Southwest Art – August 2019

Where My Dreams
Dwell, oil pastel, 24 x 48.

74 WWW.SOUTHWESTART.COM • AUGUST 2019

BY GUSSIE
FAUNTLEROY

recentwork—vibrant oil-pastel paintings

of northern New Mexico villages. “You

usedtodothat,” he said to her, pointing to

thesaints,“andnow you’re doing this,” he

saidashenodded toward the oil pastels.

“Youshouldbedone with the other and

focus on the paintings.” Cavan smiled

inagreement;she had been thinking the

verysamething.

Sincethattime, she has continued to

create award-winning paintings that

Spirit of PlacePlace

TIMELESS LANDSCAPES & OLD ADOBES ANIMATE THE

ESSENCE OF NEW MEXICO IN JENNIFER CAVAN’S ART

JENNIFER CAVAN was standing

beside her work at her fi rst major art

show, in Dallas in 2000, when a fel-

low artist stepped into her booth and

looked around. He took in the earlier

pieces Cavan had created shortly af-

ter she moved to Angel Fire, NM—

retablos and bultos (two- and three-

dimensional images of Catholic saints)

in the mode of Spanish Colonial art. Then

he spent some time in front of her more