Arthur Lopez is one of the leading Santos carvers in New Mexico.  This piece is entitled “Looking for a Soul to Steal“.  This is a large and complex piece, especially the fiddles (violins) that Arthur carved and placed into the large wood tie!  The detail and intricacy of this piece is simply extraordinary! 

 Arthur said of this piece:

“This piece is inspired by the 1979 Charlie Daniels song “The Devil Went Down to Georgia”.  In the story the Devil challenges a young Johnny to a fiddle contest for his soul.  If Johnny wins, he gets a fiddle made of gold, but if the Devil wins he gets Johnny’s soul.  The devil plays a golden fiddle as he dances on a stump that has flaming fiddles (violins) coming out off that represent the previous souls the Devil has taken.  Each of the fiddles is hand carved and mounted to appear as if they were emerging from the stump of wood”.

The process for Arthur’s work is bound in tradition.  After the piece is carved, it is covered in gesso (a glue made from rabbit hide), which is allowed to dry and then sanded.  It is painted with both natural and watercolor pigments.  Natural colored pigments, such as brown, are derived from black walnut hulls.   These are the time involved and historic foundations for his work.  

We are pleased to present this amazing body of work from one of the leading Santos artists in the country.  Arthur’s artistic expression continues to break through the history of Traditional Spanish Colonial art in New Mexico. Each piece demonstrates his expressive ideas by utilizing and honoring traditional techniques to arrive at his uniquely contemporary one-of-a-kind creations. Consistently, Arthur has pushed the boundaries of the New Mexico Santero tradition that has placed him at the forefront of his craft.

Arthur’s work is found in numerous museum and public collections, including Albuquerque Museum of Art & History,  Denver Art Museum,  Freedom Museum (911 Memorial at Ground Zero), Harwood Museum of Art, Museum of International Folk Art,  Museum of Spanish Colonial Art, and the State of New Mexico Permanent Art Collection.  Most recently he received the New Mexico Governor’s Award for the Arts in 2022!