Working with metal and working probably maybe with most media, there are times when you
just let it go.
You just have to step away from it for a while, whether it be a day or half an hour or whatever
it is, but just get a different mindset.
And so that's one thing that I've learned with design is that don't be so rigid.
That's what I've learned, not to be so rigid where if something doesn't come out just exactly
the way you pictured it or you've drawn it, it's okay, you know, as long as it works.
My name is Lawrence Baca, I live in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and I'm a silversmith, goldsmith
jeweler.
I use a lot of heavier gauge metal, I like a lot of overlay and stamp work, and I do
a lot of texturing too on my metal, I don't really like it shiny, I like it textured in
different ways.
I actually started out by selling, I was a salesperson, my wife Maria worked at a store
downtown Santa Fe, and I sold for one of her silversmiths, so I got into the business
as a salesperson, and we got busy to the point where he needed me to help them around his
casting studio, so I started doing filing and clippings of castings, and while I was
doing that he was fabricating, so he was doing his line of jewelry that he did, and I watched
him fabricate, and that's I think what really intrigued me and started me out in silversmithing.
He ended up moving to Wyoming in I think 92, once he moved then we started working out
of my house, which was my first studio out of our house.
I also did a lot of continuing education in silversmithing, it was just the beginning
of something that has turned out really, really cool because taking classes from other people
I was just so encouraged and so excited about wanting to learn more.
It felt great, I found something that I love to do and that hopefully it was going to make
a living for us and it has.
I didn't know that I was going to stick with it back then, but I had no intention of doing
anything else at the time.
That was just the very beginning of just this wonderful 20 years.
Making people happy with what I make and making a good living that is to this day just a really,
really nice part of what I do.
I count it as a gift and I really do.
I'm most inspired by being in Santa Fe.
Living in Santa Fe you can't walk a block or two without seeing wonderful art right around
my studio.
A lot of my friends are artists and I get a lot of inspiration from my friends.
Just the art influence that Santa Fe brings, that's very inspirational.
My work is more free flowing, it definitely looks handmade and that's what I wanted to
look.
Looking outside and looking at that fence there, I could see these patterns and that
is art to me.
A lot of the inspiration that I get, talking about inspiration earlier, is driving down
the road and I might see an old tree and that old tree all of a sudden turns into a cross
because I've taken what I'm getting out of that old tree and applying it to what I know
how to do or maybe it's an old building.
It's part of a lot of why my stuff is real uneven is because of the architecture of New
Mexico.
I love those old uneven adobes and then driving down the road and up in the Abacue, just all
the sandstone and how it's just nothing is perfectly symmetrical but it's also beautiful.
I feel very lucky doing what I'm doing with my artwork because it's not just producing
the piece or selling the piece but it actually brings a lot of comfort and solitude to me.
It brings sanctuary also, I feel very comfortable and at ease when I'm working.
It's a good place to be and it's a big part of my life.
I didn't ever think of myself as doing art for a living in any aspect but I found out
that that's exactly what it is that I needed to do.
So I think art has been part of me, I feel very close to it and so it's just an enormous
important part of what I do and how I live.
This episode of Beyond the Gallery is brought to you by Great Southwest located in Colorado
Springs, Colorado.
To learn more about Lawrence Baca and to see some of his work, please visit GreatSouthWestArt.com.
