Alien Like Caves Carved Into The New Mexico, Video, Photos

Every day for the last decade, artist Ra Paulette has hiked alone into the sandstone mesas in northern New Mexico with a wheelbarrow and a backpack filled with tools. He heads to the sandstone caves and walks inside. But instead of being greeted with darkness, Paulette's caves are luminous places where the sunlight pours in thanks to carefully designed and excavated light tunnels, carved by Paulette himself.

"Changing the world is a tall order. Art doesn’t attempt to force change through direct action but to catalyze it by affecting the emotional basis from which change can occur," he says. His home area of Rio Arriba County, while filled with good people, has its share of problems, including crime and violence, drug abuse and suicide. There's also the added tensions that arise when the white, Latino and Nativa American populations clash. He hopes that his caves might, in a small way, serve to bring people together and offer some kind of peace.



At this time, the caves, still in progress, are not open to the public, though they will be one day. In the meantime, you can take a virtual tour thanks to Paulette's site, or you can check out Jeffrey Karoff's documentary on the caves.