Belinda Edwards and Michele Rilken for encouraging my participation in the project and Nicki Marx for her helpful suggestions and the bones. As always, I am grateful to my husband, Carl, for building me a wonderful studio in which to think and work.

Venus on a Half Shell

The Touchstone Foundation presents Venus on a Half Shell, a celebration of spring with works of erotic art by local and international artists.  The exhibition opens Friday, May 16, 2008 from 6:00 - 8:00 PM at the Gallery at Touchstone, Taos Center for the Visual Arts, 110 Mabel Dodge Lane, Taos.  Works will remain on exhibit through June 15th, with a portion of the proceeds from sales benefiting The Taos Artist Organization (TAO) and the Touchstone Foundation.

"Global Warming #1: The Rape of Mother Earth," 2007.  Encaustic/panels.  6" x 24." 
Copyright Harriette Tsosie, 2007.  All rights reserved.

Eighth Annual Book as Art Exhibition: Spontaneous Combustion

Opening with receptions Saturday May 3 and Sunday May 4th, Gallery Zipp hosts the juried Eighth Annual "Book as Art" exhibition.  This year's show challenges artists to create books reflecting the theme: "Spontaneous Combustion."  Reception times are 11:00 AM - 4:00 PM both days.  Gallery Zipp is located in Glorieta, NM just off the Valencia exit of Interstate 25 north of Santa Fe.  For more information, contact Bunny Tobias at Gallery Zipp: 505-757-6428.

Pictured left: "Spontaneous Human Combustion Book Mobile," 2008.  Encaustic/paper.  Nine 8" x 6" panels.  Copyright Harriette Tsosie, 2008.  All rights reserved.

Pictured right: "Spontaneous Combustion #1," 2008.  Encaustic/panel.  10" x 8."  Copyright 2008 Harriette Tsosie.
All rights reserved.

(Click images to enlarge.)

 

Taos Country Club: Color It Green

On exhibit through August 2008, "Color It Green" is a juried show of Taos area artists.  Work is displayed at the Taos Country Club, 54 Country Club Drive (just off CR 110), Taos, NM.

Call 575-758-7300 for more information.

 

Pictured: 

"The Corn is Green" Triptych, 2006.  Encaustic/panel.  8" x 24."
Copyright 2006, Harriette Tsosie.  All rights reserved.

(Click image to enlarge.)

New Mexico Arts and Crafts Fair

New Mexico Arts and Crafts Fair
Albuquerque, New Mexico

Preview: Thursday, June 26, 6PM - 9PM
Mingle with the artists and shop early.

Show: Friday June 27 and Saturday June 28: 10:00 AM - 8:00 PM, Sunday, June 29: 10:00 AM - 5:00 PM