Ostrich, 1980

Felipe Archuleta’s sculptures stood tall in the Santa Fe of the 1980s. Gallerists, local residents and visitors participated in a kind of frenzy to procure the work of this sometimes-erratic carver with soul. Harvey and I visited him a couple of times in his intriguingly scruffy yard in Tesuque just north of Santa Fe. His subjects included a menagerie of normally unheralded animals - jackrabbits, donkeys and apes - and even a life-size nude woman. We succumbed to some true marvels: a fierce dragon, an ungainly ostrich, a mean-looking sow. I knew these pieces captured Felipe’s genius, and they provided us with a consistent pleasure each day. - M.F.