In the high desert of Northern New Mexico, if you listen carefully, you might hear something more than the wind. It’s the underground sound of a man obsessed with carving and digging man-made caves.
His name is Rob Paulette, and he has been digging for the past 25 years with only his dog for company. He has been scraping and shaping New Mexico’s sandstones into man-made caves of art.
According to Paulette, he is not obsessed with cave-digging. He just loves his work and is drawn to it. He calls them his wilderness shrines. The caves are massive, beautiful, and poetic in their design.
Paulette’s work just takes your breath away. He sees this as an environmental project and is trying to open up feelings. He takes one of the reporters interviewing him on a tour of his cave called the “Tree of Human Kindness.”
Paulette sees himself as a magician playing with space, both big and small. He calls it the “cave effect.” He loves the sense of being underground with light streaming in. The genius sculptor has no degree in sculpting and is not even a structural engineer. Paulette is just a man who has simply found his passion.
He has been commissioned by nearby residents who want livable art. One cave along the Rio Grande River has power, a wood floor, and a colorful bathtub with running water. However, it took Paulette two years to dig, and he charges a mere $12 an hour for labor.
Paulette does not want to make money. He just wants to do what he loves the most. His work was largely unnoticed until recently. However, a documentary filmmaker heard of the caves and spent three years following him as he dug. This resulted in a unique movie that was nominated for Academy Awards. Now Rob Paulette is a caveman with numerous fans.
