Santa Fe’s legendary evening sunlight surrounded Pacheco Street’s trendy shopping plaza as people streamed into Victoria Price Art & Design for the opening night festivities of Santa Fe Design Weekend 2008.

Price’s slide presentation, “My Life and Welcome to It: Learning to Love Design,” revealed the combination of art and design that permeated her childhood. Price is the daughter of the late Hollywood actor and art collector Vincent Price and his first wife, architectural designer Mary Price.

 “From the minute I popped out of the womb, design was my mother’s focus for me,” said Price. “Greek columns literally lined my sandbox. I grew up surrounded by an amazing art collection.”

Price’s lecture set the tone for a spirited, early autumn weekend of events that highlighted the radicalization of Santa Fe style by an increasing number of New Mexican designers who seamlessly blend indigenous and handcrafted art forms into sleek urban interior designs.

The 15-member Santa Fe Interior Designers Presents (SFIDP) committee, a grassroots professional organization that has been hosting design events in the city since 2004, coordinated this year’s events. Business sponsors included the American Society of Interior Designers, the Center for Contemporary Arts, Chris Martinez/IM design studios, Cielo Design, Santa Fe By Design, and Statements in Tile.

According to SFIDP member Janet Di Luzio, of Wiseman & Gale & Duncan Interiors, in addition to $1,000 the group had already donated, proceeds from Design Weekend were given to Santa Fe’s Youth Shelters transitional housing program. The private nonprofit organization has been serving New Mexico’s at-risk youth since 1980. “We’re going to help with the interior design of a number of new rooms in the transitional living program facility on Airport Road,” says Di Luzio, “to make them as enjoyable as possible.”

Youth Shelters’ development director, Melissa Frank, explains the value of the contribution: “It is so important for our youth to be in a space that is a healing and caring environment. We’re grateful to SFIDP members for much more than financial support. They are a truly engaged group who have been generous not only with expertise but with time.”

Art and Business: A Savvy Combo

A panel titled “The Feel of It: Handcrafted Design in the 21st Century,” moderated by industry icon David Sutherland, focused on design as a personal calling that, when properly managed, can lead to significant economic benefits without compromising quality. Panelists, all of whom work intimately with textures, included Erin Adams, Joan Weissman, and art-textile designer Nomi Franklin (who works out of Watsonville, California).

Weissman, founder of Joan Weissman Studio in Albuquerque, hand-paints the designs of her custom rugs and works closely with weavers in Kathmandu, northern Pakistan, and the United States. One of her rugs adorns the New Mexico Governor’s Mansion, and her work in terrazzo can be seen in the Fine Arts Center at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque. (Terrazzo floors appear to be fine mosaics but are actually an exquisite blend of colored chips of marble, glass, and stone.)

Adams, founder of Erin Adams Design, also in Albuquerque, is widely considered one of the nation’s top designers of mosaics. Her acclaim, she said, is sourced from a well of passion: “I approach my mosaics as fabrics. Glass is malleable. First comes the pattern, then the colors. Clients often like choosing the palette. I create the words; the client writes the sentence.”

In his wrap-up, moderator Sutherland emphasized the importance of educating clients. “We have to eliminate the cash-and-carry mentality and help people understand just how much work is involved in getting exactly what they want,” he said. “It takes more time, but quality design that lasts a lifetime is the ultimate in sustainability.”

Conjunto Couture

“Experience Design,” part of the weekend’s gala closing festivities, emerged from the pre-show darkness within the former tank-repair warehouse turned Muñoz Waxman Gallery at the Center for Contemporary Arts. Members of Albuquerque’s Joseph Andrew Dance Company, wearing Taos artist Ira Lujan’s headdresses of incandescent glass sculpture, riveted the audience as music by Michael Stearns and ThaMuseMeant, a four-piece northern New Mexico band, rocked the room into an electronic-jungle paradise.

The fashion and performance-art extravaganza was lit like gangbusters. Designers Ezra Estes, Shelly Lang, Dianna Kelly, Walter Barney, Dawn Bacon, Elisa Jiménez, and Leland Chapin presented haute couture Nuevo Mexico style. Models in fanciful, flyaway hairdos strutted in gravity-defying dresses of bold colors and fabrics. Some outfits looked like chocolate truffles; others seemed newly flown in from Paris via Roswell. The Tsosie-Gaussoin family, Dell Fox, Hollie Ambrose, Cynthia Jones, and Moses Nadel provided accessories as big as toys. Party earrings are definitely back! Sculptural, edgy—literally sharp—Native American jewelry made clothing seem an afterthought.

Executive producer and creative director Cecilia Kurzweg spoke with Trend while her friend Reyna Robinson, an Albuquerque makeup artist, prepared her for the stage.

“Reyna’s here on her anniversary,” Cece said. “That’s the kind of dedication we’ve had for this all–New Mexican event.”

“I brought my husband to hear your husband play,” Reyna said.

Cece’s husband, John Kurzweg, is the multitalented producer, songwriter, and guitarist who leads the Sean Healen Band, known for its rock-and-folk-and-roll sound. Before the night was done, Kurzweg and the band had rocked CCA to its foundations.

“John and I could live anywhere, but we chose Santa Fe for its creative energy,” Cece said. “Every time I go back to Los Angeles, I realize how many artists here are just as good as anybody you meet there, or anywhere. Santa Fe artists should get louder, I think. They deserve to be heard.”

Capital City = Design Capital

One theme that emerged throughout the weekend was that local efforts to define northern New Mexico as a design industry center are bearing fruit. “You no longer have to go to New York, Los Angeles, Milan, or Paris to find the leading edge,” said Joan Weissman. “It’s right here in New Mexico.”

Democratizing Culture • In Guad We Trust • Desert Edge: SF Design Weekend 08
The Design Road: SF Design Weekend 08 • Back to the Future
Living Green—and Yellow and Blue and Red • Experience Design—the Jewelry of Hollie Ambrose
Experience Fashion—the Music of Michael Stearns • Business Profiles • Living Urban • Contributors