JORGE ANCHONDO | ECHOES FROM THE CANYON
OCTOBER + NOVEMBER 2018
Gallery 81435 in Telluride, Colorado presents Echoes from the Canyon, an exhibit by Jorge Anchondo during the months of October and November 2018. The Art Walk opening reception will take place Thursday, October 4, from 5 – 8 pm.
As I walk I play this game. I pretend that I am on a busy road, this life, County Road 5 they call it. This road is where many fast approaching cars hurtle at high speed shattering and wailing down the steep hill I walk on. They approach within inches of my body. They are not aware, or maybe they are. I like to think they are, that I am close, if not actually in their way down this steep hill. I sense them long before I see them. I prepare for the encounter; my breathing steadies, my heart is calm, my walking rhythmic and deliberate. As this happens almost automatically by now, I am free to watch myself see how they fly at me. Everything seems still as they close in almost to touch. I do not imagine the result of this encounter. It is irrelevant. It is not in the present. The ground shakes, vibrating with the heavy vehicle crashing down at high speed, the engine smells of oil and diesel, the windshield is a flashing mirror, the hands of the driver clutch the phone and the steering wheel, turning it just slightly at the last moment. I am totally focused to this moment. I am free. I am ready. I breathe. I give thanks.
At this instant the world is a total presence filled with all the sounds, the smells, the feelings, the shapes and colors that are there right there. I can sense everything just for an instant. It is a silly game, I know. But, there are lucky days, very lucky when I am filled with this feeling for a little while longer after seeing the trucks vanish in a cloud of dust. I can grasp it with my mind, keeping it as long as I dare all the way down into my studio. Carefully, I preserve this moment.
I thank the drivers for helping me play this game. I like to think they like to play it, too. They also apprehend the true nature of reality, just like I do. I thank them again. It is a good gift. This clarity sometimes fits right in the niche I have made for it in my mind, and it flows into my hand and to my canvas, right here in my studio. I sense these images, these shapes that start to form with the brush as I paint. I see them appear as plants and animals, hills and lakes and all the rest. I thank them, for I know that I have seen them and they have seen me, too.
Jorge Anchondo lives in Ridgway. He has studied in plenty of places and received plenty of degrees. Although he may be known more for his pigs than his paintings, art has been his life for over half a century. He paints because it provides a space to think and meditate. His paintings do not have anything at all to do with painting as painting, perhaps more with painting as a vehicle to let him wander in another land.
The show runs thru November 2018 at Gallery 81435, located at 230 S Fir Street in Telluride, Colorado. Open daily from 12-6 pm, or by appointment.