“You find yourself inside the material.”
Brian Barreto discovered his love for stone when he was 10 years old. He was with his mother, a geologist, on one of their annual rock-hounding expeditions. Brian came across an Oreodont skull embedded in stone ("A prehistoric herbivore" Brian explains). He spent the rest of the summer excavating the skull from the stone with a pick borrowed from his family's dentist. Later, he carved his first sculpture out of a piece of soapstone. He's been sculpting ever since. At 20, he found his passion of sculpting figures out of marble. "I'm really stuck on carving human beings. It's like one of those things when you look at something and you see a face identified in it or something. I just tend to see figures. It's an inexhaustible source of inspiration."
Fragment IV—marble, gold, life sized.
Dixon, New Mexico, where Brian lives and works, has provided fertile ground for his growth as an artist. The beauty of his surroundings are inspirational, and so is the community. "There is a community of sculptors here," Brian explains. "Mark Saxe [stone sculptor and co-owner of the Rift Gallery] has put a lot of time in fostering this culture and has created a really great environment through the workshops. The Dixon Studio Tour has also been a great way to meet other artists.". “The Apodaca Drawing Group has also been a welcome constant in my life here, Chris West has really brought together a wonderful circle of folks.”.
The short trailer featured here will introduce you to Brian, his outdoor studio, his dogs, and his work. Please join us on November 7th and 8th, 2020, for the COVID-friendly, online version of the 39th Annual Dixon Studio Tour where you can learn more about Brian and all of the other artists who make up this incredible community.
Brian's sculptures will be available for sale during the weekend of November 7th and 8th, 2020, or by appointment. You can reach Brian and other Dixon artists participating in this year's Dixon Studio Tour through the DixonArts.org website.
—Kate Rafael