A popular sold-out gallery show of his work bought Native American artist Gregory Lomayesva this house in 2000, back in the days when he circulated at all the incrowd cocktail parties. He’s lived here ever since, adapting the living room into an evolving creative hub. “My life has always been kind of unconventional,” he says. “I feel possibilities when I come into this room. I’ve gone through so many iterations of my life in this room. I’ve gone through so many ideas. So many failed ideas, so many brilliant ideas. They’ve all been created in this room. I paint in here, and I also sit by the fire and end my day in here.”
Gregory Lomayesva on the couch in his favorite room, where he surrounds himself with his own artwork
It’s a bold room. A practical, weathered room. The walls are yellow, finished in Italian plaster and beeswax polish. The floors, hardwood. There’s color everywhere. “All these things have happened in this room, from absolute creativity to the absolute darkest areas of creative obsession. And the beauty of love and happiness. It’s quite a wonderful room,” Lomayesva considers.
The room measures about 25-by-15 feet. Inside this space, “It’s a lot of hope. It’s safety. The color in the room is calming to me. It’s my space. I don’t think you can own a space any more than having paint on the floor and your paintings on the wall,” Lomayesva declares. “I have the ownership of this room. This one room on this planet is mine. I really appreciate that.”
Gregory Lomayesva as seen through the many paintings and other works of art he’s done over the years
He paints and displays his artworks here, literally living with them to see if he likes what he’s doing. “I gain my self worth sometimes when I have a really nice painting on the wall. It gives me great comfort to be like, that looks really cool. That’s a great painting. Or it’s the opposite sometimes, too. Like, you suck. But for the most part, at this stage in the game, the new paintings I’ve been doing—it’s so nice to have worked on these in just quietness. I’m showing galleries this colorful style. It’s nice to do hummingbirds and flowers and subtle kachinas and Hopi stuff and seed pods. It’s really vibrant in here,” reflects Lomayesva. “I still do the angsty stuff. I’m never gonna not be angsty. I still paint muses and girls I’ve fallen in love with, but I try to keep it at a minimum.”
An assortment of the electronics Lomayesva keeps handy for CAD design and musical compositions
Besides the paintings, there’s a disco ball on the ceiling, red butterfly wings drilled into the roof (they’re leftover from his architectural work for hotels), a desk with two computer screens for CAD design work and for composing music, an electric guitar, red leather chairs and a gray couch by the working fireplace (he goes through three cords per winter), wooden angel wings over the fireplace, a glowing neon fixture that proclaims “girls, girls, girls” and scattered tables with his woodwork carvings and with small lamps (“I love neon and hate LEDs,” he notes). Large BMW speakers add to the eclectic ambiance, emitting music from electronic bands like Depeche Mode, classical Bach or Lomayesva’s own electronic compositions (he plays keyboards).
South-facing windows shine with all-day light. In front of each window of this South Capitol home is an apple tree Lomayesva planted when he moved in 25 years ago. “It’s really cool. I watch the seasons change. When I go through sustained hardship or sustained change, it’s really nice to see the apple trees suddenly bloom. Slowly, the view is obscured with the apples and a tree,” he describes.
Lomayesva was born in 1971 and grew up in Santa Fe, the son of Hispanic santera Marie Romero Cash and Hopi artist Bill Lomayesva. He dropped out of high school after 10th grade, heading west to San Diego and Los Angeles. In L.A., he worked at Earl McGrath’s art gallery, where rock stars, movie stars and art stars mingled. McGrath ran record labels for the Rolling Stones and for Atlantic Records, signed the rock duo Daryl Hall and John Oates and palled around with the likes of Mick Jagger, Joan Didion, Anjelica Huston and sculptor Robert Graham. “He knew every rock star and artist. He pawned me off on Robert Graham: ‘Hey, go help this guy pour a mold,’ ” recalls Lomayesva.
When he returned to Santa Fe, Lomayesva had a fresh contemporary perspective. “I remained friends with Earl and still meet people today who knew Earl. Rock stars who knew Earl. He still inspires me today. When I do something, I can still hear his criticisms and try harder.”
These days, Lomayesva hits the gym first thing, then takes his dog Major, a pit bull hybrid, for a run along the Santa Fe River. “It really helps with stress. I appreciate the beautiful skies and the outdoors, plus you can still see the stars here,” he observes. He often pops into Downtown Subscription for an Americano.
It isn’t hard to guess that Lomayesva is an intensely creative, emotional Pisces. The affable artist confesses, “I mean, over the years and a lot of shrinks, I’ve learned to control that, but it is funny to be, God, you’re so emotional. But it’s such a wonderful thing to be in tune with that, and feel those feelings, as long as you can control the ups and downs, and that takes years to master, to surf your sensitivity.”
Lomayesva is now into staying home and painting large-scale, post-modern portraits that merge figurative compositions with nature and Hopi motifs. He also records original music. “I’m autodidactic, where I teach myself everything,” he explains.
Here, he says, “I don’t know what’s coming next, but this room is where I create that next step. That’s what I enjoy about the space. Wherever I’m going, it’s going to start in this room. And that’s the cool thing.”
Wolf Schneider, former editor of the Santa Fean and American Film, has written for many other publications--from New Mexico magazine and Southwest Art to Mademoiselle. You can find her at: wolfschneiderusa.com
