Review of Cavedigger (2013) by Shawn S — 17 Jan 2014

For the past quarter century a self-invented artist named Ra Paulette has been carving caves into the sandstone formations of Northern New Mexico. His tools are fundamental-shovel, mattock, wheelbarrow-his academic credentials nil, his determination rock-steady.

He carves idiosyncratic human-scale cathedrals of curved arches, fluted walls, luminous skylights, tight hallways, and chapel-like niches. An "intuitive engineer," he hews his way into unknown stone guided by fanatical ambitions and a ceaseless feeling of discovery.

He doesn't do construction; he does extraction. It's "down and dirty work," and he scarcely makes a living with it. His patrons, so to speak, (some of whom figure into this documentary) have been fussy, bossy, unwilling to stay the course.

But you get the strong feeling that Paulette's work will outlive him as seminal acts of American folk-sculpture in the manner of the Watts Towers or Mount Rushmore.