Bisttram Studio - Taos, NM
day 46…
Spending my final days in the awesome Talpa house/studio with a few moments to tap out the long ass story of how I fell backwards into the joint… but then the story morphed and trailed into some bits about a paper I had written (and illustrated) in the 8th grade on Vikings, how Ernest Hemingway would have typed out his boozy prose on an iPhone if he lived today, and my analogy between Talpa, NM and Tolkien’s Mordor… but instead of orcs, it’s chupacabras. And not just one… but warring factions of chupacabras. Like WestSide Story. Boop.
True though… the sounds of the night here in Talpa will curdle the milkshake in your belly. Now… for the 3.5 peeps that read my prose from start to finish… first, thank you and I love you; Next, the long ass version of that, and this story and many others will be posted on my story blog thing (still a figment of the imagination), that you can find on my website that is almost started and will be up at the end of the week with a link somewhere on this social media platform. #truedat
So… here’s the short version with ten tons of name dropping because it makes me feel like a VIP rock’nRoll movie star with a big hat, or maybe I have insecure attachment issues from childhood trauma and am now filling a void with names, or real people and pop culture references are fun, authentic… and it’s my thing. #alloftheaboveistheanswer
It was May 15 and I had just moved out of my Pojoaque studio and dropped down to Albuquerque for some visits before I make my way North towards Vancouver. The Bisttram Studio on Ledoux Street in Taos I was petitioning for was no longer going to be available. The renters had renewed the lease and I didn’t have another plan. Also, some matters of the heart, the heat of an early summer, a stagnant vibration and all of the smokey wildfires had me ready to leave Northern NM… way behind… and not look back.
I ended up booking a room in Taos for one more week to finish up some tasks - and I was going in that direction anyways. I remember sitting in my car thinking “what and thee fk?!?” I had been quite fulfilled being in Santa Fe/Pojoaque but there was a host of energies that kept pulling me back up to Taos. So here I am… finally. Now me and my chubby cheeks, face and other, are sitting in the adventure pod, untethered (again), confused of why the universe plopped me here and there’s now nada tostada. There were 2 more days left before I was to check out of my room at Paul’s place in town (see adventure story about Paul’s from May 18, 2021)… and then my phone rang.
Juniper from the Harwood Museum in Taos, the executive director of that museum (total name drop!!!!) called to tell me that her friend was looking for someone to stay at her house in Talpa until she returned in July. Renters had moved out and chupacabras (or the likes) had moved in and stole the solar batteries from the property which shut down all systems, including the water. The short story is that if I could help restore the systems, be present, play caretaker until she returned, I could stay rent free.
Ummm okay… about 6 days prior to that I was eating a large pizza from Tesuque Village Market in my car, with all my things in storage and I was on my way to Cochiti Lake to stay in a house share room that had a microwave in it and everything (see stories from May 12-16).
Flow with the universe is always the right answer. So I did. And I made a run to Talpa that evening. I had a dropped-jaw look when I first showed up to the property. A Japanese modern style house, 2-story, separate 600sqft studio on 3 acres in Ranchos/Talpa. Also, it has a hottub thingy. Sweet. This boy is gonna eat pizza on a plate, in a real house, for the next 45 days. Hells yes!
After my first full night in the house with all systems finally restored, I woke up in the morning with that soul pulling anomaly called ‘wanderlust’ and was ready to pack up and drive away fast. There’s some irony in there somewhere. I fought the desire to be on the road and stayed. Kerouac would be proud (name drop!!!)☺️
Chapter 2
If you made it this far, remember… this is the “short” version.
April 7th is Emil Bisttram day. A New Mexico State holiday for his contributions to Taos and the local community. Bisttram was born in Nagylak, Hungary and was a talented artist, schooled at the National Academy of Art and Design, then Cooper Union, Parsons, and The Art Student's League. Teaching at the New York School of Fine and Applied Arts, and then at the Master Institute of the Roerich Museum. He visited Taos in the summer of 1930 and moved there a year later. He won a Guggenheim Fellowship to study mural painting. The fellowship enabled Bisttram to travel to Mexico where he studied mural painting with the world famous muralist Diego Rivera. Bistrram started the Heptagon Gallery and the Taos School of Art In 1938, Bisttram founded the Transcendental Painting Group with Raymond Jonson and several other Santa Fe artists. In 1952, Bisttram co-founded the Taos Art Association, and later in 1959 won the Grand Prize for painting at the New Mexico State Fair.
Bisttram built a studio for himself and the Taos school of Art that is next to the Harwood Museum on the historic Ledoux Street. Florence Pierce (American artist) was a student of his and painted there. Google her… she is something. Larry Bell (American artist) used the studio and is all over the board in the arts. On top of housing a number of artists over the years, Bisttram’s studio has hosted the UNM upper division offices and extended university program. The current owner is Gus Foster, 2021 Governor’s Awards for Excellence in the Arts, and who is a panoramic photographer who had a recent exhibition at the Harwood Museum. (Fall 2021-Spring 2022)
And now… MrGus is my new landlord. Yup.
A couple weeks ago, my friend Juniper (name drop!) from the Harwood Museum (name drop!) and knows everybody (everybody drop!!!), called and said “guess who called me?” Since I know about 4 people in town it wasn’t hard to guess.
“I hope it’s Gus…” I said. and it was… and the Bisttram studio was going to be available on July 1st now. Surprisingly… there was silence between us on the phone. The heart and soul celebrates in many different ways for many different reasons.
Housing is tight in Taos and what does show up goes quick. Lucky lucky boy took possession of the dreamy studio on July 1st... and at a super modest rent. It’s 400sqft studio with a huge 6’x12’ window and 14ft ceilings… with a bath, kitchen and separate bedroom (1000sqft total) and is zoned for retail and a gallery space. It shares a wall with the Harwood Museum, the art supply store is across the street, it’s barely a two minute walk to the plaza… and it oozes ten tons of creative energy and is home to many many artsy ghosts of past glory.
I’m now an official Taos artist and resident. And cool and the gang. And please visit. And thank you again, universe.
246 Ledoux Street
Taos, NM 87571
#mordor #namedrop!
#chupacabras #namedrop!!!!
#ghostsofpastglory #everybodydrop!
Also, if you have some talent at SquareSpace websites, I need help and I do pay real american.
