Artist Statement

Leonardo G. Salazar

Born in Taos, New Mexico, June 8, 1966
Parents: Leo G. Salazar and Lydie Montoya

My father started carving in the year 1965. He watched a celebrated master carver, Patrocinio Barela. After his death, my father began his journey in the craft of woodcarving as a way to pass time between jobs as a construction foreman.

Eventually, his love of the Lord played a serious role in it becoming his way of supporting our family of six, myself included as a small child.

My two brothers and myself were always getting into mischief. One day, my father sat my brother Michael and myself down. We were five and six years old.

"You boys are either going to learn how to carve or pull weeds."

That was a simple decision. My journey had begun. We learned quickly, and I realized it meant more to me than a hobby.

We began to sell our primitive santos, the word meaning holy or saint, to the local shops and began to see the fruits of our labor.

I knew that there was a God, and I, as a small boy, worried about my soul.

What would happen to me if I died unbaptized? At the age of ten, I called my Aunt Molly and Uncle Pat and asked if they would sponsor me to be baptized.

My mother told Dad, and he said all six had to be baptized or they would embarrass him. LOL. How did Leonard know about his soul and being in purgatory if unbaptized?

The day before the baptism, we went to the church in Ranchos de Taos. My parents let me walk into the church alone.

This is where I had my first encounter with the Lord.

I walked into this beautiful old building made of mud. It smelled of frankincense, musk and cedar. Very aromatic.

As I wandered, I felt a presence of the Lord, silent and unseen. I was in shock and dismay. I fell to my knees and cried.

There in His house, He revealed Himself to me. I knew in my heart that I had been touched by the Holy essence and ecstasy. It was the first time, and I left the church never to tell a soul about this until now.

My story is a long one in my sixty years. My family all played an intricate part in my young life up to the present. I suffered losses, all the while knowing they were in a better place with God.

Although I lost my family, I cried in silence and prayed to God. I cried into my pillow at night, thinking God had forgotten me. Then evil tried to send me messages that God had abandoned me. A dark force penetrated my life, and in the night I heard voices.

But God said I was one in billions, and it was because of my unending belief in Him and my devotion. Despite all of the losses of my family, I had endured in pain, but I always remained devoted in prayer and believing in Him.

He told me things about my life and prayers so private that nobody knew my personal thoughts about God. I thought my prayers had fallen on deaf ears.

Jesus must have passed. He told me to sleep and not say a word of this to anyone until He told me it was time. No one would believe me, but He would make a way. He promised me.

That was two years ago!

He told me I could tell my story, so I started to tell people.

Then I was sent a curse by a witch to ruin my life. But one night I was awake, and I turned off my phone, thinking to myself, "God, why have you abandoned me?"

Then my phone, which I had just turned off, rang.

It was a voice that said, "I am your God!"

I answered in dismay and shock and said to the voice, "You are not God!" and hung up.

The phone rang three times. I answered it once more.

"Hello!"

The voice stated in a stern voice, like the James Earl Jones voice of God in The Ten Commandments, Cecil B. DeMille:

"Sit up straight and listen to me. I am your Lord and God. This is your Moses moment."

I told no one, keeping it my secret until one night I was awakened and the voice told me to go outside and look up at the night sky.

It was winter and cold outside. My night was a long one as I looked up into the starry night sky.

The twinkling of a sweeping tunnel [unclear passage] connect the dots. Suddenly, they developed into two huge angels flying high up into the blue, dark sky, flapping their wings.

Then they came down and landed in my yard!

One of them stood under a ponderosa pine tree. The other walked over my fence to the backyard.

I fell to my knees and started crying, for it was a sight of wonder and amazement to see two fourteen-foot-tall Archangels, Michael and Gabriel, the messengers God sends when He wants to tell you something important!

Fourteen feet tall! He looked at me with big blue iridescent eyes, piercing my soul.

I wept.

Then they flew up and away.

My friends, if I lied about this, it is sacrilegious to say such a thing.

I do not lie. This really happened to me. It seems incredible that it is me I am talking about, and I don't blame anyone if you do not believe me!

The next day I was commissioned to carve the image of Gabriel by a dear friend, Joyce Franklin, my neighbor, who told me he was her favorite Archangel.

So I couldn't tell her of my story. God said I was to remain quiet.

So here it is outside the Big Horn Dispensary.

Joyce, I think, was sent in human form to help me through my sorrows during a sad part of my life when my mother, girlfriend and auntie all died, leaving me distraught and lost.

She was my Earth Angel, I believe, sent by God.

Hard to believe that God loves me enough to speak and send angels to protect me from the evil that was haunting my life.

I carved Gabriel fifteen feet tall for Joyce, and one day she just died, and I didn't even know until two weeks after she passed. My other neighbor called to tell me.

Devastated by [unclear], I know she is in Heaven, where she can join the Kingdom of God!

God is great and told me the world will know my name, that I am His emissary on Earth and I have a greater purpose.

I tell the truth.

This is my story in faith and a conduit of walking in God's works through my hands.

This is my story, written by me.

Leo G. Salazar