Inspiring art in Silver City at aspAcestudioartgallery

This past weekend i went to Silver City (southern New Mexico) and stumbled upon an inspiring artist space - called aspAcestudioart gallery. Filled with mosaics and multi-media collage works primarily by resident artist Jean-Robert Beffort, the place was filled with creative, kitschy works that bring new meaning to recycling old materials to produce new art. The space was all parts art gallery, artist studio and meeting space - providing ample room to explore and experience the layered and beautifully detailed works that are slightly reminescent of Surrealist artists such as Frida Kahlo. The mosaics remind me somewhat of the complex and larger than life works by Antoni Gaudi.
Here are two works created by Beffort that explore kitsch / art and assemblage.

Thinking about beadwork -- Marcus Amerman's beaded creations

I am settling in at SAR (school for advanced research) in Santa Fe and have been reading up on the history of the institution. So many artists, writers, scholars and many others have come to this place to learn, study, write and create. While reading about SAR in A Peculiar Alchemy, i came across Choctaw artist Marcus Amerman who was a fellow here. His artwork encompasses a variety of mediums including beadwork, glass, painting and performance. At SAR he created a beautiful wildflower beadwork vest - reminescent for me of the beaded floral vests made by many Metis in the nineteenth century. The use of what appears to be black velvet as a background for the beadwork also parallels metis fashion choices. In Amerman's other works, he often combines well-known images of native people, juxtaposed against skyscrapers, and other geographies situating and asserting native space. His skillful beadwork technique is at once traditional, recalling earlier native artists, but also contemporary in his revamping of visual culture, using beadwork to transcend the gaps between what are often seen as two distinct categories in art, "traditional" and "contemporary" beadwork. Though i think that these two areas are not neccessarily exclusive.
Above is a photograph of his beaded vest, created 2005. You can also access his website by clicking on his name.

Chiles AND skulls in santa fe