Ruchell Alexander
was a year old when
he and his family
settled in Northern
New Mexico.
He moved here
directly from southern
Mexico where he had
lived most of his life
thus far. Soon after
arriving, Ruchell and
his family were
among the dozen
or so original members
of the Magic Tortoise
Commune which was
 established in 1973
on Lama Mountain,
between San Cristobal
and Questa.

It was his good
 fortune, artistically
speaking, that another
of the original members
of Magic Tortoise was
an erstwhile New
Yorker named Bill
Gersh who in 10 years
would emerge as a
renowned Southwest
painter and sculptor.

It is undeniable that
from his earliest age
Ru was inspired and
stimulated by Bill Gersh
to become an artist. As
Ru grew up in the "one
big family" ambience of
the commune, he spent
more and more time in
Bill's studio, chatting,
observing, asking and
answering questions
and much of the time
making magic-marker
drawings while Bill
was painting.

And as Ru matured--
all the while living, jiving,
and eating and working,
in his fashion, side-by-side
with his pal Bill it was
inevitable that Bill became
his mentor--although the
influence of Bill's
subject matter and
 technique is hard to
see in Ru's early work.
Only in the last two or
three years has Ru
been integrating Bill's
powerful influence
into his own art.

For Ruchell's art there
was his
"early magic-marker"
period which was followed
--because he wouldn't
give up the glorious
spontaneity it allowed
--by a long "late magic-marker"
period which
lasted into his early manhood.

Eventually
the near-immediacy
that acrylic paints allow
convinced Ruchell that he c
ould mature his art without
totally breaking with it's
"raison-d'etre" of spontaneity.

The result is
Ruchell Alexander's art
 of today: larger,
multi-figured canvasses
with dramatic, autobiographical
subjects including indications
of the centrality of Bill Gersh
-- both personally and artistically
in his formation as
both a man and artist.