If You Really Wanted To Get Me Something | Visual Arts

If You Really Wanted to Get Me Something … SaltGrass Printmakers & Modern West

If You Really Wanted to Get Me Something: Our writers works hard all year and as the holidays roll around we thought we’d give them a chance to let you know what kind of gift they might like. That is, if you wanted to get the something. Some may not come right out and say it’s for them, but if you read between the lines, you’ll get the idea. And artists who are friends of our writers, please note, we restricted them to just a couple of suggestions, so don’t go disinviting them from your holiday party just because you didn’t make the list.

 

At SaltGrass, from top left: Anna Bugbee, screen print, “Conservation of Matter”; top right, Mary Jenkin, relief print, “A Town Divided”; lower left, Trent Alvey, monotype, “Self-Organizing”;Pat Legant, relief print, “Beyond Zion.” Below, two trays, made from carved recycled original woodblocks, painted in brilliant colors: Stefanie Dykes

Since losing a print in Santa Fe seven years ago (a single print by a Russian artist; it disappeared after being left at the foot of a bench, across from an art museum), I always feel a pang of pleasure/sadness/delight when I see a framed print on any wall. There it is, I think, made it to its destination. Where it should be. 

If you go to SaltGrass Printmakers (412 South 700 West), you can find one.  Frame it yourself or find a frame shop to help you. If you prefer it very visible and fresh and near, it is not necessary to place it under glass. You might enjoy a piece by Trent Alvey or Mary Jenkin. Jim deSpain and Sandy Brunvand are there too. And the vividly-colored trays by Stefanie Dykes are delightful.

Steps away, past King’s Peak Coffee, is Modern West. Even if you buy nothing, you’ll step beneath a vast, hand-placed, arch of evergreen sprigs, garlanded with trailing red ribbons, and you’ll carry with you memories of glossy wood floors and, just as in SaltGrass Printmakers, a richness of old brick. Upstairs are books and books bathed in sunlight on tables, pleasingly set face-side up: no tilting your head sideways here. Each book is set out as if it is a separate house, each cover its roof. Aside from the predictable books about artists and art movements, there is an entire row of books about what you can find in Paris; others are titled Hotels Architects Stay In, Living in Bali, and The100 Best Illustrators in the World.

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