Donate your artsy junk

I saw a sign while I was walking around town that said you can donate art supplies to the Santa Fe Children's Museum by dropping them off at Village Arts. Josephine at Son Shine Art is organizing the collections. I'm going to drop off my gazillions of wine corks and packing peanuts and fabric.

David's Folly

David Trujillo tells me that in Great Britain they call it a "folly" when someone builds something just for the hell of it. He certainly considers the medieval tower that he build next to his house to be his folly. But it's a folly that would make anyone proud. From the top he has one of the best 360 degree views in Los Alamos.



In n fact a few years ago a tree got hit by lightning in the canyon in his backyard. The fire fighters couldn't get access to it, and so someone told the fire chief that no only could you see everything from the tower, but there was a path that led to the very spot. So the tower got to function as a fire lookout as well.



His world travels inspired him to build something like a tower.... The Great Wall of China and Machu Picchu were inspirational. But his visit to to the city his ancestors came from before settling in New Mexico generations ago had the biggest impact. Trujillo, Spain had 17 towers!



David just got into scrap metal sculpture last June when he retired from his job as an engineer at the Los Alamos National Lab. His art seems to be another "folly", something to do just for fun, but there's more to it than that.

His neighbor, John Brolley, was a physicist and a prolific sculptor. Brolley gave David several pieces as gifts, and according to David he was the inspiration for the block.

Brolley died in 2008. Shortly after Richard Swenson moved into the neighborhood and was hoping to connect with Brolley to learn from him. Instead he became David's mentor in scrap metal sculpture.



Although Swenson has shared a lot of his techniques with David, David is drawing upon different experiences to come up with his ideas. Swenson has a lot of experience working with horses and observing marine wildlife, and some of his animals are very realistic looking. David has made a lot of southwest animals, like snakes and armadillos, kokipelli. He just finished a miniature Saint James slaying a dragon.

You can see his work at the Karen Wray Fine Art Gallery at 2101 Trinity Drive, Suite B-2, in Los Alamos, NM.

Richard Swenson says that the parts add meaning to the whole

Richard Swenson, an artist exhibiting his work at the Art Stroll at the Karen Wray Fine Art Gallery, was raised on a farm in North Dakota, in a very art-free environment. He said, "The farmers in the area maybe had a picture of grandpa on the wall. But that was it."

Before joining the Navy SEALs Swenson worked with horses a lot and attended agricultural college. After his time with the SEALs he went to the University of North Dakota to study nuclear physics. He went on to have a science career studying the behavior of sound in the ocean (anti-submarine warfare), which enabled him to travel all over the world.

"In my leisure time I visited museums," he said. At this point he was in his mid-thirties, and wasn't interested in specific artists, or art history, or anything formal. He said, "I just like to look at the stuff. Especially in Polynesian areas."



When he retired he had yet to create a single piece of art. He said, "My wife (an epidemiologist) is younger than me and she was super busy and I needed to find something to do to get out of her hair."

So he started to collect John Deere tractors. Soon he amassed and restored a complete collection of all the John Deers built in the 50's. In the process he had accumulated a ton of spare tractor parts. "i started looking at the geometry and making figures out of it," he said. He put his completed sculptures in the yard of a county restaurant in his neighborhood in Mississippi.



When he started to exhibit his work he was amazed by how people liked to look at his scrap metal art. A couple of years ago he displayed 30 pieces, in conjunction with an exhibit from the creators of Sesame Street, at the Louisiana Arts and Science Museum, and it was a very successful show. "The guards at the museum said that it was the best show they ever had."

Just last weekend he won the Best in Show at the Lacombe Art Show.

"Here I am, a physicist. I had no idea that this was art. I just think it's fun to do," he said. "I simply weld this stuff together."

He may say that it's a simple thing, but I've been to his house, and it is bursting with sculptures. My favorite is a life sized seal hung high on the wall, so it looks like its swimming. There are other animals too, like a llama, pigs, rabbits, fish and horses. He said that horses and fish are his favorite things to do, because he grew up on a farm and understands horses, and did a lot of skin diving as a scientist, and has spent a lot of time observing marine wildlife. Right now, in his garage, he's working on two 15' whales!

He had an interesting theory about why people are drawn to his sculptures, and want to spend a lot of time looking at them. He thinks that the pieces of scrap metal have something to say. They add to the figure. When people recognize the parts as something that they've used or something they remember, it adds a depth of meaning that he couldn't achieve working with bronze or marble.

"If I make something with kitchen utensils, women will like it," he said. "Then if I make something with car parts, men will be drawn to it."

Sec Sandoval will show 35 new watercolors at the Art Stroll

Six Los Alamos artists will be at Karen Wray Fine Art

An artists reception and opening will be held Friday April 23 from 5-8 pm and Saturday April 24 from 10-3 pm at Karen Wray Fine Art, 2101 Trinity Drive, Suite B-2 in Los Alamos. There, people can meet the six local artists in the show: Sandoval, Karen Wray, Melissa Bartlett, David Trujillo, Fran Stoval and Richard Swenson.

It shouldn’t come as a surprise that every wall in Sec Sandoval’s home is covered in paintings. Many of them are of flowers.

“My wife loved flowers,” Sec Sandoval said. “Before a show she used to hide all the paintings of flowers under the bed or in a closet.”



Sandoval’s wife passed away almost a year ago after battling cancer for 29 years. Even though he doesn’t normally get attached to his pieces, he doesn’t want to let go of the flower paintings.

“I feel like I would be giving my wife’s things away,” he said and then added, “I still haven’t cleaned out her closets. That’s going to take years – she loved to shop!”

Sandoval used to do between 12 and 15 shows in the tri state area each year but he hasn’t shown his artwork in over two years.

“I had great difficulty at first,” was how he described his creative process after his wife died. “I was very slow. I slowed down to one or two paintings per week. At first the paintings were very moody, but I wanted to get back to the bright colors.”

He is now starting to bring his work to galleries. 35 of Sandoval’s newest watercolors will be on display at the Karen Wray Fine Art Gallery for the Spring Art Stroll.

Wray opened her gallery on March 13, 2009. She wanted a place to display her oil paintings and exhibiting fine artwork from established local artists and talented new artists. Karen also uses part of the space as her art studio and frequently can be seen working on her newest paintings or teaching others.



Collaborating with Ken Nebel at Village Arts to revitalize our art community, Wray’s gallery will compliment both Village Arts and the Art Center at Fuller Lodge.

Swenson has created over 3,000 scrap-metal sculptures. His subjects are dragons, metal fish that you can mount on the fireplace, jackrabbits, seals, pigs and ballerinas. He will have five pieces for sale at the show.



Trujillo started sculpting when he retired. Even though he has only been doing it since last June, he has already completed 43 sculptures and sold four.

Swenson became Trujillo’s mentor when he bought a house across the street. Since June, Swenson has taught him to develop his ideas, take car engines apart and weld the statues together.

“My style is different,” said Trujillo. “He does great big pieces and mine are smaller and more whimsical.”

Trujillo’s creativity is fueled by his extensive world travel. He has been to 29 countries and he said, “Everywhere we go we get a painting.”

Using transmission parts, camshafts, springs, rocks and steel saws, Trujillo has created statues of Kokopelli, Saint James slaying a dragon, horses and fish. His first dynamic piece is a life-sized corybustard, the largest flying bird in the world.



Bartlett, who has pieces by Trujillo and Sandoval in her living room, explained what it means to be a Los Alamos artist. “People get to know you in a town this small,” she said. “The land is so powerful. There’s so much to look at. New Mexico is an intense, spiritual place and you get drawn into that.”

“I am attracted by what the light is doing,” she said. “The play of light and dark.”

Her pastel of flamingos standing in a sunset demonstrates her mastery of light and dark. In it, the reflection of the sun on the water is pink while the shadowed flamingos appear to be black.

Animals have always played a large role in Bartlett’s art. Early in her career she co-authored a book with Jack Volhard called What all Good Dogs Should Know.

People from all around the country commission her to paint portraits of their pets. The portraits are usually gifts or memorials. “I try to make something that’s a good painting, and not just a likeness.”

Stoval is another Los Alamos artist who does special commissions. She especially enjoys doing stained glass projects for clients that want to emphasize a certain color. She shows her stained glass, mosaics and pastels in her gallery, located at 650 Canyon Road.

The art stroll is a part of the Earth Day Festivities sponsored by PEEC. This year’s theme is "The Difference a Decade Makes." There will be other Art Stroll events at the Mesa Public Library, Village Arts and UPEX.

Karen Wray Fine Art
2101 Trinity Drive Suite B-2, Los Alamos, NM
(505) 660-6382

Paint a birdhouse for cancer!

This spring Relay for Life is auctioning off birdhouses that have been painted by local artists. Anyone who wants to paint a birdhouse can stop by Village Arts to pick one up. Village Arts owner Ken Nebel would like to have the completed birdhouses back by earth day so that they can be displayed in the store and in other Los Alamos businesses. They will be auctioned off on June 25th and the proceeds will go to Relay for Life.

Congratulations to Ken Nebel!

He will be taking over management of Fuller Lodge. Read more about it in this article by Carol Clark.

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Council Backs Sculpture Series Plan

Click on the link to read the story in The Monitor

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