. . . . . . . . . . . R O Y A L  M A S T O D O N  S O C I E T Y A R T  ::  D E S I G N  ::  M E D I A  ::  C U L T U R E Photo: Rosslyn Hotel, Rooftop Neon Signs, 5th and Main, Downtown Los Angeles. From the exhibit, Urban Wonderworld: Dreams in Steel, Concrete and Light. © 2006, RA Montibon, Sanctuary Studios | TMC. All Rights Reserved.

Royal Mastodon Society is an art space, showroom and event venue dedicated to the quest for the New American Incognitum in all of its terrible beauty -- as artistic metaphor, if not in actuality. As such, RMS is part of an ancient line of inquiry: from the Greek belief in an emergent age of wisdom; to the pre-Renaissance ideal of Novus Mundi; to Amerigo Vespucci's history-rending declaration; to American Indian legend; to the American Revolution and Thomas Jefferson's focus on the "uncontrolled Monarch of the Wilderness", not as a mere havoc-wreaking Grendel, but as the "icon of national identity for citizen's of the new republic*"; to our present, rather tumultuous 21st Century, a strange Novus Mundi that is both very new and very old all at once. We find ourselves, once again, strangers in a strange land. Royal Mastodon Society continues this exploration -- via the imagination and artistic vision of its family of artists, designers, photographers, composers, musicians, media artists and filmmakers. Royal Mastodon Society is located on Bridge Street in the Historic Old Town area of Las Vegas, New Mexico. This is not the bling Las Vegas that one is perpetually leaving. This is the authentic Las Vegas: a three-college town 45-minutes east of Santa Fe; the southeastern point of a spectacular loop to Taos along the east side of the Sangre de Christo mountains; an impressive collection of architectural gems nestled between the tail-end of the Rockies and the western edge of the Great Plains. Settled in 1835, Las Vegas was a key stop on the historic Santa Fe Trail, a hard-core wild west town, home to America's most notorious gun-slinging outlaws, and a gritty backdrop for numerous films including Easy Rider and most recently, the Academy Award-winning film, No Country for Old Men. Las Vegas has also inspired work by many artists and photographers including photo essays by Wim Wenders and Michael Eastman. Its rennovated historic train station offloads travelers from downtown LA to the west, and downtown Chicago to the east. This is fitting, because the Las Vegas region has long served as a gateway between east and west, a densely layered locus for generations of people in motion: Apache and Comanche nomads, French fur trappers, Spanish conquistadors, pioneers migrating westward, fevered gold miners, outlaws on the run, east coast merchants, Teddy Roosevelt and his Rough Riders, Hollywood film crews, bikers on Harleys, Europeans in search of the authentic Wild West, and creative professionals in the midst of urban flight. The Royal Mastodon Society building was originally a stone mercantile building (circa 1893), erected by an east-coast merchant named Winternitz. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, it was most recently a Santa Fe Trail Interpretive Center. RMS currently has Phase II renovations in the works, continuing and extending the amazing restoration work undertaken by the former owners, the Citizen's Committee for Historic Preservation. Royal Mastodon Society will open it's doors in the Fall of 2008. *Paul Semonin, author, American Monster: How the Nation's First Prehistoric Creature Became a Symbol of National Identity (New York, 2000).

. . . . . . . . . . . E X H I B I T S [ current & upcoming exhitibits and events ] S T U D I O S [ studios represented ] A R T I S T S [ featured artists ] A B O U T  R M S [ history and location ] Treat a work of art like a prince. Let it speak to you first. - Arthur Schopenhauer Ars adeo latet sua arte. - Ovid (Metamorphoses 10.252)

. . . . . . . . . . . R O Y A L  M A S T O D O N  S O C I E T Y ,  L L C Arts, Incognita and Curious Curiosities. 127 Bridge Street, Historic Old Town, Las Vegas, New Mexico 87701 www.royal-mastodon-society.com Copyright © 2008, Royal Mastodon Society, LLC, All rights reserved.