¡Colores!; Betty Busby, Richard Hogan, Health Seekers

KNME-TV (Television station : Albuquerque, N.M.) · 2016

Experimenting with textures, fabrics, dyeing and weaving, Albuquerque fiber artist Betty Busby makes stunning works of art that go beyond traditional quilt making. “The branching of trees is the same as the branching of vessels in a circulatory system. It’s the same as a river branching off. Those repeated patterns in nature are something I revisit again and again.” Since the 1970’s, Richard Hogan has been one of Albuquerque’s most celebrated painters. He sees his paintings as objects and uses line and color to build spatial tension. “In a certain sense my work is very simple, it’s visual and I want people to look at it without preconception, without looking for a narrative.” In the early 1900’s, Albuquerque became a destination and a symbol of hope for many who were suffering tuberculosis. “Health Seekers” came seeking a cure in the high desert. “There was no known cure at the time. Streptomycin wasn’t discovered until the 1940’s and in the meantime, climate was thought to be very therapeutic, someplace that was dry, sunny, and a high altitude where the air was considered to be pure. And New Mexico had that in abundance”—Nancy Owen Lewis (Author, Chasing the Cure in New Mexico: Tuberculosis and the Quest for Health).