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Essential West Magazine
Exploring Art, Literature, History, Museums, Lifestyle, and Cultures of the West
It amazes me that four letters - W-E-S-T - have the ability to evoke an instantaneous emotional image. Simply the act of reading these four letters has caused you to form a narrative of your west.
Can the West be distilled to its essence - a simple direction or region? I believe not; it is a deeper dive of consciousness. How America sees itself and the world defines us. Diverse cultures, strong individualism, open spaces, and raw natural beauty marinated in a roughshod history have formed this region’s unique milieu.
Our online magazine’s primary focus is to feature relevant topics in art, literature, history, museums, lifestyle, and culture; lofty goals for any publication. No single magazine can be the beckon of all things western; it is a diverse, evolving paradigm that cannot be pigeonholed. As the publisher, I hope to be the buffalo that grazes the wide expanse of western sensibility and relay to you a glimpse of how I perceive our Essential West.
- Mark Sublette
Featured Article
Alexandre Hoge: America's First Environmental Activist Painter
I consider Alexandre Hogue America’s first environmental activist artist. Members of the 19th century Hudson River School painters commented on deforestation and increasing industrialization in New England, but not with Hogue’s direct artistic assault on man’s assault on nature. They lacked his blunt force. His condemnation. A 21st century reading of Hudson River School artists could miss their...
Protecting an Icon of the West, the Majestic Sage Grouse
Noppadol Paothong (American, born Thailand, 1973), Monarch of Sky and Land, n.d., Photo on canvas. 30 x 40 x 1 ½ inches. © Noppadol Paothong. Grizzly bears. Wolves. Bison. For well over a century, Americans have fought–in the wilderness, in legislatures and in courtrooms–over the role these iconic animals should play in the contemporary West, whether that contemporary West be 1880, 1980 or today. On one side are the people seeking to extract their personal fortunes from the land, those who want the wild animals pushed out. On the other side, the people who believe the animals have...
Kenneth Begay's unique perspective, sleek designs, and skill set place him as one of the most important silversmiths during the 1950-70s.
By Mark Sublette View Available Kenneth Begay Pieces Here Arizona's fledgling statehood was barely a year old, and Native Americans wouldn't have the right to vote for another eleven years when Kenneth Begay was born in a hogan in rural Steamboat Canyon in Eastern Arizona. The wide-vista Colorado Plateau lined with rows of red- yellow sandstone buttes was where the fledging silversmith learned his craft at the Fort Wingate Indian School. His mentor was the famous silversmith Fred Peshlakai who had begun teaching at the school in 1931. Fred and his younger brother Frank were the sons of...
Medicine Man Gallery to unveil new jewelry line from owner Mark Sublette
Click here to see Mark Sublette Collection Signature Haute Couture Jewelry By Michael Clawson, guest writer Thirty years ago, Medicine Man Gallery owner Mark Sublette found an 1840s New Mexican Saltillo blanket that had a unique chevron design woven into it. The geometric form, the history in the fibers, the subtle colors—it was captivating. “That simple design represented the Southwest to me,” Sublette says. “It became my banner. It became who I am.” Sublette is now using that chevron design, which is also the logo for the gallery, as the central motif in a new line of jewelry...
Josh Elliott returns to Medicine Man Gallery with a collection of stunning new desert scenes
By Michael Clawson, guest writer Josh Elliott "Shiprock, Shadows, and Shelter" | 35" x 32" | Oil on Panel Filmmaker Stanley Kubrick once said, “Observation is a dying art.” His point, one reinforced in his films, was to stubbornly wait out the silence by just looking. Witnessing. Waiting. Early in his career, painter Josh Elliott found himself behind an easel in the desert. The Montana-based artist had only painted mountains and forests, snow-flecked ridges and rocky peaks, and glacial valleys filled with emerald water. Suddenly the desert seemed so alien and strange to his brush. So he just...
Jewelry artist Sam Patania continues the legacy of Santa Fe’s famous Thunderbird Shop
By Michael Clawson Read more Essential West here Couture Candelaria Turquoise and 18k Gold Necklace by Sam Patania It’s the most American of stories, and yet it starts in Messina, Italy. It begins in 1905, when 6-year-old Frank Patania Sr., likely barely tall enough to see over a workbench, was apprenticed to a goldsmith. Toiling away on mundane and likely grueling work, Patania had suddenly found his calling in life. By the 1960s, he had become one of the most prominent jewelers in the West. His passion for jewelry continued with his son, Frank Jr., and his grandson, Sam Patania,...
Alfredo Ramos Martinez’s Astonishing ‘Flores Mexicanas’ On View At Dallas Museum Of Art
Alfredo Ramos Martínez, 'Flores Mexicanas,' 1914 - 29, oil on canvas, © THE ALFREDO RAMOS MARTÍNEZ RESEARCH PROJECT, REPRODUCED BY PERMISSION. IMAGE COURTESY OF DALLAS MUSEUM OF ART. Alfredo Ramos Martinez’s Flores Mexicanas, on view now at the Dallas Museum of Art, reminds audiences instantly how inadequate “virtual” art experiences are when compared to the real thing. Nine feet tall. Twelve feet wide. Luscious in color. A gasp-inducing, ornate, hand-crafted frame. Sumptuous. Awesome. Sublime. Art museums have made the best of mandatory Covid-19 closures by moving their treasures and exhibitions online, and the digital exhibition DMA produced for...
After decades of collecting Western and wildlife art, Tom and Mary James opened the James Museum of Western and Wildlife Art
It’s every collector’s fantasy. An unlimited budget for unrestrained art purchases. The word “browsing” doesn’t apply to you. When you enter a gallery, you’re shopping. That fantasy was a reality for Tom and Mary James. The result, after decades of collecting Western and wildlife art which began in the mid-1980s, is the breathtaking James Museum of Western and Wildlife Art in St. Petersburg, Florida. Don’t let the location fool you. While palm trees, humidity and sailboats welcome visitors outside, inside, the James’ art collection transports guests out where the buffalo roam – or used to. What is a...
Howard Post brings new small works to a show at Medicine Man Gallery on September 15
By Michael Clawson Read more Essential West here At the Masters of the American West exhibition in February, the Autry Museum of the American West presented a discussion that focused on the “New West” that seemed to mostly address work that had been created in the last decade. Outside the theater after the event, painter Howard Post had a chuckle: “They’ve been calling it the New West for 50 years,” he said. “Is it really new anymore?” Post was making a playful joke, but he had a point. Mostly that contemporary, forward-thinking Western painters had been around before,...
Western artists from around the country respond to the pandemic and their changing routines
By Michael Clawson Read more Essential West here Aside from the tremendous loss of life and the slowed economy, the pandemic is also changing the way people live and work. While many people have to adjust to this new normal, many artists are responding with the same answer: “Not much has changed.” Artists are often isolated creatures, working in relative solitude within their studios. It’s quite normal for them to disappear in the morning and return in the late evening largely unfazed by the outside world. We reached out to some artists and asked them how things are different, and how...
Mark Sublette returns with The Candy Man, his eighth Charles Bloom murder mystery book
By Michael Clawson Read more Essential West here Medicine Man Gallery owner Mark Sublette has many interests: Western and Native American art, the Southwest, old trading posts in Navajoland, Santa Fe and its vibrant culture, murder mysteries, and history in all its forms. These interests all intersect in his book series, A Charles Bloom Murder Mystery. The newest entry, The Candy Man, will be released October 1, and in it Sublette once again brings all sorts of Southwestern elements into a story of intrigue, art, thrills, and murder. The new book again follows Charles Bloom, an art dealer whose own curiosity...