Collectors Corner! Ed Sandoval's Newsletter (Taos, NM)

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Collectors Corner!

Ed Sandoval Gallery's Newsletter

119 Quesnel Street, Taos, NM 87571

www.edsandovalgallery.com

edsandovalart@gmail.com

(575) 770-6360

Family & Friends

Recently, we went to three family reunions within three days for both sides of my family, including my great granddaughter's first birthday party, and it got me thinking about family. I’ve written about my boyhood and loved ones, but now I’ll try to weave it all together... a synopsis of early experiences and memories that influence my art so much.

B-Day Party for Frank (Sister Pita's Husband - Right) & Cousin Ersilia (Left). Daughter Tammy Front Right.

Great Granddaughter Layla's 1st B-Day

Vickerys in Cuchara: Janell (Sis in Law), Brent (Bro in Law), Garrett and Vance (Farm/Ranch Managers) & Me

I'll start my trip down memory lane with this photo taken around 1929 – my grandfather (Pedro Rivera) is on the far left, mom (Lucinda, who is pregnant with my brother Wilfred... more on him soon) is in a white dress to the left of the bride, dad (Herminio) is holding the little girl to the right of the groom, and dad’s car is on the far right. What a fun old car!

I wouldn’t be born for about 15 years. In small mountain villages like Nambe, mothers stayed home to have their children. When she went into labor, mom didn’t know she was carrying twins, and she had no way to contact my dad (no phones) who was working at the Los Alamos labs. To everyone’s surprise, not one but TWO baby boys arrived. Danny came first, and I like to say that I pushed him out first to see if the coast was clear…

Identical Clothing (Me on the Left)

Danny & Me Fishing in Cuchara

A B-Day Invitation

I’ve been told that my giggling siblings, scheming to trick dad, hid me in the closet and presented only Danny when he came home from work. At dinner, dad fawned over his newborn son. After eating, they retrieved me from the closet and thrust me in front of him. They laughed and laughed as he sat there dumbfounded. I’m always joking, and maybe my personality was instilled by this incident. Although we are fraternal twins, my parents were so happy (after the shock wore off) they insisted on dressing us in identical clothing.

Some of my first memories are of my brother Wilfred (1931 - 1948). He played with us in the yard or down by the creek, often putting me on his shoulders and walking around the farm to show me all of the animals. I followed him around like a puppy, so, in 1948 when I was three, I followed him into the house when he went began to feel sick. He was in bed, sucking on a lollipop. I wanted it and popped it in my mouth. A day or two later, he was rushed by ambulance to a Santa Fe hospital and then to the Carrie Tingley Hospital for Crippled Children in Hot Springs (now Truth or Consequences).

Wilfred had polio. Mom was beside herself, but things got worse when I became feverish too. Everybody was frantic, thinking I had contracted polio from Wilfred's lollipop. The day after Wildred, I was also rushed to Carrie Tingley. They put me in a room right next door to Wilfred’s so my poor worried mom could go back and forth to comfort her two sons.

Wilfred kept hearing me cry. He didn’t know I was there and asked, “Who is the little boy crying in the next room?” Mom said she didn’t know. She didn’t want him to worry about me. I can’t imagine how hard that was for her…Wilfred immobilized in an iron lung, asking about me... After a day or so, the doctors determined that I didn’t have polio, but Wilfred passed away. He was only seventeen. My mom was heartbroken and didn’t want to live in the same home where Wilfred grew up. Dad agreed and started building a new house. Eventually, we moved in and moved on, but there was always an empty space our hearts.

Our Original Adobe Home in Nambe

Me at 3 Years Old, Holding Dad's Hand (Building Our New House)

Probably because mom was depressed and dad was either at work or building our new home, I started spending a lot of time with Grandma, Luisita Rivera (1871-1956). She and Grandpa (Pedro) had a small adobe home near ours – dirt floors, a wood-burning stove to cook on, one fireplace for heat and no indoor water, plumbing or electricity. I remember bringing in water from a rusty well pump in the back yard, visiting the rickety outhouse and firing up oil lanterns that gave a warm glow but little light. In the winters, it was downright freezing in the bedrooms, so Grandma piled pounds of thick hand-sewn quilts on me.

Pedro & Luisita (Grandparents)

Family Camping Trip (Grandma Far Right, My in Front of Tree, Sis Pita in Front)

Grandma & My Aunt Aurora

Grandma was a curandera, a native healer. If someone had an injury or illness, they came to her. She had secret remedies passed down from her grandmother – herbs hung from the kitchen ceiling and ointments and bitter liquids rested in glass jars. I would sit at the kitchen table, drawing pictures, while she cooked and told me stories. While frying flour tortillas on the wood stove or stirring a steaming stew, she took me to faraway places with her soft Spanish words. Her memories were adventure stories of the family scratching out a meager living during frontier times (remember she was just a girl in the 1870’s-1880’s).

She talked about her grandfather, who owned a herd of sheep. Each spring, he walked them to the Valles Caldera to graze (80 miles away) and walked them home in the fall. She described trips in a horse-drawn wagon to Santa Fe, which took two days, so they camped at Camel Rock, the mid-point of the journey. My favorite story was when Gypsies camped in their yard. A woman wanted to read grandma’s fortune. Once inside, grandma swears the woman put a spell on her. When she “came to” from the trance, the Gypsies were gone, and the tin can where she hid the household money was empty. She swore they hypnotized her to reveal where the money was hid.

Me Second from Right (Front) & Danny (Far Left)

1st Grade: Me Front Right with Cast on Leg

Grandma time was golden time, but that changed when Danny and I became old enough to go to first grade. Dad decided we would attend school in Los Alamos. He dropped us off, and we freaked out. Neither of us spoke a word of English, didn’t know anyone and were terrified. We immediately ran away and hid the entire day in the canyons. When it got dark and we got hungry, we made our way back home and got into a LOT of trouble.

Although we are twins and the same age, Danny and I only attended part of one grade together because shortly after school started, I was run over by a car. Danny, my cousin and I were laying on the side of a dirt road looking down at water in a ditch. A car parked up the hill accidentally rolled down – Danny saw it and jumped out of the way, but it ran over me and my cousin. For about a year, I stayed home in a body cast with no way to entertain myself except for drawing and painting. I studied pictures and tried to recreate them. Dad noticed my interest and enrolled me a correspondence art course (mail). When I returned to school (I missed first grade and had to repeat it), I took as many art classes as I could get and spent all my free time in the art room. Art became my life.

Me & Newborn Tammy

High School Buddies in Mexico (Me in Middle)

Me & Vickie

I'll speed things up – after boyhood, my life was an action-packed whirlwind. I graduated from Los Alamos High School, went to Los Angeles for a while, returned home to attend college, married Vickie, had two children (Tammy & Bryan), taught art in Utah and Los Alamos for over a decade, started my own construction company, and, through it all, painted. Teaching, building adobe homes, painting and being a new dad kept me busy!

Teaching at Los Alamos High School

Pulling Logs from Forest for Vigas

Today, life is better than ever. I'm blessed to be close to so many family members and to be embraced with love by my awesome Vickery family (my in-laws – Gwen's family). We travel/vacation together and have the best time. I look forward more than ever to joyous adventures, but, for my art, I think back on the "old days" when I was a wee tyke tagging along with grandma and the elders, being taught, feeling loved and safe, and learning so much. Memories. I paint their stories – lives lived authentically that should be remembered and preserved. To close, here are a few of my favorite, modern "good time" photos.

Jordan & BJ (Grandkids), Estevan & Layla (Great Grandkids) & Dominique

Janell (Sis in Law), Gwen, Theresa & Brook (Sis & Bro in Law) at the Adobe Bar

Us near the Continental Divide

Jaden (Grandson) & Alisha's Wedding with Tammy (Daughter)

Danny (Twin), Tammy (Daughter) & Me Fishing in Cuchara (Vickery Cabin)

Wedding: Me, Michelle (Niece), Angelique, Evan & Damian (Grandsons), Edwin & Tammy (Daughter) and Shelby & Jeania