Plate 12: Saint Rita: From Portfolio "Spanish Colonial Designs of New Mexico" 1935 - 1942

This image of Saint Rita from a portfolio of Spanish Colonial Designs of New Mexico is made with watercolor and graphite on paper. The anonymous artist has played with symmetry and flatness to create a striking image. The arches, the curves, and the stripes make the image echo with a patterned language. What was the artist thinking when they made it? I imagine that this piece has come into being through intuition as a labor of love. The piece is about process, how the artist has carefully built up the image. The thin application of the watercolor allows the graphite under-drawing to come through the image, as a ghostly reminder of the creative process. It reminds me of other outsider artists who make art in their own language, to develop a unique visual vocabulary that speaks to a different way of seeing and experiencing the world. And that’s what makes art so cool, an ongoing conversation, exchanging ideas across time and place.