Romario Powell a Contemporary Music Junior is practicing Thai Chi on SFUAD’s campus. He hopes that the school would incorporate more meditative outlets for students to let their creative energies flow.

On Oct. 9, Santa Fe’s Center for Contemporary Arts opened The Land Mark Show, an exhibit centered on the current ecology of the Midwest through video sculpting, painting, visuals, instillations and photography. Almost all of the work omitted artist statements, which allowed viewers to shape the concepts of the works and focus more on the environmental implications themselves. More than 200 artists submitted to the exhibition and approximately 30 were selected. Ash Haywood—currently taking a semester off from SFUAD—was one of the local talents selected as part of The Land Mark Show; her work fell under the documentation umbrella of the exhibition. Haywood’s work has always had a hand in activism and been inspired by where she lives. She had been intrigued by environmental justice for some time, and moving to Santa Fe only heightened her awareness. She started attending public events regarding New Mexico’s energy industry, and diving into media advocacy with the local non-profit group New Energy Economy. During her work with New Energy Economy, Haywood learned about the lawsuit against Public Service Company of New Mexico over coal versus alternative energy. This issue, and Haywood’s desire to share information, became the main influences in her pieces for the gallery. Haywood had two pieces in The Land Mark Show. “The Flare” is the starting point for a proposed oil pipeline in Farmington, NM. In the image, vast green New Mexico hillsides are shown surrounding a gas flare. The other piece, “Stacks,” was also taken in Farmington on the land of a man named, R.G. “Squeak” Hunt, a sheepherder and butcher. His property is near the acequia that flows from PNM’s San Juan Generating Station. Hunt maintains that runoff from the acequia became contaminated and killed approximately 1,400 of his herd. The photo depicts the beautiful hills of the southwest juxtaposed with the cold harsh image of industry looming...