It’s one of the first things many people will see when they arrive in New Mexico. And for muralist Ehren Kee Natay, it was important to get it just right. Natay, a 2003 graduate of Santa Fe High School, chose a striking sunset at Shiprock, a formation in northwest New Mexico, for his latest work, a study that adorns the wall of the arrivals hall at Santa Fe Regional Airport.
The artist wasn’t quite finished with his piece — titled Shiprock at Dusk — when Pasatiempo recently dropped by, but the topography and multicolored sunset were already apparent. “When I go to Albuquerque to the Sunport, I love the artwork,” Natay says. “You see it, and it gives you the feeling of New Mexico.
When you come to Santa Fe’s airport, we’ve never had that. There was no art on the walls. I wanted people’s experience to be everlasting; when they think of Santa Fe, right after they exit this terminal, they’re going into the beauty of nature.
Maybe this will be something that reminds them of that every time they fly into Santa Fe.” Natay, a member of the Navajo Nation, never set out to be a muralist, but his artistic streak brought him home. He initially attended the University of New Mexico to pursue a career in music only to move to Las Vegas, Nevada, as a drummer for a variety of emo bands.
After one of his bands broke up, Natay found himself in need of a new direction in life and art. He had always had an affinity for art, and he started getting into painting murals and .