“We clasp the hands of those who go before us, and the hands of those who come after us; and the larger circle of all creatures, passing in and out of life, who move also in a dance, to a music so subtle and vast that no ear hears it except in fragments.” (Wendell Berry) ~C. A. Santa Maria

My Vermont childhood was tapping maple trees, sugar on snow, white wooden church steeples, hanging clothes on the line outside.  Much later came the songs and drums of west Africa, the potters and poets of Mexico.  This was a time of memories of stepping off a plane in Accra into a heat that never left,  a market place filled with the glorious pandemonium of peppery smells, swirls and swishes of deep magentas, wildly lush, savory greens, yellows that filled the sky.

For the next 20 years Mexico graciously shared its strange, exquisite visions of the Huichol, the Oaxacan carved alebrije dream animals, the mysteries and spiritual Days of the Dead.   Infused by this rich variety of “poems” that people live every day,  my art builds on the sounds and magic of the Caribbean, a way of life that is at once simple and yet a complicated mix of ancient Toltec, Maya, Otomi.  I received my Masters from Darmouth College (Hanover, NH) but Africa and Mexico taught me how to be a human being.

My time is divided now by the seasons in Mexico and Vermont.  Lately the night sky of the southwest has called to me.   I still hang my clothes outside because they smell of the sun and the sky when they come off the line.  Because I imagine the sweet, soft breezes that make them dance come from places that have secret songs and if I am patient enough perhaps I can learn them.

Annie is the April 2016 featured artist. Please follow this link to read more: About Annie Santa Maria

Are you interested in purchasing C. A. Santa Maria’s work? Please contact Rogoway Turquoise Tortoise Gallery for more information.