CRAFTS WITH ANASTASIA--GUEST AUTHOR VANESSA A. RYAN AND THE ART WORLD OF SANTA FE

Santa Fe, New Mexico

Vanessa A. Ryan is an actress, author, and artist whose paintings and sculptures are collected worldwide. At one point, she performed standup comedy, so her writing often reflects her love of humor, even for serious subjects. Learn more about Vanessa and her books at her website. 

Navajo silver and turquoise bolo
photo by Markus Barlocher 

The Art World Of Santa Fe

The Santa Fe art scene means different things to people. For some, it's all about American Indian art. Their weavings, pottery, paintings and jewelry. In August, people flock to Santa Fe for Indian Market week, an outdoor celebration displaying contemporary, traditional and antique Indian art. The city also has a similar art week for Spanish art, held in July. In addition to these two cultural events, many art galleries in the city deal exclusively in Indian or Spanish art year round.

Santa Fe is also known for contemporary art galleries that exhibit work of artists who are not working in the Native American or Spanish traditions. In the early twentieth century, many artists from other states came to New Mexico because of its scenery and simplistic way of life. They formed art colonies, which led to Santa Fe and Taos attracting tourists who wanted to buy their art. Who hasn't heard of one of the most famous of these artists, Georgia O'Keefe?

Today, the city has a contemporary art scene that rivals New York and Los Angeles.

Navajo Blankets
photo by Matthew A. Lynn

Because Santa Fe occupies a small geographic area, it's easy for people to visit a multitude of art galleries in a short amount of time. While there are shopping areas outside the downtown districts, you won't find art galleries there, since most of the tourist trade is closer to the center of town.

As you can imagine, galleries pay a premium to be in these downtown areas. Because of that, they tend to exhibit world-renown artists rather than the local artists. However, the local artists who can afford the high rents often operate galleries exclusively for their own work. But regardless of whatever art market people are interested in, it's the quaint streets and enchanting landscape of Santa Fe that attracts them.

A Palette For Murder (A Lana Davis Mystery)

Lana Davis arrives in New Mexico from Los Angeles, planning to look up a former boyfriend and take in some sightseeing. But this all-expense-paid trip is not a vacation. She's here to find Antonio Chavez, last seen in Santa Fe. He's the missing beneficiary of a large life insurance policy her company issued. The heat is on because a disgruntled heir insists he should receive the proceeds instead. However bogus his claim is, the public relations nightmare he causes for her company is real. If Lana doesn't find Antonio, her job is on the line.

Lana's search for Antonio brings her into the inner circle of a powerful art gallery in Santa Fe, owned by the daughter of a wealthy family. Although Lana's knowledge of art is limited to the one art history class she took in college, she soon discovers, when art and greed collide, the result is deadly. But her knack for finding dead bodies makes the police nervous. And finding herself a target for murder is more than she signed up for. 

BuyLink 

TRAVEL WITH SERENA--GUEST AUTHOR SUSAN C. SHEA

Santa Fe, NM

Susan C. Shea writes the Dani O’Rourke mystery series. Today she stops by to tell us about Santa Fe, the setting for Murder in the Abstract. Learn more about Susan and her books at her website and blog. 

I’m going to start by sounding like a caffeined-up tourist guide, but I promise I’ll get to murder mysteries soon.

Santa Fe is a special place, equally delightful in every season, rich with multicultural art, food, music, and history. While it does a magnificent job catering to tourists, it’s also a real working area, which adds a welcome level of liveliness to the town…and a handful of local Mexican-Southwest restaurants on the main drag outside of the old town serving some of the tastiest food around. And art? Well, there’s no way you can see a quarter of what’s there in one visit, which is one reason, if you love art, that you’re drawn back time and again.

I had been to Santa Fe four or five times before I decided to set part of my debut mystery, Murder in the Abstract, there. What brought my significant other and me there in the first place were the galleries that carried his Calderesque mobile sculptures over the years. When one folded – and they do come and go in this highly competitive gallery town - another would pick him up, and every year or so, he needed to visit, shake hands, and generally be present. I would tag along, scout out good restaurants and hikes, and try not to spend too much money on Southwestern arts and crafts.

Tim Rose's Mobiles at Shidoni Gallery

When I began my series, I decided it would be fun to have my San Francisco-based amateur sleuth visit one other American location as part of each story. It took me about 20 seconds to pick Santa Fe as the first. It was a good fit because my series is set in the art world, with a cast of museum staffers, collectors, artists, and socialites – and Santa Fe has all of that. The story begins in San Francisco when a brilliant young artist plunges from a window in the art museum where Dani works – her office window. She’s convinced that his rising prominence as a painter had something to do with his death, but the police suspect her. She flees to Santa Fe to chase down a collector she thinks will profit from the artist’s death, but the plot – of course –thickens before she figures out who did the deed.

Interestingly, the nice reviews the book got frequently mentioned the evocative, visceral sense of place as one of the novel’s strengths. I wrote about Santa Fe in the winter, with snow and cold wind, and crackling fires, and the warmth of terrific Mexican food as prepared by Santa Fe cooks. I love the place, and critics could tell.

I’ve been back since, the latest time being for a fabulous Left Coast Crime event a few years ago. And I will go again. I miss my S.O.’s presence; he passed away before Murder in the Abstract came out. But I can always drop by Shidoni, the last gallery to carry his work, eat at our favorite cafe, Pasqual’s, and go to the Folk Museum, the O’Keeffe Museum, SITE Santa Fe, or any of about a dozen excellent museums.

Murder in the Abstract

Danielle O'Rourke's gala evening at the Devor Museum ends in catastrophe when the body of a young artist plummets from her office window. The police label it murder and suspect Dani, the Museum's chief fund raiser. Self-preservation and an insider's understanding of how money moves the art world drive her to investigate who might have a motive for murder. Dani's playboy ex-husband and a green-eyed cop complicate matters as her search moves through the fashionable worlds of San Francisco and Santa Fe.

Buy Links

paperback 

ebook 

TRAVELS WITH SERENA--NEW MEXICO WITH AUTHOR KRIS BOCK

Battleship Rock, New Mexico

Kris Bock writes novels of suspense and romance involving outdoor adventures and Southwestern landscapes. Each of her books is set in places in and around New Mexico. Today she tells us about four of her favorite places and the books they inspired. To learn more about Kris and her books, visit her website. 

I’ve lived in 10 states (from Alaska to Rhode Island) and one foreign country (Saudi Arabia, as a child), so I always had trouble answering “Where are you from?” But when I moved to New Mexico, I quickly fell in love, and it felt like home. I’ve now been here twice as long as I’ve lived anywhere else. The desert Southwest inspires my work, as I bring suspense with a dose of romance to the land I love. Here are some of my favorite spots in New Mexico - heavy on the adventure. (My book titles in the main text link to my website pages for more info. In the bio at the end, they go directly to Amazon.)

Socorro: This town in the middle of the state is mainly a rest stop between Albuquerque and El Paso, except in October/November when huge flocks of cranes and snow geese fly in to the Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge. But as a local, I know the special places nearby. Hikes can take you out in the desert or up to the mountains, visiting native petroglyphs or hunting for fossils. Hundreds of rock climbing routes provide adventures for everyone from beginners to experts. Plus, you have a good chance of seeing unusual wildlife, from roadrunners to foxes to great horned owls. In my treasure hunting adventure, Rattled, the heroine and her best friend live in a fictionalized version of Socorro. They hunt for the lost Victorio Peak treasure, a real Southwest legend about a heretic Spanish priest’s gold mine, made richer by the spoils of bandits and an Apache raider. I drew on personal experiences hiking in the desert for Erin and Camie’s adventures – though fortunately I’ve never stumbled on a rattlesnake nest or gotten caught in a flash flood!

Jemez Springs: This small town in the mountains of northwestern New Mexico is known for its hot springs. You can also visit the ruins of an old Spanish church; Soda Dam, a cool rock formation formed from the mineralized water flowing in the river; and Battleship Rock, so named because it resembles the prow of a battleship. (Pictures on my Pinterest page.) I’ve attended many writing retreats at a camp north of the town, and those experiences inspired Counterfeits, my latest romantic suspense novel. Of course, in the book, the site isn’t quite so relaxing. When Jenny inherits a children’s art camp outside of town after her grandmother’s death, she discovers that her death might not have been an accident after all. The men who killed her grandmother are searching for stolen paintings, and they think Jenny and her old friend Rob, the camp cook, can help. Doing research at a real camp tucked away in the woods, and hiking above Battleship Rock for a scene where Jenny gets lost, help the novel feel realistic.

Hovenweep National Monument: All right, this one is not actually in New Mexico, but it’s close. Located on the southern border between Colorado and Utah, these ruins once housed 2500 people between A.D. 1200 and 1300. It’s one of many sites left behind by the ancestral Puebloans, also known as the Anasazi. It’s a smaller site than some, but that’s part of its charm. You can hike and camp without crowds. Hovenweep inspired my romantic suspense Whispers in the Dark. My heroine is an archaeology Masters student working at the fictional “Lost Valley” monument, which is closely based on Hovenweep. The lonely location allows for an almost Gothic atmosphere – mysterious lights in the canyon, spooky moaning sounds, and plenty of people hiding secrets.

Lincoln County: What We Found is the most mysterious of my novels, and that’s true for the setting as well. I loosely based the mountain resort town in my book on Ruidoso, but more for the general location than the town itself. The forested town at nearly 7000 feet elevation is not what most people probably imagine when they think of New Mexico. Yet it seemed like the perfect place for the story of Audra, a young woman who stumbles on a dead body in the woods. More than one person isn’t happy about her bringing the murder to light. And in a small town, it’s hard to avoid people who wish you ill. This novel was inspired by the true experience of finding a body, as I described in this blog post. I also spent time with a man who raises falcons and hawks (photos on my Pinterest page), and that comes into play in the story. It’s the chance to meet such fascinating people that makes New Mexico a great place for a writer!

I’ve left out many wonderful sights, but these are some of my personal special spots. If you make it to the Southwestern United States, maybe you’ll enjoy them as well. Otherwise, you can visit in books. Either way, we’ll be glad to have you!