Eliseo & Paula Rodriguez

GOLDEN WORKS IN STRAW

Honored October, 1998

Eliseo & Paula Rodriguez

Growing up on Canyon Road in Santa Fe, Eliseo Rodriguez couldn’t help but be exposed to art.  In the 1920’s, at age 12, he worked various odd jobs for the legendary group known as Los Cinco Pintores (The Five Painters).  His father was a weaver and while herding goats would fashion miniature wagons with a pocketknife from stalks of wild corn.  Thanks to a benefactor, he attended the Santa Fe Art School before entering Santa Fe High School where he continued his art education and he excelled in oil painting, reverse painting on glass and furniture making.  During the Great Depression, Eliseo was directed towards the Federal Art Project, a work-relief program sprung from the WPA, and the director of the program approached Eliseo with a proposal that would change his artistic focus and ultimately define his art for the rest of his life.  He was asked to resurrect the Hispanic art form from the 18th and 19th centuries called “straw appliqué.”  Art historians today credit him with single-handedly reviving the colonial art form.