A Taos artist picks up patterns in topography to capture their geometry
Mar. 22—Focusing daily on one's work is among the most important habits an artist can maintain, says Annell Livingston, a Taos artist who has been painting for more than 60 years.
It's also key to Livingston's strong sense of wonder about the world that surrounds her.
"I work every day," she says. "I've found that works begin to morph into something else. As you embrace something else, it begets more. I have a new thought every day, and it might not be huge, but it makes life exciting."
Livingston's works are featured in Lights Shadows Reflections, running through March 29 at Winterowd Fine Art. Her vinyl emulsion and acrylic creations are underpinned by distinctive grids, with varying colors countering the patterns' predictability.
Livingston, 82, grew up in the 1950s in La Porte, Texas, about 25 miles east of Houston. While La Porte is on the Gulf of Mexico and therefore has a natural border, it's still a mishmash of square and rectangular road patterns. Livingston moved to Houston, a sea of concrete intersections, in the late 1980s.
"When I lived in Houston, I decided I wanted to find a way to talk about that urban experience," she says. "I finally came to the conclusion that the grid was all that was needed, because in the city what you see is manmade materials. If you'd looked at it from above, you would see the grid and, of course, the buildings, many buildings. The structure of the inside is on the outside. And so [buildings themselves] are in grids, often with windows."
Bio Box
Lights Shadows Reflections
Through March 29
Winterowd Fine Art
701 Canyon Road
505-992-8878; fineartsantafe.com
Livingston didn't abandon her grid approach when she moved to topographically varied Taos, the center of a nexus of winding roads.
"I sort of struggled to find, well, what was it that I was painting about?" she says. "And when I added a diagonal line to the grid, it allowed my work to identify with Navajo weavers and their diagonal lazy line. [Navajo weavers sometimes insert lazy lines as 'breaks' in solid-colored areas of fabric.] I didn't think of that; someone brought it to my attention. But I think, as artists, we identify our work with a culture. We accept that culture as part of ours."
Livingston wanted to be an artist from an early age. In the 1950s growing up in a conservative town, she instead was encouraged to pursue work as a teacher, a nurse, or a secretary.
"We live in a male-dominated society," she says. "The more things change, the more they stay the same. And yet, there are so many more opportunities for women now. It's not unusual for a woman to be an artist."
Lights Shadows Reflections opened March 15 with an artist's reception. She last was featured in an exhibition at Winterowd Fine Art six years ago.
"When we have an exhibition, it's like a pause, and we see the work," she says of artists. "It's no longer in the studio, stacked up; we see it in a different environment and really can make some decisions about our work. That's more difficult when it's in the same place we've created it, so it really is an opportunity to see your work differently."
Livingston enjoys watching people view her work and says it's not important that they infer the same meaning behind it that she does.
"I consider myself a colorist," she says. "I've studied colors forever. And color is the one element that we can either hate or love. We
don't usually look at a line and say, 'I love that line.' But we might see a color and that color might be a memory, maybe of the sky on a certain day."
Winterowd Fine Art's theme for its gallery is "Art Inspired by Nature." Owner Karla Winterowd says that while exhibitions spotlight work by each of the 15 artists associated with the gallery, they're all featured at all times. In other words, some of Livingston's works will still be on display during the next scheduled exhibition, which focuses on Suzanne Wiggin's landscape paintings and monotype prints and begins May 24.
Livingston's spirited approach to her calling, as well as life in general, inspires Winterowd.
"I think there's just something about making art that makes people happy," she says. "She is just a phenomenal human being. Sometimes when you look at a painting, you kind of feel that emotive spirit of the person who has painted it, and there's some absolute and utter fascination, joy, curiosity. The fact that she keeps exploring this similar, but very different, idea in every single painting is unique."
Like any artist who has worked for decades over the past century, Livingston has witnessed numerous technological changes. If she could communicate with her youthful self, she'd tell the girl, "Anything is possible."
"There are a lot of people who are older who are just bored," Livingston says. "I would say particularly, this happens a lot for men because they go to work and their day is planned for them by someone else. As an artist, you have that freedom of doing exactly what you want. And when something comes up for you and you want to investigate that, you're free to do that. Nobody tells you what to do, and you don't have to ask permission."
