By Jessica Rath Today, on April 19, the El Rito Library is showing the 2023 Oscar Winner for Best Documentary Feature Film, “Navalny”.* The film’s editor, Langdon Page, will be present to introduce it, because – guess what! – some of the editing happened right here, in La Madera. The film is being shown at Northern New Mexico College, El Rito Campus, Alumni Hall. Pot luck at 5:30, showing at 6:00PM. I had watched the documentary shortly after Alexei Navalny was murdered at Polar Wolf, the maximum security corrective colony in Siberia near the Arctic Circle. To say it was gut-wrenching and deeply moving is putting it mildly. I wanted to learn more about Langdon and his work, and he kindly agreed to talk to me. Knowing very little about film making, I was curious – how does one become a movie editor? Are there college courses one has to take, or are there any special schools to attend? Well, in Langdon’s case it was a very organic process. From an early age he was fascinated by movies, he had the “cinema bug”, as he told me. He’d watch films, read every book about movies that he could find, and spend every free minute learning about cinema and its many aspects. His brother had started a magazine in Chile together with some movie producers, and when he asked Langdon for help because of his obsession with movies, that’s what happened: Langdon joined his brother in Chile, and together, they produced a few magazine issues – until the funding ran out. By that time, Langdon had established some solid connections with the small film community in Chile in the mid-90s. “I started talking to some of the producers thereafter with an idea for making a little documentary about looking for dinosaur eggs in Argentina, and they thought it was a great idea”, Langdon told me. When he came back with the footage, they needed somebody to edit it, and Langdon bluffed his way into the job. The producers had just acquired a top of the line Avid video editing system, the first generation of digital nonlinear editing (I looked this up: while linear editing assembles a film from beginning to end, the new technology allows the editor to work on any video frame or digital video clip, no matter where it will eventually end up). Langdon had the background and courage to figure out this completely new technology, was hired, and completed a number of projects in Chile. A couple of years later, he moved to Los Angeles with his wife and their firstborn. For a while, he had to take any work that allowed him to support his family. “The first place that hired me was actually a cable channel called E! Entertainment Television”, Langdon continued. “They didn't care that I had made a series of films that had done very well in Chile, they just cared that I knew how to run an Avid – the editing computer. So then I spent a while doing really boring television work, which kept us afloat as a family, but also taught me how to work with deadlines and within the confines of an industry that depends a lot of time on deliverables and strict formatting rules”. “At the same time, I kept reaching out to independent producers, and ended up getting some films that were more interesting. And then people kept hiring me to edit even though I would be writing or producing or pitching ideas, but I kept getting hired as an editor. And so I ended up doing a lot of that for the last 25+ years”. I must confess that I’ve never really thought much about the editing process of a movie. When it comes to film-making, I know the names of directors and a few famous cinematographers, and that’s it – I don’t know any famous editors. That doesn’t seem fair. I’m a film buff, and the productions I enjoy most offer great acting, beautiful cinematography, and an intelligent, moving script – all seamlessly joined together into one immersive experience. Whether that’s done successfully or not depends largely on the editor, I think. Langdon’s words helped me to see this. He elaborated: “When it comes to the making of a film it is often a year or more of editorial work. And that’s a lot of emotional energy, it's a lot of passion. If you're committed to it and are serious about trying to actually make cinema out of it the sensibility of the editor is inherently going to be reflected in the final film”. Yes, this makes total sense, especially in relation to “Navalny”. How did he get involved with this project, I wanted to know. “It was right around the beginning of 2021. A producer that I had made four or five pictures with called me up and said, ‘we've got this thing, and I think you’d be great for it. It's confidential, nobody knows about it. We've got this very talented director who's got a lot of ideas; can you come and start working on it?’ The director and his crew were just starting to sort through the footage and see what they had. I often like projects to go through a phase before I come on board, so that the director can start to try out all sorts of different things and get an idea of what they want in their head, make all kinds of mistakes, whatever. And then I can come on board, and we can make a whole bunch of different mistakes. So that's how it played out: I came up from Santiago, Chile to Santa Fe and set up the cutting room in La Madera. I was editing from there for the first six weeks”. In La Madera? Of all the places? How did he end up in La Madera? Well, Langdon grew up in Denver, CO, but one of his grandmothers lived in Santa Fe, and throughout his childhood he spent much time there. In 1994 his father, his stepmother, and some of her family bought a piece of land near La Madera, and this has been the family home ever since. So that’s where he ended up doing much of the editing work, in secret, as he explained. Obviously Langdon needed the fastest internet he could get, and also some gear, such as an extra screen. His father suggested they ask the Bondys, because Brian has all this equipment. So Brian came over with a monitor and helped set everything up. Amazingly, the internet connection in La Madera, New Mexico is the fastest connection that Langdon has been able to get anywhere in the world – can you believe this! “Navalny was a really fascinating project. It brought together a team of really strong voices with different perspectives, and we wanted to have all of that emotional, mental, cinematic firepower in the room together while working on this really challenging story. It was obviously all being created in the shadow of heavy security risks. We were doing everything completely under the table, nobody even knew this project existed. At the time, Alexei was in prison, which added to the emotional pressure. We wanted to make the best film that it could be in the fastest amount of time, because we imagined and sincerely believed that the film would be in some ways a sort of life insurance policy for Alexei. The more the world and the international community and the general public were aware of Alexei’s situation, the harder it would be for Putin to have him disappear, knock him off. I think for a long time, that actually worked”. “The emotional stakes were incredibly high. There were lots of tears all the way through the edit. The director, Daniel Roher, had a very strong personal bond with Alexei and his family. He is a young guy and was really emotionally distraught throughout the course of the edit. There was a time when I was working late at night, and he was asleep on the couch. And, he said, he woke up and I was just sobbing. I had just watched a part of it, and it just left me in tears. We would hug and tell each other, we’ll get through it, and then we kept on working”. I asked Langdon whether he had met any members of Navalny’s family and inner circle. “Well, I never met Alexei, because it was filmed before I came on board the project. We launched the film at Sundance Film Festival in January 2022. And it had not been announced that the film even existed. So, when we shared it secretly with the programming committee, they invited us to be a part of Sundance. But they billed it as a secret screening, which was the first time they had ever done that at Sundance. And everybody was sort of confused -- what is this secret screening?, and all this”. “And then there was a COVID wave. It was kind of devastating for everybody because Sundance rightly decided to do another virtual Sundance that year. But there was concern that if they announced our project, adversarial forces could undermine the streaming capability of the festival for the first weekend and actually shut down all access to all the other films. That’s why they decided to continue to bill it as a secret screening through the first weekend. At the first weekend of the festival, all films that are premiering get at least one screening – that’s how Sundance works. And then over the course of the first week they start doing repeat screenings. So we would not announce the film until after the first weekend. They announced it on Monday morning, and tickets sold out immediately, and that evening, we did the premiere”. By this time I was spellbound, listening to Langdon. To hear that the making of it was just as suspenseful and moving as the documentary was simply astonishing. “That was the beginning of the next phase of the film”, he continued. “This was the whole roll-out, taking it on tour and going to different festivals. It was in the middle of a number of changes in CNN Films, the distributor, and the whole streaming landscape. So it ended up premiering on CNN in April or May of 2022. At the same time we were going around showing it at festivals over the course of that whole year and leading up toward the Oscars. So there were a number of occasions when I spent quite a bit of time with Dasha, Alexei’s daughter, and Yulia, his widow”. By this time of our conversation I was deeply moved, remembering Navalny’s untimely death. Dasha had lost her father. Yulia had lost her husband. But Langdon reminds us not to give in to despair: “Yes, it is very sad. But I think we should continually return to Alexei’s message at the end of the film, which is that we can't be complacent. The force used by the authorities to try to shut down any sort of democratic movement in Russia, is an indication of how strong that movement actually is. As we know from history, the only way to break through this is for the grassroots, the people on the frontlines to rise up. There's a lot of work being done. Most of the Anti Corruption Foundation has moved to Lithuania. They've reconstituted as a very strong force from outside Russia. When Alexei went back this was almost inconceivable, but since especially the invasion of Ukraine and the increased clamp down and censorship in Russia, a large part of the democracy movement has been forced outside of the country. It still constitutes a very viable force. It's continuing to find innovative ways to get around sensors, and continues to expose the corruption of the Putin regime”. I was quite shocked when I thought about the secrecy that had been necessary when working on the film. Were the people involved really in danger?
“One never knows what their actual reach is”, Langdon explained. “Especially organizations like the FSB (Russia’s Federal Security Service), or the GRU (Russia’s foreign military intelligence agency). They've shown that they have the ability to assassinate or attempt to assassinate people throughout Europe. Within the United States we believe that we have a more solid firewall against some of those things, but not against all of them. In the 2016 election we witnessed significant online infiltration by Russian forces trying to undermine our democracy, and it continues to this day. We took extraordinary security measures to keep everything encrypted and to stay as safe as we could, especially when we were editing in London, but the threat was very real. Christo Grozev (Bellingcat chief investigator) from the film has had a death warrant out for him for the last year and a half, which was not exclusively, but directly in response to his participation in this film. And Christo is basically living in the States at this point”. Some final words about Navalny: “Alexei’s courage and his humor, his inextinguishable spirit and faith in what he called the “beautiful Russia of the future” – this was amazing throughout his time in both prisons. He was subjected to isolation and immense torture at the first prison as well. For months and months and months they kept him in solitary confinement under horrible, horrible psychological torture conditions. And yet, he was able to communicate with the outside world in a way that motivated people to take small actions, significant within Russia, and bigger actions, which are also significant on the global stage. We have to just take courage and inspiration from his indomitable spirit”. Here is my final question: do you have a new project you're working on? “Yes – I've been working on a technology platform, to connect movies that have a strong call to action around an issue with direct actions that viewers can take after they watch that kind of movie. And this has been a fascinating and entirely different type of creative endeavor for me. So that's what I’m doing at the moment”. Langdon closed our interview with these words: “It's a pivotal time for democracy in this country and worldwide. But, if you study history, it's always been a pivotal time. Democracy is an ongoing experiment. It's important not to succumb to apathy. We have actually more tools now to strengthen our democracy and move it in a direction which is more sustainable than we've ever had before. So it's just about being inspired and having the courage to stay active”. “Navalny” most certainly is inspiring. I want to thank Langdon for his important part in it, and for taking the time for this interview.
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Backyard Diversity is a series of educational articles brought to you in partnership with In Light of Nature, the Carol Petrie Foundation, the Los Alamos Reporter and Chama Peak Land Alliance. By highlighting the unique and special nature of our area, and in the hopes that a small drop in the water will send out waves of opportunity, we hope that each of us can and will improve our backyard with biodiversity. Photo by Ed MacKerrow BY ED MACKERROW In Light With Nature Photo by Ed MacKerrow
Pocket gophers are a constant threat to my orchard. They eat tree roots, starving the trees of water and nutrients. Setting gopher traps takes way too much of my time, and eventually, the gophers win the battle. The gophers are most active at night. They spend most of their time underground, only briefly coming above ground in the dark to move excavated soil from their tunnels. There must be a better way to find an ecological balance where the trees and gophers coexist. Owls, hawks, coyotes, bobcats, foxes, and snakes all prey on gophers. Since gophers and owls are most active at night, I pursued leveraging owls to help manage the gopher populations in the farming community of Nambe, New Mexico, where I live. We installed barn owl boxes on 12-foot-high poles in orchards and agricultural fields as a community. I would see and hear Great Horned Owls regularly and observe Barn Owls very infrequently. In the Central Valley of California, barn owl boxes populated many orchards, vineyards, and farms. I wanted to give them a try in Northern New Mexico. After a few years of not seeing or hearing any Barn Owls in my community, I finally listened to their “kleek-kleek” call (which sounds like a rusty bike chain) one night. On top of a barn owl box, I saw the tell-tale silhouette of a barn owl. In just a few weeks, fresh mounds of dirt from gophers disappeared. Barn owls are shy and will not come outside their box until darkness falls. I watched them through binoculars in the early evening, amazed at how many trips they made to the box with gophers in their bills. I set up a trail camera to look at their owl box and measured an average of over 11 gophers and nine mice per night delivered to the box over a month. Soon, neighboring farmers were wondering why they were not seeing gophers anymore. The barn owls motivated me to build and distribute more owl boxes around the area. Eventually, I installed 26 barn owl boxes on many farms. The owls would use different boxes each year, and we would rarely see or hear the owls since they are so reclusive. Barn owls are “flight hunters,” searching for prey by flowing low over the fields. With a bit of moonlight, I would sometimes watch them fly silently like a giant moth. Great-horned owls are “perch hunters,” using a sit-and-wait strategy to listen for prey. Owls have incredible stereoscopic hearing, which allows them to hear the faintest sounds of prey in underground tunnels or under deep snow. The owls continue to help me manage gophers, mice, and rats. The Great-Horned Owls have a constant presence, whereas the Barn Owl population fluctuates. An ongoing challenge is that everyone in my neighborhood needs to refrain from using rodenticides (rat and mouse poison). When a mouse eats rodenticide, the anticoagulant poison causes a slow death from internal bleeding. The poisoned mouse wanders for water to quench the deadly thirst from the poison, making them easy prey for owls. The owl and other predators and pets succumb to secondary poisoning and also die a slow death of internal bleeding. It takes cooperation and patience for a community to utilize owls for rodent control. Mice can become a nuisance in rural areas. I encourage neighbors to supplement our owl-based pest control with non-poisonous rat and mouse traps. If one person in the area resorts to unsafe rodenticides, then the efficient hunting owls end up dying from secondary poisoning. The success of barn owl rodent control in the agriculturally rich Central Valley of California gives me hope that, in the long run, owls will be our primary method of rodent control. Education and patience will help that happen. Ed MacKerrow of In Light of Nature, is a nature photographer, scientist, and conservationist. He has a Ph.D. in Physics and specializes in studying complex adaptive social systems. He has provided scientific expertise to the US Government on various subjects, including forest ecology and wildlife conservation. Ed is the President of the Friends of the Nambe Badlands, dedicated to protecting sensitive BLM land in Northern New Mexico, a Board member of Katmai Conservancy for Katmai National Park in Alaska, and served as the Vice President of the Friends of the Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge. Ed is dedicated to environmental conservation and ethical practices in nature photography. He maintains a blog called “In Light of Nature,” which explores wildlife, conservation, and nature photography. For the Love of Books By Zach Hively This was a challenge I did not expect: Tell me what you’re good at. A friend recently asked me this—to list ten of my top skills or abilities. That’s it. Just ten things. The hard part should have been limiting myself to ten. Limiting myself to ten is most definitely not one of my top skills. But I learned one of my top skills is also not remembering all, or any, of the very many things I’m good at. So I asked my friend for a clue: What is something I can do well? “Well,” my friend said, “you’re very tidy.” This was not the sort of glowing clue I had anticipated. But I accepted it graciously—there, that’s one of my top skills, accepting underwhelming compliments with grace—even if it was wrong, because it is impossible for me to be tidy. After all, I love books. One human being contains multitudes, but one cannot contain both tidiness and book-love.
And I do mean LOVE books. One can HAVE books and demonstrate immaculately tidiness, in that Scandinavian showroom or Japanese spa sort of way. Each book, neatly dusted, right where it belongs. Shelved, more than likely, by color and height or some other preposterous aesthetic. But loving books implies a particular comfy disarray. From where I sit, I see four stacks of books dislodged from any of the major bookshelves in my home: one stack on a stool stepping in as an end table; one by the front door; one by an armchair; and one on a kitchen counter, perilously close to where I do the dishes when a friend is coming over and I want to appear tidy. Then there are the bookshelves themselves: fairly neat, by design, books stood in rows of colorful spines. But they exude a certain chaos, too—unalphabetized, for starters, though with a catalogue system I understand intuitively yet inarticulably. More than this, though, the books lurk rather airily: some leering, some lounging; a few might as well be heckling me to read them. They are like the crows that fill a leafless cottonwood tree, in full cahoots—and I keep bring more home. (Books, that is, not crows, though I am not opposed.) The tidy thing to do would be to go digital, put every title I ever wanted on a device, linked to my account. But I do not want to be tidy. I want to be terrible at such tidiness—and terribly happy, here in the best little hoardhouse this side of Texas, surrounded by so many things I don’t yet know, so many things I might just yet get good at. ***Speaking of books: the Kickstarter campaign for Call Me Zach Hively Because That Is My Name is in full swing. We have stretch goals—possibilities for an audiobook and collectible book editions among them. This is also your first chance to get the ebook (if you’re that kind of tidy) and your only chance to get a hardcover (if you’re that kind of bibliophile). Become a backer But the most important thing is that the campaign has succeeded. We’re beyond 180% of our goal, which means that this book is getting published no matter what. Thank you all who have pledged support so far to make this collection a reality. By Sara Wright
Last night I feasted on button mushrooms just after finishing this article which didn’t have a title. Suddenly an ancient memory surfaced… I was about three when my great grandmother and I used to play a game with the above name. I have had an intuitive sense that most mushrooms have similar medicinal values because they are all part of the underground fungal network even if they are grown on trees, grasslands or deserts. I decided to do a little research on the common button mushroom to support or refute my intuition. As I suspected button mushrooms do have most of the health benefits of those harvested in the wild. There are some differences but overall, they are minimal. If you are looking for a particular supplement it’s sensible to do your own research to find the mushroom you think has more of the benefits you need. Agaricus biporus is one of the fungal kingdom’s edible mushrooms that can be harvested at different stages of growth. When the fruiting fungi are young and white, we call these mushrooms buttons. At midpoint they become tannish cremini. At maturity the button becomes a portobello. All stages have the same medicinal/nutritional benefits. These fungi are grown on a composted substrate that is traditionally made from wheat, straw, poultry manure, and gypsum. Of course, these substrates are attached to mycelial network underground. My buttons thrive on compost heaps which are a blend of straw, and many other plant left overs. I don’t use any aged manure, but that’s because I don’t happen to have any. My button mushrooms efficiently break down the organic matter as all good saprophytes do. Unlike some people, I have no problem using any kind of manure as part of my substrate, because during composting microorganisms break down the matter producing a fiber rich, carbon containing humus with inorganic nutrients like nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium. Scattering my compost is a new experiment I am presently engaging in, so I never know who is going to appear where. According to mycologist Merlin Sheldrake less than five percent of fruiting fungi have been studied and almost nothing is known of the underlying mycelial networks that support the (roughly) 20,000 mushrooms that appear above ground that we know about. Yet some mushroom species are already on the IUCN Red List. One of the ways mushroom spores function to support forest ecology is to rise into the atmosphere and bind with water molecules to create rain (Merlin Sheldrake). According to the New Scientist mushroom spores are also full of DNA that bind, re-combine, and mutate to produce genetic material that is diverse and adapted for changing climates. Other than these examples little is known about how mushrooms effect the ecology of the forests, grasslands, deserts they grow in. In deserts most mushrooms grow underground to avoid drought. With 33 million people in the US and the loss of a staggering number of forests, it seems prudent to forage in the wild with care. Please do not take more fungi than you need and allow some spores to seed woods and sky. Many small animals and insects love mushrooms, so I am assuming that removing too many fungi might also be a problem for wildlife. Most wild mushrooms including Oyster, Turkey Tail, Reishi, Shitake, Lions Mane and others can be grown quite easily. Many companies offer mushroom spawn and substrates for home growing as an alternative to foraging in the wild. Watching mushrooms develop is not only fun but educational. The first oysters I grew a bunch of years ago were so astonishing that I chopped and sauteed them reluctantly. I’ve grown other mushrooms including Lions Mane a particularly beautiful mushroom that looks to me like a frozen waterfall. I love the process of growing fungi at home and am never disappointed by the edible results. In the forest I do not forage focusing instead on the relationships between the fungi and the kind of forest that they live in. Each species has its own niche. I eat some of my button mushrooms at home but leave many for the rest of nature to feast upon. Until recently serious research hadn’t been done on Agaricus b. because the fungal fruits were so ‘common’. Yet I came across a surprising array of articles that discussed the similarity of the substances in button mushrooms to other wild fruiting fungi. Scientists at Penn state recently identified a new compound in button mushrooms that probably benefits gut health in ways we didn’t know about. Mushrooms as a group including buttons aid in digestive health as prebiotics. Prebiotics and postbiotics are less well-known but equally important for gastrointestinal and systemic health. Like wild fungi button mushrooms contain several different anti-inflammatory and antioxidant compounds that may help improve heart health. They are an important supplement for anyone that suffers from heart disease, one reason that I am delighted that my dogs love them. My Lucy has an enlarged heart. Button mushrooms boost immune systems naturally. They also have anti- tumor and anti-cancer properties. Buttons also have a number of other nutrients that benefit anyone who eats them. A breakdown of these fungi reveals that in a one cup serving, Aagaricus bisporus contains just as much potassium as a banana and can deliver between up to 30 percent of the daily recommended intake of B 1& 2 vitamins that are essential for human health. Regular consumptions of white button mushrooms may even improve mood by regulating hormones that also keep the brain healthy. White button mushrooms are also rich in both vitamin C and selenium, so they contribute to immune function. These mushrooms are one of the only plant foods that contain a natural source of vitamin D. Perhaps one of the surprising health benefits of button mushrooms is that they are a good source of plant protein. About one and a half cups of button mushrooms equals eating one egg. Recent studies have found that button mushrooms are particularly high in glutathione, an important antioxidant that helps combat free radicals. Free radicals attack important macromolecules leading to cell damage and homeostatic disruption. Other studies suggest that button mushrooms can improve immune function by increasing the production of antiviral proteins. Another benefit is that compounds found in button mushrooms called flavonoids have the potential to act as both antioxidants and pro-oxidants. Cells have a natural life and death cycle. We are constantly getting rid of old cells and creating new ones simultaneously. When cells refuse to die, they typically become cancer and tumor cells. The flavonoids work in two ways: when they are antioxidants, they help improve healthy cell survival, and when they act as pro-oxidants, they help encourage apoptosis, which is the natural cell death that helps prevent tumor growth. All nine amino acids are found in button mushrooms. Although this is hardly a comprehensive list of Agaricus’s virtues, it gives the reader a chance to reconsider wild foraging until we know more about forest ecology. And for those of you who are gardeners why not grow buttons on one of your compost heaps? The main threats to wild mushroom collecting are loss of habitat, water, air, and soil pollution that create toxic conditions for collecting that are not obvious even to experienced foragers. Fungi are adapted to specific geographic locations as anyone who spends time in a particular biome already knows. Change that ecology and the mushrooms are gone. Many thrive on specific trees, animals, or soil. If the hosts go extinct, the fungi go extinct too. Of course, a wildly erratic warming climate is another primal threat with droughts discouraging fruiting. Extended periods of rain and wet weather create a feast for fungal plant pathogens since the latter are dependent upon moisture for spore dispersal and plant infection. I’ll end this essay reminding folks that harvesting wild fungi for food and commercial use is a major factor affecting species survival. Please, let’s give the mycologists a chance to study mushrooms in the wild before we strip these places bare. Reprinted with Permission from Canvas Rebel Image Credit Hebe Garcia We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Hebé García. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Hebé below. Hebé, appreciate you joining us today. We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally. Since childhood, I have always been interested in drawing and painting. I used to watch my mother paint with admiration, and I still clearly remember the smell of turpentine, her oil paints, and her brushes. She kept all her art supplies in a room we called “The Empty Room,” which was not empty at all. It was filled with books, magazines, a sewing machine, photo albums, a black and white television, and an ironing board. However, the most important thing to me was my mother’s artwork. She was an amateur artist who had taken drawing and painting classes as a teenager. I loved watching her copy photographs of flowers, landscapes, and sometimes even the human figure with her oil paintings and chalk pastels. To me, they were masterpieces. I once attempted to drink the turpentine she had poured into a glass. It tasted terrible, but as it is told in my family, it was as though the spirit of art had entered my bloodstream. Art class was always my favorite subject in school, and I enjoyed any project that required an artistic touch. Soon, my teachers discovered my artistic inclination and entrusted me with decorating bulletin boards and designing syllabus covers. I used to daydream about becoming an artist and mastering the painting process. In 1982, I applied to the Art Department at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette and was accepted. Despite some personal doubts, I was excited about what the future held and left the comfort of my home to pursue my aspirations. I took my first official drawing class at UL Lafayette. I followed it up with a strong curriculum in Painting, Printmaking, Screen Printing, Jewelry, Art History, and more. This opened my eyes to the world of French Impressionists, Vienna Secessionists, and the Pre-Raphaelites, among others. Their works particularly captivated me as they told stories within the artwork itself. I was drawn to making a work of art that could speak to the viewer and evoke diverse feelings. In 1986, I graduated from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette with a degree in Fine Arts. I returned to Puerto Rico thinking of applying for a master’s degree in art at the Sorbonne University and immersing myself like the Impressionists in the art world of Paris. My goal was to become a professional artist, but instead, I got married, and my career took a backseat for 23 years. When my daughters went to college, I finally decided to pursue my dream. I joined the San Juan Art League and spent four years surrounded by other artists, which helped jumpstart my career. Since then, I have worked hard, participating in both collective and solo exhibitions, and have made a name for myself in the art scene in Puerto Rico and, more recently, in my new homestead in Abiquiu, NM. As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context? I was born in Miami, Florida, but spent my formative years in San Juan, Puerto Rico. In 2015, my spouse and I embarked on a bold move, relocating to Abiquiu, New Mexico, near our daughters who resided in Texas. My work as an artist entails creating figurative oil paintings and ceramic sculptures that explore feminism, mythology, and cultural heritage. The human form is the focal point of my works, frequently blurring the line between reality and surrealism. I aim to provide my audience with several possibilities, enabling them to engage, connect, and formulate their interpretations. I find oil painting and clay sculpting equally challenging and exhilarating, so I often switch between the two mediums. Ideas come to me spontaneously, particularly while driving or in dreams. Once an idea takes root in my subconscious, I become obsessed and feel compelled to bring it to life. My painting process often begins with creating a sketch, using art model poses, and modifying them with Adobe Photoshop until the composition, color palette, and theme harmonize. This sketch is transferred onto the canvas, and I begin a dialogue with the artwork. At this point, I may make modifications to the drawing until it accurately conveys my vision. Next, I apply layers of oil paint slowly, commencing with a transparent oxide red base color, which often enhances the nuances and gradations of the other colors used. Patience is crucial when working with oils, as it is essential to achieve a result that exudes the life, texture, and mystique I strive for. In the latter stages of my artistic career, I discovered the art of sculpting in clay. A fellow puertorrican artist suggested I join a group of sculptors at a clay studio. What followed was a cathartic moment for me, and since then, whenever I feel stressed or drained from painting, I turn to clay for solace, or vice versa. I am more impulsive when sculpting than when painting. I usually do not begin with a sketch. Instead, I have a concept and dive straight into building the sculpture. I prefer using mid-fire stoneware clay such as Laguna’s Red Sculptural or Max’s Paper Clay. I construct the sculpture using coils and slabs, often using a mirror to ensure the figure’s features are accurate during the building process. Once the sculpture is complete, I fire it at cone 3, strengthening the piece and preparing it for glazing. I then glaze-fire the sculpture numerous times at lower temperatures until I am content with the surface treatment. In my artwork, I am captivated by the enigmatic aspects of human nature, both internal and external, and how we navigate our emotions, desires, fantasies, and impulses. As a result, my focus in art centers around figurative pieces. My paintings and sculptures are unique and original, created using only the finest archival materials to ensure longevity. My home and studio are atop a Mesa in Abiquiu, NM, affording a breathtaking 360-degree view that includes the legendary Cerro Pedernal, a favorite of Georgia O’Keeffe. This ancient land, steeped in history and enchantment, has inspired my work to new heights. I am a member of the New Mexico Potters and Clay Artists and the Gentileschi Aegis Gallery Association. My pieces form part of both private and public collections. They can currently be seen at the Nest Showroom in Abiquiu, as well as at the NOSA Inn and Restaurant at Ojo Caliente and at my studio gallery. Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot? In 2014, my spouse proposed relocating from Puerto Rico to the United States. He transitioned from managing a small business to working remotely and was eager for a significant change. My artistic career had only recently gained momentum in Puerto Rico, after a prolonged intermission. Consequently, I was keen on establishing myself further as an artist before any potential relocation. The primary incentive for the move was to be closer to our daughters, both living and working in Houston, Texas. We deliberated the matter for a considerable length of time and eventually decided to explore our options. In 2015, we sold our residence in Ponce, which was a significant event for us, having lived there for 28 years since our marriage. We visited Abiquiu, New Mexico, and were captivated by its serene locale, flourishing artistic community, and natural beauty. Although it was not Texas, it was sufficiently close to our daughters to facilitate regular visits. By the end of 2015, we had procured a plot of land in Abiquiu and relocated temporarily to Ojo Caliente while we constructed our home and studio. The decision to relinquish the security of our home and family and start anew at our age was not without challenges. Residing in a small Casita without a studio necessitated considerable effort. The construction of our new home in New Mexico proved to be problematic, as is typical of all construction projects, and took us two years to complete. Finally, in 2017, we relocated to our new home. I was then tasked with establishing myself in New Mexico’s art community. It required a great deal of diligence, perseverance, and dedication to promote my name, but it has been an enriching experience. The encounter gave me renewed energy and made me acknowledge that it is always feasible to start afresh. I am now a part of a thriving artist community that is stimulating and invigorating. We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?
As a late Baby Boomer, I find social media quite daunting, much like many of my contemporaries. However, with the assistance of my daughters, I have learned to utilize Facebook/Meta and Instagram. These platforms have allowed me to showcase my work, share pictures of my paintings and sculptures, and attract numerous clients. Additionally, I can publicize any upcoming solo or collective shows I will participate in. My husband is very tech-savvy and helped me create my website using the Squarespace platform. To make my social media accounts eye-catching and easy to navigate, I had to learn Adobe Photoshop. This tool has been handy in converting my artwork photos into the correct format for uploading to different platforms. Additionally, I can design postcards, flyers, and other promotional materials for social media and printing purposes. I am grateful to my daughters and husband for helping me navigate the world of social media as an artist. I advise other artists to take advantage of the accessible tools available to promote their work and not be afraid to use social media to their advantage. Contact Information for Hebe
What do you think it should be called? We’re all coming down from the eclipse this week. Here, where I live, out of the path of totality, the clouds padded the view (and that eternal temptation to peek without glasses for just a split second; the sun used to get in my eyes while tracking Little League pop-ups and I’m not blind from that, right?). But the dogs and I still took a walk and experienced that eerie light, the unexpected chill. That light reminds me somewhat of the light on smoky forest-fire days. Which reminded me of this poem from the vault. Which reminds me that I have my next collection waiting for me to return to it This is the light of discovering
I actually do like peaches. Of lithographic prints, ' of the inside of a paper lantern. This is the light I imagine, today, will frame the last days of our world. So what if I like it? Hating it won't put out the new wildfire, four hundred acres since breakfast alone. Feeling guilty for wonder and delight won't put back everything, everything, everything that has just gone up in smoke. This poem has no title (yet) and it hasn’t shown me the right one (yet). What do you think it should be called? Please feel free to share this public post with someone you think would appreciate it. Share |
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