It can be tough for the general public to see the masterpieces of art created by Ra Paulette, given that they are not just inside New Mexico caves, but are in fact the caves themselves.

Paulette (somewhere in his mid-60s to 75) is a self-taught artist who has spent the last 25 years designing man-made caves in the sandstone of New Mexico, according to a 2014 report by CBS News.

Paulette has never had any formal training as either an architect or an artist, and uses only hand tools to perform his craft — there are no electrical sockets or battery chargers in his studio — deep in the wilderness of northern New Mexico, according to a photo report by Design Boom.

“These caves are designed as transformative spaces,” Paulette said in a recent documentary, according to a report by CNN. “The fact that the cave is underground and you feel the earth around you, yet the sun is pouring in, those are the juxtapositions of the two metaphors of our life; the within and the without. It’s a perceptual trick that brings out deep, expansive emotionality.”

The CBS News piece was a rare media appearance for Paulette, who was last seen in the 2014 documentary “CaveDigger,” which was nominated for an Academy Award.
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