New works from Crystal Allbright on exhibit at new gallery on Lajitas Boardwalk, reception October 6

By Marlys Hersey, Editor

Local artist Crystal Allbright will be the first to exhibit at Lajitas Golf Resort & Spa’s newest art gallery, The Sangregado, on the boardwalk in Lajitas. The longtime resident of Terlingua is pleased to exhibit new paintings, pastel drawings, and photographs from September 28 through November.

Allbright said that being the featured artist for last year’s Artwalk really spurred her into action, so when she was approached by Lajitas to exhibit, she was “ready.”

Allbright spent a lot of time this summer painting, drawing, and photographing new things, albeit many of these are “extensions” on familiar Allbright artwork themes—more fish in cactus, and a new image of a dancing ocotillo, for example. Others are reawakenings of “hibernating ideas,” she notes, such as an uprooted, still-blooming rainbow cactus.

And of course there will be a new image of a horned lizard: “You know how much I love horned lizards,” Allbright muses.

Allbright is delighted to work with Lajitas, noting how “great” the staff has been to work with on this upcoming exhibition: “They’re very enthused.”

In light of showing her work there, Allbright will be showing some artwork focused on things from right around the resort, such as a view looking down the Rio Grande from atop the Mesa de Anguila, a landform that dominates the Lajitas skyline to the southeast. The trail to the Mesa starts at the edge of the resort grounds, though as Allbright notes, “I don’t think a lot of people who stay there know that.” Maybe this will inspire them to hike up there, she suggests.

In addition to capturing the beauty of nature, which Allbright does so well, and asking people to see critters, plants, and people in new ways, the artist, who is also a bicyclist, hiker, and river runner, hopes her art will “gently” nudge viewers to do the right thing when it comes to properly appreciating and respecting the “environment and critters.”

“HR 1505 scares me,” says Allbright, pointblank. The proposed legislation from Republican Rep. Rob Bishop (Utah) seeks to allow U.S. Customs and Border Protection to build and maintain roads and fences, drive vehicles across, fly aircraft over, install and maintain surveillance equipment, and build bases of operation in national parks, wilderness areas, and other protected lands within 100 miles of the border—even though Dept. of Homeland Security Secretary Napolitano has called the measures in the bill “unnecessary,” and “bad policy.”

HR 1505 “is against all that we have worked for,” says Allbright. “And this is what I feel my work is trying to talk to. “

In going “from a wide, sweeping view of the landscape,” to “coming in close to see a bird on a branch,” as her artwork so often does, Allbright hopes to impress upon those who see it “that we live in a beautiful place. We need to take care of it.”

See Crystal Allbright’s newest artwork at the Sagregado Gallery on the boardwalk at Lajitas Golf Resort and Spa in Lajitas. The exhibit will run from Sept. 28 through the end of November. Meet the artist (and her dynamo of a mother, Ruth Allbright, who turns 95 in October) at the artist’s reception at the gallery Saturday October 6 from 4-8 pm. For more information, call Lajitas Resort (432) 424-5005 or visit Crystal’s website: www.crystalallbright.com.