Journal Santa Fe

This week’s column is the last in a four-part series that highlights art collections in unexpected settings in and around Santa Fe.

The weather is warming up — it will be time for picnics soon — and there is a place near Santa Fe where you can picnic on the grass between big, bronze sculptures: Shidoni. The eight acres of sculpture gardens at Shidoni are not public spaces, but they are open to the public any day of the year during daylight hours, making Shidoni an “art option” on the days when galleries and museums are closed, or on holidays when everything is closed.

Shidoni, the bronze foundry, art galleries and sculpture gardens in Tesuque, must be evaluated...

The puppets dance, brawl, laugh and tumble, casting dramatic shadows through lacy pinpricks of light.

Known as the wayang kulit of Indonesia, these elaborately painted figures on water buffalo hide commemorate important life cycles, ceremonies and social events, spinning classical tales with shadows and light. Some gleam with gilt or brass, their articulated limbs set in motion by carved water buffalo horn.

“Dancing Shadows, Epic Tales: Wayang Kulit of Indonesia” opens at 1 p.m. Sunday in the Museum of International Folk Art. The show marks the first time the museum collection of about 220 –– purchased in 2007 from a renowned puppeteer –&nda...

Internationally known painter, teacher and performance artist Roger Shimomura will open a new show of his latest works depicting memories of the internment camps holding Japanese and Japanese-American families and individuals on Friday, March 6, at Eight Modern gallery.

On Thursday, March 5, Shimomura will give an artist’s lecture called “An American Diary” at the Institute of American Indian art. The talk will include a slide show of paintings, prints and experimental theater pieces that span the artist’s 40-year career. “His work has a lot in common with some contemporary Native artists because of shared experiences with racism and ignorance toward the two groups ––...

Santa Fe’s last full-service gas station has pumped its last drop of petrol. The Old Trail Garage, at 600 Old Santa Fe Trail, is closing today after 60 years of operation.

The station has already used up all its gas, but will offer maintenance services — and maybe a shoulder to cry on — to its customers in its final hours.

Santa Fe periodontist Bill Parker said he bought the property 25 years ago and decided it would remain a small-service, independent gas station.

“I always enjoyed going in and having special attention and I wanted to keep that feel,” he said. “There’s a good-old-days feel to the place.”

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From his home studio on Santa Fe’s south side, Rocque Ranaldi sifts through a stack of compact discs resting near a pair of CD turntables, a mixer and studio monitors.

While the pile, which was meticulously assembled throughout the week, contains most of the pieces he needs for his set, Ranaldi said he always leaves room for moments of last-minute inspiration. And on this evening, that meant scouring his wall display of about 1,000 CD jewels — each one grouped by genre: hiphop, rock, funk, etc. — for a 15-second comedy bit from Chris Rock.

After a few frantic seconds, the high-energy 38-year-old Alaska native turned back to his original pile. “It&rs...