Ra Paulette shapes New Mexico sandstone

Lee Cowan: "Do you think you're obsessed with cave digging?" 

Ra Paulette: "Would you call a child being obsessed with play?"

Jen Jen Reynolds posted the above video and the following notes:

In the high desert of Northern New Mexico, you can hear the sounds of a man entranced in his work underground in a cave. You will see a small entry that opens into a cavern, where Ra Paulette has spent the last 25 years carving New Mexico’s sandstone into magnificent art. He’s spent years doing this work with the company of only his dog. 

When asked if he is a man obsessed with cave digging, he gives the really thoughtful response: “Is a child obsessed with play?” He waxes on to say, that when you love what you are doing, you are driven to do it all the time. He sees his majestic pieces as environmental projects; his goal is to inspire people such that they open up emotionally, in response to the enormity and power of what his carvings evoke. 

It can be said that he has created magic in the underground caves that he has carved. They are at once intimate and overwhelming. Interestingly, Ra doesn’t see himself as an artist, but simply as a man expressing his sense of wonder in a passionate way. I would beg to differ with his opinion that he is not an artist. What he has created, is livable art of unbelievable power. 

The video you are about to watch tells the rest of his story, and gives you a tour of his magnificent caves. Unbelievably, his work had no notoriety until a filmmaker asked to do a documentary about Ra. Called “Cave Digger”, the film ended up winning an academy award! Please share your reactions to this story of peaceful man who’s purpose was a dedication to his craft. I can guarantee that you are about to view something you have never seen before.

I was taken by how Ra Paulette had dedicated his life to art:

I used to love rock-climbing, because I loved the feel of the mountain on my hands and fingers. It was a way to get intimate with it. That's also how I see Paulette's love for what he does: just his hands, and some low-tech or non-tech tools, and the sandstone. In a way the question about obsession was silly and dense.

Then, it's overwhelming in that his work is literally towering, even otherworldly - maybe a scene from one of the "Alien" films. Overwhelming in that he has devoted years and years of his life to his art; and I do hope he has more than plenty of life left to finish his magnum opus!

Finally, I bet he and Georgia O'Keeffe would've gotten along famously, maybe even become lovers. She, too, loved the New Mexico landscape.