Wander INTO Art with Elaine Ritchel—What a Trip!
Elaine leads you into a conversation that brings forth who you are, what you’re doing and what’s occurring in the world.
She is remarkably tuned into her individual or group and has an understanding of the art through the ages. Elaine is well received and at home in Santa Fe’s galleries and museums, so those with her feel the same. Thank you.
— TripAdvisor review from Santa Fe Art Tours website
Visual art is much more than decoration. Art doesn’t have to be merely viewed. Art provides an experience. Elaine Ritchel knows how to engage us with that experience.
Unlike tours that place you as audience for show-and-tell about the collection, Elaine Ritchel of Santa Fe Art Tours guides you into an image for a true art trip.
And What a Trip!
Be fascinated—and fascinate—by making comments you didn’t know you knew as Elaine leads you and other art-wanderers with mindful, calming steps into art.
And she does take you one step at a time. Elaine asks you to:
notice your surroundings—colors, objects, attention points;
delve with your other senses—from your surroundings, what might you hear, smell, taste? If you could touch, what might you feel?
With a talent for weaving your observations with those of other participants, with historical knowledge, and with her own uncanny insights, Elaine asks additional questions in a serene style of wonder that is uniquely her own.
Together, with Elaine and your companion art-wanderers, you discover.
Déjà vu?
When looking at an image, at first you think you are “merely” seeing, for example, irises, or colors and shapes of a very abstracted image. Soon, however, you experience a place you somehow already know, as artists render human experience and the human condition.
Now, the art has become a place of shared human experience.
Elaine’s knowledgeable and entertaining dialogue has added a whole new dimension to the way I view art.
— TripAdvisor review from Santa Fe Art Tours website
A very intimate experience with art that I found quite inspiring.
— TripAdvisor review from Santa Fe Art Tours website
Question: How much time does a person usually spend looking at one art image?
A. 10 minutes
B. 2 minutes
C. 15 seconds
Elaine, an Arts Educator with a MA in Art History from the University of Texas, Austin, says the average time a person spends looking at one art image is, answer C— about 15 seconds. And this is for an image that someone likes.
When viewing art, people often make immediate judgments—I like this or I don’t like this. Elaine’s steps delay that judgment, so that by the time she allows us to judge—which she calls “reflection” instead of “judgment”— we are sad our journey with this image is ending. And instead of seconds, we have spent about 30 minutes with one work of art.
Creative and Caring, Elaine Innovates
Is there anything new under the sun? Yes, there is. Innovators innovate. Using creativity, they make variations on what is under the sun—or is sailing past it.
An entrepreneur, Elaine imagined a new kind of tour—taking people into galleries as well as museums. And not taking people into galleries primarily as buyers, but as contributors to understanding the stories art tells us.
While tours of museums are common, gallery tours are not; as far as I know, no one had done interactive gallery tours before Elaine. Within the galleries or museums, she takes us into a few art works, using conversation as the way to let the art unfold its world around us.
In 2015, Elaine founded Santa Fe Art Tours and began leading tours throughout Santa Fe and Northern New Mexico. What a fabulous plan for Canyon Road, the mecca of quality art galleries with an enticing history!
Elaine had her first tour outside of New Mexico scheduled—to her “adopted home” Croatia, in conjunction with Atlas Obscura—when the pandemic hit.
Determined to Provide Us with Art Experiences, Elaine Adapts
Adaptable—and determined to bring the experience of art to us, now mostly homebound in a cyberworld—Elaine started Artist Studio Tour Visits and Mindfulness with Art sessions via Zoom. Visiting with the artists in their studios and learning about their concepts and process invigorates my human heart and stokes my senses. Mindfulness with Art is a wander into the wonder of art.
These 45 life-enriching-minute gatherings are only $12 for an Artist Studio Tour Visit, and for Mindfulness with Art, you can pay what you wish or use it as one visit if you have purchased a studio visit bundle.
From the Divine Studio: Creatives in Conversation
It is Elaine I have to thank for my own related innovation—From the Divine Studio: Creatives in Conversation. As she was formulating the Artist Studio Visits, I thought of how I’d like to open up conversations among creative and caring people to bring us together during our pandemic isolation.
I had already begun my newsletter and my blog, which is called From the Divine Studio, with that purpose—connecting us is our “divine studios.” But having an event featuring a creative with whom we converse rounds out the community-building of my newsletter and blog. Not only did I “borrow” her idea, she suggested the name Creatives in Conversation. Thanks, Elaine!
Elaine is our featured Creative at From the Divine Studio: Creatives in Conversation on Wednesday, July 15, 5:30 to 6:45 pm MT.
Join us to hear and speak with Elaine about:
Art Appreciation and Creative Flow
This is a free event open to all! However, to get the Zoom link, you need to sign up for my email/newsletter list. Click on button to get more information and to sign up!
Elaine Ritchel | Founder + Lead Guide of Santa Fe Art Tours
Elaine Ritchel has a master's degree in art history and has worked as a gallery teacher and art museum educator in the US and abroad. She specializes in discussion-based teaching and creates meaningful, art-centered experiences that promote visual literacy, inspire personal awareness, and deepen connections with the world around us. After a three-year stint in Croatia, where she worked at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Zagreb and the Croatian Association of Artists, Elaine returned to New Mexico to launch Santa Fe Art Tours. Elaine is also an arts, culture, and travel writer. Here’s her online portfolio. Additionally, she is Mary Dezember’s daughter and a co-host of Creatives in Conversation.
Photo by Sean Ritchel
Elaine and art-wanderers in a museum in Zagreb, Croatia.
Art wanderers truly “getting into” the art on a tour with Elaine at the New Mexico Museum of Art in Santa Fe.
Wondering about and wandering into art with Elaine Ritchel at the Center for Contemporary Arts in Santa Fe.
Photo by Kyle Farrell
Elaine Ritchel on Santa Fe Art Tours’ beloved Canyon Road
about the blog author
Mary Dezember, PhD, is a poet and author of fiction and non-fiction. She earned her PhD in Comparative Literature, specialization in Comparative Arts, from Indiana University in 2000, with PhD minors in Art History and Performance Studies. Professor of English, she teaches Comparative Arts, Art History, Creative Writing and Literature at New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology. Her publications include several non-fiction essays and articles and two books of poetry: Earth-Marked Like You (Sunstone Press) and Still Howling (CreateSpace Independent Publishing). Her novel, Wild Conviction, is in the works to be published by Inkshares. She organizes and hosts From the Divine Studio: Creatives in Conversation.
Her greatest love and accomplishment is her children. She is pictured here with her daughter, Elaine Dezember Ritchel, at a gallery event in Santa Fe in 2016.