Tablita, a 56-inch by 28-inch
acrylic on canvas.
Coveys of quail scurry about the property , the bobbing, red-plumed heads of
the male birds accenting the brown of the earth underfoot. A roadrunner
makes an occasional appearance, his own motley coloration complementing,
under- foot, his brown turf-the turf he shares with the artist.
If vivid coloration has been an influence in Roberts' work as well as
in her persona, so, too, has gray prevailed creatively and personally.
She recalls the cold metallic gray of a raw November day in Paris in 1981.
There, with artists Armond Lara and Ed Singer, Roberts had an exhibit
at the Solon d' Automne, at the Grand Palais. It featured the "Indiens
d' Amerique du Nord"-an exhibition honoring Native American artists
(Roberts is part Cherokee.) As the three explored Paris together, I they
happened upon the Musee de Duncan-the small museum gallery
that had honored Roberts with the Prix de Paris some 20 years earlier-and
which marked . the first recognition she received for her work in her
adult life.
At the time of the award, in 1961, Roberts worked as a bank teller in
Santa Fe to survive, and painted at night. Twenty years later, as the
trio entered the Musee de Duncan, they were met by Ligoa Duncan.
Roberts identified herself to the woman who had bestowed the honor on
the artist two decades earlier. Roberts and Duncan had not previously
met. In 1961, Roberts could not afford to go to Paris to receive the award
personally, and it came in the mail.
She recalls that the gray Paris day brightened considerably when she met
Duncan, and she felt justifiable pride. "I always wanted to meet
Ligoa Duncan. .. to express in person my thanks, my gratitude for the
Prix de Paris given to me 20 years before. I wanted to meet her when I
felt I had accomplished something
with my work. I wanted to present myself as the artist. Not the
bank teller struggling to make ends meet. ..to survive."
Bright Blankets, Bright Patterns, a 46-inch by 66-inch acrylic on canvas.
Shades of gray darkening to somber black characterize the years of Roberts' brief marriage to "H. C.," an artist himself. She prefers not to name him, and , recalls that their time together was ". ..high or low. ..nothing much in between. Dark."
They lived for a time in Mexico City when there was money, enjoying the
"good life" ever So feelingly. But abject poverty was the norm
in Shafter, Texas, where they moved after they left Mexico, and Roberts
was forced to pick cantaloupes to pay for a day's groceries. She says
she suffered abuse from her husband.
I came to a fork in the road. I came to the decision to be an artist-not
a wife, not a mother. Not to take abuse anymore. Not to color my life
black, not even gray . ..I left the darkness of my marriage. I wed painting.
..my life's companion has been my work. ..my painting. Color."
She literally "escaped" from Shafter by bus, returned to Santa
Fe with money borrowed from a friend and began her commitment to painting.
She began what has become, over the years, routine: to paint throughout
the night and into the early morning hours. Discipline and commitment
came easily, and were the healing agents she needed. Recognition occurred
more slowly. Her work appeared in exhibitions, and the critics had their
say. Sometimes their rhetoric was glowing, some- times not. , " As
far as critics are concerned, there isn't a pride of critics, a litter
of critics, a gaggle of critics that could be harder or more critical
of me than I am on myself. So whatever is said about my work can't even
come close to the pain I inflict on myself, when it comes to my work.
I inflict a dark side on my work, on my- self," her journal states.
Corn
Dance, a 36-inch by 30-inch acrylic on paper.
The color gray parallels Roberts' life on a happier note, as well.
In 1987, she traveled extensively through Europe, and spent a particularly joyful time in Venice, Italy, where she whiled away hours sketching gray pigeons. "I called them St. Mark's pigeons. They flocked to San Marcos Square, to be sketched, I decided. They were gloriously fat, didn't move very quickly, tame from attention from the tourists, and seemed to enjoy being still, posing, while I sketched them."
There is the provocative gray of the soft Silver City twilight, which
Roberts likens to a tube of paint called Payne's Gray. It is in the "Payne's
Gray" time-twilight, and just afterward-that Roberts begins to think
of her grays-and her colors-that she will incorporate in a painting during
the up coming night, It is a time of introspection and the coming together
of ideas that have been ruminating throughout the day, The Payne's Gray
evening shadows filter through the French doors in the living room in
Roberts' home, and the artist admits that it is a period of calm, a "state
of grace" that precedes the hours of work soon to follow in the studio.
Color dominates her living room-a rainbow offering of works of other artists,
pre- Columbian figures, a richly brocaded Chinese robe, Mexican masks
purchased during various travels and masks from the Pacific Northwest.
There are masks that smile in flamboyant colors, masks that present a
pleasant pastel countenance, masks that sneer or grimace in purples and
magentas.
Their faces peer down from high walls, an interesting counter- point to the backs that are presented in Roberts' studio-canvas upon canvas of the "Blanket Series"-the backs of Native American figures shrouded in vividly colored blankets. These are the signature paintings that have characterized Roberts' work for many years. In the upper part of the painting, the head is defined, the component that would be defined as realism, The blanketed backs of the figures present bold, zig-zagging geometric lines or gentle rivulets of paint that trail through a background of crimson or magenta or ochre. The lines are the abstract components of the painting.
In her "Tablita Series," Roberts uses a similar technique as
for her "Blanket Series." The tablita-the flat, rectangular
board used as headdress by the Pueblo Indian dancers of northern New Mexico
-serves as the background for the artist's conceptualized symbols and
vivid color,
One of her "Tablita Series" paintings hangs on the living room
wall. It serves as a, reminder that the painting time is soon upon the
artist, and that; the quiet pleasure of her living room must be abandoned
for the work-that
awaits in the studio a few steps away. Before she begins the evening's
work, she pens an entry in the journal: &"I can live in beauty, but
can't live with perfection."
This tongue-in-cheek dictum is reinforced by the presence of the "others"
who share the artist's home: Brava, Iska, Merry Matilda, Burton, Evita,
Clarissa, Pearl, Minnie and Max-the four dogs and five cats who enjoy
equal status with their mistress and keeper. Doggie and kitty toys litter
the floor, comforters are thrown across couches and chairs (to protect
the furniture? or give comfort to the ménage?), and there are special
blankets and throw rugs in corners for a cozy lie-down for one or more
dogs. A carpeted, cat-climbing tree dominates one end of the room, and
there are pots of kitty salad, positioned for easy snacking. As might
be expected, the animals are, varicolored.
Dolona Roberts, colorist, would have it no other way. ?
Louise Turner co-authored Will Shuster: A Santa Fe Legend and is a
frequent contributor to national and inter- national arts publications.
NEW MEXICO MAGAZINE / AUGUST 1994