Local artist Tine Hayes is making his return to Gallup’s gallery scene this month with a solo show at ART123 Gallery from May 12 – June 5. To celebrate his most recent work, we sat down with Tine and asked him a few questions. His answers are inspired and inspiring!

Q: How long have you been practicing art? How did you get your start? 

I grew up in a home surrounded by art and artists. My father is a professional artist, and our family ran a gallery for 20 years. Gallery season was a part of my life, from folding flyers and mailings to hanging paintings and adjusting lights. I was encouraged to make art from a young age, and in my home art was valued as an important part of existence. I started making art before I can remember. I studied Art throughout my schooling, and I have always felt a need to learn to paint, draw, and be creative. I guess I can’t really remember a time when I did not practice Art. Despite or perhaps because of my childhood, I still feel like I am just beginning to understand the process.

Q: What have you been exploring in your art recently?

I always love and hate my work. There is an unconscious and unintended way that my work comes out that I am both satisfied and annoyed with. The limitations of my style and ability are boundaries I try to push with various degrees of success. My work is intended to create an experience. Recently, I am exploring the integration of human impact on the natural world. I think that we are a part of our world and we change our experience of it through our existence. I am also fascinated by the truth and abstractness of the landscape around us, and I try to make my painting explore both the expression and experience of seeing. Allegory, my new show, is intended to be about each piece individually. When we see the landscape, we have a primal reaction to the image, but this show is about the secondary experience of the viewer. Where the viewer goes with the experience of the image is in itself a metaphor for our impact on the world around us. That all sounds very obtuse. Basically, I just want to make paintings that people like to look at.

“Indian Hills” by Tine Hayes

Q: What keeps you motivated as an artist? What inspires you?

I love painting. I love looking at paintings, making paintings, and teaching painting. I am compelled to paint because it is hard, and when it is done well it can be deeply impactful. I am inspired by simplicity, by truth, by beauty, and by the conveyance of experience. Even when I feel I am getting worse I still want to get better.

Q: What is your studio like? 

My studio is my living room. My kids know to watch their step around the pallets scattered around the floor.  I try to keep it tidy, but it is mostly a mess. I work from photos that I have taken, so I have many images I would like to paint hanging around and piled up. I make a mess on the floor with paint drips. It is not glamorous. My wife is very understanding, thankfully.

Q: Do you have any advice for emerging artists? 

I think the key to expression is skill, and skill comes from practice. Making time in life to practice art is hard to do. If you’re compelled, fight for it. Believe in its importance, and strive to be authentic.

“Russian Olives” by Tine Hayes

David Montelongo has been making art for 56 years. In celebration of his first-ever gallery show—a retrospective of his work spanning six decades–I recently sat down with him to learn how his interest in art developed, how his practice evolved over the years, and how he maintained his passion for art as his life and career took turns in different directions. My biggest take-away? If you never stop learning, you’ll never stop creating.

Rose Eason: How long have you been creating art?

David Montelongo: I graduated in 1962 from University of Texas-El Paso and I was an art major there.

RE: So you’ve been creating art for many decades?

DM: (Laughs). I suppose so!

RE: What first got you interested in art? How did you start?

DM: Basically when I got out of the service in 1956, I decided to go to the University. I had to make a decision about what to major in. I went on an interview and talked to a counselor. I first pursued Business Administration, but so many people were doing that—it was so crowded. I decided that I should do something I preferred, and that I really wanted to do, which was art. While at University I focused on ceramics.

Japanese Raku Ware Vase

RE: What happened when you graduated? Did you try to make a go of a career as an artist?

When I finally graduated, it was hard to find a job. At that time I said to myself I’m not that great of an artist to make a living off of it, so I decided to apply for a teaching job. I had experience teaching adult art classes at the YMCA as a side job while I was in school.

I first had a job with the El Paso School District and started teaching art and Spanish at the elementary level. Then eventually I started teaching art full time at the junior high level.

RE: What motivated you to keep up your own art practice throughout the years?

While I was teaching, I was doing art all along, working and working. I didn’t have the equipment myself for ceramics, so I’d go to the lab at the University. And I was still taking art classes myself on the side.

Then, when I came to Zuni to teach in 1966, the best way I knew to connect with the students was to make art with them—to make time in the schedule to do art with them. Working with the kids helped me stay in touch with art and different art forms.

One thing I discovered in Zuni is that the kids were really artistic—it seemed like it was almost inherent, passed down from their parents. They were very good, really talented. Teaching in Zuni was so different from a big city. The kids were so respectful, and so easy to work with. They also really enjoyed creating art and took pride in themselves.

When I got a job in administration in Gallup in the early 1980s, I became totally divorced from making art. But I wanted to stay involved. That’s when I started doing watercolors. I took some classes at the

“Cottonwoods”
Watercolor
1990

UNM-Gallup branch and some classes in Albuquerque. And once I’d learned the basics and a few techniques, took it from there.

Every chance I got I would take off in the hills and park my car somewhere, especially on weekends.

When I’d be traveling with my wife, she’d be driving and I’d be water-coloring as we were moving down the road. Traveling between Gallup and El Paso, or anywhere else, I’d take my watercolors with me.

RE: Did you know that Georgia O’Keeffe would also paint from her car?

DM: I didn’t! But that’s another thing: every chance I’d get I’d go see different shows and museums to brush up on different techniques and different artists. That was always very inspirational.

RE: What does art mean to you after all these years?

It’s a mode of expression. Working with kids, you could always see the kids when they’re depressed or having a hard time—it’d show up in their artwork. If they were cheerful or happy, you’d see bright colors. The art would manifest the way they felt. If they were frustrated, you could tell. The idea was to try to inspire them, make them comfortable and give them a chance to express themselves above everything else.

I always enjoyed being out in the open. Gallup is so scenic. There is a lot of countryside with different rock formations. To me, art is kind of like therapy—to be out there by myself, taking it easy and enjoying all the sites.

RE: What’s your preferred medium to work in? You’re good at so many!

Ceramics are more difficult to do. You need equipment and a space. And it’s messier. I set up a home studio, but eventually just decided to stick to watercolors. I just wanted to make art.

This month, ART123 Gallery is proud to present “Rangoli: Traditional Folk Art of India – The Art of Colors and Patterns” by local artist Padma Komaravolu. This is a totally new adventure for the Gallery–we’ve never done this type of show before. The Rangoli art created for the show isn’t meant to last (see it while you can!) and it’s displayed on the floor instead of the walls. Not to mention that many of us at gallupARTS had not heard of Rangoli before meeting Padma. We’re guessing that Rangoli is new to you as well, so we asked Padma to answer a few questions and tell us a little bit about it.

1. What is Rangoli? 

Rangoli is the Traditional artform of India. It is a type of folk art that is passed down from one generation to another.

The word Rangoli is derived from the Sanskrit (language) word “Rangavalli” which means “row of colors.” Every state in India has their own style of Rangoli. Designs vary as they reflect traditions, folklore and practices that are unique to each area. It is known by different names in each state of India; for example, it’s called Muggu and Kolam in south India whereas it is known as Alpana, Mandana, Jhoti or Chita, etc. in other parts of the country.

Rangoli is drawn freehand outside, at the threshold of a house. Apart from the visual and aesthetic

Padma made Rangoli designs in Gallup’s downtown Walkway for ArtsCrawl in August 2017.

appeal there is a religious significance for this ancient Hindu floor art. This is symbol of auspiciousness. It’s a sacred art. It is a medium to welcome positive energy into the house as well as to welcome guests. This art creates a colorful, devotional presence and is a quiet ritual full of grace to make a home a sacred space.

This art is drawn on the floor in many ways including using only white powder, or white with yellow and red colors, or with any number of colors. In south India, rice flour is used to draw this art. The reason for using rice flour is that it feeds ants and other small insects and birds. These drawings on the floor are done every morning and washed away before drawing a new design the next day. There are certain rules when a drawing is done at a place of worship.

In south India, from mid-December to mid-January young girls draw this art daily before sunrise.

There are many aspects involved in this beautiful art including but not limited to preparation of surface, different materials used, variety of patterns, colors, designs, skill, spiritual significance, aesthetic appeal, creativity, passing on tradition, mathematical concepts, positivity, auspiciousness, happiness, communal harmony, divinity, calmness to mind, physical exercise, etc.

Over the years modern variations have added some flair to this beautiful traditional art­. Rangoli is thus rooted in its tradition yet thrives in this present era in a modern form.

2. How did you learn Rangoli?

Padma demonstrating freehand Rangoli with rice powder.

I learned this beautiful art of Rangoli through observation and practice. I observed my mom doing this art every morning, outside the house before sunrise during my school and college days. She would also do it inside the house during religious festivals and auspicious days of the week, like Friday.

Those were traditional designs with line and curved patterns using white and two other colors, such as turmeric and vermilion. The designs were small to medium size drawings drawn on the floor. The neighbors drew Rangoli with different patterns and colors.

During festivals and the turn of the year, younger people in the community came together and drew large Rangolis with many different patterns and colors. Later, I started drawing small Rangoli designs daily and larger ones for festivals and the new year.

Every year from mid-December to mid- January, many Rangoli patterns were published in magazines as it’s a special month for rangolis in south India. Those helped me learn a few designs. These days I learn from a lot of Rangolis I see online.

3. What ideas or techniques have you been exploring in your art recently?

Rangoli is a vast art with many patterns and I have an idea of transferring these designs to different surfaces like paper, canvas, etc using different medium. I also started showing my hand drawn and painted common Rangoli designs by printing them on bookmarks, greeting cards and picture frames.

One of my most interesting techniques to draw Rangoli designs is that I have been exploring with using common household items as tools.Recently, I had the idea of using hardboard with holes drilled in it for the dotted grid pattern for Rangol

4. What inspires you as an Artist?

Due to being in Gallup since almost eight years, I see art everywhere. When I see the talent of local artists in Gallup and the surrounding areas, be it students or professional artists, all of the wonderful Native artists, I get inspired by their passion, dedication, work and creativity.

I love art and creativity and have been to numerous art museums, galleries, exhibitions, arts crawls in all the places I’ve visited. When I see how talented the artists are, I am filled with admiration and inspiration.

Gallup offers so much support and encouragement to the artists in town and that is highly motivational.

When it comes to Rangoli, I am constantly amazed and inspired looking at all the people in the world creating new and improved designs while still keeping the sacred art alive

5. What do you find most challenging about being an Artist? What do you find most rewarding?

To me, the most challenging aspect of being an artist is accepting the criticism and taking it in a positive way. It is most rewarding when people really appreciate my effort.