Harold Joe Waldrum, painter, printmaker

Waldrum's explorations of the window metaphor have probed its ambiguous and problematic nature. In some, the window's receptacle will seem like a vessel filled with light; in others, especially those with black centers, it will seem emptied, leaving an awesome darkness. Some are filled with hope or longing; others with profound resignation. Often an image of mandalic centering, the broad middle plane can also seem a blank slab or table awaiting an inscription. Because a window is a threshold allowing or withholding access to another world, it can be taken as opening outward onto a beyond or inward into an interior. — William Peterson, Artspace, Winter 1981-82

H. Joe Waldrum was born in Savoy, Texas on the 23rd day of August, 1934. His first college degree was in music from Western State College in Gunnison, Colorado, and his second from Fort Hayes State College where he graduated summa cum laude with a master's degree in studio painting.

Waldrum taught music and art in the public school of Kansas for sixteen years before acquiring his master's degree in 1970. He nominated himself 'artist' (an Otto Rank concept), and fled Kansas to the hill country of Texas. In 1971, he moved to Tesuque, NM. He began his window series; he painted windows for nine years.

In 1980, having moved from Tesuque to Worm, NM to New York City, to Taos, Waldrum began to paint the adobe churches of Northern New Mexico. In 1996, he moved to Truth or Consequences, NM.

Waldrum's method of multiple layers of paint began after he purchased paint in New York that was devoid of the aluminum filler in most acrylic paints. He had not expected the thinness of the paint and set about solving a problem rather than continuing his normal process of putting down paint. He's been quoted as saying, "My best methods have always come about because of the accommodations I've made with problems; my accidents have unremittingly pointed me to concepts I might never have considered. I am grateful to each and every one of them."

You can learn more about him at http://www.riobravofineart.com.

Robert Reck, photographer

Windows
Watching —
Being watched.

Learning things beyond our own experience.

Searching for an understanding of what is beyond our physical realm.

The soul desires a collective consciousness informed by light, color and form: the mood of the ephemeral dawn, the memories of morning light, day transitioning into night, seasons changing from green to brown, expectations evolving into reality. Thru windows flows our mental journey formed from the fallow fields of memories past. Here, we connect to the experience of another moment.

Robert Reck is an internationally recognized Architectural and Interior Design Photographer whose work is distinguished by a masterful use of light, strong composition, and passion for the elements of design found in both nature and the built environment.

He is a contributing photographer to Architectural Digest and has been published in dozens of publications including Architecture, Architectural Record, GA, and A+U, Interior Design . He was the lead photographer for Santa Fe Style, published by Rizzoli International and has been a major contributor to monographs of many preeminent architects such as Antoine Predock, and Robert A.M. Stern. His recent book project, Facing Southwest, about the life and residential projects of architect John Gaw Meem was just awarded the best book about New Mexico History for 2002.

You can learn more about him at http://www.robertreck.com.

Sasha Custer, sculptor

In thinking about the sculptural experience I have been fascinated by the capacity three dimensional objects have in shifting our preconceptions of the physical world. As we move through life our perceptions of objects alter and move, providing new information and detail. This motion connects us to the varying visual and physical interactions within our environment, and conveys a visual presence which plays upon the viewer's perception of movement and space. I seek to address the fragmentation of space and the concept that objects cannot be realized in a single glance but can only be truly experienced through physical interaction. Windows strives to capture an ephemeral state that is activated by the motion and presence of the viewer. Through this encounter I hope to invoke a sense of contemplation which allows for the recognition of the layered nature of time and space.

Sasha Custer, born and raised in Albuquerque, NM, received a bachelors degree in Anthropology from Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, New York in 1994.

In 2001 Sasha went to study at the Academy of Arts Design and Architecture in Prague, Czech Republic to expand her studies of three dimensional art. She subsequently worked to establish an exchange program with art students in the Czech Republic and the University of New Mexico Graduate Art Department where she received her Master of Fine Art degree in sculpture this past spring.

Sasha is currently working at the Explora Children's and Science Museum, aiding and abetting in the creation of exhibits for their opening in November.

Rachel Rein, photographer

Intentionally and unintentionally surrounded by windows, they have been a constant part of my life. I have scraped, repainted, repaired, sold, opened and closed them. They have provided escape, income, light, air, vision and seasonal tickets to nature’s theatrical and symphonic performances. My innate response then is to capture windows compositionally. When a window becomes an artistic composition its functionality diminishes. It is an object to look at, rather than a space to look out of, or in to. The peeling paint provides the texture, the straight lines the framing, the glass or lack of it becomes the portal to a new vision.

A photographer at heart since she received her first Kodak Disc camera at age 11, Rachel Rein has only recently made the transition to photography as a career and life passion. After seven years as a corporate recruiter in manufacturing, Rachel began a journey as a photographer last year. "My compositions are created within the confines of the camera... I don’t pretend to know how other people see things, I just hope to allow people into the world as I see it."

Born and raised in Wisconsin, she has a BA of Art from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater with an emphasis in drawing and is presently employed with Burne Photo Imaging in Madison, Wisconsin.

Teresa Severova, photographer, animator

Windows connect public and private space, allow us to observe, take a part in reality in which we are not present at the moment. Within my work, I am researching private space, infiltrating a foreign culture, and an unknown environment. I use photography and video as the medium by which I am transmitting my experience to the public.

"Living Room": During my study period at the University of New Mexico I knocked on the doors and gained access to the domestic environment of local people. The living room became the centre of my interest. I wanted to infiltrate this private space; I was interested to see how people create a circumference of space, as well as how their environment influences them. I systematically took many pictures from different points of view and connected them by means of Photoshop. This technique enabled me not only see more of the living space, but as well to manipulate the perspective slightly. The space that surrounds us is for me a symbol of physical limits, borders.

I wasn't interested in particular class of society. Random selection of the participants was very important to me. I believe we can perceive personalities intensely from the very first moment of meeting and I also think that people tend to reveal more about themselves to a complete stranger. I'm interested in society in the sense that it is built upon individuals.

Teresa Severova was born on the 19th of July 1979 in Prague, Czech Republic. She graduated from the High School of Fine and Applied Arts and is presently studying at the Academy of Applied Arts, Design and Architecture, Studio of Conceptual and Intermedia, since 1999.

Severova has participated in numerous exhibitions including the Mikulov Symposium (2000), the New Media Cheb (2000 and 2001), the New Technologies Festival (Prague 2001), Staromestska radnice (Prague, 2001), the International Art Symposium at Galerie Klenova (Klatovy, 2001), and Photograph Magazine (Prague 2002). Her works were presented at both the Art Museum and the Galerie Doubner in Prague in 2003, and also at the Art Museum of the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque.

Teresa Velikova, photographer, videographer

REFRIGERATOR 2003 — series of coloured photographs: The series of coloured photographs — "Refrigerator 2003" — was made during my residency in the University of New Mexico. Portraits of refrigerators, in particular what's inside, document the variety of appetites of American families and allow us to read and guess information about their owners as well. I wondered if objects that surround us and are the part of our daily lives, capture information that we could analyze, and through that we would be able to understand different human characters. The object that I decided to examine is the refrigerator, an item that today is such a natural part of our existence; in substance — very intimate. In the frame of a refrigerator occurs a window, the window into a private world and we as outsiders and observers can only imagine the people we may be looking at.

Objects in a refrigerator are living their own lives. They become carriers of characteristics and we observe and search them as we wouldn't have before. We find that they are more colourful and brighter than they might be and it reminds us of their prime function; the service of products and manufacturers that are well known from TV-commercials. I endeavoured to visualize them and separate them from each other with a view to give them similar importance as they are given in the mass-media of the contemporary world.

TRUE STORY — video 3'40": The type of programmes on American television, the total flooding with commercials and their influence on people informs my video "True Story" as well.

The power of TV-media consists exactly in our tendency to believe in the veracity of the stories we are told and our desire to project ourselves into them. I decided to create a new epic story of two people using short passages from TV commercials. Combining different scripts and characters supports the absurdity of a movie that could represent the synthesis of the amount of information and emotion that attacks us from the TV-screen everyday. On the realization of this project I worked with Matt Brackbill.

Teresa Velikova was born on October 23rd, 1979 in Pilsen, Czech Republic. She attended the Secondary Graphic School in Prague from 1995 to 1999 and is presently studying at the Academy of Applied Arts, Design and Architecture, Studio of Conceptual and Intermedia.