The (unofficial) winner of “Most Unique” was Juan Gonzalez! And he wasn’t even an official artist. JB & Company Auto Repair was an ‘enhanced’ business sponsor showing the staff’s creations. Juan’s sculptures made from discarded auto parts were wildly imaginative and well done. While he’s been asking about the art tour since last year, it was only in the last 2 months that he and his co-worker, Isaias Marquez, put their creative heads together to start making the sculptures.

From a clock in a repurposed connecting rod and piston of a John Deere 4020 tractor, to lamps made from a Chevy motor with a transfer case base, or the gutted inside of an alternator, with the outside fashioned into a robot-looking sculpture flashing colors; this work was amazing. Isaias’ pieces were wonderful as well, and Juan’s son, Marcos, added colorful clocks to the mix.

Juan has a full schedule as a valuable mechanic and turns to his art late at night, as a way to get ‘work’ out of his mind. His first artistic medium was polishing unique rocks, but being immersed in the raw material of car parts all day proved inspiring. Each piece can take between 6-8 hours to construct. Juan’s creativity is entirely self-taught, and every piece on display- sold!

Two other new (to us) artists helped make this summer’s art tour special, and both work at the Questa Public Library.

You can feel the photographer behind the lens in the work of Audrianah León. Her favorite print is a soft, evocative image of the lilac bush separating her (late) grandmother’s yard from her (late) great-aunt’s yard. Audri lives there now, with her mother and brother, and thinks of her grandmother every spring when the blooms return.

Drawing was Audri’s first love, something encouraged by her elementary school teacher, Rachel Roybal. She displayed a variety of hand drawn stickers during the tour. It was in high school, working on the yearbook under the guidance of Jennifer Vialpando that she discovered a love of photography. Gone are the days of developing art prints in one’s own darkroom. Now, the art form is digital with printing most economically achieved online. Audri does, however, have a fascination with vintage cameras, and an interest in how the artform has grown and changed.

Carole Merriman took a hand-building pottery class in college, but didn’t start throwing on the wheel until twenty years later. She fell in love with the tactile nature of clay and the meditative process of spinning and shaping a fluid object. Despite the quality and beauty of Carole’s pieces, she claims to still be in the process of refining her technique, learning the nuances of glazing, throwing, and decorating. Her work ranges from heavy, dark finishes, to light, translucent glazes, using the clay surface like a canvas for “watercolors.”

A native of Colorado, Carole spent most of her adult life in New Mexico as a high school English teacher. Always a creative thinker, it wasn’t until she retired that creativity became artistic. She and her sister, jeweler Rebecca Merriman, have had a straw-bale house built north of Questa. With a home studio for the first time, Carole can easily fit this work into her daily life. During the art tour, they had a mix of admiring visitors, many from Questa and its environs, along with Santa Fe and Albuquerque. Carole found it a joy to connect with so many people.

That’s what the Questa Art Tour is all about, building connections with our neighbors and showing off the best of our community to those from afar.

Find out more about the Questa Creative Council, and all its events and projects at QuestaCreative.org