Christian Rodriguez & Kim Walters: Lummis House Historians - Epi. 323, Host Dr. Mark Sublette

A wonderful way to spend an afternoon is finding two people that walk into your gallery (or in this case my new Maynard Dixon & Native American Art Museum) who are authorities on Charles Lummis. Christian Rodriguez, who is the curator of the Lummis House (AKA El Alisal), and Kim Walters, who was the archivist for there for decades are both experts on this bigger than life individual. The three of us discuss this man's life and just go back and forth sharing a massive amount of information on a person that was critically important to an artist that I specialize in, Maynard Dixon.

It's really fun because it's just we're all beaming in on what was important or how we saw it. I saw Lummis in a particular light based on my understanding of his and Dixon's relationship. The truth is he was such a complex and nuanced person in many different ways. He's still important to California and to the story of the West as a whole. In fact, he was one of the individuals responsible for the Southwest Museum in Los Angeles, which opened in 1907 and was absorbed by the Autry Museum in 2003. 

I just found it so fascinating and the conversation went on for two hours. There were things that I came away with going "okay, I didn't know this" or "I definitely want to learn more about this."  Now I plan on doing some follow up research because all of these good answers lead to better and better questions. 

My question to you is - do you want to just see how individuals who really love what they do interact, talk about  their expertise, and contemplate the inner-workings of one singular individual? Well in that case, this is the one for you.