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Essential West Magazine
Exploring Art, Literature, History, Museums, Lifestyle, and Cultures of the West
It amazes me that four letters - W-E-S-T - have the ability to evoke an instantaneous emotional image. Simply the act of reading these four letters has caused you to form a narrative of your west.
Can the West be distilled to its essence - a simple direction or region? I believe not; it is a deeper dive of consciousness. How America sees itself and the world defines us. Diverse cultures, strong individualism, open spaces, and raw natural beauty marinated in a roughshod history have formed this region’s unique milieu.
Our online magazine’s primary focus is to feature relevant topics in art, literature, history, museums, lifestyle, and culture; lofty goals for any publication. No single magazine can be the beckon of all things western; it is a diverse, evolving paradigm that cannot be pigeonholed. As the publisher, I hope to be the buffalo that grazes the wide expanse of western sensibility and relay to you a glimpse of how I perceive our Essential West.
- Mark Sublette
Featured Article
Indigenous Fire Practices Explored Through Art in Exhibition on View in Los Angeles
The deadly Eaton wildfire began on January 7, 2025, raging uncontrollably to consume chunks of Pasadena and Altadena. As it was dying out, “Fire Kinship: Southern California Native Ecology and Art” was opening – January 22 – at the Fowler Museum at UCLA 25 miles west. The exhibition offering insights into Indigenous fire stewardship, ecological resilience, and climate...
Western artists from around the country respond to the pandemic and their changing routines
By Michael Clawson Read more Essential West here Aside from the tremendous loss of life and the slowed economy, the pandemic is also changing the way people live and work. While many people have to adjust to this new normal, many artists are responding with the same answer: “Not much has changed.” Artists are often isolated creatures, working in relative solitude within their studios. It’s quite normal for them to disappear in the morning and return in the late evening largely unfazed by the outside world. We reached out to some artists and asked them how things are different, and how...
Mark Sublette returns with The Candy Man, his eighth Charles Bloom murder mystery book
By Michael Clawson Read more Essential West here Medicine Man Gallery owner Mark Sublette has many interests: Western and Native American art, the Southwest, old trading posts in Navajoland, Santa Fe and its vibrant culture, murder mysteries, and history in all its forms. These interests all intersect in his book series, A Charles Bloom Murder Mystery. The newest entry, The Candy Man, will be released October 1, and in it Sublette once again brings all sorts of Southwestern elements into a story of intrigue, art, thrills, and murder. The new book again follows Charles Bloom, an art dealer whose own curiosity...
Art Dealer Diaries goes virtual with new episodes featuring key figures from the art world
By Michael Clawson Read more Essential West here At 120 episodes and counting, Mark Sublette’s Art Dealer Diaries podcast has featured every facet of the art world, from prominent collectors and museum curators to magazine publishers and auctioneers. And, of course, dozens of dozens of artists from many mediums and disciplines. His list of guests paints an amazing picture of the art world, but for the podcast host, the picture is still incomplete. “I learn something different every single time. That’s the beauty of it,” says Sublette, the owner of Medicine Man Gallery in Tucson, Arizona. “After each episode, I...
Santa Fe Galleries Forge Ahead Despite Lack of Tourism, Indian Market
Interstate travel during the COVID-19 pandemic has become an indecipherable mosaic of state-issued mandates, suggestions, advisories, exceptions, penalties, and data sets related to incoming visitors’ need to quarantine, the guidelines often changing daily. In New Mexico, the rules are strict and clear: all persons visiting the state for any reason must self-isolate or self-quarantine for 14 days upon arrival. One reason for the severity, New Mexico has both the fourth-highest number of Indigenous people living within its borders and the fourth-highest percentage of Indigenous people counted among its total population. The largest American Indian territory, the Navajo Nation,...
Jay Laber’s ‘Reborn Rez Wrecks’ turns junk cars beautiful at the Missoula Art Museum
Jay Laber "Sentinel 2" | Mixed Media Found Objects | Photo Credit: Missoula Art Museum In June of 1964, floods ravaged the Blackfeet Reservation in Montana killing 31 people. It has been called the state’s worst natural disaster. The flooding swept Jay Laber and his family all the way to New Hampshire where they relocated after losing everything to the water. Laber was 3-years-old at the time. When he returned to Montana in the 1990s, among the first pieces of sculpture he created utilized rusted parts pulled off cars destroyed by the flooding and left to rot over...
Nearly two weeks in, SWAIA’s Virtual Market is already pointing to an exciting new future
By Michael Clawson On April 15, still early in the pandemic and four months away from Santa Fe Indian Market, Kim Peone (Colville/Eastern Cherokee) was named SWAIA’s executive director. The phrase “baptism by fire” was invented for just these occasions. “Less so for me, but it was definitely a baptism by fire for my staff and the board,” Peone recalls of those early days. “Almost immediately after walking in we were all supporting this massive pivot for the future of the market. We were questioning what it could mean for us, and trying to find a vision through it...
Denver’s Clyfford Still Museum wasn’t designed for a Covid-19 era visitor experience, but it feels that way
Clyfford Still "PH-77, 1936" | Photo Credit: Chadd Scott Large, sunlit rooms welcome scant visitors, all of whom are required to purchase timed entry tickets. Spacious, sparse galleries are limited to a handful of guests at any one time. Still’s artwork, as well, seems perfectly suited for the pandemic. Iconic examples of his massive abstract paintings from the 1940s and 50s invite responses of calm and hope from visitors with a world full of tragedies raging just outside. Still became one of the most well-known Abstract Expressionist painters in the post-war era thanks to these enormous paintings...
The SWAIA fashion show returns in a modified form for Santa Fe Virtual Market
By Michael Clawson Read more Essential West here The hugely popular fashion component to this year’s SWAIA Virtual Market is now ongoing at market.swaia.org. Like the market itself, the fashion show will be held entirely online with new collections from different designers dropping daily. The week-long event culminates in the debut of a new film that shows the work of Navajo designer Orlando Dugi. “It’s definitely not as stressful as a normal fashion show, but I’ve been working on these nine pieces for six or seven months so there’s still lots to do,” Dugi says of the new...
SWAIA announces Virtual Market award winners
Read more Essential West here Virtual Indian Market Diverse Arts Award and VIRTUAL GRAND AWARD Glenda McKay (Inglalik Athabascan), Harpoon Head with Sheath and Emergency Whistle Virtual Indian Market Jewelry Award Farrell Pacheco (Santo Domingo Pueblo), The Daughters of Mother Earth Virtual Indian Market Pottery Award Shirley M. Brauker (Little River Band of Ottowa), Missing Sisters Virtual Indian Market Paintings/Drawings/Graphics/Photography Award Everton Tsosie (Navajo), The Last of the Pure Virtual Indian Market Pueblo Wooden Carvings Award Ronald Honyumptewa (Hopi), The Message from a Butterfly Virtual Indian Market Sculpture Award...
Author Hampton Sides will bring his brand of narrative history to SAR’s Creative Thought Forum on August 28
By Michael Clawson Read more Essential West here Hampton Sides has tackled a wide range of historical subjects in his best-selling books, from World War II prisoners of war and commandos fighting their way to the Korean coast to Arctic explorers and murder investigators on the trail of an assassin. History is his playground. On August 28, Sides will bring his deep love of history to the School for Advanced Research’s virtual forum Celebrating Three Years of Creative Thought, an online event that will allow guests the chance to mingle with experts in a variety of fields as...