New Mexico Landscapes Inspire Inaugural Experiential Academic Elective

Students participating in Colorado Academy’s inaugural summer Experiential Academic Elective, the Art of Place and Culture, returned to campus June 12, 2025, to work together for a week to curate a group exhibition in the Ponzio Arts Center Main Gallery highlighting their experiences of art-making, history, and culture in and around Santa Fe, NM.

Says rising Sophomore Henry Blue of the two-week, one-trimester-credit course offered by the Department of Visual and Performing Arts, “It was incredible to take in everything we saw in New Mexico and then come back here and have such freedom to create whatever we wanted. Everyone on the trip interpreted it differently.”

During a weeklong stay at Ghost Ranch, a 21,000-acre retreat and education center in north central New Mexico, six artists had the chance to explore the natural environment and exact locations that inspired many of the most iconic works by American modernist painter Georgia O’Keeffe, who lived at Ghost Ranch for much of her later life. 

Led by CA Visual Art Instructor Stashia Taylor and Photography Instructor Karen Donald, students delved into non-traditional art techniques, experimented with diverse materials, and learned from experienced local artists and curators. Visiting the Georgia O’Keeffe House Museum in Abiquiú, New Mexico, and the Institute of American Indian Arts Museum in Santa Fe, they explored themes of place, identity, and artistic legacy.

The aim of the nascent Experiential Academic Elective program, according to Director of College Counseling and Upper School Strategic Initiatives Sonia Arora ’01, is “to provide Upper School students with deeper space for immersive engagement and self-directed, inquiry-based learning. Students get the opportunity to dive into their academic and artistic passions and extend their learning beyond the classroom.”

Blue’s final project for the course, a series of color photos designed to be viewed as a single landscape, underscores that “The ridges, color shifts, and rock formations in the landscape at Ghost Ranch stood out to me, as they were very unique compared to what I am used to. Even though desert areas may look very similar, there are actually all these very different shades and tones and textures that are part of it.”

Fellow rising Tenth Grade participant Tyler Mendenhall, too, spent his time in the desert capturing landscape photos, returning to CA to laser-cut the prints into prisms, which he assembled into a sculpture. “I’ve never done anything like this,” says Mendenhall. “It’s kind of two projects in one.”

Dalyn Truong, a rising Junior, took a different approach. She captured large cyanotypes—photos produced on paper or cloth through a process known for blue monochrome images—then cut the resulting prints into strips that she could weave into a hanging tapestry. “I learned during the course about the Native American belief that nature holds collective memories, so I combined the prints with childhood photos I found of myself as well as real plants from New Mexico.”

Truong goes on, “I became interested in how weaving could better explore how memories overlap, connect, and fade over time. My idea shifted from showing individual moments to creating a more physical and emotional experience map. I wanted the finished piece to feel like a visual journal that held my memories and childhood. The weaving process became symbolic of how we construct identity through pieces of the past.”

According to rising Tenth Grader Jessie Miller, “While visiting Santa Fe, I was particularly drawn to the sharp contrast between objects such as fences, power lines, and signs and the landscapes behind them. Along with this, I wanted to explore the ways that humans interact with the land, and how that had changed over time. In my art, I experimented with mixed media to exemplify the contrasting shapes and silhouettes of human-made objects and the natural world.”

Fellow artist and rising Junior Leo Grajeda was captivated by the idea of storytelling that O’Keeffe captured in her work. “O’Keeffe’s paintings would mainly focus on landscapes and places where she had been, reimagining her travels from memory and telling the story of how she viewed the land. The Gallina and Sapawe cultures of the region used designs in pottery to showcase the story of their cultures through specific patterns.”

Describing their unique works combining photography and acrylic cutouts, Grajeda notes, “In my photography, I noticed I mainly focused on people. The designs on top of some of the silhouettes were inspired by the Gallina, Sapawe, and my Mexican culture. By putting the designs within the people I am showcasing the stories we bring with us wherever we go.”

Ariyana Barnett took as her subject O’Keeffe herself. “I chose to use her brave cropping technique and monochromatic palette to highlight the artist’s facial features, then contrast this with the vibrant colors in the background.

Says Taylor of the collaborative works that the artists also created, “Students embraced the land not only as inspiration but also as material. They gathered local soils and minerals to create natural pigments, wove found grasses and plants into experimental forms, and created sun prints using desert flora to capture the ephemeral impressions of place. Working en plein air, they responded to the light, color, and contours of Ghost Ranch.”

Adds Donald, “The resulting artworks reflect a synthesis of their experiences, as students blend experimental techniques with personal narrative, historical inquiry, and contemporary perspectives. Each piece is a response to the question: What does it mean to make art in relationship with land, culture, and identity?”