Editor's note: The following story was written as part of a series called "Cheap Thrills" for the Albuquerque Journal. The criteria for these "thrills" are 1) a day-trippable circle roughly 150 miles from Albuquerque and 2) fees of no more than $10. Enjoy.
SANTA FE-- The Official Cheap Thrills Adventure Club Exploration Vehicle had developed a mission-threatening noise (like bicycle spokes snapping) in its left front wheel.
But the wheel still turned, so keeping in mind the Official CTAC Motto --"It's a nice day for a drive!" -- I flung myself forward once again.
Canyon Road
Location: In Santa Fe between Paseo de Peralta to the East Palace Avenue bridge over the Santa Fe River. Hours: Depend on the individual galleries. Cost: Free entry to galleries. Features: More than 35 art galleries.
If I suffered mechanical breakdown, I decided it should be in a place where there were plenty of other people walking around, someplace like Canyon Road here in Santa Fe, where I could survive indefinitely by feasting on art.
In the half-mile stretch of Canyon Road climbing gently uphill from Paseo de Peralta to the bridge that carries East Palace Avenue over the Santa Fe River, there are more than 35 art galleries. Although some are closed on Sunday afternoons, most are open during the summer tourist season from about noon until 4 p.m. on Sundays.
I knew better than to anticipate the thrill of buying a piece of art.
About the only art item I could afford on the Official Cheap Thrills Budget (which specifies a $10-a-person limit, excluding the cost of gas and lunch) would be a mere postcard.
No, I intended to be just a Looky-Lou, like almost all the other tourists strolling up and down the road, none of whom were carrying newly purchased paintings under their arms.
In slow parade we Canyoneers poked our way through the galleries, gazing at art: Landscapes, portraits, abstracts. Jewelry, furnishings, fetishes, sculpture, multimedia packs of howling coyotes.
I don't know much about art, but I know what I've seen before.
In the small courtyard of one of the galleries (most of which were private homes before Canyon Road became so dominated by art) I overheard a father address his daughter, a girl who looked to be about six years old.
"Sarah, dahling! he said, affecting a pretentious tone as he gestured to include the entire street. "Don't you just love these works of art? Scrumptious! So talented!"
Sitting on a small iron bench, she giggled, kicked her feet -- which didn't quite touch the ground -- and responded: "Oh, Daddy!"
I was beginning to think I'd made a mistake in coming here. Where was the thrill I could afford?
In this mood -- disconsolate, aimless, swamped with a jumble of visual input from all the galleries --I glanced through the door of one more gallery and found myself drawn inside.
It was the Carole La Roche Gallery, 708 Canyon Rd., at the intersection with a side-lane called Gypsy Alley. (A sign at the corner explains: "Gypsy Alley. The way Canyon Road used to be. Visit the artists at work in their studio/galleries.")
La Roche Gallery's walls were hung with paintings in bright acrylics and oils, most of them depicting, alone or in combination, bald-headed humanoids and dog-like creatures. They were unlike anything else I'd seen along the street that day, clearly private visions the artist felt compelled to share.
A glance at the labels next to the paintings identified the creatures as angels and wolves. The painting that had caught my eye -- "Angel With Wolf" -- was priced at $4,200.
Even though I couldn't buy it (and probably won't be able to until I win one of those multimillion-dollar magazine clearinghouse sweepstakes) I realized with a thrill that, yes, I'd found what I was looking for.
You don't have to buy art to discover an artist.
In this case, I turned away from the painting and discovered the artist standing just behind me.
Carole La Roche arrived in Santa Fe in 1982, after a career as a suburban Boston housewife. She'd attended the Massachusetts College of Design for a year, but then she got married and raised three children.
When they were grown, she visited Santa Fe. It was, she recalled, "my first escape."
She was immediately enchanted by the artist community here and decided to stay. She began to paint in an apartment she rented on Canyon Road near her present gallery. That apartment became her first gallery, and her paintings began to sell.
"I'm getting along just fine," she said, "and every year I do a little better. I never really intended to make a living as an artist -- it was always kind of a far-off dream. But everything has come to me here.
"A lot of people are captured by the look of my paintings," she continued, "but I find them difficult to talk about. They're kind of mystical. Something's making me do them."
La Roche said she paints at night and spends her days in the gallery. She sells her work at prices beginning at $400 and ranging up to, well, so far up to $4,200.
"I don't sketch or draw them first," she said. "I start to paint, and those images just start to appear."
La Roche's angels and wolves won't appeal to everyone, of course. But that's the fun, the thrill, of gallery-hopping on Canyon Road or anywhere else. Chances are excellent that even with an empty wallet you will find an artist whose work you will want to tell others about.
Who knows? Someone with whom you share your discovery might be able to actually buy the art. And that would make you a sort of artist's patron-by-proxy.
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SANTA FE-- The Official Cheap Thrills Adventure Club Exploration Vehicle had developed a mission-threatening noise (like bicycle spokes snapping) in its left front wheel.
Canyon Road
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