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Las Vegas, New Mexico Rocks!

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Birdie's New Mexico Time Machine

Welcome to Las Vegas, New Mexico!

 

Road_to_hermits_peak

Located on the edge of the eastern plains of New Mexico, where the Mighty Rockies meet the Great Plains, is the town of Las Vegas. No - not the big "City of Sin" with the gambling strip! Las Vegas, New Mexico is not as well known as other Wild West towns, such as Dodge City, Deadwood, or Tombstone, but Las Vegas is said to have been the worst of the biggest, baddest Old West Towns.

Doc Holliday kept his medical office in Las Vegas, New Mexico. The Rough Riders first met in the saloon of the Plaza Hotel in Las Vegas. You can get a shot of tequila in that same saloon, today.

I live in gorgeous Las Vegas, New Mexico. I want to share my beautiful tiny Las Vegas with you. If you are thinking of visiting or relocating to Las Vegas, New Mexico, the links, stories, and photographs in this site will help you understand our beauty and incredible history!

Please email me if you want the name of a good New Mexican Realtor, a place to eat yummy Northern New Mexican food, or a simple Hello!

New to town? Here's a list of Things to Do in Las Vegas, New Mexico. Now, sit back and enjoy my stories...

April 04, 2008

Scenes from the Outside

by Birdie Jaworski

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JB's Tortilla Cones, by Nancy Philo

Soft yellow paint coats the rounded corners of an adobe storefront lining the Las Vegas Plaza, giving sunlight opportunity to cast shadow against a recessed door. Delicate ristras, ochre paint clinging to the rough surface, echo a white sign offering burritos smothered in red or green. Nancy Philo's painting of JB’s Tortilla Cones' facade offers a humorous zen koan, a painting of a painting.

"Las Vegas inspires me to paint," Philo muses, "the interplay of old and new, the unusual nooks and crannies. I can't imagine a better subject."

Philo knew she was an artist before she hit double digits. At seven, she lugged sketchbooks and pencils around her Michigan neighborhood, spending free moments capturing her surroundings, and at ten began taking lessons at at Detroit's famed Institute of Art where she fell in love with the world-class museum.

"I loved wandering the museum and learning about different art periods," she reminisces. "I grew up in that museum. I discovered who became some of my biggest inspirations - Diego Rivera and Frieda Kahlo. I became fascinated with the Mexican painters."

Philo's personal art history is rich and varied. She became a peace and civil rights activist in the deep south, illustrating for two pacifist magazines in New York City while working to stop the war in Vietnam. A drawing that she did of Martin Luther King, Jr. is part of the permanent collection of the National Gallery of Art's Portrait Collection. After spending years as an art instructor for idyllic New England summer camps as well as owning her own Northshore Boston gallery, Hyperbole, Philo felt the Land of Enchantment tugging at her heart.

"I visited Las Vegas on an art trip with my sister fifteen years ago and fell in love with the town," Philo says. "I had been coming to New Mexico with groups of artists - driving them around in a van, showing them how to paint. We'd visit Taos Pueblo, Georgia O'Keeffe's home, Abiqueue, eat bag lunches, paint all day. Every time I'd visit with a group, I'd build in an extra week or two so that I could explore New Mexico."

After a period of soul-searching, Philo pulled up her east coast roots and made the big move to New Mexico, first exploring Truchas and Santa Fe, then eventually purchasing a renovated adobe home in Las Vegas, the place she now considers home.

"I like Las Vegas so much better than Santa Fe. I had no sense of community in Santa Fe," Philo explains. "All I did was go to work. I had work friends there, but I've met so many wonderful people here. This community is not a trasitional kind of place. It's real."

Philo spends her days at Waxlander Gallery on Canyon Road in Santa Fe, a fine arts establishment that sells original works and rents sculpture and paintings to the budding New Mexico film industry. Evenings and weekends find her at home in Las Vegas, painting the local landscape from series of photographs.

"The buildings, the storefronts, I find all of Las Vegas very interesting, very beautiful, with the architecture of all different periods," says Philo. "I have my next fifty paintings photographed and lined up. I know what the next fifty are going to be. I'm very inspired here."

Traveler's Cafe inside of Tapetes de Lana is featuring a show of Philo's Las Vegas-inspired paintings called "Las Vegas: Old and New, Favorite Facades Around Town." The show runs through April 30, with an artist's reception 5 - 7 p.m. Friday, April 4, and 1 - 4 p.m. Saturday, April 5.

"I look forward to seeing friends and neighbors seeing my take on Las Vegas as a newcomer. Everybody has their own feelings and memories. Las Vegas is preserved in time." Philo pauses to catch her breath. "I'm not a history buff because I had a nun as childhood teacher who hated history and made it difficult to enjoy it. But this town reflects so many different eras, and I find it all very fascinating. It gives me fodder for my work."

The show includes a delicate painting of Estella's Cafe, its worn red sign providing counterpoint to the slate-grey of sidewalk below. A piece titled "Plaza Reflections" explores the historic Plaza Hotel as a tourist might - through the reflective all-seeing windows of another building. Philo's work is careful, attentive, as if she swallows whole one street corner, then another, spilling forgotten secrets from her fingers onto the canvas. Her work examines Las Vegas from the perspective of an outsider, from looking across streets, through dust-whipped windows. Philo hopes that her work may inspire others to both look at Las Vegas in new ways, and to consider the importance of art in our lives.

"Perspective - the more complex it is, it engages and challenges me," Philo notes. "People inside and outside, reflections. It gives me time to reflect, myself. The arts are so important. In our culture, we have become little technotrons, and the arts give us a sense of beauty and hope and stimulate our imaginations. And those are all the things that kids - and adults - need."

Santa Fe Opera Apprentice Singers at UWC

by Birdie Jaworski

A Japanese monk lifted an empty teapot, passing an empty cup, ritualistically savoring bitter tea that no longer exists as a chorus of monks sang "though the bowl is empty, the scent glows." Members of the Las Vegas Guild of the Santa Fe Opera leaned forward, let the music, as fine and enlightening as vapor from steaming green tea waft over them during the American premiere of Tan Dun's opera, Tea, last August in Santa Fe. 

"During the Santa Fe Opera season, we carpool to the opera, and our guild members volunteer to host preview dinners and assist at youth nights," explains Las Vegas Opera Guild President, Carol Schwartz. Her husband, Art, also a member of the group, chimes in. "With our new youth members, we are seeing an incredible array of interest and talent."

The guild, one of several around the state, counts 170 adults and 39 students among its members. This Friday, guild members along with the entire Las Vegas community have the opportunity to experience a taste of the Santa Fe Opera during a free concert at Kluge Auditorium given by several young artists-in-training as part of the Apprentice Singer Program. Each summer, the Santa Fe Opera selects 40 up-and-coming singers from more than a thousand applicants from around the entire country. Apprentices are cast in many supporting roles and understudy leading roles, in addition to forming the ensemble for the season's productions.

"The rigorous schedule of training and performance is an ideal introduction to the world of professional opera," Mrs. Schwartz says. "The Opera has apprentices both as singers and as backstage people - craftspeople. There is a nation wide competition for these positions. In the spring before the opera season, the singers tour the state and visit 40 or more places such as high schools and the UWC, and they perform free of charge. We're lucky to have them perform in our community."

The Las Vegas Guild has been actively recruiting youth membership. A recent drive at West Las Vegas High School garnered several dozen highly interested students, many of whom perform in West's impressive Choral program.

"For the size of our city, we have a huge organization, and this is only the first year we've had any youth members," notes Mr. Schwartz. "We are targeting teenagers in high school and college. The Guild is a great opportunity for young members of our community to get exposure to the opera."

"The educational value, the enjoyment, these are wonderful opportunities for our youth," adds Mrs. Schwartz.

The Guild has big plans for young members this season. In addition to providing back stage passes for interested members, they will hold a tour of the Opera Grounds on June 7, as well as trips to the two youth-central concerts produced by the Santa Fe Opera on June 23 and 24. The Schwartz's hope that the trips inspire talented locals to continue their study and practice.

"We have half a dozen serious students of opera in Santa Fe," Mrs. Schwartz says. "Arnell David Arellanes has done an amazing job," she continues, referring to the West Las Vegas High School choral director. "He's produced a talented group, and advises them about application to schools and programs for college."

Friday's concert will consist of pieces sung by several apprentices, the program of which has not yet been published. The public is invited to attend the free event. Upcoming Guild events include an opening night dinner and an annual meeting. Persons interested in joining the Las Vegas Guild of the Santa Fe Opera may contact Klare Schmidt at 454-4490 or email her at moratiger@msn.com.

April 03, 2008

Under New Mexican Skies

by Birdie Jaworski

Elena

The sound of the shutter surprises a nesting sparrow. Elena Gallegos points her camera at what seems to be nothing - a wisp of dried sweetgrass, a dusty stone, the crack between two slabs of concrete. She tries to steady her hands. Click. Click. The sparrow flits from one branch to another, curious, aware.

"It's damned difficult," Gallegos sighs. Diagnosed with Parkinson's disease, a degenerative disorder of the central nervous system that often impairs the sufferer's motor skills and speech, she retired from her thirty-year career as an Albuquerque elementary school teacher at the age of 58, and began taking photographs.

"I decided enough was enough. If I was only going to have a few good years of fine motor skills left, I was going to darn well enjoy them." Gallegos fit the lens cover over her Nikon. "All of my life, I felt like an artist. All of my life. I taught my students to follow their dreams, and I realized one day I wasn't taking my own advice. I'm just glad my husband, Ray, got to see my photographs before he passed away."

Gallegos shoots the forgotten places, the quiet space between one visual treat and the next. She uses two cameras - both purchased at yard sales - a simple digital camera with a good lens, and an old-school Nikon 35 mm. She walks the alleys of Las Vegas in the dusky hour before sunset, searching for inspiration, for a slice of experience no one has yet dared to catalogue.

"Black and white and gray. That's how I see the world. I use black and white film, or take digital shots and reduce them to grayscale on my computer," Gallegos explains. "I enjoy spending time outdoors. Since Ray passed and I moved to Las Vegas, nature has become my new husband."

A collection of clouds wafts over Hermit's Peak in one of Gallegos' photographs, giving unexpected motion to the static land. In another, her lens peeks through a decaying door in ghost town Loma Parda, allowing the viewer to enter a still sanctuary of stone and memory. Her pieces celebrate the often rough landscape of New Mexico, and capture the state's dream-like consciousness.

"Too many people think they have to be 'good' to be an artist. I'm living proof you don't," Gallegos laughs. "To be a photographer, or a painter, or a singer, you just have to do what you love. Who cares if anyone sees what you see in it? I'm losing my hands, little by little. In another year I won't be able to take these photographs. I'd rather take bad photographs today than wish I had taken them tomorrow."

Gallegos plans to print a collection of black and white New Mexican sky postcards from her growing body of work. Her first gallery show occurred several months ago in her hometown of Las Cruces, where a series of ten photographs lined the walls of a hip internet cafe.

"You can teach an old dog new tricks. You can. You can be anything you want to be, and do anything you want to do. It doesn't matter how young or how old you are. It doesn't matter how good you think you might be at something." Gallegos pushes a stray hair out of her eyes, adding it to the lopsided gray pile on top of her head. "I said yes to my dream three years ago, and now I've had one show, and will soon sell postcards. It's small potatoes, but that's what life is. A big bag of potatoes, if you're smart about it."

March 31, 2008

The Arts and Culture Future of Las Vegas, NM

A public service announcement from Roy Montibon:

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The old First Baptist Church - future site of the new Las Vegas Community Arts & Culture Center

Hello Everyone -

This is a reminder about the Charrette that's coming up this
Saturday, April 5th at United World College. It is being hosted by
UWC and MainStreet Las Vegas and will be held at Kluge
Auditorium from 9:00 am to 1:00 pm.

The purpose of the charrette is to brainstorm ideas for Arts
& Culture programs at the First Babtist Church Building at
University and 7th (see attached PDF). UWC, in partnership
with MainStreet Las Vegas, will be working with Highlands
University and several community organizations to develop
and operate an all-new Arts & Culture Center for Las Vegas
in the former First Babtist Church building. Latent in it's 16,000
square feet and 2/3 of an acre are many amazing arts and
education possibilities.

The possibility of an arts magnet school is on the table, as are
K-12 arts augmentation (i.e., field trips, guest presenters), after-
school arts programs, undergraduate and post-graduate arts
enrichment programs (i.e., mentorships, internships, studio visits,
guest speakers, etc.), adult education in the arts, theater and music
performance space, rehearsal space, shared non-profit office space...
and simply space for students from our different schools to hang out,
share ideas and get to know each other. I'm sure that list is only just
scratching the surface...

Bring your thoughts, ideas, energy and imagination.

Coffee and snacks will be available during the Charrette.

Thanks.

Roy
505. 454. 9330 | Studio
213. 446. 6951 | Cell