The cave digger: Hewing art from the very landscape

It seems artistic inspiration can be found throughout the New Mexico landscape -- and maybe even beneath it, as our Lee Cowan has discovered:

In the high desert of northern New Mexico, if you listen carefully, you might just hear something more than the wind. It's the underground sound of a man obsessed.

17 Photos

The artist has dug epic works of art, and even homes, out of New Mexico's sandstone hills

"Do you think you're obsessed with cave digging?" asked Cowan.

"Would you call a child being obsessed with play?" replied Paulette. "You wouldn't use that word 'obsessed.' You know, when you're doing something you love and are drawn to it, you want to do it all the time."

He calls them his wilderness shrines -- massive in scale, poetic in their design. If his work takes your breath away, that's just what he hoped it would do.

"I see this as an environmental project; I'm trying to open up people's feelings," he said.

One small opening pales in comparison to the cavern he's dug inside. It took close to 900 hours to dig.

He sees himself as a magician playing with space both big and small, to create what he calls the "cave effect."

Read this article:
The cave digger: Hewing art from the very landscape