Born in Oakland, California, and educated at Berkeley, Gene Kloss brings a westerner’s perspective and sensibility to her work, which lacks the cultural filter that so many eastern-raised artists bring to their depictions of the Southwest. Her popular genre scenes of New Mexico natives, Indian and Hispanic, and her landscapes are done with great sensitivity to the indigenous cultures. They also serve as excellent examples of her command over her chosen media of aquatint and drypoint etching.
At her best, her etchings capture the “eternal moment,” in which the present extends into a timeless future. Her drypoint etching, “Corn Dancers Coming,” poses dancers and spectators against the timeless mass of the pueblo with its sturdy vigas and yawning doors, the frenzy and joy of the present set against the impassive beckoning of the future. In its placid stillness, “Adobes in the Snow” achieves its effect in a similarly subtle way; we know the snow will melt, but the scene remains immaculate in the memory of the viewer.