About her exhibition of new work at Blue Rain Gallery in Santa Fe, Roseta Santiago says, “I want to show you new thoughts about the West, its people, its beauty and uniqueness.” The exhibition, Ty, opens August 30 and runs through September 13. The title honors her longtime Diné friend and model Ty Harris, and features paintings of Ty “as well as other interesting characters of Santa Fe.”
Desert Wild Flower, oil on canvas, 48 x 48 in.
Santiago can often be seen at Randy Rodriguez’s Rio Bravo Trading Company in Santa Fe, where she photographs her models with hats, blankets and jewelry from Rio Bravo’s vast selection. On one occasion in the perfect afternoon light, she photographed Harris among the ubiquitous hollyhocks growing out of cracks in the sidewalk, wearing a dress embroidered with traditional symbols including rain clouds and a spectacular squash blossom necklace from the artist’s own collection. Desert Wild Flower is the result of that magic moment translated to canvas.
The Pottery Collector, oil on canvas, 24 x 24 in.
Diné artist Tony Abeyta introduced Santiago to Harris and said, “This is a person you have to paint.” She has been painting Harris for six years and comments, “I am so inspired by her mixture of strength and beauty.”
Santiago is working on and expanding an old theme she calls “Earth Songs” which include all things made of the earth—originally her homage to pueblo pottery, “now flowers from the earth whose shapes and amazing colors are being explored and connected like the squash blossom necklace on Ty with turquoise that’s called ‘pieces of the sky.’ Desert Wild Floweris a softer approach to Native American life than I usually paint, but always there is Mother Earth.”
Anticipation, oil on panel, 12 x 12 in.
Her respect and admiration for the people who model for her is akin to the respect she has for the makers of the ancient and contemporary pottery which was the focus of her earlier work and continues to inspire her. Her recent painting, The Pottery Collector, depicts a pot set next to a Diné weaving. She comments, “They contain the energy of their makers as well as their stories.”
A story is implied or invited in her painting, Anticipation, in which a papier-maché rabbit contemplates an egg resting in a nest.
The right combination of subject, model, props and imagination combine to inspire Santiago to create the stories she creates in her paintings. —
Blue Rain Gallery 544 S. Guadalupe Street » Santa Fe, NM 87501 » (505) 954-9902 » www.blueraingallery.com
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