Why Jim Wagner?

When I closed Milagro de Taos Gallery down in 1991, I had to decide what to do next in my life. I was a local girl who had tried to make a go of the largest clean industry in Taos, the art business. Jim was the first to believe in me and walked into my empty space with several large paintings. After three months of business my gallery was written up in Glamour Magazine as one of the five places to see in New Mexico.

My husband Ed, who allows me to follow my dreams, liked my idea to produce and publish a book on Jim. Most art books are products of academia or museums. This one is different. It was produced here in Taos, and the sources are Wagner's family, friends, and fellow artists, the people who know and understand him best. The book quickly grew into a major art book with 230 color plates and is Jim's own story in his own brush strokes. Stephen Parks wrote the epic narrative for us by living and breathing Jim. We had an excellent book crew, and we all worked on it for nine months. It was written up as a "must acquisition" by the Library Journal in New York and the New Mexico Magazine loved it. Our collection went on tour to four museums. The Colorado Springs Fine Arts Museum said "Taking down the Jim Wagner show was like taking down the Christmas tree."

When Jim arrived in Taos in the early 1960's I was a kid riding by bike or horse all around Ranchos de Taos area. It was easy to note new people in those days, so I thought he was an interesting guy who drove around in a green Ford truck with a broom sticking up. He had also married one of us. She was a Talpa girl named Bertha Medina. He lived like us, he hunted and fished and worked side by side with us. He absorbed our rich diversity and captured our spirit. He painted our clothes on the line waving in the wind, our chickens, magpies and adobe buildings, epitomizing his love of Taos and us. It is unusual for an artist to move here and be one of us rather than painting or writing about us from afar.

Jim is a bright light in my life and the bright light to him is the "art thing." He paints all hours of the day and night, and has produced thousands of pieces.

Jim's biggest fan,

Trudy