THE EMERGENCE OF A HIP DESERT ART town follows a certain pattern. It starts with the rise of an industry in a small community: maybe a military base (see Marfa, Texas, and Slab City, California) or a mine (Jerome, Arizona, and Madrid, New Mexico). The industry lures job- and adventure-seekers to the relatively remote town. After a heyday in the early part of the 20th century, the industry shuts down. People move away. The century marches on. The infrastructure crumbles. Stately buildings gather dust. Depending on the unique character of the abandoned industry, a fascinating and often beautiful sort of dilapidation seeps into the place’s pores.
Then, gradually lured by this still alive, gently breathing history, along with a low cost of living, natural beauty, and a growing collection of like-minded folks seeking creative freedom, the artists move in. The art town, as it is now identified to visitors and outsiders, becomes a layered installation all its own. It whispers of its complex past from under fresh bursts of paint, in haphazardly placed murals, through found-object assemblages, and in newly opened galleries.
All these factors converge in the continuously rising artistic profile of the peculiar town of Carrizozo, a former railroad hub at the intersection of U.S. 54 and U.S. 380 that now
