¡Colores!; 1701; Notable New Mexican 2006; COLORES NNM06 #2 - 4HR Time code - Mrs. Houser Interview 4/17/06

we'll give John a minute here and one more minute for the tractor I guess can you hear Thomas is that right Sam? He's wrapping up a start so I'm gonna begin asking you questions and I'll give you a moment before you start speaking of silence and then a moment after you're done so that I can have space for editing your sound okay so let's go ahead and begin we're hoping to share with our viewers some observations about Alan Houser's character and personality so that people who are unacquainted with him will basically become endeared and want to learn more about him and his work so if there were some attributes that you thought were unique

or remarkable about him would you describe that to us a little bit just talk about him as a man you have any answer that repeated please repeat it talk a little bit about Alan's personality what kind of a man was he well he was he was always very regarding about other people's ideas opinions he always listened to them and he didn't contradict them because he thought everyone has his own way of thinking his own way of believing and he's not mine why it's he has his own right to think his own way and he was always very kind to others always willing to help them he didn't think anyone would want to hurt him

unless they had some idea that they didn't like him but he was always very very considerate of his family his people their patches he attended their ceremonials he visited it with them he listened to their stories and he was always very considerate of others that's very nice thank you would you talk a little bit about teaching what it meant to him to be a teacher did he value that well he he wasn't he wasn't brought to be a teacher no he wanted to do his own work he was more interested in learning how to do how to paint how to draw how to depict other people's ideas but when he and

I were in Brigham City among all these Navajo students and they were learning how to live in the Anglo ways you know and he thought that there was a very good thing for him to to see that he was he had been the same way when he was younger and he had learned how to get along with people and he he liked helping the young people learn and how to express themselves on paper if they were drawing or how to do certain things in their own way thank you just one moment I'm concerned about ready okay so since we had some noise in the background let's try a little bit of that one more time would you just talk about Alan again and

what a caring person he was how he you were saying how he respected the ideas of other people yes wow okay go ahead well Alan liked to meet other people he never thought about them being different or different color or different rays or anything he always like to talk with them and find out what their ideas were and sometimes ideas of his were different from theirs but he respected them and he liked to learn from others and he went out of his way to help them either ask for his help and he especially with his tribe he liked to learn how they had lived before when they were free when there weren't so many people here in the States and and what their lives were like and what their

communities how they lived in their different communities and how they respected each other or how they well I don't know that's nice I like what you I can write it better than I can say it I understand it's hard when you try to speak the point are you still hearing it a lot you have to delete all that a lot of stuff that I said no don't worry we're getting are you believe it or not there's some nice things in there so don't worry let's see why don't we talk about good that was nice you were talking about his interest in his people and in I don't know if it's so much Pueblo life but yes just as interesting the culture and okay let's try and talk it would you talk about that again okay he he when Ellen was a small child his family his mother especially would tell him stories about

when they were living out with the with his people of the tribe the tribal ways you know traditions they would tell him stories about just like anyone would tell the children stories about their background so he'd like to learn what people thought and how they lived and how they work together and that's what made him draw scenes of his his native traditions his native culture from stories that his parents told him and he was always very very eager to learn how other people lived also like when we came to New Mexico you see New Mexico was his adopted state he was a Oklahoma but there was more of

the tradition here Indian traditions here than in other in Oklahoma where he had been brought up so he went to the Pueblos and he listened to their stories and listen saw how they're how they lived and how he liked to do that he liked to paint what he saw and what he heard from other people that's nice would you talk a little bit about I remember hearing him speak of in in the one show I saw how much he hoped his work would please people and that he meant to honor people in doing his work he spoke about how he hoped that people who got to see his sculptures would find them pleasing and that it would inspire them to honor

the Indian people as much as he did oh yes yes that's why I mean he would tell he would paint he would make sculptures from stories that his mother and father told him or from literary traditions the dances he'd like to show those so their costumes in the different colors and what they believed in and he wanted other people to see that they were something like a religion other people's religions they would look back on these things and they would see that your turkah or past is who are just another kind of people but they have their own beliefs that's a nice thought you want to think about that for a minute no that they were a group of people with their own thoughts that's right that's right

he their own lives in their own homes you know they didn't have big homes or big places to live in they had little wiki ups which are built which were our brush harbors and they live very simply and when they left the place it was never they never cut down the trees or the deposited anything when they left their earth was the same way as when they had come in and the families took care of the children and they were very very loving with their with their children with their families and they took in other people also and helped them oh I

can't talk I tell you I could have written it down better don't worry you're doing fine you're talking about that generosity of spirit that he had oh yes yes he was always for me he was always a very kind and very good and very loving and he would tell me you can do anything you want if you just put your mind to it and that's what he would tell the boys he's what he would tell his his students you can do anything you want if you just study if you'd learn learn all you can and live your own life in that way in the right way that was very nice right there that's what he said yeah it's beautiful I like that what about what do you

think Alan how would you hope that New Mexicans would regard him what do you think he did for New Mexico well here when he came here the Puebla people were a lot different from from the Cherkawa patches but he thought well there's just another people just like Anglos and anyone give him a chance and they'll be your friends you'll be good they'll take care of of their families and they'll so when he came here he bought this place and he said I want to do my sculpture and my paintings and I want to make a sculpture garden and and so the people can come in and see what my ideas about my people were so they can get the idea that well the same and he wants he wanted

the schools to come out here and look at his work and look at his paintings and look at his sculptures and enjoy the peace and the quiet out here so that they they would know that they had a chance also to do the same thing he's the only studied and learned how to get along that's very nice so what he did for New Mexico you might say then is like inspiring people and encouraging them to focus on what they have in common too yes that's what it was yes he had many friends here he'd bring him out here and they'd put up parties and he'd visit with him and he'd show them the sculpture garden and he'd tell them about his stories about his the different sculptures that he made and what they stood for and

he wanted New Mexico to do the same thing for others what he did what he had done he wanted to show up and he wanted other people to know that he understood what the other people were about that's nice I like that is there anything else that you would like to share about him or or any of his pieces that were that you were well I can tell you that when I take people often the sculpture garden I tell them each one of these pieces has story to tell like he has sculptures of the dancers there's a story behind there was a tradition or the woman with a child they love their children and each of them has a story to tell they weren't you can look at the faces

they're very peaceful very very beautiful faces you see paintings or other stories about other sculptures which other people make and their Indians are hard face and they're mean but they'll he tell he wants all I want to tell them that no they were just like you and I they had feelings just like you and I of course they also had negative feelings but there's a lot of beauty there yes yes his pieces capture a lot of the beauty and also the strength right right very peaceful poses that's right why those some of your favorite then do you have a favorite out there in the garden so I I think I liked serenity because it was just a very very simple sculpture with the mother

with the hole in her bag otherwise it's just a piece of stone but just a face and the mother looking at her child I thought that was very beautiful but as I say each one of those species has a story to tell and maybe I know them maybe my sons know them but people who come out here don't know them so we have to tell them the story and that's part of your hope is that people will that was Alex out there they would know what Ellen's thoughts were he really wanted people to know his work too that's right and this is a good place for them for them to come out yes and he loved it out here because we didn't have he was a mountain in nature with nature he liked the trees he liked the freedom of the of the loneliness of the place and the mountains and the skies and

he thinks so we're losing a lot of that that's good I think that's pretty beautiful unless there's anything else you'd like to say I think we have some beautiful stuff in there well so I say I'm riding a boat and I'm riding about our my way of life I'm Spanish you know I have a Spanish and so I'm riding about when I was brought up in northern New Mexico very few angle people mostly Spanish people and I speak Spanish and I was brought up Spanish so I'm riding about my life out there I'm 94 so I have a long life to look back on oh good for you and but I can ride it better than I can tell a little of a sudden years just to to how hard to do well I think you'll find that you said some beautiful things and I'm going to pull them out like okay

make up something nice you

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