Photo of the Day - Cerrillos, NM

Welcome to Tiny Town. Perched on the Turquoise Trail (NM 14), straddling the "ghost" mining towns of Cerrillos and Madrid, once sat several acres of outsider art, the wild'n'woolly creation of Tatt2 Tammy Lange, a former tattoo artist. A high-desert melange of bones, roadkill, scrap wood, rusted metal, discarded dolls, old glass bottles, and objects you can't even imagine sharing the same junkyard, Tammy's place was an institution for drivers blasting the blue highway between Santa Fe and Albuquerque. A few years ago while taking a doc photography class, I spent several days hanging out with cowgirl Tammy, trying to step inside her outlaw brain in this piece of the Wild West. Can't say I ever succeeded. But here's the evidence.

Tammy's a firecracker, no match required. If she likes ya, she'll give you a bigggg hug. She glows brightest when talking about creating new exhibits for Tiny Town, firing guns, inking flesh, and heading off on a hot date with boyfriend Steve (right). The last day I visited, in September 2007, Tammy's infectious joie de vivre made it easy to spend hours shooting dozens of sculptural pieces Freud could have penned volumes about. 
But apparently the NIMBYs got her, and Tammy was forced to pack it in late in 2008. Fortunately, her work lives on in the Amercan Visionary Art Museum, in Baltimore, MD. Knowing Tammy, she's still got a little roadkill, ammo, and a few hundred ideas for twisted doll-and-bone dioramas.