Inspiration is the most important tool an artist has at their disposal. It’s what allows them to create a beautiful sculpture out of a slab of rock, or a pristine painting from a blank canvas. But most importantly, it’s what gives them their voice and ability to put meaning into every work they complete.
The New Mexico State University Art Museum brought two new voices to Las Cruces, including Carolyn Salas’ “Night Vision” and Carlos Rosales-Silva’s “Border Destroyer”. The exhibit will be in the museum from Sept. 27 to March 2025.
The work spoke for itself to museum director Marisa Sage, where she mentioned that the artists’ use of color conveys emotion, life and texture.
“They both worked with our students in different ways, you can see Carlos came and he taught a painting class and he gave them a theme to work with and they created these pieces that he then integrated into his mural,” she said. “Carolyn came in and did a lecture for our students and then worked with them on a project that was also integrated into her exhibition.”
Another reason to feature these artists is their specific ties to New Mexico and the influence the borderland has on their work.
“I thought it was so important because [Carlos] himself being from here, his influence is the desert,” Sage said. “The flaura, the fauna of the Chihuahua Desert, the architecture of this region, the signage, the colors of this region. And he’s also a teacher and an artist and a professor and he cares a lot about students.”
The choice of Salas was the certain spell the Land of Enchantment cast on her work.
“Carolyn was a first-generation student at the Santa Fe Art Institute and New Mexico changed her life,” she said. “She really didn’t have a lot of collegiate role models, and she came here, and she just was completely influenced by New Mexico, and it became a big part of who she is as an artist, and where she learned to become an artist.”
But the spotlight was on the artists. The first exhibit to greet guests was “Border Destroyer”. One wall was barren with only paint, while the other showcased a multi-colored design. The center of the exhibit featured works from students. The most important aspect to Carlos Rosales-Silva was the meaning behind the art.
“The inspiration was being here in Las Cruces and working with the students primarily…kind of abandoning an actual representation of a figure or person or tree or a building and just thinking about what makes a thing that you could see,” Carlos said.
But more importantly for Rosales-Silva, it was inspiration that the Borderland provided.
“The border is just a fact of life here and for me, thinking about not destroying a border physically, but destroying how it
separates people was really in the forefront of my mind when I was thinking about this mural,” he said. “Just not thinking about differences but thinking about what the commonalities between the people that are on each side of the border.”
Rosales-Silva’s use of color is meant to focus on the student art pieces. She said the work represents the seeds that destroy the razor wire, “snaking around the gallery that’s shown with these two competing suns that are growing these organic, abstract shapes on the other side of the mural.”
Once you step past the “Border Destroyer”, you walk through a door and into “Night Vision” by Carolyn Salas. You’re greeted with two giant heads, symbolically allowing you go with someone as they travel to their own dreamland. Or, as Morpheus in The Matrix puts it, taking the red pill to see how deep the rabbit hole really goes.
“The entire show is based on the idea of a dreamscape and thinking about the inner psyche and symbols that might come up while dreaming,” Salas said. “A lot of the imagery is sort of based on the idea of chaos and balance. So, the symbols may be very simplistic, but they hold a lot of meaning in that they can be very open to interpretation.”
As you travel throughout her created wonderland, a couple of pieces stand out among everything else, titled “Seekers” and “Moon Fold.” Both pieces feature hands, which is meant to illustrate the quest for meaning and purpose that can translate into dreams from our conscious and unconscious thoughts as we sleep. With “Moon Fold”, a decorated folding door painted white, being a first for Salas.
“You can use divides to divide space, but also divides when thinking about sort of compartmentalizing your thoughts,” Salas said. “The hand sort of represents seeking some sort of medicine, knowledge, drug, something to calm whatever depression, anxiety, nerves, the thing that kind of stirs you up or unsettles you.”
The piece “Seekers” was born from the Daniel Boorstin book which focuses on western cultural figures being the lens to understanding the world. But Salas was sure to put her own twist on it.
“It’s more of a feminine perspective or female identifying perspective about the women looking instead of the man searching,” she said. “You know that time period was very different, but a lot of figures here are representing the female figure that’s searching for that something.”
In addition to having a new source for the Las Cruces cultural scene to absorb, museum director Sage wishes for people to have another takeaway from the works.
“I thought that students should see that they could be from this region and they can show globally, they can show internationally like Carlos does,” she said. “To really get influenced by someone who’s from here, who’s making work about this place, in this place.”
