Monster Painter
by PENA BONITA

I sat listening to salsa coming from the bandshell under a full moon and wondered who the white haired Native gentleman sitting down beside me was. He immediately turned asking, “You married?”

Caught off guard it stuck me as funny that the old guy was coming on so fast and so very up front. I asked, “Does it matter?”

He looked me over declaring, “Yeah! I been married four times. I’m looking for number five.”

I asked him, “What happened to number four?”

He settled down, “Well, she was from Europe . She was an artist too. We were married two years. Her father in Europe became ill. She said she wanted to return to his side and she didn’t want to come back. So I told her, ‘Okay we get a divorce.’ We went to the Office of Records to file for a annulment of the marriage. The man said, ‘Too late, you been married two years. To get an annulment, you can only be together one year.’ So when the man in charge turned his back from us and left the big book of records, I tore the page out. We left. Case closed. Divorced. Now I need a new wife.”

I was curious about his statement: She was an artist too. I asked, “You do art? Who are you?”

“Nicolas Cuellar.”

Nicolas Cuellar, the Otomi artist blessed by Diego Rivera who put his hands on a young Nic’s shoulders long ago and declared, “You are going to be a monster of an artist.”

Remembering the paintings of Nicolas Cuellar seen long ago in major galleries of Santa Fe , I remembered a storm of characters showing Catholic influences from medieval history and the conquest of Spain over the native people of Mexico and all Native tribes in the Southwest for many years. The evening ended by me asking if I could come by his studio the next afternoon and see his paintings. He gave me the address. I left the park amazed that our paths had crossed.

The next afternoon I was overwhelmed by Nicolas’s studio. A small gallery with a ancient Singer Sewing machine covered with a hand painted cloth served as a desk where a young lady greeted the gallery visitors. She called Nicolas and he came seeming surprised that I kept our appointment. He led me further into a small gallery. A wall size painting immediately grabbed my attention. It was a post-modern tale of old conquests in gothic expressions on a grey background. The painting was skillfully done and naked in its truthful, intense sadness. The sadness carried over in every painting I saw that afternoon. His art seemed preoccupied with sadness, fearful monsters; huge, colossal and full of energy. All very cleverly and skillfully bridging magic, mystics, nudes, animals, priests, nuns, and two headed nude women. After viewing his work, he asked me, “Would you like me to paint you?” I declined.

Nicolas lives with his pets, a screaming parakeet, and a roaming rooster. They are included in the paintings over and over. His living area is full of paintings and drawings everywhere and there is hardly room for a cup of coffee on the table loaded with artist supplies. Flowering plants cover the walls and climb to the ceilings. There were small drawings, statues and memoirs of his travels everywhere and he had a story of each article.

I asked about his early art training and which artists he felt he had been influenced by. He said, “My favorite was Debussy. I like the work of the English artist William Lake . The artist I don’t like is Rembrandt. I like a historical approach. And I include the traditional elements of romantic poetry. When I paint I like to listen to pop music and opera. I like to include various gods and goddesses, spiritual beings in the work. As a young artist I made jewelry like many others from this area, I also did pottery, ceramics, did weavings, and made some furniture but the painting was most relevant. I started by copying religious images. I had a very religious mother and we were influence by the nuns.”

Nicolas received a grant in 1962 to study painting for two years at the Brooklyn Museum , in New York City . He was later commissioned to do two murals for the museum. Two weeks before finishing his studies his painting disappeared leaving him traumatized and wanting to leave New York City . While studying art at the Brooklyn Museum , he met and married a Canadian artist who was also studying there. Disillusioned by life in New York , they traveled to Canada where Nicolas had many exhibitions before accepting a art teacher position at San Carlos .

Nicolas no longer works in art schools but does have private students. The second visit to his studio, a young artist came in who stated, “Nicolas inspires me to paint with his humor, his stories, his paintings of the natural world and the world of magic.”

Nicolas, smiling, said, “I am helping him.”

Nicolas stated, “When painting, I often will be painting an image from my imagination only to have a knock on my door. I open it to find the face of my imagination standing there.”

I didn’t doubt him for a second. But I wasn’t up for marriage.

C L O S E