Выставка Даны Паттерсон Рот в Альбукерке посвящена исчезающим водным артериям Нью-Мексико

ART | PLACITAS Dana Patterson Roth’s ‘The River Runs Through Me’ celebrates New Mexico’s waterways Exhibit features 15 encaustic photography pieces at Wild Hearts Gallery Dana Patterson Roth feels defined by the waters she has grown up around, going from playing in them to photographing them. “I really feel that I have water running through my veins,” Roth said. “The water of New Mexico, and it’s such an intrinsic part of my past and my present.” Roth’s current exhibit at The Wild Hearts Gallery, “The River Runs Through Me,” is a celebration of the waters in the state, she said. “It’s as much of a love story as it is a visual elegy to the waters of New Mexico, which we are unfortunately losing,” Roth said. In her youth, Roth enjoyed boating on Heron Lake and jumping into ditches filled with water in Corrales. “The River Runs Through Me” includes 15 encaustic photography images. Roth takes the photograph, places it on a panel, then covers it with beeswax with pigments added. The medium adds layers of meaning and physicality, she said, in one image with lily pads, the wax adds floating depth. In an image of sailboats it softens everything and makes it dreamlike. “I think my dreams are of water, my dreams are of sailing and swimming,” she said. “So I’m able, with the encaustic, to add that extra layer or add the depth in some cases.” Roth said she loves spending time in the state’s nature. Her past exhibit at Wild Hearts featured trees in New Mexico. Focusing on nature, she said, brings her closer to the earth and makes her more closely examine the impacts of climate change. “This show, I really wanted to celebrate water, but I was sort of quickly faced with the fact that the waters I grew up with were diminishing and receding rapidly,” Roth said. “So I combined a lot of different photographs, some that I’ve taken in the past and some that I’ve taken currently of the current situation.” The oldest image is about 15 years old, she said, with several recent photos of the low water in the Rio Grande. She included older images because she said her heart couldn’t just show dismal drought. “I wanted to celebrate my memories, and so some of the photographs are more celebratory of times that have passed,” Roth said. Elizabeth Secor is an arts fellow for the Albuquerque Journal. You can reach her at [email protected].