FEATURED:

PREVIOUSLY:

David Kish has been making art since his childhood in Connecticut. His first store, at 17, was in an indoor bazaar selling his crafted items. After 30 years in retail he retired and moved to Lincoln County where he met Rose and Jeff and was instrumental in making the Adobe Palace a success.

David recently bought a home in Carrizozo where he is surrounded by work stations. He decides what technique he will use and moves to that work station to create his wonderful designs. He does spinning, weaving, rug hooking, needle punch, paper crafts as well as a little known braiding technique called kumihimo. His two cats like to perch on the kumihimo stands.

In addition to his impressive retail experience, David has a lot of teaching experience.

While living in Phoenix, he taught fashion design students at The Art Institute of Phoenix and students at the Arizona Desert Weavers and Spinners Guild. He first moved to Albuquerque in 1992. He is a member of the Adobe Wool Art Guild and a fiber art guild and has participated in the Fiber Fiesta at the Manual Lujan Building at the Albuquerque Fairgrounds. After moving to Lincoln County David tutored at the Capitan Elementary School and taught Art & Craft at the Capitan Senior Center.

As soon as he gets an extra room set up, David plans to offer classes in many fiber techniques, including kumihimo braiding which will be a treat for students from Carrizozo and the surrounding area. In the meantime you can view David’s awesome art on Etsy at kishdesignsstudio.

Carrizozo’s newest artists are very talented.  Susan Brumfield Farris and Aaron Farris recently moved from San Antonio, Texas, into a house on D Avenue.  They have a beautiful home with art everywhere. They already have one studio for Aaron and he is building another for Susan where she can set up a long table to paint and frame her photo realistic paintings.

Susan and Aaron met at a bingo hall in San Antonio 18 years ago and it was love across a crowded room.  Aaron was born in Austin and grew up in San Antonio and he has that soft southern accent to prove it.  For 36 years he worked with sheet metal.  He has taken these skills into another realm, now making jewelry, including bracelets and spoon rings, as well as intricate metal epoxied wall sculptures.  Aaron began creating art when he borrowed Susan’s camera and took some beautiful photographs.  “He had an ‘eye’ for it” Susan said.

Susan has lived all over and has worked for the Attorney General of Mississippi as well as a prominent economist at Harvard. If you are lucky enough to meet her, at MoMAZoZo or one of Paula and Mike’s bonfires, you will notice what a calming influence she is. Susan first took up art when she was living in Japan in 1979. A friend lent her a camera and she went on to win awards for her photography. She now creates awesome photo realistic paintings.

Susan and Aaron are happy and inspired.  Of course, the Carrizozo landscape and beautiful skies are helpful.  They are a wonderful addition to the art community of Carrizozo.  They have already organized an art exhibit at Tiny’s Grill on Central where you can see their art and that of other local artists.  You can contact them directly at susanbrumfieldfarris@mac.com or on Facebook at Aaron Wayne Farris.

Carrizozo’s most famous artist is cartoonist and graphic novelist Rick Geary.    During his long career, he has won numerous awards, including Best Graphic Novel of 2016 from the National Cartoonists Society.

Rick has always been an artist and is proof that artists can make a living with their art. He remembers getting in trouble in school for doodling and sketching in class. He went on to Graduate from the School of Fine arts at the University of Kansas. After graduation, he worked for two weekly newspapers in Wichita, doing portraits, political cartoons and illustrations of all kinds.

Rick never thought he would work in comics until he moved to San Diego in 1975 and became involved with the Comic-Con, where he first did drawings for attendee badges and created the Con’s Toucan mascot. He has been an exhibitor at the San Diego event for over 45 years. Rick did graphic stories for Marvel, Dark Horse and Disney, as well as for the newest series of GUMBY comics, written by Bob Burden, for which they received the 2007 Eisner Comic Industry Award for Best Publication for a Younger Audience.

During a four-year stay in New York, Rick’s illustrations appeared regularly in The New York Times Book Review. His illustration work has also appeared in MAD, Spy, Rolling Stone, The Los Angeles Times, The Old Farmer’s Almanac, and American Libraries.

In 2007, Rick and his wife Deborah moved to Carrizozo, where they live in an historic Frank English home.  Rick has also created postcards for many local organizations and businesses, including the Carrizozo Heritage Museum, Roy’s Soda Fountain, Mt. Carrizo Hardware, Highway 54 Emporium, White Oaks pottery, Alli’s Salon, 4 Winds Restaurant and MoMaZoZo. He has also designed cards for the Trinity Site, Carrizozo Library and the Carrizozo Film Office.  He has even published an illustrated history of the town.  And of course he has done postcards for the Carrizozo Artists Studio Tour, which he, Deborah and Doug Stanton organized.

Both Rich and Deborah are very generous with their time and talents and are vibrant leaders of the Carrizozo Arts community.

Steve Picard was a Russian linguist in the US Army, serving in Germany.  After four years of service he lived a nomadic life, eventually ending up in Okinawa, where she taught undergraduate philosophy and psychology, and was also the Graduate Program Coordinator for the University of Maryland-Asia. After Okinawa, she lived in Ajijic, Mexico for two years, until finally relocating to Carrizozo in 2012, at the recommendation of artist friends.  He lives on 12th Street in a bright turquoise house with five friendly cats and an art studio in back.  He is often seen cycling or hiking with friends or at gatherings with other artists at MoMAZoZo.

Steve was born into an artistic family and has always created art.  He has worked in many mediums including oils, pen and ink, watercolor, and bookmaking.  But his current style was inspired by unique circumstances.

After suffering from treatment resistant bipolar depression, Steve was prescribed medical ketamine infusions. Special K has done more than alleviate her depression. The infusions expanded her artistic horizons and provided inspiration for his current style of artwork.

The first piece in his current style took a year – six months designing and six months figuring out how to transfer her idea to canvas.  Steve paints on pieces of foam board with liquid and heavy body acrylics.  He then glues the pieces onto painted canvas, along with jewelry findings, and other odd objects in intricate abstract designs.  His work has depth, movement and emotion that takes the viewer into another dimension.

Steve has always been inspired by her environment, no matter where she lives. Now she is inspired by the landscapes of New Mexico…and ketamine dreams.

To see more of Steve Picard’s art go to his page on our shop or contact her at xkalbur3@me.com. He also has a blog, www.stickyskillet.com, that he forgets to maintain, but there you can also see a sampling of his graphic art.

Friday’s happening at MoMaZoZo was a printmaking demonstration with Sumi ink and water. This project was led by the Artist in Residence, Sto.

Carrizozo artists participated in the event, unleashing their creative freedom in a fun, new medium. Art is where the magic happens.

MoMAZoZo meets every Friday at high noon.

Deborah Geary is an avid cyclist who can often be seen riding her vintage bicycle on Highway 54 year round, regardless of wind or weather. Some years ago she suffered a broken pelvis in a cycling accident. She was confined to bed and then a wheelchair while recovering. That’s when she became inspired to develop her own, unique style of art.

Although Deb has been an admirer of modern art, especially the work of abstract expressionists, she spent 45 years teaching Jewish American History in a progressive Jewish school in San Diego. She traveled to Paris and lived in New York and often visited museums and galleries where she delighted in seeing art by Picasso, Mondrian, Calder, Nevelson, Monet and Pollack.

While Deb was recovering from her bicycling accident, she began making colorful and creative collages. Many artists have worked in collage but Deb has broken the mold.

Deb loves color and likes to see depth. Sometimes her art is three dimensional, coming right out of the frame. Her first foray into art was using watercolor paper which she painted. These days she makes her own paper. She rips the painted paper into small pieces to create delightful collages. When she begins a piece, she never knows how it’s going to turn out or what it’s going to be. The painted, torn paper becomes cityscapes, mountains, flowers, flocks of birds or pure abstract images. Deb continues to evolve along with her art.

Deb works at her dining room table on which she spreads plastic. She uses acrylics, glue, and a hodge-podge of materials to construct her collages.

“It’s complicated and messy” she says “but it’s therapeutic for me.”

Deborah also likes to give back to the community as does her husband, renowned cartoonist and graphic artist Rick Geary. She used to do interactive workshops at the Carrizozo school – Painting with the Masters – where she taught the art of her favorites. She helped the children paint a burro for which Carrizozo is famous. One side was painted in the style of Picasso and the other side like Jackson Pollack.

Nowadays Deb conducts “BookZoom” every Friday at the Carrizozo Library with the children from Rocking Horse Preschool. The children are rapt; it’s their favorite activity. She admires their masks and then reads stories about great Americans such as Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King Jr. and Eleanor Roosevelt.

You can see more of Deb’s art at Malkerson Gallery 408 in Carrizozo.

A Love For Photography

The first photograph Ray ever took was at John F Kennedy’s funeral. Ray Dean was a pharmacy student at the University of Toledo in Ohio when he learned of JFK’s assassination. He stopped to borrow his Dad’s Argus C-3 35mm camera, then he and a friend drove 600 miles to Washington D.C.

They waited in front of Blair House to see the funeral cortege silently make its way down Pennsylvania Avenue. Ray captured those historic moments and then drove back to Ohio in time for class the next day.

Ray has been taking photographs ever since. Even during his career as a pharmacist operating four different pharmacies in Ohio. After retirement Ray followed his wife, Diane, to New Mexico where he photographed the landscapes and living creatures in the Land of Enchantment. Although he won’t admit it, he is an artist with an unerring eye for capturing the beautiful of nature around Carrizozo.

Ray is also Carrizozo’s Mayor and he works full time at Town Hall for the betterment of the town. Some people calll him “The Damn Mayor” because he just likes to get things done efficiently. It is a term of endearment. Ray is Carrizozo’s ambassador, riding around in his 25+ year old Jeep greeting friends and strangers with a friendly smile. And, of course… taking photographs.

Coming soon: THE EGG VENDING MACHINE!!!

Mike Lagg is working on a Rube Goldberg type device that will deliver a fresh egg for the price of a dollar. The nine chickens and one rooster that support the machine live in a room at the old Cibola Hotel on 12th Street in downtown Carrizozo.

The machine is still in the incubation phase, so in the meantime  Mike is decimating his surplus eggs via curbside pickup. 

Mike Lagg is a woodworking artisan who is noted for his beautiful wood doors which grace homes all over Carrizozo. Mike along with his partner, Paula Wilson, purchased the Lyric Complex'u several years ago. The property consists of a Theater, a 5000 sq foot studio space, and the Cibolo Hotel. MoMAZoZo, along with Mike and Paula's respective studios, exist there. The complex'u is a work in progress with many art projects in motion.