Solstice thoughts and New Mexico

Winter solstice at Ranchos de Taos, 14" by  20" watercolor, 300# d'Arches

The shortest day of the year, and the longest night, as the world turns again, and cold sets in. I dream of a pinon fire in an adobe cabin in Northern New Mexico...good books, posole and green chili stew, beverages and a loved one. No television or digital stuff...just the crackling of the fire, the still cold air outside, traveling in imagination and miles and years.
Always in my mind's eye is the iconic church of Saint Francis at Ranchos de Taos, painted by artists like O'Keeffe and photographers like Adams and Strand, as well as my Dad, back in the 1930s--I still have his drawings. We've taken students there on study tours. We last visited in October--it demands a pilgrimage.
The Franciscans built in as a mission church  between 1772 and 1816; it is a National Historic Landmark. The front includes two bell towers, but the rear of the church is a favorite view. In most works,  artists favored its smoothly sculpted adobe beehive buttresses.I've painted it in oil and watercolor, and photographed it many times. It seems to me this view speaks to this year's solstice...somehow eternal.

Geezer, God chat on top of Black Mesa

Old professor meets God while hiking on top of Black Mesa, Cimarron County, Oklahoma.

"Who are you?"
    "You can call me God, or Allah, or Yahweh or Odin or ...."
"I didn't expect you up here. And where's the long beard?"
     "You're lucky to meet me unexpectedly while you're still breathing. Most people meet me unexpectedly when they stop breathing. And I'm getting tired of the 'beard' thing. What gives you the idea I have a beard?"
"All the artists...."
    "Artists are great creative people, I like them, but I've not sat for one portrait. If you ask me, they took a little too much artistic license for that.  Beard? I've never shaved. Besides, your Scripture says I am a spirit, so what gender is that? A beard is just out of the question. Now what are you doing up here (as if I didn't know)?"

"Consider the yucca...."

    "Looking for beauty, and inspiration, and room to think."
"Have you considered the yucca? ( I know it's not like considering the lilies of the field, but hey, this is Black Mesa.)"
      "Well yes, I did when I brushed too close to it, and one of the spiny leaves struck my leg
"You should have been watching where you're going."
     "I was, but was looking ahead on the trail, wondering how much farther it was."
"So you missed the beauty of the stalk and flowers and the purpose-filled life of the leaves while wondering about the future?"
      "Hmm, never thought about that."
"I thought you said you came out here to think. Did you think about rattlesnakes? They're one of my best designs. Beautiful patterns, occupying areas others don't usually like. They keep those furry little varmints under control--I admit, I underestimated their reproduction ability."
      "Well, yes I did. It is too early for them, so I wasn't paying too much attention to the trail right under my feet."
"That's what's wrong with you Americans and humans--you look too far ahead, or you're always looking back  where you've been."
      "I only stopped at the rim to look back at the view."
"That's not what I meant. All this nostalgia stuff. You've been looking back ever since Moses wrote about the Seven Days. I'd hoped you'd 'evolved' since then (pardon the pun), but no, still hung up on how all this started. Get over it. It really doesn't matter. I'm here. You're here now.  Live now.
     "Hey, I'm a Texan and a Southerner, we grew up looking back."
"Exactly my point. Get over it. You read where you're made in my image? That means living now, not then, or sometime ahead. Present tense."
      "I was trying to do that up here."
"I'll admit you came to a good place to do that. I like high places."
     "Closer to heaven?"
"Stop it, no. I'm here. I know, I know, I made the low places too ( Great tune I put in Garth Brooks' head. and by the way, I have lots of friends like that--remember the 'eye of the camel' thing?), but they're for swamp people, and alligators, and such. Too much humidity for me. I like the free flowing wind and clear skies so I can see more of this masterpiece, especially before you people ruin it."
     "Hard to believe that up here in the middle of almost nowhere."
"Now you sound like that crackpot Senator Inhofe of yours. Honestly--no wait, that's wrong.  The evidence is everywhere, if you use the brain God (uh, Me) gave you. Just too many people--hmm, like those furry little varmints, and without natural predators, I underestimated your humans' love for copulation."
    "Most of us in Oklahoma don't use that word, but a much shorter one."
"I know, but it's much more sophisticated, which fits my personality."
    "So, do you have any more advice for me, other that watching where I put my feet?"
"I've had lots of advice for you people from The Beginning, and you mostly ignore it. Why do you ask now?"
   "I was trying to get you off politics. It's too pretty up here for that ugliness."
"By God (er, by Me), you're right. Enjoy your hike. Watch your present tense step, you might miss something important."

Feasting on art--part one

The Prix de West show at the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum is a world-class feast for me because I get to talk to artists, hear them talk about their craft, see the magnificent works of people who work at it full time, and see the huge prices they demand and get for their work.

Almost all of them studied art when they were younger and they're incredibly intelligent and knowledgeable. So when I attend, I'm going to art school, trying to learn from them. I'm struck by how humble they are, by how humorous they can be about their own work, by their dedication to excellence, by how much they know about art technique and history.

Moab, 16 by 20 oil, by Whitaker--such luminous skin.

Today I got to hear one artist, William Whitaker,  talk about and show mixing his own colors as they did 600 years ago, to get the luminous quality he wants in his portraits. A sculptor was at work down the hall. Yesterday I got to interview  Andy Peters about historic work by Karl Bodmer on a historic trip following Lewis and Clark. He spoke for an hour, no notes, as full of enthusiasm and admiration for one of his "heroes" as a little kid. Whittaker also talked about his heroes. Last year I got to watch and interview a Canadian sculpture creating art from a life Eagle.

I admit, most of the ones I love have southwestern subjects, of my beloved New Mexico and elsewhere.

And I'm always astounded by the watercolors--an envious--when they start at prices of $2,500 and go higher, like this one by Dean Mitchell, a 15" by 10" painting priced at $8,700. And I am stunned by the watercolor work of Sonya Terpening, especially this little girl on the porch:

"I can do that!" 25 by 19

But then there are other favorites, that just make you gasp at their beauty and excellence.

Here are a few--you can see the originals here in Oklahoma City.

Pushing them off the Mesas, 18 by 24, Tim Cox

Through the suburbs of Eden, 28 by 224, Dan Mieduch

Red River Memories, Craig Tenant, 

Bound for Nowhere, 24 by 36, Craig Tennant

Return Procession  on the Night of the Nigh Fires--Taos, 30 by 40, Sherrie McGraw

Next, more paintings, and sculpture and the artist at work