"Matador" egg tempera and oil on wood 20"x16"

Different Delights BY ZANE FISHER DIVINE

I hesitate to comment with much conviction in regard to the Awakening Museum (125 N. Guadalupe St., 954-4025), largely because the literature within the museum is careful to point out that the artist who created it knows what it is to kill a man----so, you know, I don’t want him to get angry with me.
The artist, one Jean Claude Gaugy, spent 13 years working on the hundreds of painted panels that now fill the former Drama Club, creating a singular work of epic spirituality. The Awakening Museum claims that art has the power to uplift, inspire and enlighten, a sentiment that I happen to agree with wholeheartedly, but I’ve got to admit that the Jesus-heavy creation reads more Hubris Hut than Sistine Chapel to my eyes.Fortunately, Gaugy has taken it upon himself to remind visitors, "The most important thing to remember about this, or any, work of art is that you are completely entitled to see and feel whatever you do, and what you see and feel is absolutely correct."This is another sentiment that I am in complete agreement with, and I hope that It means that Gaugy will refrain from killing me because of my opinion of his art.

Salvation is at hand, however; Gaugy has opened the Sacred Arts Gallery as an annex to his museum in order to show the paintings of other artists working with "sacred intent." Currently filling a good sized wall is the work of Antonio Roybal, which is more dark than holy, more devious than sacred, but kicks ass regardless. Roybal’s flat, eerie egg tempera compositions read like Renaissance sketches done with a fun-house mirror.Gaugy made a wise choice in coming to Santa Fe---I’m certain that many people will lap up his brand of spiritual celebration, as well as the books, videos, coffee mugs and aprons that serve as accessories. I’m just glad that he decided that his brush might not be the only one capable of describing the color of God.