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      El Agua es La Vida: A Village Life Portrait
      Exit West: A Cultural Confluence
      Roy Oakes: A Life Given
      Transcape
      Toxic Tour of Texas
      Time Shadows of Ancient Greece
      The Magic Valley
      Beam of Eros
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SHARON STEWART
photography
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Exit West: A Cultural Confluence
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TRADITION ANd change

• • •
IN THE LAST NUMBER OF DECADES, the inherent immigrant nature of North Americans has evinced itself once again in a revived population shift to the American West. In 1994 when relocating to the convergence of  the Sangre de Cristo Mountains and the Great Plains, I became one of those immigrants. As a cultural chronicler with cameras as companions, my years living in the Mora Valley have been spent observing, as well as being observed.

Though there no longer is a full Native tribal presence in the valley, profiles of Mexican and Indigenous bloodlines can be discerned in the faces of my neighbors, also ninth-generation descendants of Spanish conquerors for the cross and crown, some yet speaking in sixteenth-century Andalusian idioms. People here have been reluctant to embrace those from the “outside” and remain grounded by their faith in tradition, family, community, the church, and the land’s fecundity. With that is a depth of cultural wealth here that no outsider can easily grasp.
Long a land-based economy, there are yet seasonal indicators such as rocks, trees, livestock, wildlife, and produce that are harvested and sold for financial sustenance. In retiring from urban centers that provided crucial jobs, children of the valley are returning to a less complex life with renewed appreciation for their distinctive culture. And with the area attracting many drawn to its abundant natural attributes, joint contributions re-establishing commerce with organic farming and ranching, growers' cooperatives, the restoration of historic properties, cottage industries, and local news publications signify an honoring of the "old ways" while bringing an influx of possibility for a vibrant rural existence. It is in a visual fusion of memory, perception, and form, that these images offer contemplations on the social, economic, familial, and religious influences that continue to define the cultural landscape of Northern New Mexico.

Sharon Stewart, Palomas for Adolfo
I
Rituals & Traditions
Sharon Stewart, Water Not Fracking
II
Accretions of ChangE
Sharon Stewart, Robert and Jacklin
III
People of the Valley
Sharon Stewart, Mora Valley From Chacón
IV
HomeWorld
PRINTS
1994 - Present
20 x 16 Selenium Toned Gelatin Silver Photographs
Editions of 50

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SELECTED EXHIBITIONS

Looking Back New Mexico History Museum    

Agua y Fe: Water and Faith  Las Vegas, NM Arts Council and Plaza Hotel

Contemplative Landscape  New Mexico History Museum

The Cultural Landscape of Northern New Mexico  Office of the State Historian

Shifting Landscapes  Southwest Collection Special Collections Library at Texas Tech University  

From Petroglyphs to Plazas  Office of Archeological Studies  New Mexico Governor's Gallery  

New Mexico Photographers Runnels Gallery Eastern New Mexico University


• • •

COLLECTIONS


Center for Southwest Research Special Collections Library  University of New Mexico

George Eastman Museum

Harwood Museum of Art

Museum of Fine Arts Houston

Stanford University Special Collections Library and University Archives


• • •

PRESENTATIONS

Contemplative Landscape New Mexico History Museum

Where Angels Come to Sing  Theaterwork

Shifting Landscapes: Considerations of Time, Place, and Culture  SPE Southwest Regional Conference


• • •

PUBLICATIONS

Cheryl and Bill Jamison,  Tasting New Mexico, Santa Fe,  Museum of NM Press, 2012
Christmas Day, Chacón
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