Valerie Martinez

Lines and Circles, a Celebration of Santa Fe Families Valerie Martinez

For over a year and a half, Santa Fe, New Mexico's Poet Laureate, 2008-2010, Valerie Martinez worked closely with three generations of eleven Santa Fe families in the creation of unique works of art and poetry. The project and exhibition, entitled Lines and Circles: A Celebration of Santa Fe Families, encouraged positive relationships within and between families, promoted meaningful community dialogue, and generated a body of art and poetry that commemorates family life in Santa Fe. This book documents the project and the families, celebrating art at the heart of community life.

Ms. Martinez says, ''This project was a labor of family and community love more than anything else. The Lines and Circles families will tell you that in addition to creating important family works of art that will stay with them for generations, they have come together, even more meaningfully, as families. They have also worked alongside and become friends with families they didn't know, across the 'invisible lines' that sometimes tend to separate us as city residents. Lines and Circles is our gift to ourselves, to our fellow residents, and to this beautiful city that means everything to us.''