Spring Newsletter 2021
The Roswell Artist-in-Residence Foundation
Don Day
Two years ago on April 6, 2019, the RAiR Foundation invited its artists and friends to celebrate "Don Day" in honor of RAiR/AMoCA Founder Donald B. Anderson on his then 100th birthday. It seems fitting to renew and re-instate "Don Day" this April 6th, wherein we can honor Don's memory, philanthropy, generosity, creativity, business savvy, integrity, longevity and his actions speak louder than words' personality. Do something with Don in mind, or in his name - commemorating your activity on our blog at RAiR.org/blog/tribute. Or keep in step with Don, without any record at all. "Don Day" is about being thankful that we've all been blessed in different ways by his life and legacy.
Katelyn Krakauskas, Executive Director
Just a few of the submissions bound in the book given to Don with the inscription:
"We, the 100(+) participants in this book, commemorate your 100th birthday in the following pages. Wherever we were on April 6, 2019, we took a moment to think of you, to take a picture of what we were doing, to write a little note. Some of us made art, went to museums, or enjoyed nature. We were generous to others in the same spirit you have been generous with us, donating to charities - many to RAiR - giving more than $2,500 in your name."
Former RAiR Director Stephen Fleming visited Don in his best Don-like shirt; Heather O'Hara and son moved dirt in pure Don fashion on a tractor(!); Don's granddaughter Rowan Midgette painted; Laurie Rufe shared the beautiful Roswell sunset; Georgia, Ida and Daisy (Craddock) had a three-generation Germantown, NY, nature outing; Roswellites Gerry and Ann Serafino admired their Don-painted platter; Biff Elrod sent a pic from the Metropolitan Museum with the quote "The Met always reminds me that there have been people that not only appreciated art, but extended themselves to expand and preserve the works and the people who produced the art."; Kumi Yamashita staged a humerous photo; RAiR board member Brinkman Randle volunteered at AMoCA; Roswellites Ivan and Martha Hall visited AMoCA; Paloma Dooley sent her picture of "a perfect hill in kelly green" reminding her of Don paintings; and RAiR Director Larry Bob Phillips hosted a cook-out on the compound on Don Day 2019.
The Roswell Artist-in-Residence Program
Marie Alarcon (RAiR 2021-22), 2017, video still from Witness
RAiR News
As spring begins to warm up the compound and the pandemic lifts a little, RAiR is quietly gearing up for an exciting 2021.
Exhibitions at RMAC
Current Exhibition
Alia Ali Refracted Futures • March 5-April 16
Employing multiple approaches: a blacklight mural, fabric-wrapped photo portraits, and video, Ali’s exhibit probes both systematic erasure and cultural preservation in the context of the crisis in Yemen and its diaspora. Ali’s work is informed by discourses of criminality, Yemeni Futurism, and feminist theory as tools to unpack practices of refusal and rupture. Ali defines Yemeni Futurism as new explorations of Yemeni selfhood that are free from limitations of travel bans, borders, colonialism, trauma, and imposed linear timeframes.
Recent Exhibition
Justin Richel A Window, A Door, A Ladder • January 8-February 19th
With an interest in simulacra and trickster mythologies, Justin Richel's recent body of work explores the art and artifice inherent in the painting medium through the combined practice of sculpture and painting. Answering the question, “what is a painting” with the simple answer of “paint on canvas over wood” he sets out to tackle the recreation of the world around him with just these materials. Carefully layering acrylic paint to build a surprising array of mundane objects, Richel emphasizes the “How?” of what he’s done so heavily that we are led into a mystical relationship with the impulse of an artist to (re)present reality.
Alia Ali (RAiR 2020-21), FLUX Series, 2021, photo and fabric
New Arrivals on the Compound
Terri Rolland, who arrived February 15th, comes to us from Santa Fe. Spending stretches of time in wild open areas, like the deserts of New Mexico or the grasslands of Wyoming, Terri imbues her paintings with a felt sense of a place that is open to the forces and feelings that live in the landscape.
Marie Alarcon
Marie Alarcon, who arrived March 1st from Philidelphia, is an experimental video artist trained in documentary filmmaking whose practice is centered around personal, historical, and environmental landscapes. Alarcon’s work addresses memory and transformation where visual and auditory landscapes are a collaboration between the artist, subject and, the environment.
Larry Bob Phillips, Residency Director (RAiR 2009-10)
Left: Justin Richel (RAiR 2020), Small Step (Mighty-Lite), 2020, acrylic and casein on shaped canvas and linen. Right: Terri Rolland (RAiR 2021-22), Pressure-Temperature-Time Path, 2018, clay and acrylic paint on canvas.
Anderson Museum of Contemporary Art
AMoCA News
AMoCA is open seven days a week, Monday thru Friday 9 a.m.-4 p.m. and Saturday-Sunday 1-5 p.m., at 25% capacity, and masks are required. Our visitation has picked up a little since January when Chaves County moved from "red" to "yellow" in the New Mexico Health Orders' restriction rankings. We've had a couple people take advantage of our spacious galleries to do some classwork, read, or just chill out. But most visitors who come get the whole place to themselves, a luxury hardly ever afforded a busy metropolitan museum. Come enjoy our quiet, our great art, and our spacious galleries!
”Fabulous hidden treasure"
”Exceptional! We loved every minute."
"Beautifully eclectic"
”Fantastic collection and installation"
“This is way past cool!"
"Wish this was in Boston!" – excerpt selections from our visitor guestbook in 2020.
Big Read Participation continues
88 images from 58 people of all ages were submitted to the Loteria Art Contest sponsored by AMoCA in collaboration with the NEA Big Read Roswell 2021. 58 images have been selected to be printed in the Loteria card deck to be used in a future "Game Day" at AMoCA. All the entries are posted in the arts-culture page of bigreadroswell.com.
Free art! Free tacos! On March 20 in a 1-3 p.m. come-n-go, border artist Paul Valadez will be giving away his artwork at AMoCA as part of his Potlatch Project. Paul teaches art at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley on the U.S./Mexican border and paints/draws on found objects like cigar box lids and discarded book covers. AMoCA will also be giving away free tacos while supplies last!
Nancy Fleming, Anderson Museum Director
Historic Studios at Berrendo Road
Left: Maja Ruznic working on her painting Visitors II, 76” x 100”, which is featured in her solo exhibition In the Sliver of the Sun opening March 6, 2021 at the Harwood Museum of Art in Taos, New Mexico. Right: "Retreat Artist” Beth Shipley (January 2021-June 2021) in her studio with work in progress.
Historic Studios News
The Historic Studios at Berrendo Road is the site of the original Roswell Artist-in-Residence Grant and is now on the United States National Register of Historic Places. The 6 houses and 10 studio spaces have been transformed into affordable housing and studios for visual artists. All rental spaces are currently full with, new “Retreat Artists" Beth Shipley and Stuart Diamond, photographers Shoshannah White and Tonee Harbert (RAiR 2019-20), painters Justin Richel (RAiR 2020), Shannon Rankin (RAiR 2016-17), Josh Hagler (RAiR 2017-18) and Maja Ruznic.
The Historic Studios reserves 2 houses with studios (within this art community) that are dedicated exclusively for for the “fee-based Artist Retreat” opportunity, for a period of 6 months or 1year. This is designed to provide an opportunity for tenured art faculty on sabbatical, professional artists, or curators, to experience the Southwest, while living in an artists community. The retreat provides a furnished house, utilities, wifi and 500 square foot studio space with high ceilings and north light. The retreat spaces have been filled through 2021. Applications for January 2022 or July 2022 openings are available for a 6 month to 1 year period, at http://rair.org/historic-studios-retreat
Diane Marsh, Historic Studios Director (RAiR 1980-81, 2002)
RAiR Alumni
Through May 6, 2021, Phillis Ideal (RAiR 1992-93) is one of six artists in the Alcove Show #4 at the New Mexico Museum of Art in Santa Fe. “The alcove shows continue the tradition began in 1917 of exhibiting works made by living artists,” notes the museum’s website. 'These small, one-person exhibitions, called alcoves, were held in the original gallery space through the 1950s, resuming in the mid-1980s and again in the early 1990s and 2012. [Current shows] continue this tradition with a series of six exhibitions featuring the work of artists living in New Mexico right now. These artist-centered showcases feature new ideas, artists at all stages of their careers and artwork that is being made by artists from across New Mexico.”
Phillis Ideal, Blue Slant (2019), acrylic, collage, and spray paint on canvas (framed), 30 by 40 inches
RAiR Alumni
If you are a RAiR Alum, please keep us updated with your accomplishments and current contact information. Share your upcoming exhibitions, events, and achievements, as well as other forms of artistic excellence. Submitted requests will be considered for the website, digital mailings, social media, or print pieces.
Want to connect with current and former residents of the RAiR Program? Join the RAiR Alumni Facebook Group
Support by the National Endowment for the Arts, New Mexico Arts & NM Humanities Council
The Roswell Artist-in-Residence Foundation is a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting the Roswell Artist-in-Residence Program (RAiR), the Anderson Museum of Contemporary Art (AMoCA), and the Historic Studios at Berrendo Road.