By Clara Hittel/Photos by Sandra Schoenenstein At 7:30 on a Saturday morning, I parked my car and trudged over to the Driscoll Fitness Center. If this is how early students have to leave to go to Ski Santa Fe, it’s no wonder they aren’t willing to wake up in time to go to Taos or Angel Fire. A few kids sat around the picnic table out front, adjusting to the chill outside in preparation for the slopes rather than huddling inside with hands wrapped around warm mugs of coffee in fear of the cold. I joined them at the table. The conversation I entered into was about what snow-appropriate garments we were lacking. Some people needed gloves, others hats. The immediate camaraderie of the trip goers was cheering so early in the morning. People began offering clothing and advice. I needed waterproof pants, as I have sadly outgrown my own super-official snowboarding pants. Sandra Duran graciously lent me her spare pair. The Feb. 2 journey up to the mountaintop felt like a summer-camp outing to a lake or other body of water where warm-weather activities might take place. The sun had risen with a vengeance and the radio offered what I would consider beach jams, such as Knee Deep (Feat. Jimmy Buffet) by the Zac Brown Band and Home by Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros. Then again, we were all in parkas and woolen hats, and as we gained elevation the snow finally made its appearance. Pine branches drooped around us, burdened with winter, festively welcoming the line of cars that slowly ascended the mountain. My thoughts turned to ski trips of the past as the alpine scene crawled past my window. Growing up on the East Coast, my parents took me to the...

By Nick Martinez/Photos by Luke Montavon On Sept. 2, 2002 Reece Nord was riding his bike home when he was stuck and killed by a drunk driver. The driver, Justin Mishall, was later charged with several counts, including vehicular manslaughter, and served 3 1/2 years in prison. Part of his sentence was also to pay restitution to the Nord family $15,390 for medical and funeral costs. More than a decade later, Mishall has paid $750 of the total sum he owes. Due to a loophole in New Mexico law, once a criminal completes his or her parole they no longer have to legally pay the restitution the courts originally demand that they pay. Families can take these criminals to civil court, though that brings plenty of expenditures on its own Nord’s family, not wanting to deal with Mishall any longer, penned a letter that eventually reached Gov. Susanna Martinez, who made sure that a bill was drafted. State Sen. Mark Moores, R-Bernalillo, sponsored the Criminal Restitution Act, also known as The Reece Act, which was recently tabled until the next legislative session. “The current loophole lengthens the criminal process, it causes more expense to the family because they have to hire another attorney,” said Moores. “It just clogs up our court system with these civil lawsuits.” While the civil courts may be clogged, the financial report regarding SB 207 indicates that the judicial courts don’t currently have the resources to support tracking down defendants who refuse to pay restitution, and providing those resources may prove too costly. With the state unwilling to pay, it leaves the family in charge of tracking down their restitution, prolonging their relationship with the people who wronged them. This prolongation is exactly what Barbara Nord, Reece’s mother, is trying...

By Charlotte Martinez/Photos by Michelle Rutt It was a Girl Scout camping trip and patriotism was lesson number one. Salute the flag of the United States of America, count the stars, sing the anthem, pledge your allegiance. As a Girl Scout I was very good at the triangle fold- holding both ends of the flag, folding twice vertically then tip to edge until the last corner can be tucked in.  A fellow Girl Scout was not good at this and she accidentally flung a flag into the mud. Our scout leader rushed to pick it up, but the mud had seeped through the stars, it was damaged beyond repair. We were instructed to spread the flag over a picnic table and once this was done our leader set the corner ablaze. I stared as the stripes burned in the evening light, until there was nothing left. It was a retirement ceremony, our leader explained. It looked tragic, but I stood by, like loyal subject over a defeated king. Sappy maybe, but I was a Girl Scout and I was proud of my flag. John Rodriguez stands proud under his US flag too. Literally, Rodriguez stands beneath the US flag and beneath the Brazilian, German, Australian, British, and Mexican flags that he’s hung from the ceiling by his office at the Santa Fe University of Art and Design. After some greetings beneath the flags, I asked the former International Director who’s idea it was to hang them. Rodriguez smiles. “It was my idea.” Currently director of Campus and Residential life, Rodriguez says he placed flags in areas like administration and the upper floor of the library to “encourage the concept of one student body,” even though, he explains, students come from everywhere. He looks up...

There is no sound. It is the CD release party of Rumelia, Santa Fe’s Balkan music group, and there is no sound. The members of Santa Fe University of Art and Design’s Balkan Music Ensemble, who have been invited as guests to this event, loiter on the Railyard Performance Center’s makeshift stage of rugs and platforms on the hardwood dance floor. “How are we?” asks Polly Tapia Ferber, the director of the ensemble. “Are we good?” The audience is restless and ready, but a shout from the sound techies makes it clear that they are going to have to wait for just “one more second.” “Well,” says Polly, “We’ve been here for hours trying to make sure this wouldn’t happen, but…” She wanders off in search of technical solutions for the lack of sound coming from the ensembles’ microphones. Rumelia’s Nicolle Jenson, a College of Santa Fe alum, comes to the stage to announce that, “it’s a good thing we have a few tricks up our sleeve!” The group of three female artists joins her to perform two pieces a cappella. The women are performing this evening to celebrate the release of their CD ‘Lost and Found,’ but it is clear that they hardly need their instruments and a recording studio to capture the odd-time signatures and tonalities of the Balkan region of Eastern Europe. Using nothing but their lungs as instruments, they weave their voices together and immediately capture the audience’s revered attention. When they finish Polly is still scurrying back and forth across the stage checking wires in an attempt to make everything come together. On stage, just a handful of members of the ensemble lounge with their instruments. The sound problem will be figured out eventually, but this is Santa Fe,...

By Nick Beckman/ Photos by Tim Kassiotis He neared the end of his cigarette when the truth really came out. “I was walking around my backyard…back home…” he began. Home for Tyler Sherek is the same as my own: Louisville, KY . “Then I stepped up to this big ol’ bush that we’ve always had and out flew this massive bumble-bee. I’m talking big.” He motioned with his hands the size of a volleyball. “That was pretty damn scary so I ran back into the house and closed the door. I was kind of freaked out so I decided to get a bowl of cereal, but when I poured it into my bowl, they all spilled onto the floor. Then, out of nowhere, every little Fruit-Loop had a face and they were all squealing. That was pretty crazy.” Tyler was telling me about some of the dreams he had been storing in his Dream Journal. While this one stuck with me for its peculiarities, it also spoke volumes about his character. I met Tyler in 2005 when we were both in the same science class. I had noticed one day that he and another friend of mine, were going bat shit insane on a craw fish that we were dissecting in class. They named it Macy Cray. From then on, I knew we would be pals. Eight years later, we are still best friends and collaborate on comedy projects in our spare time so I was rather hesitant choosing him for an interview. Here was someone I’ve known like a brother, but the thought struck me that, perhaps, there was more to learn. The basics I knew: favorite movies, music, how hard his punches were when exchanging a friendly game of “licks” and how when...

By Nick Martinez/Photos by Christopher Stahelin “Hell is other people,” the famous line from Jean Paul Sartre’s classic one act about three damned souls psychologically torturing each other, serves as the perfect coda for the play. Ironically enough, it also serves as the perfect antithesis to SFUAD’s current production. Even though the show was opening on Feb. 15, senior Corbin Albaugh, the show’s director, graciously allowed me to sit in on their most recent rehearsal. My only knowledge of the play before hand was through brief summaries on the Internet and conversations I’ve had with Albaugh in previous days, so I was going in blind. Albaugh called for his small crew to take their positions, because today they were going to run through the entire piece straight. Taking the stage first was junior transfer student Michael Phillip Thomas as the coward Crodeau. “At the top of this play Crodeau built up this view in his mind that was really manly and macho, which you and I do everyday,” said Thomas. “Through this plays process you see him stripped of that, and he’s really this scared coward of a man that in every turn in life ran away.” Thomas certainly played Crodeau in this way, as his acerbic monologues would not be out of place in a Brett Easton Ellis novel. Joining Thomas on stage later was sophomore Chloe Torblaa as the scheming Ines and freshmen Tristine Henderson as the seductress Estelle. “The show is about three way dynamics and that’s kind of the way the world works,” said Torblaa about the show. The threesome breezed through the show without any mishaps to my untrained eye, and the show climaxed with Torblaa’s character Ines delivering a gleefully psychotic rant to Thomas’s Crodeau. “That’s why Ines is...

Story by Brandon Ghigliotty/Photos by Shayla Blatchford   I had the opportunity to interview Donna Ruff, printmaker, illustrator and Art Department faculty member of nearly two years at Santa Fe University of Art and Design. Ruff, with an MFA from Rutgers, has more than a decade of teaching experience spread throughout New England. On a late Sunday morning, openings in our schedules converge to allow me to get to know more about her work. What drew you to printmaking as a medium? Donna Ruff: Rutgers has an important printmaking department. At the time they had the Rutgers Center for Innovative Print and Paper, but it’s now called the Brodsky Center, after one of my professors, Judith Brodsky. They bring in artists from New Jersey and New York on grant programs to do projects in printmaking, with papermaking as an element if the artist wants to do that. I had professors who were well known in that field—besides Judy, I had Lynne Allen as a professor. She was a master printer at Tamarind at UNM for years and we discovered we had mutual friends in Albuquerque. I had never tried lithography—it seemed quite daunting, as it involves some alchemy—the print results from oil and water not mixing, and is planographic. So there are a lot of ways it can become a big mess on the plate. I was an older student and Lynne took me in the darkroom and showed me how to make a photographic litho, which changed my work in a huge way. I also learned to make paper, and understand its particular qualities. Printmaking departments, even at Rutgers, are having a hard time holding on. It’s thought of as too “old school” or something. Colleges are scrambling to build New Media departments, and...

By Charlotte Martinez/Photo by Michelle Rutt His humble demeanor complements his exterior; short black dreadlocks topped with a beanie, a leather jacket that gives him the “Ghost Rider” edge, a cross hanging from his neck, and casual yet calculated steps. Calm. Alive. Inspiring for all International students at the Santa Fe University of Art and Design. “Come to my office,” he says. “You have an office?” “Yeah.” He smiles. “I coordinate the sound studio.” On the way, a music professor shakes his hand and a fellow student smiles at him like an old friend. The encounters are brief, but reverent, a reverence which Peter Mugga has earned and will not brag about. He has his own office! Second door to the right in a Benildus hallway. Small, but personalized. Like the influences of his two worlds, Uganda and the US, Mugga’s office seems to co-exist between his love of culture and his love of technology. His bookshelf holds several versions of a harp-like instrument called Ndungu, the likes of which resemble a human spine, but when played produce music suitable for Mount Olympus. A guitar leans in its holster, traditional and worn. Two others lie by his desk. To his right, the beads (perhaps shells) of his Shekere shaker sleep on a chair after a hard day’s rattling. Giant speakers and audio equipment fill the other half of the room. By the door, a giant drum called Mgoma, his favorite instrument, waits for him like an obedient canine. One semester away from a bachelor’s degree in Contemporary Music, the musician admits that his passion for recording, technology and sound was not “something I grew up with, but I found.” What Peter Mugga grew up with was a father who, in their home village, taught...

By Nick Beckman/Photos by Tim Kassiotis Dancing around a muddy puddle next to the fenced-off Michaels Brothers’ house, Jess Cornelius noticed her brand new Doc Martens. She showed brief hesitation before crossing the muddy path. I felt guilty for taking this strange and, sometimes-creepy walk around the backside of campus, but Jess was undeterred by a little mud. “I only got these a few days ago…and I’ve already had to wash them, so no worries.” Jess is a second semester freshman here at SFUAD, in the Moving Image Arts department. Her short hair, tinted blue and gold, is only a slight indication to her focus within the school, special FX and make-up. Revealed underneath her right sleeve, she showed me a scar she had gotten cheerleading in 7th grade. “My bone was sticking out of my arm…there was blood everywhere! Some of the girls started to scream and the coaches were freaking out!” At this point, I had to stop and get a closer look. The scar had run from the top of her wrist, down to the beginning of her elbow. More fascinating than the scar itself was Jess’s comfort talking about it. “Have you seen my scar?” she asked with wide-eyed anticipation that my jaw might hit the concrete upon first glance. To my surprise, this was not her inspiration for wanting to do special effects make-up. In fact, it is quite the opposite. “I don’t want to do gore or horror stuff. I like fantasy.” Her favorite film that have utilized special fx/ make-up are the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise and Edward Scissorhands. “Cinematography wise,” she says, “ I’d have to go with Wes Anderson’s style, like in Moonrise Kingdom. The shots are brilliant.” Since starting last fall, Jess has helped...

By Mark Feigenbutz/Photos by Amanda Tyler      To My Dedicated Readers, * I interviewed this guy named Chace. So, I’ve finally decided to get in shape. I’m doing this thing called the Slow-Carb Diet. As cheesy as it sounds, it’s not – because you can’t eat cheese! The gist of it is that you limit your caloric intake exclusively to foods with a low glycemic index, or GI, so as not to trigger an insulin spike and the resulting blood sugar drop. Apparently, by keeping your blood levels at an equilibrium, you’re in a prime zone conducive to losing fat. The best part is (and I assure you that I would not be able to even attempt this diet otherwise) that every seventh day, you get to cheat. I’ve only been on the diet for about 8 hours so far, but the prospect of a cheat day is already proving itself to be an incredibly psychologically powerful tool. This is somewhat similar to how I quit smoking. After almost ten years of smoking (and a few years of chewing tobacco, I’m not too proud to admit), nicotine was really getting the best of me. Like every other addict, I’d tried to quit “for real” about a zillion times. (I know a “zillion” isn’t a real number, but try to stay with me here.) Whenever I’d decide to quit, yet another “for real” time, I would crush all my remaining cigarettes and flush my chewing tobacco down the toilet. It was a great strategy until I’d desperately need nicotine the following day and waste the little money I had replacing the cigarettes and chewing tobacco I’d thrown out the night before. I had the idea to not destroy my nicotine, but keep the products at...

By Mark Feigenbutz/Photos by Amanda Tyler Every week, Mark Feigenbutz accosts an unsuspecting peon and crosses their boundaries. Will you be next? Yes, you will. His name? Daniel Sanchez. Is major? Music. His occupation? Laying on couches. Not really. His occupation is aiding the Creative Writing lounge, which is why he abruptly sat up when we entered the otherwise empty room. I reassured him that my photographer, Amanda, and I were not a threat; we simply wanted to capture him in his natural state. So, he skeptically laid back as a banana’d orangutan from a cage cleaner. Upon learning his major, I inquired about what music instrument he played and he upstaged my imaginary musician ego self with the response of “Violin, guitar, drums, bass and vocals.” He wore an NYPD shirt that stated the motto “To Protect and Serve.” I have to admit, the t-shirt’s claim was a little intimidating but not enough to deter me from fucking with him. Me: “Are the allegations true?” Daniel: “About… what?” You know damn well what, you son-of-a-bitch! I turned to my photographer and we both agreed that Daniel was avoiding the question. It was on to the next… Me: “How many times would you say you lie in a given month?” And that’s “lie” not “lay” – I don’t have the mathematical aptitude to compute that, Daniel. Daniel: “At least twice.” At least twice, huh? Clever answer, Daniel, clever answer. Me: “Are the GMO’s bad for us, or are they just a hipster band from the future?” Daniel: “Bad for us.” Such a short answer, and he seemed somewhat put off. Maybe I spoiled a future musical project. (Actually, it turns out that, in fact, The GMO’s are what look to be a crappy, middle-aged...

Story and photos by Luke Montavon Creative Writing Seniors’ Arianna Sullivan and Chelsea Alden had the opportunity this winter to be a part of the community initiative Snow Poems project. Snow Poems is an ongoing project created by the Cut & Paste Society of Santa Fe with partnership from the Santa Fe Art Institute to involve the community with making “living books” in their own community (See About for more details). Alden and Sullivan were responsible for stenciling the selected poetry with non-toxic spray on the windows fronts of dozens of participants (businesses, government buildings, schools, and other locations around the city). While Alden and Sullivan are done with their part of the project, both plan to continue with involving the community in art projects in the future....

Story by Clara Hittel/Photos by Sandra Schoenenstein As the Hexagono gang wanders in and out of their communal office space in Alexis Hall following a meeting, I’m told that Rebecca will most likely take charge of answering for the group during the interview. Once all six of them – Rebecca Alvarez, Pablo Byrne, Suzelle Camou, Fernando Gaverd, Marco Lukini and Anacaro Villa – are seated in a row before me, I ask the first question on my mind: What would they consider themselves? I suggest that, to me, they seem like a collective of sorts. Rebecca looks around at the others briefly before responding that yes, a collective would be a good way to describe them—amidst a smattering of giggles from her comrades that she appears not to hear. Admittedly, they are a fun bunch and laugh a lot, communicating with each other by way of looks and gestures for the duration of our conversation and sometimes slipping into Spanish when consulting each other on how to respond. Hexagono formed two years ago, when some extremely motivated graphic design students “wanted to do something besides classes…something that no one else was doing in this school,” says Anacaro. All six current members of Hexagono attended different campuses of Universidad de Valle de México and were given the opportunity to study at SFUAD for less than their UVM tuition cost. They jumped at the exchange opportunity and eventually transferred to SFUAD permanently. Fernando explains how they formed Hexagono once at SFUAD: “Most of the time there were certain people – the ones who were staying at the lab after 2 AM, 3 AM, and all of us were with the same need…It’s super hard to get something as unified coming out of two people or three people,...

Walking up the stairs in the lobby of the theatre building, Senior performing arts major Corbin Albaugh and I exchanged pleasantries. Albaugh for the past week was in preproduction for the Weckesser Studio Theatre production of Jean-Paul Sartre’s classic No Exit, which he is directing. “This is the first time I’ve ever directed and I’m going into this pretty much blind other than having a decent all around knowledge of the play,” said Albaugh. “So this is a massive learning experience for me and at this point in the process I love it. It’s fantastic.” Seeing Albaugh’s excitement, I thought he had achieved a lifelong dream. “I wouldn’t say I’ve always wanted to direct,” said Albaugh. “One of the things that I would like to accomplish in my senior year is to stay out of my comfort zone as much as possible.” Albaugh’s comfort zone is an ever changing beast. Back in Iowa, in junior high, Albaugh auditioned for a model and talent agency. They liked him so much that they booked him a trip to New York for the International Models & Talent Association (IMTA), where managers and agents flock to find fresh clients. “So long story short, I did some contests, did some exhibitions, got hooked up with a management team that flew me to LA where I auditioned for two years for film and television. I ultimately got cast in a bit part. Have you ever seen the movie ‘Mr. Woodcock’?” I did, in fact, remember Mr. Woodcock, a 2007 comedy starring Seann William Scott and Billy Bob Thorton. It was a critical bomb but that could hardly be attributed to Albaugh’s small role as one of the gym students harassed by the title character. “That happened and that was an...

By Nick Beckman/Photography by Tim Kassiotus With a pleasant introduction by his brother Matt, Greg Donovan had already set the tone for his Jan. 18 lecture before he even began speaking; “Video Game Marketing 101 (kind of…)” read his Powerpoint slide which was being projected across the beautiful cinematic screen inside of SFUAD’s own Garson Studios. Matt Donovan, co-chair of the Creative Writing and Literature Department opened for his brother with a bit of nostalgia: A story of the two when they were young, experiencing the new video game craze also referred to as “Space Invaders.” The two were mesmerized and undoubtedly changed creatively by the game, both of them seeking out careers in the arts later in life. Matt went on to become a successful writer and Greg to produce the very thing that brought them both together, video games. Greg began his presentation by letting his audience know the casual tone of the lecture. “I use some terms and phrases that are common in the industry” Donovan explained, “ so please ask questions if you don’t know what I’m saying.” Donovan, a former Yilm school student, claims that he began working on the sets of short Yilms and eventually landed himself a marketing job for a gaming company. Here, he says, he found that his passion was for the production of the games themselves. So, after a year or so he moved to Volition, the company he is currently with and has produced Saints Row 1-3 and is currently working on the 4th. Volition is a video game developer based out of Illinois and has also produced titles like Red Faction and The Punisher. The game itself is a delightful mix of colorful characters, ranging from bumbling gang members to over the...

Story by Charlotte Martinez/ Photos by Michelle Rutt “There are three categories,” Emily Powell, advisor for the Santa Fe University of Art and Design, begins when describing Laureate’s Network programs. Powell’s desk in Mouton, as her advisees know, is tidy so little impedes her elbow space as she counts. “The first we call International like a student coming from China, for example. Then there’s the network students who come from Laureate Universities.” Her third finger extends to complete the categories, “and there’s study abroad, where our students go somewhere else.” Now in its third year of international immersion, SFUAD’s new owner, Laureate, provides an exchange of students on a world scale, inviting cultural as well as academic advancement. Currently, most of SFUAD’s network population comes from Mexico. “Some from Brazil,” Powell says, “only four from Turkey and one from Italy.” “One from Germany, China, Russia, Syria…all over.” Pablo Torrez, the International student coordinator, continues. His tasks of setting up visas and transferring credits connects him most to La Universidad del Valle in Mexico, but both Torrez and Powell believe this is due to Santa Fe’s proximity. Torrez hopes more bridges will extend to Santa Fe in the future, that way “everyone can learn from everyone.” He calculates that SFUAD’s International population, currently 11%, will continue growing as the school does. Of course, school exchange is also influenced by options. Juliana Ruette, a second semester student from Brazil says that there were very few choices offered in her previous school, “which was in a city close to Sao Paulo.” She wanted to leave Brazil, so she googled Santa Fe and thought, “what the fuck! It’s so brown!” Agreeing that Santa Fe would be better than Brazil, she planned on attended SFUAD for one semester then escaping to California. Those plans changed. With marketing...

Story and photos by Luke Montavon Since last fall I have been following Victor Talmadge and his documentary theater class on their journey to create the show Water. Water is the story of a little known Santa Fe village of Agua Fria and its ultimate demise, as it lose its most precious resource to the city. However the story is not only about what happens when a community loses a resource, but also how the community members celebrate having a resource. The following images reflect the first 20 minutes of the play, how we celebrate having water. Talmadge’s students have created a symbolic, cross-cultural journey, with the use of silk cloth to reflect this...

Story by Arianna Sullivan/Photo by Natalie Abel “Really,” says Tony O’Brien earnestly, “enjoy the photography. Be who you are.” The Santa Fe University Photographic Society meeting is still for a moment, digesting, and then works itself back up into the excited planning frenzy that preceded Tony’s statement. “So what are we photographing,” inquires one student eagerly, “the people, the streets, of just everything?” Tony looks at the array of confused, enthused and jittery faces and responds simply, “as you see it.” The group has gathered to discuss the Santa Fe Grid Project—the photo department’s plan for involvement in this year’s Outdoor Vision Fest. Outdoor Vision Fest is an annual outdoor art show of design, animation, video, photography and other visual imagery, and the photo department is preparing to be a larger and louder presence in 2013 than it has been in past years. The project that the photo department has decided to embark upon, the Santa Fe Grid Project, has potential to grow in influence beyond the festival and even the campus as well. The Grid Project, brainchild of Photography freshman Chris Beran, will be a photographic documentation of Santa Fe’s neighborhoods by SFUAD Photo Society members. Photo students from the school will document designated neighborhoods of the city by means of whatever photographic medium speaks to them—be it still image, analog or digital, time lapse, alternative processing, with or without the accompaniment of interviews or music—as Tony O’Brien puts it, “as you see it.” Both Chris Nail and Tony O’Brien, the faculty members heralding the Photo Department’s involvement in OVF 2013, are enthusiastic about the project’s potential to be the beginning of a continued relationship between SFUAD and the city of Santa Fe. “It will be a living document, a sort of micro-version...