48 - Sunday, July 21, 1991 - North Shore News

““TIMEWISE, IT drives me
Curtis Latham pronounces
beat-up station wagon.

“This guy needs a doctor,” |
murmur to myself watching
Latham jam his key into the car
door lock. Then | remember he is
one.

This overworked GP and father
of five greets patients at his North
Vancouver office by day, and on
weekends trades his white coat
and stethoscope for street clothes,
squeezing every ounce of remain-
ing energy into running Santa Fe
Design, a furniture showroom
featuring functional art from the
American Southwest.

It may be an impossible life,
but Latham, a big man with a
friendly bedside manner, loves his
treadmill existence — — evidenced
by his penchant for talking
endlessly on the history of New
Mexican design and the latest de-
velopments in maternal and child
health programs (Latham worked
for the World Health Organiza-
tion's maternal and child health
program; he also headed the
perinatal program of B.C. for six
years).

It was while expounding on
these favorite topics that I learned
of Latham’s abiding love of the
American Southwest.

Sitting next to me on one of his
display pieces in his skinny
Pemberton Street display room,
he began reciting, beginning in the
1500s, the entire abridged version
of the history of Santa Fe design
surrounded by Navajo rugs,
Zapotec weavings, hand-painted
ceramic pots, R.C. Gorman
prints, hand-made wooden ben-
ches, tables and chairs carved
from smooth Ponderosa Pine.

All of these items carry the
trademark Santa Fe design, a style
that has taken off in the U.S. and
is now spreading its roots into the
Pacific Northwest.

Local stores now stock pastel
wooden cactuses, and, impressed
by the folky look, customers are
flocking to buy spur-shaped earr-
ings and pins depicting coyotes
howling at the moon. But Latham
says he isn’t interested in ‘‘bouti-
quing”’ the popular design.

““We're more interested in the
cultural style,’’ he says.

PROVEN RESULTS
with over
8 years experience!

LESLIE LaFLECHE
.984-9711 (24 hrs.)

PARTICIPACTION

HIGH PROFILES

Double duty

Dr. Curtis Latham runs Santa Fe
Design as well as his NV practice

nuts. It’s an impossible life,”
as he sprints past me to his

By Evelyn Jacob
News Reporter

Latham has been at this for just
under a year. He currently im-
ports most of his wares from a
handful of New Mexican manu-
facturers, but his ultimate plan is
to eventually create his own style,
blending the richly organic ar-
chitecture and design of the
American Southwest’ with the
design sensibility of the Pacific
Northwest ‘‘without being roman-
tic or stupid about it."'

He believes Santa Fe design fits
well) with West Coast living
because of its simplicity, organic
curves, and ability to blend well
with the outdoors,

“We're looking for a truly in-
digenous style. | want to find
local artists who can create their
own work so that we have some-
thing that is distinctly nor-
thwestern."

Unlike the Spanish colonists
who blended their cultural tradi-
tions with those of the Navajo
and Hopi Indians, B.C., Latham
says, missed the opportunity to do
the same thing with its native art.

“We really messed things up
here because of our colonial at-
titudes, and we dropped the bomb
by forcing the Indians off their
land. As a result the natives lost
their cultural focus. A fot of peo-
ple don’t understand that.”’

Just how long Latham is
prepared to juggle two careers is
anybody’s guess — but judging by
his passion for the art, he’ll con-
tinue to live the impossible life.

created by Nissan

NEWS photo Neil Lucente

CURTIS LATHAM, owner and director of Santa Fe Design, poses with some of his wares in his
North Vancouver showroom that features functional art of the American Southwest.

The perfect drive.

The Infiniti Q45 luxury performance sedan is
the culmination of a quest for the perfect drive.
The luxurious leather-appointed interior
makes you feel comfortable, secure. Under the
hood is an advanced 4.5 litre, 278 horsepower
V8 engine that responds instantly to your
wishes. And that, too, is luxury.

Now, you can lease the $ 5 99

perfect drive for
PER MONTH?*

*$10,000 down payment. Lease
based on 48 months closed
end lease O.A.C. First
month's payment & security
deposit due at time of
delivery. 25,000 tree kilo-
metres per year. Purchase
option available. Ali
applicable taxes extra.
Offer ends August Most, 199E.

>)
INFINITI.§

INFINITI of NORTHSHORE
985-0339 .....1148 MARINE, N.VAN. §

ETS ae