Anthony Holbrooke’s “Stoneland” on display in New York

Fame can be a scourge of talent, but that's not the case for one of Telluride's first families. The name "Holbrooke" resonates on the world stage, but their varied talents remain undiminished and untainted.

The patriarch of the clan is Ambassador, now Special Representative, Richard Holbrooke, the subject of a recent New Yorker profile (September 28). Holbrooke was appointed by President Obama for his intellect and fearlessness to tackle the thorniest foreign-policy problem his administration faces: Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Until recently, Anthony Holbrooke has largely stood in the shadow of his father and brother, despite the fact he traveled the world, devoting himself to working with refugees in Bosnia and Southeast Asia. The film Anthony produced, "Walk in the Wakan," about his time in Afghanistan in 2005 – 2006, debuted at ArtBasel in 2007. But Anthony Holbrooke is also a gifted fine artist. Necessity being the mother of invention, his earliest work is stone microsculptures, ranging in size from one to three inches, because hauling around large rocks on his travels made no sense. Now a more grounded Anthony (I mean this literally and figuratively) has created new work as large as three feet tall.  On a recent trip to New York, Telluride Inside…and Out checked out his "Stone Land," a show of graceful marble trees at the AFP Gallery , 41 E. 57th St, NYC. I trust I am not reading too much into the leaves when I say the show makes an environmental statement as strong as the content: Anthony's trees will endure forever, impervious to blight or a developer's ax.