Katharine
Kreisher

Journey of the Dead Men

Myths, archetypes and dream images have always fed this artist's creative process, and that is true in the new "Joronada del Muerto" series from which "Journey," "Found Shadow Self: Three Legged Dog" and "Desert Landscape" were selected by the artist to make a statement about death as a powerful element in life. This short narrative about an internal exploration locates a traveler who seems to spy on inner selves, and perhaps pushes one to a dry desert death.

To the artist the desert is fiercely beautiful, full of fearful contradictions and startling transformations.The sky is big.The light plays dizzying games. Mirages are possible. Bears cross the road. Snakes may be under each rock. One can hear the sun burn skin and leaves. Wind and wildfires spring up. Within moments rain drops turn to downpours and then to double rainbows. This is an environment where one can more easily discover liminal moments, along with the sometimes amusing characters who inhabit the ritual desert spaces of each person's mind.

Katharine Kreisher was 2011 resident artist at RioBravoFineArt in the hot springs town of Truth or Consequences, New Mexico, located on the banks of the Rio Grande at the northern edge of the Chihuahuan Desert. There she created the "Dream Desert" exhibition as a response to the natural and cultural surprises of this desert community where she absorbed stories about the Joronada del Muerto and ghost towns and celebrations like Fiesta and Day of the Dead.

(Sonny Rivera's bronze sculpture "Luna Prieta" of New Mexican artist H. Joe Waldrum riding his favorite mule was used in the photograph "Journey")