2014 was a great year for Paul O’Connor.His acclaimed book Taos Portraits won in three categories including Best Book at the Arizona/New Mexico Book Awards, a powerful affirmation for Paul who put twenty years of work into the project which you can discover more about via his link below.

Taos Portraits has been included in the permanent collection of the Bibliothèque nationale de France, at museums and libraries here in the States and just last weekend Paul’s work appeared in the Wall Street Journal in a photograph/piece on  Taos book shop Moby Dickens. a-different-kind-of-book-tour

It seemed fitting then, that I should choose Paul to ring out 2014 here on taoStyle.

Because Paul O’ Connor is much more than a photo chronicler of other artists. Paul is an artist himself who is certainly not limited to one medium. He’s a sculptor, an adventurer, a great cook (he made one of the best soups I’ve ever had on the day we visited) and an amazing builder. The Earthship he and his wife Tizia call home will be featured in next week’s story on Auromesa, Tizia’s Ayurvedic Practice.

The house is an ongoing art project for Paul who showed us a retaining wall he had just completed that was sculptural in its rustic geometry of rocks and stones contained by heavy industrial wire, along with a therapy pool he has created for Tizia to use in her work. He’s also recently built himself a new shop and studio. He is quite simply an unstoppable ball of energy.

Paul and Tizia began building their house on Hondo Mesa near the Rio Grande Gorge more than twenty five years ago and except for the seven years they lived in France where Tizia is from, with their daughter Sophie, it has always been their home.

Everything in this abode has been lovingly curated by this tremendously talented couple, from the rocks collected into a labyrinth, brought home from rivers and fields near and far, to the art that hangs in every available space.

Art is truly the focus of Paul’s life. He lives it and with his camera, captures revealing moments with other artists through a still and quiet zen lens that focuses slowly and takes its time to really look and find what we might not otherwise see.
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Photographs of Paul, his fabulous bean soup and his metal sculpture (and dog) on the purple wall by Bill Curry
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Caveat: Paul has graciously allowed me to include his new portraits of Taos artists here on the blog. Debbie Long and Tom Dixon were profiled on taoStyle under the label art. I wrote six profiles for Taos Portraits.