Taos is Home 2020

Mark Maggiori painted "Taos is Home" with what looks like oil paint, but it's his brushwork that really grabs me – how he lays down each stroke, confident and deliberate. You can really see the hand of the artist in this painting, and I love that. It's all about the process, right? Looking closer, you see these thick strokes in the horse's tail, this real physicality. The way the light hits, it almost feels like you could reach out and touch it. And then there’s the blanket, this geometric pattern is really eye-catching. It's like Maggiori is having a conversation with history, maybe those artists of the Taos Society, but in his own, modern way. It kind of reminds me of some of Marsden Hartley’s paintings, that same sense of place and identity, but with Maggiori’s own twist. Art is just this ongoing conversation, each artist riffing off the others, and making something new.