Lala Abaddon, Ramon Deanda, Tony Drewry, Thalia Mavros, Jana Renée, Matt Stevens, Carlie Tise, Austin Thomas, Françoise Watin
There was a ceremony. The fire was dancing with the howling moon, the blue and red mountains draped the skies while the stars were beaming with silent pride. It was a pack of coyotes and a lost soul gathered, at a time where neither day nor night mattered. The soul couldn’t feel anything anymore, it was desperate for the coloring touch of belonging, the elusive master of all. Her deepest fear was, what if she could never ever dream? That’s when the desert had called to her. Away from chaos, remote and hidden in the midst of infinite glowy seasons, the desert handed the soul a chance. An attempt, an offer, an offering. The soul shivered, fearful. What if this hand carried nothing at all? Despite the mental horrors and all its mirrors, the soul remained seated by the fire and in the sea of dust suddenly appeared the contours of others. Others like her, heels in the dirt and heads in the clouds, only were they relentlessly weaving all they had left behind with all they were hoping to find.
Though It Was The Desert Who Caught Me is the first show to be held within these walls, it is not the first to have been envisioned for the space: many moons ago, another dreamer named Lineaus Lorette had imagined this building as the host of his personal artistic visions. For reasons that belonged to his heart, he chose to walk away from his design, and by doing so, offered our own dream a place to settle.
Once a supermarket – a place where the community would come and shop while silently carrying their hopes, secrets, longings, tears, joys, and fears, this large adobe built in 1924 is now reborn as an art gallery, offering all viewers the same sacred space: one where our inner worlds have room to wander peacefully.
The exhibition tells the many stories one encounters in the desert, a desert that can be understood both as geographical and metaphorical. Lost loves, a search for meaning, the yearning of finding one’s place in the world, newly found desires, past and future connections, inner turmoil and outside stillness, each viewer will perceive what the desert wishes them to see. On display, heirlooms of the desert, books paving the way to understanding one’s own quests, and artworks created by artists whose resilient souls show us that a dreamer’s heart is made of diamond. It will not splinter, it will not shatter. Indestructible, it will shine even brighter with every new chisel.
It Was The Desert Who Caught Me is a celebration of all dreamers, and ultimately, a love letter to following a heart that dares to dream.
