38 WWW.SOUTHWESTART.COM • AUGUST 2019
Hayes & Taylor-Gore
AlexandraStevensGallery, August23-31
SHOW PREVIEW
Santa Fe, NM
A FEW HAPPY occasions gave cause
for a special two-person show this
month, entitled Together Again, at Al-
exandra Stevens Gallery in Santa Fe,
NM. With artist Arlene LaDell Hayes
recently returning to the gallery’s sta-
ble, and her longtime friend Victoria
Taylor-Gore launching into a full-time
painting career earlier this year, “we
thought we must celebrate,” says gallery
owner Alexandra Stevens.
For Stevens, the exhibition also pres-
ents the opportunity to showcase two
painters with “incredibly creative”
spirits. “They do not necessarily con-
cern themselves with what the viewer’s
reaction is going to be,” she says. “They
create what their hearts tell them.” The
show, which opens on Friday, August
23, with an artists’ reception at 5:30
p.m., features about 10 new paintings by
Taylor-Gore, who has been relishing life
as a full-time painter since she retired as
dean of liberal arts at Amarillo College
earlier this year. Now, with more hours
in the day to paint, the Texas artist hasreturned to her time-intensive Route
66 series of pastel paintings, which she
started a few decades ago. “Right now
the big thing is to make each one of the
paintings special,” she says.
Taylor-Gore’s series captures the
mystery, adventure, and romance of the
open road, and particularly the mood
and magic of New Mexico, where she
resided for several years. But her paint-
ings of unpeopled landscapes, interiors,
and adobe structures aren’t representa-
tions of specifi c places. “They are imagi-Victoria Taylor-Gore, Offering, pastel, 14 x 10. Victoria Taylor-Gore, Approach, pastel, 16 x 11.