Santa Fe Downtown Blog

To Market, to Market

Santa Fe ranks among the The Top Ten Housing Markets for the Next 10Years, according to a US News and World Report article published last month.  The rankings were based on a Moody’s Economy analysis of employment data, population figures and industry trends in 384 distinct metropolitan statistical areas.  The eclectic assembly  starts with Bermerton-Silverdale, Washington and ends in Decatur, Illinois.  Santa Fe itself is tucked modestly between Sandusky Ohio and Pittsfield, Massachusetts.  It’s a basket of apples and oranges. But on the short list of cities whose economies are considered sufficiently diverse and vigorous to bode growth, Santa Fe is a relative plum for its rich vein of culture, excellent restaurants, recreational activities and fabulous weather.

Many people assume they cannot afford a home in Santa Fe. And while it’s true that property values tend to run high and that we haven’t suffered the bottomed-out prices and foreclosures of many locales around the country, there are an impressive number of affordable properties on the Santa Fe Market right now.  Combine those with low interest rates and,  for first-time home buyers, the $8000 tax credit and you have a golden moment to grab a slice of the City Different.

At this writing there are over 219 single family homes, condos and townhomes priced under $250,000 available within the city limits–46 of these, single family homes. Drop the price point to $225,000 and the total number of homes is still 169 of which 20 are single family homes. Add Area 13, off Airport Road (an area which straddles city and county and was, therefore, left off the original reckoning) and the number of homes under $250K grows by an additional 59 homes of which 54 are single family dwellings starting as low as 169 K.

Currently, we have three active listings priced under $200,000.  1713 Calle de Oriente Norte , listed at $148,900, is a sun-filled corner unit that shines with fresh paint and the owners’ loving care. The enclosed patio off the kitchen is ideal for al fresco dining or as a play area for toddlers or dogs.  With a small terrace off the East-facing Master, plenty of storage and an office nook, this pleasant, modestly priced home is a terrific value.

111 East Santa Fe Ave., unit #3 and unit #4 offer affordable luxury just two blocks from the Plaza. These renovations of a original 1912 Pueblo Deco structure blend the best of contemporary beauty and Old World grace. Jaw-dropping granite counters, appliances by luxury vendors like ASKO and Sub-Zero, designer finishes, good storage, and smart floor plans make these small but exquisite units little miracles of comfort, convenience and visual appeal.

To Market, To Market to buy a fat pig

Home again, home again, jiggety jig….

–Mother Goose

For full access to the MLS, visit our website at www.santafedowntownrealestate.com.  Or to obtain straight-shooting, experience-backed advice on buying or selling a home in Santa Fe, please contact me, Malissa Kullberg, or my business partner, Joshua Maes via phone, text or  e-mail.

See and Be Scene

A little over a year ago, my business partner and I held our first art opening at our listing at 123 West Santa Fe Avenue.  We knew a few artists without gallery representation in Santa Fe; I’d been the co-director of a contemporary art gallery in Santa Fe; we had open walls and a killer location–made sense.  We decided to give 100% of the proceeds of any sale to the artists themselves: a gift through which we have gained immeasurably.

Since our first show, we have held three more events, showcased the work of 17 artists in total, and are proud to report a total of seven sales.  Over 100 people have seen the listings who might not otherwise have known they existed.  And we’ve met scores of terrific, creative talents.

Take Mark Frossard, a painter who stopped by to see  Phillip Vigil’s drawings and will be featured in our upcoming show.  Mark’s soothing southwestern palette and cartoon-like representations  belie their emotional power.

Or Keiko Ohnuma, also in the upcoming show, who described her style as “elevated kitch” and said that  she was finding that she was even less well-understood here than in Honolulu.  I confess I was a bit taken aback when I opened the first jpeg.  But it didn’t take long to decide that was exactly why we should give her a venue.  Not every piece needs to challenge the viewer, but challenge is definitely an important aspect of art.

Then there’s Todd Scalise: painter, designer, textile artist, muralist, and more whom we met, again, through artist and social media’s man-about-town, Phillip Vigil.  Todd has terrific ideas for public art in Santa Fe and is looking for a wall to paint.  Driven by the look of his latest piece, and excited by the possibilities, we are working to find him a wall.

Todd graces every visitor to his studio with the opportunity to select a drawing to take home.  Four of us stood over a pile of drawings like a pack of kids eyeing the Halloween basket. With art, you don’t just acquire a pretty or interesting thing; you connect with the creator.  As artist and gallery owner, Anthony Corso recently shared on his FB Wall,

Every artist dips his brush in his own soul, and paints his own nature into his pictures.” ~ Henry Ward Beecher

Buy a piece of art, and get a side of soul.

~*~*~

As I’ve said elsewhere, I’m not entirely sure what I am doing, but I am absolutely positive it’s the right thing to do.  Santa Fe ranks among the top three art markets in the country with over 300 galleries that enjoy enviable walk-in traffic.  Yet there are holes in the Santa Fe art scene.  With rents so high, gallery owners are often forced to choose art that will sell and sell for the highest price over showcasing a emerging talent or mid-career artist in flux.  Many a fine painter, sculptor or photographer lacks a regular venue. I’ve also heard artists and art brokers alike complaining about the lack of dynamism, risk and interplay on the local scene.  Yet the talent is there as Meow Wolf, the former Bang Gallery, and scads of individual creatives attest.

As a REALTOR involved in the sale and purchase of homes, I feel a duty to support and enrich my community, indeed, to do my part to build the healthiest, happiest most economically and socially vibrant community I can. Showcasing art is one way I choose to do it.  Some may see these realms as unmixable.  But I look for common ground. Artists want an audience for their art. People selling property similarly want people to come see it. Putting art into homes puts a simultaneous spotlight on both.

On June 26th, take the opportunity to see and be seen at one of the hottest, new, whatever-it-is-art events in the city: Changing Gallery’s latest show at the Bella Donna– our listings and ad hoc galleries at 111 East Santa Fe Avenue, Santa Fe, New Mexico. Alt gallery  PennBrick will be beaming its brilliance from a garage a block away. Bundobeats will be spinning the tunes.

Are you an artist looking for a place to show?  Introduce yourself.  No promises, but let’s connect.  Are you a homeowner wanting to list and find a novel way to get buyers to see your home in a market chock-a-block with listings?  Let us put our experience to work for you.  Or are you new to town, interested in unearthing the richness Santa Fe has to offer? Stop by the Bella Donna, give us a little time and attention. The return on your investment might surprise you.

Malissa Kullberg and Joshua Maes, AKA Changing Gallery, use their real estate listings, where appropriate, to showcase the work of emerging and independent artists.  Their current location is the Bella Donna, nine beautifully restored condominiums located on East Santa Fe Avenue, just one block from the State Capitol. Check out our website at SantaFeDowntownRealEstate.com

Sights and Sounds: Changing Gallery’s May 2 Event

By the time the evening was over, we could see our breath, but hours of damp and chill didn’t quench the warm afterglow from Sights and Sounds, Changing Gallery’s recent mix of art and music.  Rising talent, Phillip Vigil, plastered Unit Seven with his energetic pastels. Jennifer Joseph had two paintings in Unit Six and Elizabeth Mesh displayed her richly dyed eggs in Unit Eight. Enveloping all, from the shelter of a garage under Unit Four, were the sounds of Bundobeats, whose free flowing musical blend gave the event cohesion and flow.

This past Saturday, May 2nd, marked the fourth art opening of Changing Gallery, a locus of emerging and independent creative talent being shown at the real estate listings of Malissa Kullberg and Joshua Maes.   Its driving spirit is the desire to unite community through the creation of a sort of Stone Soup where each diner puts what s/he can comfortably spare into a common pot from which all may feast.  Unrepresented artists get a free venue and all proceeds; the real estate gets viewed by fresh eyes; and those who love art get to see something they probably would not otherwise have a chance to see: in some cases, breaking talent; e.g., Phillip Vigil.

Since he first reached out to me on Facebook, I’ve been fascinated by this earnest young artist and the dynamic pastels that pour from his heart and hands.  “Vigil’s bold pastels on paper are a treat to those who hunger for something new and powerful from young ndn artists…Fresh and original, Phillip Vigil is an artist to watch” says artist Charleen Touchette in her One Earth blog.  Vigil’s heroes are William de Kooning, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Andy Warhol, Elizabeth Murray and Diane Arbus, among others.  His work shows these influences and an assemblage of images from his daily life, community and mental divings. The well is deep. This is a kid who knows art history and is poised to make his mark.

In the April 29th-May 5th issue of the Santa Fe Reporter, Zane Fischer spoke about the disjunct between the results of the city’s recent poster contest representing ” a generalized, gauzy impression of an unremarkable place” and Santa Fe’s actual creative character. “…what makes Santa Fe an engaging community for those of us invested in it…is everything that lies beneath that surface.  The soul of the city–and its enduring attractiveness–lies in the real activities of its people.”

With the occasionally awkward gait of a newborn, these events intend to be soapbox and megaphone for real activities of a sector of the city’s people: emerging and independent artists.  Here’s to the creation of a real and relevant space and voice for an ever expanding chorus of creatives.

Changing Gallery is currently located at the Bella Donna condominiums: seven beautifully restored units, including a 1912 Pueblo Deco style dwelling, located at 111 East Santa Fe Avenue, in the South Capitol area of downtown Santa Fe, New Mexico.  Real estate agents Malissa Kullberg and Joshua Maes, use their listings, where appropriate, to showcase the art, photography, sculpture and other creations of emerging and independent talents. To learn more about the condominiums, and for full access to the MLS, visit: www.santafedowntownrealestate.com.  **Access the MLS from your smartphone: www.santafedowntownrealestate.com/m

In the Middle: Reflections on the Soul of Photography

Some concepts are pretty tough to capture in words. Unless you’re talking about the music of Marvin Gaye or the immaterial essence said to survive a body,  the notion of “soul” is a murky, often sentimentalized abstraction; e.g.: soul gaze, soul search, soul nature….

As for using dialogue to describe pictures, do your mighty best and you simply can’t–with words alone–do justice to the visual poetry of a well-executed photo.  So, just to be willing to talk about the “soul” of  image is an act of mad courage.  Kudos to Dan Milnor, who, this past Sunday night, put his fine mind and rich experience to the task.

Dan spoke for about 40 minutes, addressing the experiences behind some of his photographs and offering a loose road map as to how to arrive at an authentic product.

His central point: that the soul of photography is more a function of what’s going on inside the photographer than what is out there to be shot.  Attitude, approach, interaction–these are the elements that count, not the fancy equipment, spectacular vistas or celebrity subjects.

The key: to be present and yet invisible. “This might sound odd, but when I make pictures, sometimes I feel like I can disappear,” said Dan.  I’ve had many clients say to me, while looking at my images, “I didn’t even see you there, didn’t even know you were there, next to me…..I think the soul of photography relates to the experience or the transition that happens when a photographer shelves every extra detail in his or her life and descends into the project.”

“When I work in the field, or anywhere else for that matter, much of what happens is based on trust, which as we know is harder and harder to come by.  You don’t need to speak the language, or even speak at all, as the idea of who you are and what you do is either accepted or not.You can not only see this when working , you can feel it….”

Back to the folly of pursuing images with a net of speech.  In the case of the good photo, the one that arises from and expresses soul, you may not be able to define or describe it, but like Potter Stewart, “you know it when you see it.” When Dan put the question to his friend, photographer Karen Kuehn, her matter-of-fact response was: “It’s in the middle.”

The middle:  the tension between the photographer’s intention and the parameters of the shoot?  The relationship between photographer and subject?  You tell me.

The Soul of Photography, an exhibit of the work of eight locally affiliated photographers, runs through mid-April at the Bella Donna: seven condominiums located at 111 E. Santa Fe Avenue, listed by Joshua Maes and Malissa Kullberg.  Artists receive 100% of the proceeds. For more information on these listings and full access to the MLS, visit our website at:  SantaFeRealEstateDowntown.com.

Contemporary. Spontaneous. Real. (with apologies to Dan Milnor)

Soul of Photography

About a month ago, while grappling for ideas for the next show, I called upon an acquaintance with a PhD in Art History for wise words on the nature of art or artists.  Although she supplied me with grave quotes from some of art’s historical heavy hitters, the smartest words were hers: “the quality of art lies somehow in the conviction of its producer. The audience has to believe that they aren’t being fooled with, even if the work looks inept or is disturbing at first encounter. The object has to reward our taking it seriously.”

I call that a pretty-dang-good cut-to-the-chase assessment.  Thank-you, Margo Hobbs Thompson, Assistant Professor of Art History, Muhlenberg College.

Every now and then, my biz partner will ask me whether a particular piece is “art.”  This is a loaded question, stemming from an indiscreet observation on my part about some paintings we saw at an open house-work featured in one of the world’s most prestigious museums, mind you-that I claimed was “not really art, but more like decoration.”

I may never live this down.

Just as I love a range and variety of people, I also love a range and variety of art.  And, just as I do not warm to all people, I am not keen on every piece of art that crosses my path. But what I need in order to call something “art” is a sense of that conviction.

On the 15^th of March, at 7 PM, we’ll be hosting a Lecture and Exhibition at our listings at 111 East Santa Fe Ave.  The speaker, Dan Milnor, is a photographer who’s made a name for himself shooting weddings and kids, although he’d rather you didn’t know that.  Especially the wedding part.  Why? Because people get certain notions about wedding photography, and by extension, wedding photographers, and those notions incline them not to take such work, or its author, seriously.

Go to Dan’s website http://www.milnorpictures.com. Well, you won’t see any weddings, but you will see kids and you will see Dan’s documentary style, and his tagline: Contemporary. Spontaneous. Real. The pics will convince you.  Conviction.

Dan’s lecture will kickstart our next exhibition featuring the photography of a range of earnest talents, held once again at the Belladonna: Seven Condos and Townhomes on East Santa Fe Ave. Come by and support the good work of great creative lights.

We use the vehicle of our real estate listings to showcase the work of emerging and independent artists.  Artists receive 100% of the proceeds of all sales. For full access to the Santa Fe MLS, visit our website at: http://santafedowntownrealestate.com

“Generations”–New Exhibit at SF Community Convention Center

Once, as I purchased a writing book by a fellow named Peter Elbow, the literary savant at the till told me that such a name showed the author hailed from a family of writers (elbow?)  Names have, at times, pointed to the family profession: thus, Coopers were barrel makers; Schavio, slaves. In the show, Generations, which opened this past Friday at the Santa Fe Community Convention Center, names are no indication of professional aptitude or family affiliation, but the theory that creative talent is an abiding and binding family tradition is at the exhibit’s heart.

Participants ranged from well-known (the late Alan Houser) to the emerging, and worked in a vast variety of media, including photography, sculpture, jewelry, oil, straw applique, and more.  Opening the field to such variety gave the show dimension and provided for interesting juxtapositions. Standouts included a contemporary, mixed media piece by Seth Anderson (Lines 08-201), an edgy urban photograph by Sam Haozous (Industrial Landscape, #3); an oil by Hal West with the patina and feel of a 17th Century Dutch Landscape Painting, unique, modern jewelry by David Gaussoin, and an award-winning Trastero by Spanish Market artist Victor Archuleta.

The show runs from January 9th through March 6th.  Check it out.

Santa Fe Downtown Digs and Doings

My first encounter with Santa Fe was in the Spring of 1980, when I flew out to visit a friend.  On the shuttle from Albuquerque to Santa Fe, I couldn’t take my eyes off the vast, color-saturated sky and the roughly textured land, an interplay of greens and browns.  Back then, there was hardly a car on the road between the airport and the Capitol City.  I could set my cruise-control, crawl into the back seat for a nap, and wake up an hour later, safely at my destination.

Santa Fe has changed over the past 28 years, but the land is still vast and magnificent and the city is still charming in physical appearance and breadth of cultural offerings.   For the third year in a row, the readers of American Style voted Santa Fe the #1 arts destination in the top 25 small cities and towns category.  In 2007, Sperling’s Best Places and Business Week awarded Santa Fe second place in The Top 10 places for artists.

Yet the factors that make Santa Fe attractive to artists-diverse and fairly youthful population, the number and variety of museums, the amount of dance, theater, film, symphony, chamber and choral music, the quality of photographic and Fine Arts education, and other cultural offerings-make it a terrific place for all of us.

Three weeks ago, SantaFe.com held its first Economic Forum whose purpose was, in the words of moderator, Michael French, to examine and address”…how all this turmoil will specifically affect our economy, and what we can do together to survive and even prosper.” Each member of the Panel was chosen to offer a different take on the proverbial elephant. Though hardly definitive, there was a good effort to provide balance and an opening dialogue.

If I see a silver bullet solution to the question of what we can do to survive and prosper in these economically crazy times, it is this: to see, celebrate and support the tremendous creative resources we have in our little town. As someone who grew up immersed in the arts of two, culturally rich Midwestern cities, Minneapolis and Chicago, I believe in power of the creative sector to give a community dignity, cohesion, vitality and internal wealth.

Santa Fe isn’t perfect.  Like any place-or any person-there are things to love and things that frustrate.  But what impresses me so deeply, what has brought me back time and again and caused me to adopt this place as my hometown, is its spirit: creative, hungry, at times conflictual, but richly resourceful.

So that’s what this blog is going to be about: things, people, places and events that give Santa Fe its special character.  We’ll also talk about real estate because that’s our bread and butter and something we know a lot about.  Check out our website at: santaferealestatedowntown.com. Thanks for reading.