¡Colores!; 302; New Mexico's Nuclear Enchantment: Patrick Nagatani; Nag 1

There's it shout yeah we're doing it right is at the end oh god it's at the next signal yeah this is the main administrative area this is what public relationship is people get care and they don't like this stuff once I had lunch with a couple of the already physicists like what do they do in terms of such security you know and then the guys all of a sudden I didn't say anything for 30 minutes okay science museum to arrive open to the public public closed the right hand side you will see who owns and operates marble sink there there it is operate that University of Chile from the defense of this country just

looks like a thriving little community nice blue collar white collar workers all American place on your right computing and communications division now I'm turning into the parking lot of the theoretical physicists do not enter brilliant this building here is a theoretical division building this is where the brain trust is one of these brain guys can manage it I just drove in the wrong way museum parking here we go this is a this is a Norse ebred berry where is it

there's that entrance yeah the Norse ebred berry science museum represents just one of the types of scientific laboratory museums at these labs the Smithsonian being one of them that glorifies the Norse ebred berry science museum houses all the information about what animals national laboratories is all about my idea for the image for this was the idea that the effects of nuclear weapons is predominant in the displays within the museum it talks nothing though about the effects

on humanity so I wanted to inject a little bit of that to my image some of the imagery within the Bradbury science museum piece which is one of the representations of Los Alamos deals with the Hiroshima piece museum which has beakers of ashes with Japanese first names listed on these beakers and kind of ghost figures of children I think it's one of the toughest images in the exhibition there's another museum in Albuquerque the Morton Dad Canyon waste drainage area is an area where the lab has discharge water that's radioactive this radioactive water contains traces of plutonium and it's within the sediment of Morton Dad Canyon right here on the lab

since the late 40s and early 50s they've been dumping this water down there and of course one of my pieces in a in a snow storm shows the beautiful landscape but that is Los Alamos pine trees and this kind of green glow that's coming up from this radioactive area here can you do that whole thing over again sure ready yeah the Morton Dad Canyon waste drainage area in the Los Alamos National Laboratory represents where contaminated water containing traces of plutonium have embedded itself into the aquafire and the sediment in Morton Dad Canyon this is a contaminated canyon today since the late 40s and 50s and my image

shows this snow storm beautiful pine trees and luscious green and white and this kind of green glow of the which this evil green glow that represents the radioactivity down there in the canyon on the horizon here we have the theoretical division building where the theoretical physicist I guess dream up new and better bombs this is the brain trust of Los Alamos National Laboratories right next to the museum we're all the thinking is done we're all the new bombs are designed by rather brilliant people and okay we're going go for it notice all vehicles and containers entering or leaving this area are

subject to search no trespassing the United States Department of Energy and here we have the theoretical division building where essentially it's the brain trust of Los Alamos this is where the bombs new bombs designs are theorized it's right next to the museum and some brilliant men actually working here and women the brain child of the United States welcome to Los Alamos well

this is it this is where the atom bomb was developed this is where 33 and a third percent of the nation's weapons development takes place Los Alamos National Laboratories in Mexico yeah I don't know if we should go towards white rock what do you think is that it can we get out today that's a good question oh about

the nature of it yeah I mean when we're talking on the road yeah I can't remember what I said oh okay mean way up and hammer chose this place oh about God's country I don't have anything well here we are folks yet Los Alamos National Laboratories an impressive place because to show you what technology and development good American fortitude can muster up set up in the most beautiful rock countryside pines and next to a Native American reservation right on Indian land

I guess it's it goes to show you that when you mix the environment with weapons development that they both can exist side by side it goes also to show you what American technology is capable of the will in the spirit the American people you know actually though I think there's more to that will in that spirit and that's some traffic jams here we are in west and as well now I can turn right to the traffic the turn left why don't we try left who seems to get no traffic here we go this may be the beginning of a fabulous adventure on free loop four okay let's try a loop four lab warehouse

explosive trucks definitely our way explosive trucks okay this is all the trappings of what I did last time get thoroughly lost loop four oh boy downhill okay and we just come up this way on boys check area 241 oh no I just I

can't take everything else can you take a thing out what about um and years to come how do you see your work progressing I don't know if I I don't know I don't know what any balls it just kind of evolves the ideas come from who knows you know I don't know where it'll take me I've enjoyed working with what I work with the southwestern uh women the jewelry the blankets the pottery the the feeling and then the Adobe's and villages and things like that um I related that so much I don't know if I'll find other things each particular artist I know of seems to have a special area that they express themselves and mine seems to be through the women do

you have are your is your work accepted in cultures they're not as familiar like on the east coast or in the west but the how how wide spread is the popular I've sought people that are for me with fatigue and I guess the Holland and Sweden and Finland and that they have in the west indies and things they have a knowledge of fatigue and I've sought a lot to Europeans that know about fatigue they relate to it I've sought to people in New York in Chicago and Florida I I think they have to have a feeling for the work though before they understand what it's all about but people that are knowledgeable about fatigue seem to like my work is there any professor or teacher at your name or that I mean actually teaches I mean the specific boutique

when I was there nobody nobody um it was oil painting water colors drawing design sculpture basic art but they kept us free so we were always experimenting and I think that was the best thing I got from art at UNM is that they kept you open and you were always trying to discover something new and my boutique I never heard of it even with the with the boutique I used to like trying to found to find out I mean something different yes I plan to go to Indonesia I would like in fact I've gotten some names just the last week or two of people that know people in Indonesia and would like to take a class and see the original boutiques like they used to be done the nowadays I

guess they've gotten very commercial even in Indonesia but there's still the original boutiques and the way they used to do it and I'm sure there's some fine artists over there too that it works as original art when I when I ask you a question or whenever somebody asks you to try to reframe I mean the whole answer because if not nobody will will realize what the question was oh so I mean if I can speak the question okay like is anybody teaching well I think nobody's teaching at UNM is because you say no no I don't think so and okay okay what it what it's question are you planning on because as you told us that there are not many teachers teaching boutique are you planning on teaching a specific I mean boutique or that I'm not a teacher I thought about well I've showed people I'm not what I call a teacher but like I

say I'm self taught so I think that there's more to know before I could become a teacher there is a there's different ways of doing it and I think I need to to really go to Indonesia and see the different methods that are used before I would be a teacher or even consider being a teacher but I really don't have time I I love doing what I do so being an artist is what I really want to do okay somebody becomes an artist or somebody is born with a person is born with a talent and a gift for art but if you don't use it you lose it and if you don't find your medium you can't express yourself it's like I searched for a medium for a long time

until I felt comfortable that that was what I really love to do I was a good artist as far as drawing and painting but nothing until I discovered fatigue nothing ever made me feel like I was really doing something unique and special when expressing myself do you have any question else that you want to add or to I mean you have to realize that many viewers are going to see the shows or maybe you would like to say something about people who will start going to a career I mean into a career as like fine art or something like that and you'd like to tell them something art is a wonderful way of expressing yourself and I think anybody that has a talent for art and everybody has a gift somewhere but a talent for art is really

special you have to use it so I encourage anybody with an art talent to follow it and go with it and and experiment be open to different mediums and different ways of expressing yourself with art okay it's fine okay have you do you have pieces on display anywhere around country or do they you get calls often to show work or have people come in and look at it I just want to go about selling and doing the whole promotion I've been kind of lucky now I don't know if you want to put this I was when I did my first New Mexican arts and crafts fair Mary and Wings was just opening her gallery so we both kind of started together I was like one of her first artists in her first gallery when she was new to the business and

she was so helpful in supporting me and encouraging me and telling me to quit my job after about a year and a half that I could make it as an artist and and she advertised me and guided me to shows and I found other galleries the galleries have really given me a lot of exposure and I get calls from everywhere I really do I get calls of people that are coming through to them maybe because we're in art center people come here from everywhere to buy art or to look at the art that we have in the Southwest and so the the exposure is good do you have are you able do you have more demand than you're able to supply times of the year yes I mean yes

there's times when I really can't it takes more time to to do something than I have special orders that wait while I you know do other thing I mean I'm just working pretty much every day full -time I mean several galleries I mean about oh I guess six seven eight galleries okay I've done a series of the task