HOWL: THE VOICE OF UNM-TAOS
2024 ART & LITERARY JOURNAL
The University of New Mexico-Taos is pleased to present Howl: The Voice of UNM-Taos 2026 Art & Literary Journal. After a year of tremendous change where the publication was paused, we are excited to return to the tradition that Howl represents. The Taos valley and surrounding area are rich in both contemporary and heritage arts and crafts. It is a place where cultural traditions have produced incredible visual, written, verbal, and musical works for millennia; and where artists continue to be inspired to make work in response to the incredible physical and spiritual landscape of the area. I am so privileged to be able to work at one of the nexuses of this creative activity. The last year has seen incredible output by both the UNM and wider Taos creative communities and truly locates Taos as a center of the arts in New Mexico and the Southwest. This year's Howl contributors include students from UNM-Taos, alumni, faculty, staff, and members of the greater community of Taos. In this publication, we see just a glimpse of the creative output that exists here. The Department of Fine Art at UNM-Taos works to foster and support the work of the amazing artists and artisans in our community, and Howl is just one way we can showcase all of that hard work. In this issue you can see work that spans disciplines, is rich in creative inquiry, and celebrates the creative incredible output of our community. Thank you for looking.
Jaime Knight
Chair, Department of Fine Arts
Howl 2026 Featured Artist
Petra Margurite
The 2026 Howl featured artist is Petra Margurite Balsley. Petra is a conceptual, process-based artist that uses sculptural installation and performance to explore scientific concepts through an ecofeminist perspective. Petra has been invaluable part of the UNM-Taos community for the past several years and this fall is beginning her MFA candidacy at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque. When I first arrived at UNM-Taos one of the first events I attended was Petra's show at Revolt Gallery after her participation in the UNMxSVA summer residency program at the School of Visual Arts in New York city. I was struck by the complexity of her visual language in its use of scientific tropes and imagery. As I moved into the chair position at UNM-Taos, Petra has been a true partner in helping me run the program in her position as non-credit instructor. Not in the least, Petra has also been the designer of this edition of Howl.
Petra was born in New Mexico and grew up in Vienna, Austria. She studied chemistry at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland and has been taking classes at UNM-Taos for the past several years. You can in Petra's work that she is driven by an inquiry that is influenced by both her time in the sciences as well as her incredible creativity, attention to craft and conceptual considerations. We are incredibly indebted to Petra for all her work here at UNM-Taos, her contributions both in the program in the greater Taos artistic community. She will be dearly missed, and we wish her the best in her ongoing creative journey. We look forward to seeing what she does next.
Howl 2026 Artists, Filmmakers, & Writers
Aristotle Arrambide
Oliver Ballard
Katy Ballard
Stefan Breier
Daniela Cervantes
Anna Crews Bush
Amber DeLalley
Merle Derse
Santiago Goodhue
Sonny Goodnight
Jessica Grand
Lynne Greene
Laura Hahn
Emily Harper
Callie Helgeson
Nash Ingram
k o d
Catherine Langley
Mercer Lewis
Melissa Lind
John MacRonald
Brook Maher
Turiya Martin
Alyssa Martinez
Jamison Martinez
Feliz Mondragon
Rosalind Rosen
Amaris Sanchez
Lien Sardinas
Walter J. Trujillo
Leslie Warnick
Caroline Yezer
Anonymous
Fine Arts, Film & Digital Media Faculty
Jaime Knight
Christopher Schuldt
Peter Walker
Editor
Petra Margurite