Note: Part One IS at Armond Lara’s art retrospective; Part Two is Armond and I talking. A dialog is often more revealing than a narrative.

PART ONE: At the form & concept Gallery: Santa Fe, NM

Armond Lara: A Shifting Retrospective | POWERFUL EVOCATIVE ART

Recently, I attended a retrospective of Armond Lara’s artworks at the form & concept Art Gallery in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

I had read about the “Art on a String” exhibit in Pasateimpo, an informative publication about the arts. I was immediately drawn, especially to the image of Lara’s Picasso marionette and what he had said about his art in the press release. He referred to his art as work. I thought art on a string can also refer to a kite.

ART IS WORK

Lara’s comment reminded me of Milton Glaser, who famously created the iconic “I Love NY” logo. Glaser wrote a book Art is Work in which he suggests that we replace the word “art” with “work” and, in doing so, demystify our understanding of art—from great work that moves us to shoddy work, not so much for comparisons, but so one can appreciate what is what. It’s all about the feeling.

ARTIST TO ARTIST

I showed up at the early evening opening before his many admirers would soon arrive to have some of his time. Armond and I spoke for a bit.

“Armond, I’m called to write about you and your work,” I said.

He looked up with interest, then said: “Where can I see your work?”

“On my website,” I handed him my card. “Your work is culturally strong, passionate, original, also with a sense of humor … I particularly love your Picasso marionette. Your artwork and what you say about your art brought me here … you speak my language.”

FAMILY TIES

Lara twinkled with humility. “My work stems directly from my ancestors … my heritage.”

Born to Diné (Navajo) and Mexican parents in Walsenburg, Colorado, Armond Lara (b. 1939) had spent his formative years observing his mother and grandparents meet their everyday and aesthetic needs with masterful artisanship. He had learned that when you needed something, you made it. Armond was a good student.

As his career developed, Lara came to count Helen Frankenthaler, Richard Diebenkorn, and Mexican muralist Pablo O’Higgins among his mentors.

PICASSO | PINOCCHIO | GEORGIA O’KEEFFE

“Yes … ancestral memories, the source of great art … the collective unconscious,” I said. “You know Picasso and Pinocchio were born in the same year … 1881 … also, marionettes play a major role in my upcoming novel.”

Lara listened intently. “Really … you know that years ago, Georgia O’Keeffe had bought two of my works.”

“Wow … her stature as an artist and collector of your work was perfect for your reputation.”

“It sure was …”

Armond Lara’s admirers and collectors were lining up to speak with him.

“We’ll talk more at another time if that is okay with you …”

Armond nodded. We shook hands.

BILLY THE KID, I PRESUME

I then went about the inviting 2-story atrium form & concept gallery space to view the honest and dramatic retrospective of his artworks, including many marionettes such as Crazy Horse, Georgia O’Keeffe, Billy the Kid, Frida Kahlo, Salvador Dali, Man Ray, enticing paintings … a few pieces in spirit reminded me of Mark Rothko’s large color field canvases. On display were Armond’s medicine boxes and other intuitive marvelous works.

For Armond Lara’s well-earned retrospective, the form & concept Art Gallery published a catalog of his work, a marvelous addition to one’s art book collection.

@formandconcept

@Pasateimpo

Unless otherwise credited, photography by Byron Flesher and Marylene Mey. Courtesy of form & concept.

PART TWO: WEEKS LATER … KOSHARES

Armond and I did speak again, this time on the phone. A dialog is often more revealing than a narrative.

“Hello, Armond … we finally get to talk, artist to artist. One of the things about your work that struck me is the Koshare … I began reading about the role of this character in the Pueblos …”

“Koshare … they are Indian dancers,” said Lara.

“As you know, Armond, you made unusual use of your marionettes. There are masks on the faces of the Koshare puppets at your wonderful and immersive retrospective.”

“Exactly … an actual Koshare does not wear a mask. I felt the face … mask I put on the Koshare was more interesting as it mimics somebody else. A living Koshare in this way can mimic anybody in the audience he wanted to … I just knew that Picasso was an interesting figure to me, and I started to draw him, and it just turned into different people. People are mesmerized with masks. That’s why people found it interesting. I worked in a series, so I would get an idea that Picasso would be a good mask to make, and the audience would laugh at that.”

“Yes, it’s intriguing because masks are something that’s been with civilizations going back to the beginning of time … people wore masks for different reasons, but people wear masks every day without actually putting on a mask. You know what I'm saying? Right.”

“Exactly like that … I just try to portray whatever pops into my head, and I do the best I can at it—the mask is interesting to me as fun and a challenge.”

“Armond … that's very good to know. What struck me as well is that at first, I thought those Koshares at your exhibit were puppets … but then I realized Koshares are real people.”

“They are …” said Armond.

Note: In the interim, intriguingly enough, I met a young lady from a Pueblo in New Mexico who shared some insight into the nature of a Koshare. She didn’t want to reveal details, as she protected her tribe’s traditions. But I did learn that some Koshares are born while others answer a later calling. A Koshare is not appointed; one can be a man or a woman. Koshares from different Pueblos wear their traditional costumes and makeup. The Koshare description also dovetails with an artist’s journey.

INSTANT KARMA

“I was thinking when I was reading about them that they were influential in keeping their clan members honorable … honest … does that sound right?”

“Exactly,” said Armond with a warm laugh. “Well, they play a lot of different roles. A Koshare keeps us honest with ourselves. What do you mean by honorable? Sometimes, they make fun of something or someone in front of the audience.”

“I mean stimulating people to be of good character. Can you give me an example of what this person would do … this Koshare? How would he get the people’s attention so they understand what he's mimicking or trying to say? How did that work?”

“I don't know. I'm not a Koshare. I don't know how it works, but what happens is this … the audience sings while the dancing Koshare sometimes reaches out and picks somebody in the audience and then makes fun of them because that person has been making fun of other people. Sometimes, a Koshare plays the part of the fool.”

I thought, on the hot seat in front of one’s clan members … instant karma.

Armond did not grow up on a reservation where the tribe kept their traditions private.

“You know, Armond, that learning something new is exciting. My sister and her husband from Tennessee visited me in Santa Fe. We had a week of cultural enrichment. We visited native sites and different pueblos and museums to understand better what happened in New Mexico … its rich and often violent history.”

“Yes …”

TEACHABLE MOMENTS

“I read that your mother and your grandparents were your early mentors by what they made. Is there something specific they said to you … like Armond, listen up about something that got your attention? Do you remember a lesson like that?”

Armond laughed: “God, you’re asking something that happened 80 years ago. I dunno, I don't remember.”

“Sometimes, when somebody asks a question, it jiggles the mind a little bit. Sometimes, a memory comes back.”

Memory is such a miracle of design, I thought.

“Eden … in my dreams … they usually come back in my dreams, but interpreting what it means … I've been wrong, and I've been right … so you never know what you’re going to dream.”

Dreams have power, I thought.

GUARDIANS

“They … your relatives are your guardians watching over you.”

“No, really … my guardians come from a different place. They could be, but Koshare, I’m told that different people would say that he is a guardian. There are different ideas about what he is …”

“It goes back to firsthand experience. Being there, seeing what’s going on rather than relying on someone else describing it and maybe missing the point. It's no different from art.”

“I can talk all day long about my heritage. I can't describe what a Koshare does because I don't know. And number two, I was never raised on a reservation. These Koshares are guarded by different tribes in different Pueblos that vary from Pueblo to Pueblo as to what is permissible. Do you understand that?”

“I do … each tribe has their own rules and regulations.”

“That’s right …”

“I wanted to ask you … are you still doing art every day?”

“Well, no … I haven't been able to work for at least four years because of the hole thing in my head. There were four or three different times when they had to bleed it … I had fallen down and hit my head, and it started to bleed. So they put a hole in my head, and it made me incapacitated for a long time. What I do now, I'm working now … I've started to work on the honor medical fund. Are you aware of that?”

“Yes,” I said, “I thought that’s a noble thing to do.”

Armond: “I started the Emergency Medical Fund about 18 years ago. I'm making a new card for them, and they'll auction it off around Christmas time. Now, there are a hundred different artists that are involved, at least. And … then people will come in and bid on the cards. Cards … the reason is that it’s at Christmas time and auction winners can use them as a greeting card.”

SANTA FE ARTISTS EMERGENCY MEDICAL FUND

“Lara moved to Santa Fe, New Mexico in the 1980’s, where he collaborated with many noted Pueblo artists such as Nora Naranjo Morse of Santa Clara Pueblo. He took part in Santa Fe Indian Market, where Georgia O’Keeffe purchased two of his works, one of which was later gifted to the Smithsonian Institution. In 1996, Lara founded the Santa Fe Artists Emergency Medical Fund, which provides financial support to professional artists living and working in Santa Fe County who have medical needs but cannot afford treatment or medications.”

—From the form & concept press release about Armond Lara’s retrospective

STEPPING UP

“I'll bring up one more item, and then I’ll let you go, and then we could speak at some other time. I'm sure we will. First, I thought you were in Santa Fe. I wanted to come and visit you, and then I learned that you’re in Washington State, a little bit north.”

“That’s where I’m at, son. Desmond is taking care of me. And so I’m in good care … in good hands. It’s just my body won’t cooperate with my brain.”

“I understand. I emailed Desmond, and I asked him about how we could connect. It’s good to hear that a son is helping his father. I know that very well because I took care of my mother for ten years. She was ill but a fighter. My dharma, my purpose at the time, was to be there for her.”

“He’s the best nurse I could ever have …” said artist Lara.

NURTURING ONESELF

“I'm pleased to hear that. I wanted to ask you this final question for today. Can you remember this … there you are, you’re a young person. What happened when you wanted to make something … something that didn't have a particular practical purpose … not a toilet or a spoon? Let’s call it, as you say, your art is work. Do you remember when that happened or why it happened?”

Armond said, “I really don’t. I think the influence was both my grandfather and then other artists that I met. They did something that affected me, and there’s a reason for it when I think about it. I’ll just be my own version of that … me. And I don’t think of them … my art as children with some purpose. I think of them not as my children. I just do it automatically because I’m compelled to. And the more you do it, the better you get, hopefully. And you understand that.”

I nodded yes into the phone.

“But,” Armond continued, “I don’t make stuff for a market. I make stuff for me to satisfy and nurture myself. That’s what it’s about for me. It’s about the nurturing self. And every time I do something, it can be three years or four years or sometimes ten years before I understand what I did. But it doesn't matter because it’s not that I’m sending a message out to the world. It’s that I’m doing it for myself for some reason or another. There’s a reason why I’m doing it. And I don’t even know what that reason is sometimes.”

PUPPETS FRIDA KAHLO & MORE

“In New Mexico, Lara continued to create handmade paper, collages, sculptures, and paintings and also started a series of carved wood marionettes. His puppet portrayals of historical figures such as Crazy Horse, Georgia O’Keeffe, Frida Kahlo, and Man Ray, among many others, are made in the spirit of the Koshare, a sacred clown that participates in the ceremonial dances of the Hopi Tribe and several Rio Grande Pueblos. Known as a mischief maker, the Koshare clown helps maintain harmony in the community by reminding people of acceptable standards of behavior. Through this vehicle, Lara is able to reflect the humor, tragedy, frustration, and beauty of what it means to be human.”

—From the form & concept press release about Armond Lara’s retrospective

“Armond … that’s well said about your relationship to your work. I love listening to you. And I’m very happy that we met at your retrospective in person. That makes a big difference when talking to people. And now I'm going to see if my recording worked, and I can digest what we’ve discussed, and then I'll call you again to clarify some things or maybe ask you another question if that's okay.”

“Okay …”

ARTISTS DO NOT …

“Let me say that you’re a tough person to have survived what you did, and sometimes health comes back.”

“How does the saying go? It’s just what it’s supposed to happen. Things that happen when they’re supposed to. I don’t consider myself all that good at what I do, but when I do it, I do the best I can, and it’s got my energy in it. And if other people pick up on that, that’s great. But that’s not why I do it. I do it for me.”

“I appreciate that enlightened approach of unadulterated work with no ulterior motive other than creation itself. I know that to be a fact, having visited there myself. You are a good example of what an artist does not do … that is, an artist never retires.”

Armond laughs. His smile filters through the phone.

“And that keeps you young … to be in awe of something and do your best. So, have a good evening, and I’m happy to hear you have a son who is there for you. That’s a blessing, and we’ll talk again soon.”

“Okay …”

“One more thing, Armond … what advice would you give an aspiring artist?”

While exploring the unique and essential role of the Koshare in the Pueblos and tribal culture, I came across Kachina House, which offers a wonderful array of Native American artworks.

Their website also offers an insightful blog about these collectible works by native artisans.