Courtesy 5. Gallery
A Wandering Artist
David McDonald takes over Santa Fe’s 5. Gallery
In his 1954 novel The Fellowship of the Ring, JRR Tolkien famously penned, “All that is gold does not glitter, not all those who wander are lost.”
That quote, even when removed from its context, became a bit of a cultural touchstone. Sixty-seven years later, Lana Del Rey used the latter half as a song title, and that song inspired Los Angeles-based artist David McDonald’s latest exhibit at 5. Gallery, To Wander is Not to be Lost.
McDonald, a graduate of the California Institute of the Arts, works with a wide range of materials, however he generally creates his pieces using hydrocal, a form of hard plaster, which he adorns with liquid watercolor and dried pigments. The hydrocal is poured into a mold, and not even McDonald knows what the plaster will form.
“It’s this idea that you can wander, be somewhat aimless, but still know where you’re going,” he says. “When I pour my molds, I don’t know what’s going to happen, and that’s exciting.”
To be fair, he’s done a lot of exploring himself. Born in Liverpool, England, McDonald has lived in Venezuela and China, and is now settled in the US. When he started school in Venezuela, he didn’t go straight into the arts, however. His first foray into the field was around the age of 25, when he started attending the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. 30 years later, McDonald has attended multiple residencies, received numerous grants and shown his work in a wide range of galleries across the country. A recent residency in Taos is where most of his work for this upcoming exhibition started, and he seeks to explore organic shapes without a set theme.
“I don’t start with a preplanned idea,” McDonald explains. “About halfway through the piece, I figure it out. They are completely abstract, not meant to represent landforms or anything like that. I just want them to have a physical presence.” (Callie Elkins)
David McDonald: To Wander is Not to be Lost Opening: Noon-5 PM Saturday, Oct 11. Free. 5. Gallery, 2351 Fox Road No. 700, 5pointgallery.com
With a Capital J
Courtesy Lensic.org
Though America’s bizarre mid-’90s love affair with swing and big band music mostly went by the wayside ages ago, there are still those acts that kept it going and manage to carry the tenets of those jazzy styles into evolutionarily far more interesting places. Take hybrid Canadian-American act The Julia Keefe Indigenous Jazz Ensemble. Vocalist/musician Keefe (Nez Perce) has assembled a nine-piece mega-band dedicated to jazz, soul, swinging grooves and various other styles of music—all with a reverent nod to Indigenous composers and their contributions to popular music. In short, you’ll surely learn something, and you’ll also get grooved so damn hard. (Alex De Vore)
The Julia Keefe Indigenous Jazz Ensemble: 7:30 pm Thursday, Oct. 9. $43-$69. Lensic Performing Arts Center, 211 W San Francisco St., (505) 988-1234
From the Levant With Love
Courtesy Sliman Mansour
Founded by Miraj Bukhari-Frayer, The Avizeh Collective is a local nonprofit on a mission to preserve the cultural narratives and identities of people from the Silk Road region of the world. Through that collective, Bukhari-Frayer also collaborates with the Santa Fe Public Library for 3 Cups of Tea, a series aimed at bringing cultural narratives to life through in-depth panel discussions, music, art, dance, food and meaningful connection. This Saturday, The Avizeh Collective hosts its fourth event in that series, Mothers from Levant. The gathering features Palestinian mothers and their children for a Q&A, regional Palestinian appetizers and tea, plus poems, stories and Levantine folk dance. (Adam Ferguson)
3 Cups of Tea: Mothers from Levant: 3 pm, Saturday, Oct. 11. Free. Santa Fe Public Library (Southside), 6599 Jaguar Drive, (505) 955-2820
Courtesy Earl Justin Cook
Earl's Court
One can hardly chuck a rock around here without hitting some goober and their acoustic guitar/songs about love, loss and trains. Yeah, we’re still feeling it in Santa Fe when it comes to county, folk, country-folk, honky-tonky and so on. That’s precisely how a dude like Nashville’s Dylan Earl can come to town and we’ll all get psyched on that. Earl is slated to hit The Marigold Room on Tuesday, Oct. 14 with his finger-picky blend of progressive country tunes. Vocal-wise, think Roger Miller drawl meshed with a Tennessee Ernie Ford bit of low note emotionalism. Earl’s influences are clear, but he still carves out a niche all his own (check out his recent performance of “Get in the Truck” for Western AF to see what we’re talkin’ about). (ADV)
Dylan Earl: 7 pm Tuesday, Oct. 14. $22.95. The Marigold Room, 750 N St Francis Drive, (505) 992-5800
