YUMA: SPACE, LIGHT, & COLOR by Ken Bova

YUMA: SPACE, LIGHT, & COLOR

For most of the past decade I’ve made it a priority to attend the Yuma Symposium each year. I am at a point now where it is almost impossible for me not to go. I can’t imagine not traveling to a warm, dry place in the middle of winter to meet up with a few hundred friends to listen to, talk about, and see some fascinating artwork for a few intense days.

The symposium takes place just about halfway between the winter solstice and the spring equinox. Now coming from the deep forested green and misty coastal plain of east North Carolina what that means for me, an unapologetic westerner at heart (20 years in Texas, 30+ years in Montana with sojourns into Oklahoma and New Mexico) is Space, Light, and Color.

But I’m not just talking about the landscape. At Yuma there is the physical space of the southern Rockies but there is also the space to talk shop, be an artist without justifying it (you know what I mean), play hard, get inspired, and breathe in deep, long-lasting friendships. There is the burnished light of the dry southwestern climate but also a light-ness of spirit, of belonging, and of possibility in new thought & direction. There is the color of the turquoise sky, purple mountains (honestly!), adobe sands, and Hispanic culture but there is also the color of artistic character, material, image, and creativity that infuses one with a spectrum of renewed energies.

Space, light, and color. That’s why it’s a priority for me.