Cripple Creek Hand Carved Cross
Cemetery Cross
Karen Rivera 2012
Cripple Creek, Colorado
Scattered on a barren, windswept hilltop, outside of town and hidden from the casinos that have taken over the entire town, handmade crosses mark the graves of the miners who died far away from home.
San Raphael ~ Patron Saint of Travelers and Singles
San Raphael
Patron Saint of Travelers
Acrylic on raw alderwood
Karen Rivera 2005
Our Lady of Guadalupe Church is Transformed
In Santa Fe, the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe is honored within the parish’s santuario. Outside, a 12-foot bronze statue of Our Lady of Guadalupe stands near the entrance, its base often decorated with fresh roses. Parishioners accompanied the statue from Mexico City, where it was cast in bronze, to Santa Fe in 2008.
Church is converting a weedy slope in front of its parking lot into a shrine that tells the story of the iconic Our Lady of Guadalupe. The church also will create an Institute for Guadalupe Studies and a Marian Resource Center and Library in the old Guadalupe School and Convent across Agua Fría Street.
The area will be called “Santa Fe’s Hill of Tepeyac.”
“It’s a place where people can come and look for resources about Our Lady of Guadalupe,” Nguyen said.
The Santa Fe Hill of Tepeyac is “a wonderful way to pay honor to our Mother,” parishioner Diana Lujan said.
More from the Santa Fe New Mexican
The United State Air Force Academy Chapel, Colorado Springs
The Airforce Academy Chapel
Photography by Neil Talbott
Neil Talbott’s Colorado Photography can be seen and purchased at his studio #105 at Cottonwood Center for the Arts, 427 E. Colorado Avenue in downtown Colorado Springs, CO. Can’t make it in person? Email Neil or reach him at (719) 523-0499.
Jane Beeder’s Vintage Cross Jewlery
Copper Turquoise Beads with Vintage Silver Cross
by Jane Beeder
To say Jane Beeder travels the world is an understatement. From her years in spent in the Middle East buying antique strings of hand carved gemstones to her upcoming trip to Russia, Jane never misses a chance to search out the most exquisite and exotic beads for her original jewelry.
In her recent show last month at Hayden Hays Gallery at the Broadmoor Hotel, Jane’s jewelry held it’s own with all the other masterpieces displayed.
Crosses, whether they are antique Navajo sterling silver, gem studded artifacts from Morocco or hand crafted by local Colorado Springs artists, are combined with the rough-hewn gemstones, hand-forged crosses and elegant silver findings that are a hallmark of Jane’s work.
Many of her recent pieces combine Coptic (Ethiopian) Crosses with turquoise beads.
Ethiopian crosses are made from elaborate lattice or filigree work in a baroque style. The artists designing the African crosses take great delight in creating ornate decorative patterns. They embellish a simple cross with trefoils, flared arms, fanciful projections, complex openwork and intertwined patterns of lines that symbolize eternity.
Traditionally worn around the neck on a deep blue cotton cord, the crosses are given to children when they are baptized and they become one of the most prized of all personal possessions.
Named after the region they come from, the crosses that Jane uses in her work are hand-cast and made from nickel or brass alloys.
Jane Beeder combines a hand-carved Antique Lapis Lazuli and Sterling pendant with oversized Lapis Lazuli rondelles and hand made sterling silver beads
Jane’s studio at Cottonwood Center for the Arts is an out-of-the-ordinary voyage. Crammed floor-to-ceiling with Chinese antique cabinets full of exotic beads just waiting to be turned into collectible, wearable works of art, Jane can be found working surrounded by overflowing baskets of chunks of amber, strings frosted 1930’s lucite and tribal beaded headbands
.
For more of Jane’s necklaces, check out photos of her work here on Fresh Ink.
Jane’s studio, #103, is at 427 E. Colorado in downtown Colorado Springs at Cottonwood Center for the Arts. For more info about Jane’s workshop, call (719) 520-1899. Her work can be purchased at Cottonwood on Tejon or The Boulder Street Gallery in Downtown Colorado Springs.
Dusty Shutt’s Strong Christian Faith Inspires Artwork for Children’s Art Programs
Dusty Shutt and “Blue Morpho”
Photography by Craig Shutt
“Morpho’s Garden”
Can be seen at the Pioneer Museum at 215 S. Tejon, Colorado Springs
After taking flight at Colorado Springs’s Imagination Celebration , Dusty Shutt’s “Blue Morpho” butterfly has landed. Inspired by her strong Christian faith to contribute to her community, Dusty finds her work with organizations that help local chilidren to be her favorite.
Donating her skill and time to create the colorful, exuberant sculpture to “Butterflies and Friends”, Dusty joins dozens of local artists who share the same passion to use their talents to assist local children.
Side view of Dusty Shutt’s Metal 3D Butterfly “Blue Morpho”
Photography by Craig Shutt
Butterflies and Friends is a community service initiative created by the Rotary Club of Colorado Springs to raise awareness and funds to serve children and promote the arts in local school. Participating artists raise transform large scale metal butterflies into works of art that are then auctioned on September 17th at Cheyenne Resort.
In addition to raising attention to endangered species all over the world with her photo impressionism, Dusty contributes to raising awareness and funds to several causes at home in Colorado Springs. Dusty chose the short-lived Blue Morpho butterfly as the base for her inspiration, connecting the threatened rainforest dwelling iridescent butterflies with at-risk children here at home.
Information about last year’s successful event
As one of the few artists chosen to create a Butterfly for the upcoming Rotary Club auction at Cheyenne Mountain Resort on September 17th, Dusty and the generous group of local artists that paint the huge over-sized metal butterflies annually to do their part to ensure that a “healthy cocoon for every child” and to “encourage a creative metamorphosis into all that each can be”.
Our Lady of Guadalupe ~ Los Cerrillos Madonna
Our Lady of Miracles
Los Cerrillos, New Mexico
Karen Rivera 2010
Hidden Grave with Flowers ~ Nambe, New Mexico
Nambe Cemetery
Nambe Pueblo, New Mexico
Karen Rivera
January 2011
I shoot a lot of cemetaries. For heart-rending, technicolor boisterous displays, you just can’t beat a New Mexican cemetary on Easter, Day of the Dead or Christmas. I’ve made it to my favorite, the Nambe Church cemetary in Nambe, every Boxing Day for most of the last 20 years. I follow that up with New Year’s Day in Acoma. It seems to make the perfect emotional double-header.
I found this small, weathered cross tucked away in a far corner surrounded by tumbleweeds and scruffy dead plants. The new flowers shows that this lonely hidden grave hadn’t been forgotten.
Small Abode Wall Church – Easter at Sanctuario
Small Easter Wall Church at Sanctuario
Chimayo, New Mexico
Karen Rivera 2007
Buddha’s Cross
Buddha’s Cross
Recycled Tinwork
Karen Rivera
I’ve found that I incorporate crosses into my work, no matter what the medium or the message.
Sanctuario Church Tower with Cross
Church Tower with Cross, Chimayo
Chimayo, New Mexico
Karen Rivera 2007
Grace Morales, 1893 ~ Graveyard Crosses
Grace Morales, 1893 ~ Graveyard Crosses
Illustration
Karen Rivera 2010
St. Joseph’s Church ~ Los Cerrillos, New Mexico
Courtyard, Saint Joseph’s Church
Los Cerrillos, New Mexico
Los Cerrillos has always seemed to me to be the perfect example of a New Mexico boom town. Once the unofficial capitial of the state, it’s now a modern day ghost town on South 14, a few miles north of Madrid.
After the arrival of the Santa Fe Railroad in 1880, shipping the gold, silver, lead, zinc and turquoise from the 3,000 miners in the area no longer had to be shipped by wagon. Los Cerrillos grew to feature 21 saloons, 5 brothels, 4 hotels, several dance halls and a real honest-to-goodness Opera House. The construction of Saint Joseph’s Church on Main Street confirmed that civilization had truly arrived.
- Casa Grande Trading Post, Cerrillos Turquoise Mining Museum, & Petting Zoo
Today, the washboard streets and dusty storefronts are a mostly undisturbed reminder of Old West meets celluloid. 13 films have been shot in and around Los Cerrillos, including the 1972 John Wayne movie The Cowboys shot just outside of town. A remnant of the production of Young Guns lingers on a two-story stucco wall. The real Wortley Hotel (Motto: No Guest Gunned Down in Over a 100 Years) is in Lincoln, not Los Cerrillos.
- Los Cerrillos porch ceiling
On weekends, Mary’s Saloon and the Casa Grande Trading Post, Cerrillos Turqoise Mining Museum, & Petting Zoo swarm with tourists from the City Different stopping off on the Turquoise Trail. Several seasonal businesses open up with the return of the tourists, adding whimsical touches.
Several artists call Los Cerrillos home. Metal sculptures and eclectic murals are scattered though the tiny town. A few of the gritty, sandblasted storefronts now make it possible to walk under the stars as you stay out of the sun.
My connection with Los Cerrillos was very short-lived. My job working weekends at the Tiffany Saloon and Melodrama ended when, as usual, my confidence in British mechanics was misplaced and my 1961 Morris Mini-Cooper needed a new engine.
The Tiffany Saloon and Melodrama burned down in 1977 but you can still find traces of it, and other long-lost buildings, by looking for the metal yellow signs all over town.
The Entry Fee to Heaven ~ Sunday Services as Honest as the Horses We Ride
My favorite kinds of church services are ones that happen outdoors. There’s just something about a group of people singing hymns outside under a blue sky early on Sunday morning that touches me. It seems to be more of a direct spiritual connection when the sound echoes directly up to the sky without a roof in the way.
Chasing down an overheard reference in an Old Colorado Springs coffee shop, I stumbled on another of Colorado’s unexpected treats. Driving through most small towns, you wonder where the end of town is. In Penrose, 35 miles south on 115, you won’t have that problem. The town ends after a few blocks when the paved road abruptly does.The town has no stop lights, a volunteer fire department, and almost no problems except for what seems to be a group of entitled clowns.
The Sunday I stopped by the Cowboy Church, there were more horses than cars. The steam rising in the cold air from riders and the huffing of the horses was a scene out of a cowgirl’s dream. When they read the Rodeo Cowboy’s prayer at the end of the service in memory of long lost friends, I wasn’t the only one in tears.
Rodeo Cowboy’s Prayer
Our gracious and heavenly Father, we pause in the midst of this festive
occasion, mindful and thoughtful of the guidance that you have given us.
As cowboys, Lord, we don’t ask for any special favors.
We ask only that you let us compete in this arena.
We don’t ask to never break a barrier,
or to draw a round of steer that’s hard to throw,
or a chute fighting horse, or a bull that is impossible to ride.
We only ask that you help us to compete as honest as the horses we ride
and in a manner as clean and pure as the wind
that blows across this great land of ours.
So when we do make that last ride
that is inevitable for us all to make, to that place up there,
where the grass is green and lush and stirrup high,
that you’ll tell us as we ride in that our entry fees have been paid.
These things we ask.
Amen.
© Clem McSpadden. In memory of Howard Manuel, Jim Moore and Zachary Vanwhy.
Hanging With the Assisi Sisters ~ Roadside Shrine on the High Road to Taos
The Assisi Sisters
Hanging with Claire and Agnes in Taos
July 2010
Karen Rivera
Telephone Pole Cross, Summer Thunderstorm at Colmer, New Mexico
Telephone Pole Cross
Summer Thunderstorm at Colmer, New Mexico
July 2010
Karen Rivera
Sunday Morning Mountain Services ~ Pike’s Peak from the Garden of the Gods Park
Sunday Morning in the Garden of the Gods
Colorado Springs
July 2010
Karen Rivera
Feed The Meter, Feed the Homeless
No Pennies, Please
Colorado Springs, Colorado
July 2010
Karen Rivera
San Pasqual ~ Patron Saint of the Kitchen
Patron Saint of the Kitchen
Roadside Tin, Chimayo, New Mexico
Karen Rivera 2006
4 Corners Baskets ~ Zia Pueblo, New Mexico
Four Corners Baskets
Zia Pueblo
July 2010
Karen Rivera
Local Native American Basket Makers incorporate the designs of crosses, native plants, mountains and rivers into their wonderful baskets. Made of raw reeds and natural dyes, the basketmakers weave spirituality into their art.
Our Lady of Pike’s Peak ~ Summer Thunderstorm
Our Lady of Guadalupe
Tilework
Pike’s Peak, Colorado
July 2011
Karen Rivera
San Raphael, Patron Saint of Travelers
San Raphael
Patron Saint of Travelers
Acrylic on raw alderwood
Karen Rivera 2005
San Antonio Church, Punta de Agua
Punta de Aqua
Highway 55, Southern New Mexico
Karen Rivera
The small villages along Highway 55 have always held a special place in my hard-scrabble New Mexican heart. Using the few resources available in the barren, harsh acres early settlers recycled the ever-present rocks into homes, walls, and churches.
In Punta de Aqua, the rough-cut stone San Antonio Church stands as a monument to an earlier example of sustainable and green building.
If you’d like to walk through Punta de Aqua at street level, click here to go to Google Maps, then click satellite.
