Santa Fe, NM
Alexandra Stevens Gallery, August 23-31
Arlene LaDell Hayes, Looking for Water, acrylic, 24 x 48.
This story was featured in the August 2019 issue of Southwest Art magazine. Get the Southwest Art August 2019 print issue or digital download now–then subscribe to Southwest Art and never miss another story.
A FEW HAPPY occasions gave cause for a special two-person show this month, entitled Together Again, at Alexandra Stevens Gallery in Santa Fe, NM. With artist Arlene LaDell Hayes recently returning to the gallery’s stable, and her longtime friend Victoria Taylor-Gore launching into a full-time painting career earlier this year, “we thought we must celebrate,” says gallery owner Alexandra Stevens.
For Stevens, the exhibition also presents the opportunity to showcase two painters with “incredibly creative” spirits. “They do not necessarily concern themselves with what the viewer’s reaction is going to be,” she says. “They create what their hearts tell them.” The show, which opens on Friday, August 23, with an artists’ reception at 5:30 p.m., features about 10 new paintings by Taylor-Gore, who has been relishing life as a full-time painter since she retired as dean of liberal arts at Amarillo College earlier this year. Now, with more hours in the day to paint, the Texas artist has returned to her time-intensive Route 66 series of pastel paintings, which she started a few decades ago. “Right now the big thing is to make each one of the paintings special,” she says.
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- Victoria Taylor-Gore, Approach, pastel, 16 x 11.
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- Victoria Taylor-Gore, Offering, pastel, 14 x 10.
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- Victoria Taylor-Gore, Room Number 7, pastel, 12 x 21.
Taylor-Gore’s series captures the mystery, adventure, and romance of the open road, and particularly the mood and magic of New Mexico, where she resided for several years. But her paintings of unpeopled landscapes, interiors, and adobe structures aren’t representations of specific places. “They are imaginary, yet they are local,” says the artist.
Long influenced by Giorgio de Chirico (1888-1978) and other surrealists, Taylor-Gore thinks of her own paintings as having a “quiet surrealism.” She has been exploring dreamlike imagery and exaggerated, “bird’s-eye view” perspectives in her work since her days as a graduate student in art at the University of California, Santa Barbara. “I’m a Jungian at heart, and I’m conscious of what happens in our dreams,” she says. Not surprisingly, symbolism abounds in her Route 66 pieces, where doors and windows are nearly always open, creating a flow between the inside and outside worlds. “It creates a dreamlike reality, and also the sense of a journey, of going from one space to the other,” she says.
Hayes, who began her art career as a sculptor, moves easily between mediums, from oil to cold wax to acrylic, and she also explores varying themes in her work. “I’m exploring different ways to express myself and make marks, and to just have fun and not be so serious,” says the Santa Fe artist, who brings as many as 15 paintings to the show, including new pieces from both her Star Traveler and Spirit Warrior series.
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- Arlene LaDell Hayes, Leaving the Beach, oil, 24 x 22.
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- Arlene LaDell Hayes, Fresh Baked, oil/wax, 20 x 16.
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- Arlene LaDell Hayes, Star Traveler Eagle, oil, 20 x 16.
Like Taylor-Gore, Hayes is inspired by the things she observes in the world around her and in the dream state. “I believe in mysticism and different dimensions,” says the Santa Fe artist. “A lot of my work has a sense of that.” Paintings from her Star Traveler series, for example, depict beings who have traveled throughout the galaxy and have acquired various charms along the way. Other works portray stylized female figures, often accompanied by birds, coyotes, and other creatures. “My women used to be taller and thinner, with longer legs; once I turned 60, they started to get rounder,” Hayes says with a smile. “I think that had to do with me and my body because I could relate to that more.” Although the women in her paintings aren’t real people, the artist says they feel like her friends. After painting them, she says, “Then you let them go and be friends with someone else.” —Kim Agricola
contact information
505.988.1311
www.alexandrastevens.com
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- Arlene LaDell Hayes, The Lovers, oil, 24 x 20.
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- Arlene LaDell Hayes, Voices, oil, 48 x 36.
This story was featured in the August 2019 issue of Southwest Art magazine. Get the Southwest Art August 2019 print issue or digital download now–then subscribe to Southwest Art and never miss another story.
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