Little did I know that my invitation to the New Mexico Veteran’s Art show at the Old Schoolhouse Gallery would be a standing room only visit. The gallery was packed with both young and old veterans and their families, buzzing with conversation and reunion hugs. What a dynamic display of art from every medium, each created by a veteran with a colorful back story to go with his or hers artwork.
Initially, I was drawn to the sculpture, In A State of Flux, by Jim McManus, the current president of the New Mexico Veteran’s Art group. This surrealist piece includes the front end of an antique car, a portion of Route 66, the shadow of a New Mexico license plate, and a scene of sand and surf complete with sand castles, shells, and a surfer on a surf board. McManus shared with me that the original veterans gallery began on Kirkland Air Force Base many years ago and was exclusive to military personnel. However, in recent years it has moved off base to Gibson & Louisiana, been renamed Kirkland Gallery and is now open to both veteran and civilian artists.
Other noteworthy artwork at the gallery include those created by Michael Christiana, Richard Troyanowski and the novelist and watercolor artist Albert Noyer. Take a moment to study the layered expression on the woman’s face in Christiana’s oil painting. He told me that he’s never finished with his paintings, always adding another nuance here or different color there. Troyanowski is currently exhibited a series of miniature paintings which he says are best viewed at a distance. He often creates a tapestry effect with his dry brush and occasional glazing similar to the Fauvism and Post Impressionistic art movements. Noyer says his paintings often “deal with the transient: the new stucco church, a crumbling adobe, the old cars and fire engines, arroyos, mountains, animals - and us - all will succumb to the Erosion of Time and eventually revert to the earth from whence all came.”
The New Mexico Veteran’s Art show will hang through the month of July at the Old Schoolhouse Gallery, 12504 North Hwy. 14, San Antonito, NM, 505.281.1250, http://www.theoldschoolhousegallery.com
