DEPARTMENTS

Market Makers
By Emily Van Cleve

Hidden talent, public art

Ten years ago Jim Glidden didn’t know he had any artistic talent. “He discovered his talent when we had a midlife crisis and moved from New Jersey to Albuquerque,” laughs Christine Glidden, Jim’s wife and business partner. Trained in engineering and industrial welding, Jim made furniture before he tried his hand at the custom gates and railings the Gliddens’ company makes today. Now, Christine says, “his work bridges the technical with the artistic.”
High Desert Forge specializes in gates and railings created from wrought iron, aluminum, stainless steel, bronze, brass, and copper. The Gliddens’ company has had phenomenal success in recent years. Satisfied customers include the Tamaya Hyatt Resort at Santa Ana Pueblo north of Albuquerque, where Jim built buffalo gourd gates. For Sandia Casino’s dramatic new facility, Jim installed ornamental iron railing and iron grills by the cashier’s counter. The City of Albuquerque Arts in Public Places Program selected High Desert Forge to design and manufacture seven pairs of stainless steel, aluminum, and bronze entry gates for the new Albuquerque baseball stadium. Commercial orders comprise about 70 percent of the company’s work.
Because iron is the metal of choice for most residential and commercial gates and railings, when Jim began working with bronze, steel, and copper three years ago he was venturing into unfamiliar territory. “Jim’s philosophy is, ‘If it’s been done, I can figure out how to do it,’ ” explains Christine. “He has experienced so many personal and professional rewards since he began working with other metals.”
The company’s residential gate and railing designs are often inspired by images within and outside of a home. The design pattern for one client’s gate was based on the rug design in their living room. Popular Southwestern animals on entry gates are a favorite customer request. Petroglyphs and squash blossoms have influenced other gate and railing designs.
“Everything Jim does is one-of-a-kind,” says Christine. “High Desert Forge has become his work and his hobby.”
High Desert Forge, 3715 High Street NE, Albuquerque, N.M., (505) 344-1325, www.highdesertforge.com. Call for a studio visit.

Tell-tale tiles

Even though her art education focused on sculpture, Carolyn Barford never seemed to live in a space big enough for her to create large three-dimensional forms. Instead, she turned to painting.
Serendipity led Barford into tile making as well. In the early 1990s, she decided to install painted tiles in her Costa Rican home but couldn’t find the right kind available commercially. A friend suggested Barford make her own and, being a potter, even showed her a specific slip technique to do the job. When Barford’s friends in New Mexico saw photos of her Costa Rican tiles, “People liked what I had done and began asking me to make tiles for their homes,” she explains. Barford’s tile business was born.
The artist’s designs are as varied as her clients. One couple commissioned Barford to make a huge mural that portrays the story of their courtship. A client born under the astrological sign Leo requested a big lion tile. Animals appear in many of her pieces. They’re whimsical characters often engaged in human-like activities. “I like to use animals because they don’t speak of time or gender,” she says. “They channel how we live.”
Custom tile work is labor-intensive. Depending on design specifications, it can take up to three days for Barford to make one six-inch by six-inch tile. She is frequently asked to produce a large mural for a kitchen, bathroom, or living room. Barford advises homeowners to note electrical outlet locations before deciding where to place the mural so outlets don’t interfere with the design.
“The tiles are pictures that tell a story of life,” Barford says. “My goal is to imply the story and let the images evoke feelings and emotions.”
Carolyn Barford, Shooting Star Studio, P.O. Box 90, Ojo Caliente, N.M., (505) 583-9125,
www.starstudio.8k.com

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High Desert Forge


Carolyn Barford


Noreen Richards

Prints charming

This former painter fell in love with print making during her first semester in the BFA program at the University of New Mexico. Required to take an introductory print-making class, Noreen Richards says she “became hooked” on the art. After that, there was no turning back: “I decided to abandon school, buy a press, and set up a print shop of my own,” she recalls.
Hailing from upstate New York, Richards was captivated by the signs on Route 66 when she moved to Albuquerque in the late 1980s. For the past decade the artist has been exploring various print making traditions while carving these vernacular images into wood. Motel signs and marquees lining the old “Mother Road”—now Central Avenue—held her undivided attention for five years.
“There’s stuff on signs in New Mexico that you don’t see anywhere else in the country,” Richards marvels. “Route 66 is culturally fascinating. I’ve probably taken more than a thousand photos from Oklahoma to the New Mexico/Arizona state line.” Some of the 14 prints in Richards’ Route 66 series are faithful reproductions of the artist’s original photos; others are composites created from several different photographic images. The artist typically creates up to 25 images of each print and signs and numbers each piece. She usually sells them framed.
Richards is equally enamored of Bosque del Apache, a wildlife sanctuary about an hour’s drive south of Albuquerque where tall deciduous trees reach for the expansive sky. “I’ve been to a lot of bird sanctuaries, and the Bosque is one of the most amazing sanctuaries in the world,” Richards says. Since the year 2000 she has created a dozen prints in the Bosque series.
“Special things happen at the Bosque,” Richards muses. “Life is fleeting and endangered there. I love seeing the cranes flying overhead. I want to preserve this beautiful sanctuary through my prints.”
Noreen Richards, Albuquerque, N.M., (505) 837-2343. Call for a studio visit.

 

 
Home Builders Association of Central New Mexico
4100 Wolcott Ave. NE, Suite B, Albuquerque, NM 87109
505.344.3294

Copyright 2002
Hacienda Press