Beautiful Barelas

“Beautiful” is not a word often linked with Barelas. Ours is a close-knit community, held together by corazón y familia, but beauty doesn’t figure into most descriptions of Barelas. Speed through the main thoroughfares of our barrio and you’ll likely miss the beauty that lives in Barelas.

There are some obvious places to look for beauty in Barelas - think of the large spaces of the Rio Grande bosque and the hauntingly elegant expanses of glass and steel at the railyards. Whether you define beauty as creations of nature’s design or human artifact, these places quickly grab your attention and imagination.

And then there are the small, almost insignificant, bits of beauty that catch you by surprise as you travel through Barelas at a slower pace.

You might glimpse a summer garden in full bloom surrounding a New Mexico Territorial style home, or warm hues of sunset highlighting bits of straw in the plaster of an adobe brick wall. Perhaps you’ll catch neighbors chatting amicably as their children play nearby, or hear the strains of Handel on cello and violin through an open window as local musicians rehearse for their next gig.

Some people dedicate their lives to beauty – artists are known for this.

Barelas is home to writers and poets and santeros and musicians and dancers and actors and painters, each crafting their own versions of beauty. Some are seventh generation Bareleños; others are newcomers who have found their way to this unique community. Over the next few months, I plan to feature some of the creative Bareleños living just south of downtown Albuquerque.

Ophelia C. Adelaï, a Bareleña by way of Belgium, is an artist who uses Barelas as her canvas.

I’ve known Ophelia for almost as long as I’ve lived in Barelas. Soon after we moved in, I noticed her walking in the neighborhood with two little girls and a dog; for months I thought we might connect. From time to time, we’d wave to each other across the street, but hurried schedules and fretting children always got in the way of a conversation.

One day, we started to chat, and the next thing I knew, almost an hour had passed. Our words leapt from art to education to philosophy, and as we were conversing in the excitement of newfound friendship, we noticed that our toddlers were bonding in their own way over ants and plants.

Slender and quiet, Ophelia is more than anything, an observer.

As a child, she spent her school years playing in the wheat fields of a small country town in Belgium, punctuated by summers in Manhattan with her fashion designer mother’s circle of creative colleagues and friends, including renowned art photographer, Naomi Savage, niece of Man Ray, and painter Susan Rothenberg (now herself a New Mexican) .

Ophelia’s quest for beauty in her surroundings starts with her home and garden, a lovely understated hidden corner that hints of Mexico and Spain. But it goes beyond that to her contributions to the neighborhood – she and her husband and their friends have spent countless hours planting trees and shrubs in parkways throughout Barelas.

She’s worked with city councilors over the years, obtaining funds and donations of trees and shrubs, in her drive to make Barelas a more beautiful place. Street corners that were once barren or full of weeds have now taken on a different look. Homes owned by senior citizens on fixed incomes are now graced with spring blooms and summer shade.

For Ophélie, as I call her, the pursuit of beauty is much more than putting paint to canvas, though she also does that exquisitely well.

It is about bringing beauty to a community and creating a place where people feel good about what is around them. In creating these places in our community, she has opened up a space of hope where people can add to the beauty that is already in Barelas.

Her own creative process follows this path. She writes:

Mexico by the sea.

On a dusty road, I stand - waiting. My mind, at rest in a neutral, altered place. A car passes, hot mariachi trumpets blast from a radio - awakening my senses. Suddenly the breeze, the light and laughter are perfect. There is a sense of familiarity, even recognition from the subconscious. It is a delicious and sensuous abstract flash in time. In this very moment, I am washed over by joy, love of place, and belonging.

This is what I paint.

In a world of ever-increasing complexity, my function is to depict what grounds me and what defines me: my environment. I seek to give a feeling of recognition and delight in shapes and moments abstracted; to offer a scene that stands as a celebration of the wonderful altered moments in places cherished.

Ophelia’s work extends beyond her cherished Barelas – parents of young children may know her as a long-time arts educator at the Albuquerque Museum School; others may have seen her work at art shows and other venues around town. Her newest show opens this Friday, September 5 from 5-8 pm at the Sunshine Café, home of the old Sunshine Market on the southwest corner of 12th Street and Mountain Road.