We drove straight out of Santa Fe headed for Amarillo, TX. The landscape was ever changing from areas stretched flat and grassy as far as the eye could see to burnt sienna bluffs and cliffs and huge mesas. Amarillo sits in the panhandle of Texas and is home to Cadillac Ranch. Nearby is Robert Smithson's last work, too. But Cadillac Ranch was on our route and we stopped. I immediately gained a whole new appreciate for Texans at this stop. They know where their priorities should lie.
The walk to the Ranch was across a pasture and up a dried, cracked mud road. Not too far in and one could smell the aerosol in the air.
The place was alive with artists.
I set out to choose my canvas.
Below is a detail of my work. The entire canvas includes comments about GW Bush that would change the PG rating of my blog. Snicker, snicker.
Amarillo has a big cattle stockyard and auction house. What could we do but eat at the biggest steak house in town. They have a challenge meal: eat a 72oz steak and it is free. Anyone care to lay odds?
We followed the Rio Grande up into Taos today and saw the actual artifacts, paintings and structures discussed in our lectures. We first stopped at the Rio Grande Gorge where we got an up close view of the rift the Rio Grande etches through the valley. Many come here for the white water rafting. Some of us chose to walk across the gorge on a very cold, windy trek. It was disconcerting to look down into the gorge and walk at the same time.
From the Gorge we traveled to the Millicent Rogers Museum, which held a wonderful collection of jewelry, retablos and pottery. This was somewhat of a serendipity for me because of my Fairhaven, MA connection to Henry Huttleston Rogers, Millicent's grandfather. He built and donated many beautiful buildings in Fairhaven including the Millicent Library.
Next we visited the Taos Pueblo where a brief tour gave us an overview of the history and lifestyle of the pueblo. There are about 1000 Puebloans living here with about 40 living in the old section. We had about an hour to wonder through the area. Many of the members of the tribe have studio/shops where they sell their own works of art. While the place was fascinating (it has been inhabited more than 1000 years), it was so alien to our way of living that I felt I was in a foreign country.
From the Pueblo we went to Taos and visited the Ernest Blumenschein Museum. He and Bert Phillips were the founders of the Taos Society for Artists. Actually, the museum is the Taos home of Blumenschein which his daughter donated upon his death. The home held his works as well as his wife's, daughters, and other prominent artists of the period.
The day culminated with two more stops, the Hacienda de los Martinez and the Ranchos de Taos Church. The Hacienda has been restored to the original state and was a good example of an 1804 ranch. BUT I was most thrilled with the Church which has been the subject of numerous paintings, most notably Georgia Okeefe's. She painted some 15 works of the Church.
We ended the day back in Santa Fe with a nice dinner and farewell to all. I'm please to report that it was a great experience with interesting and nice people who enriched the experience. Tomorrow we go where no LaGue has gone before, the Texas Panhandle.
Our morning was filled with Mireya Cirici's wonderful lecture on the differences between Hispanic Santos carvers and Hispanic contemporary artists. She also discussed the founding of the Taos Art Society. All this was accompanied by slides of work that we would see in the afternoon at the museums we would visit.
Our afternoon field trips began at the Georgia O'Keefe museum, which also had a show of Susan Rothenberg's works. It was nice to see the O'Keefe landscapes depicting areas we have been in for the past few weeks. It brings a new perspective to the color and form she presents. I also appreciate the scale of O'Keefe's work. Her ability to encompass an abstract landscape into such small canvases and still be visually powerful is admirable.
We next went to the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture and the American Folk Art Museum. I preferred the Indian Arts Museum. The pottery exhibit covers the periods from the Mongollon Mimbres to contemporary works. These pots are so beautiful in form, design and surface. I want to take them all home and look at them daily.
The pictures below are mainly of the Saint Francis Cathedral in downtown Santa Fe. This structure is Romanesque and not at all in keeping with the adobe style. The bishop that came to Santa Fe disliked the adobe style and went about replacing the existing adobe structure with a stone cathedral. Willa Cather's Death Comes to the Archbishop is a novel based on Archbishop Lamey, the bishop responsible for the building. The final four pictures are the Folk and Indian Arts Museum grounds.
This morning's first class was dedicated to Southwestern Literature, mainly poetry. Our teacher, Sharon Franco, read; she reads quite demonstratively and brought the poetry to life. There was some discussion about the works with conclusions that they deal with the spirituality of the poets and the continuum of the oral traditions. Later, Mireya Cirici continued her lectures on art and architecture of the area. She focused on Missions, their architecture as well as altar screens and the influence of the Spanish occupation. Specifically we looked at the structure of Rancho de Taos and discussed the ways in which the community maintain the adobe walls. Georgia O'Keefe has some 15 paintings of this mission. We will see it tomorrow in Taos.
Our afternoon was free and we took advantage of the Santa Fe galleries along Canyon Road. The photos will show some of the outdoor sculptures which are many times life size. We saw some Roxanne Swintzell works who we had learned of in class yesterday. There were beautiful woven jackets and capes, too. From Canyon Road we went to the Museum of Fine Arts. Their main show organized key objects from the museum’s collections that illustrated the intercultural history of New Mexico art. It included artists from the east who had come and worked for long periods here. Time was running short but we managed to visit the New Mexico History Museum, too. Tonight there was a musician who played the Indian Flute. His music was good. The bad was he talked more than he played.
Downloading pictures in the hotel is a tortuous process. I manage these few in 2 hours and gave up. I have great shots of the Museum that I will try to add later.
We heard a lecture this morning by Mireya Cirici on the Art and Architecture of Northern New Mexico. She covered very thoroughly the history of Pueblo structures and pottery. Her lecture included slides of the more well known potters and Puebloan sites. This afternoon we visited the Santa Clara Pueblo and watched Paul Speckled Rock demonstrate building a coil pot and listened to him explain the polishing and firing process to achieve the black on black pottery. From Santa Clara we drove up to Chimayo and saw the Sancuario de Chimayo, known as the Lourdes of northern New Mexico (Wayne's still an athiest), and a weaving center. We had dinner at the Rancho de Chimayo before returning to the hotel.
Today was the first full day of the Exploritas Program. The lecture was by Sharon Franco about Willa Cather and Leslie Silko writings we read. The discussion was lively and tied directly to the New Mexico landscape and Native Americans. Franco read a quote from a letter to Cather that I really liked, "Find that quiet place within you. Don't work for those around you or you will never grow." It was written to Cather from Sarah Orne Jewett as advice on how to improve her writing. So, Cather takes her advise and leaves NYC for NM where she does find her own voice. Interestingly, tonight we watched a video on Georgia O'Keefe in which she said word for word the same thing about finding her way to paint when she moved to NM. Both women found great inspiration in the quiet and solitude of the place.
We took a quick tour of Santa Fe this afternoon to learn some history of the architecture and early peoples. No pics today. I lost them all in the downloading. Nothing I can't replace, though.
The petrified forest was more than we expected. Even though the forest has been decimated by years of pilfering, there was much more to see than we expected. But the best part, I thought, was the varied colors in the painted desert. What a sight to behold! The photos do not do it justice.
Also, today for the first time we were under expressive skies filled with rain, snow, sun, clouds. During the drive we often had complete 360 degree views which gave us a broad view of the atmosphere. We arrived in Santa Fe late afternoon, had dinner with our Exploritas group, and got the low down on our week here. We will be doing some reading, listening to experts lecture on lit, art, and history, and touring the area.
Trying not to let the sound of our own wheels drive us crazy, we pulled into Winslow, AZ. Wasn't much of a town. We saw one girl in a flatbed Ford. Taking it easy, Wayne stood on a corner before we left.
Before Winslow, it had been a harrowing morning. During the Sedona tour of the Broken Arrow red cliffs, I slipped off a cliff. Clumsy me. There I was hanging by my fingernails. Had it not been for the quick reaction of our tour guide, I would have surely fallen to my death. All I could think ofwas, "what will my devoted blogees do now?"
The remainder of the day was uneventful yet memorable. After leaving the red cliffs of Sedona, we headed for Flagstaff and the Petrified Forest. The route out of Sedona was another steep climb along a narrow road covered in falling rocks. We climbed thousands of feet and watched the Arizona cypresses give way to Ponderosa Pines and snow. As we approached Flagstaff we found ourselves atop a plateau that stretched for hundreds of miles, flat and vast. Slowly those high plains changed to desert. We stopped in Holbrook, AZ for the night and will tour the Petrified Forest tomorrow before heading to Santa Fe.
We met our friend Ralph for coffee this morning, got a look at his house and a quick tour of the neighborhood. Then we took off for Sedona. Before we even got out of town we saw the Frank Lloyd Wright exit and realized Taliesin West was at our fingertips. We slammed on the breaks, took an immediate exit and sought out the house. The house certainly is not Falling Water. It is a teaching facility and not a museum. The structure does not incorporate all of the Wright aspects of melding furniture, art and space into one experience. This was Wright's ongoing experiment using students to continuously try out new ideas and materials. But it was a good tour; the guide was very knowledgeable.
Next, we headed for Sedona and then, voila! Montezuma's Castle was ahead of us. What could we do but stop. The name is a misnomer. At some point the site was named because someone determined the cliff dweller people who lived there were descendants of Aztec refugees. But, in fact they were more than likely a part of the Sinagua culture who had left the Flagstaff area. No one is allowed into the dwellings any longer in order to help preserve the structures. They were first constructed in 700ce and abandoned around 1400.
Toward the end of the day we arrived in Sedona. What a beautiful, beautiful area. The more time we spend in the west the better we are able to see the subtle differences in the areas. Sedona has lush green forests at the base of great red cliffs as opposed to other cliff areas that have very few trees or plants. Tomorrow we take a jeep tour and will get more information about the formation of the area.
She'll be ...la de da, Glen Campbell came up twice in conversation today on our way to Phoenix. As we were cruising through the Sonoran Desert of Arizona marveling at the Seguaro Cactus, we were quoting from cowboy movies. "We don't need no stinkin' badges", and "Fill your hands you sons a bitches". True Grit caused me to think of Glen Campbell, which led me to "By the Time I Get to Phoenix". Things get silly when you're in a car for 6 hours. Today we were below sea level, so can't blame the altitude any longer.
We drove through amazingly flat deserts at 75mph passing acres of irrigated farm land beginning to bud green. The Imperial Valley is a rich, vast area of farms surrounded on all sides by mountains that rose blue and misty in the distance. As we left the valley we crossed into sand dunes and then the Sorona Desert where the Seguaro Cactus thrive. Tonight we are in Scottsdale, AZ and it is 75 degrees. We met long time friends for dinner. Wayne has known Ralph and Bobbie since his youthful days as an elementary teacher in Duxbury.
We did nothing today. Sorry. Well, that's not exactly accurate. Of course, we did some things. We sat in the glorious sun drinking coffee and reading the paper.
Then we went for a long walk before going for lunch at the In N Out. This is a crazy hamburger joint that has 3 things on the menu (hamburgers, cheeseburgers, fries) unless you know the secret orders like double/double, 3x4, animal style. Thanks to Chad for filling us in so we didn't look like fools. The weird thing I saw was people coming in and helping themselves to the drink fountains without paying. Check out the parrot guy.
We really enjoyed out time in California. The living is truly good. Tomorrow we hit the road again heading for New Mexico. We'll take 3 days to get there with stops along the way in Arizona. Stay tuned.
The Joshua Tree lives primarily in the Mojave Desert. And it covers all the area we visited in its namesake park. The park is also peppered with huge mounds of boulders. They look as if some giant child was stacking and piling stones. Today the temps were in the low 60s. But the ranger said summer temps reach 130. We saw petroglyphs, the San Andreas Fault and the Salton Sea (from Keys View), and a Joshua Tree in Bloom.
Today we went to Coronado Island for lunch at the Hotel del Coronado. Coronado Island is not really an island but a peninsula. But one must get there by bridge, big bridge, big, big, big bridge. The hotel is a National Historic built in 1877. The Victorian structure is gorgeous and has a rich history of movie making and hosting writers, stars and dignitaries. After lunch we took a quick tour of Old Town, which is a State Historic Park, located in the Old Town neighborhood of San Diego. The park preserves and recreates the old town of the city. We returned to the Gas Lamp district to see Shutter Island which is an adaptation of theDennis Lehane novel. We are always interested in Lehane's work because it is Boston based. Scorsese does a beautiful job of this genre film; Hitchcock abounds. For dinner we returned to a restaurant, Blue Point, we visited 5 years ago to see if their calamari was as good as we remembered. Meh.
After some discussion about being seen in public with a Yankee fan, we took off for breakfast at Ki's Restaurant on the Pacific Coast Highway. It was fun to be there; the restaurant is owned and operated by Phil and Cate's family. We've heard about this restaurant for years. Finally, we get to experience the real thing. It was nice to meet the family. Plus, the food and coffee was terrific. After breakfast, the Whitney gang returned to San Pedro, and we chilled the rest of the day.
Our peeps came to see us today. Bonnie, Chad and the adorable Duncan came down from San Pedro around noon. Duncan just finished his basketball season this morning and brought along his winning trophy. Go DEW! The weather men were all wrong because the day was sunny and warm enough for us to spend the afternoon at the San Diego Wild Animal Park. It's a great place with plantings and landscaping appropriate for each species. Their mission is conservation, which was evident from the number of babies. There was a new baby elephant born on Valentine's Day. My favorite thing was the baby giraffe. The birds were cool, too. Tonight Wayne grilled some awesome steaks. Tomorrow we head to Ki's for breakfast.
San Diego has one of the best public parks I have ever visited. We were here about 5 years ago and went to the zoo. But I don't remember exploring enough then to have discovered all the park offers. The site is concentrated with museums, gardens, the zoo and theater space; the Spanish style architecture is beautiful and consistent throughout the park. We enjoyed a temperate sunny day walking and visiting different venues. The park was alive with joggers, musicians, school children, and cute dogs. The Museum of Art holds a healthy collection of medieval as well as contemporary art. My 2 favorite were an early Monet, Haystacks at Chailly, and a Bosch, Christ Taken Captive. After some time in the park we stopped by the Gas Lamp district and then headed back to La Jolla. We had such a nice time in La Jolla earlier this week that we repeated our Margaritaville hour with the same view of the coast.
Laguna Beach sits high above the surf and offers an expansive view of ocean, cliffs, and flora. The day was a bit cooler but still lent itself to outdoor fun. Walking along the coast through Alto and Heisler Parks we could see the waves breaking white against the blue of the Pacific. There was a sense of a Mediterranean Coastal village as the hills rose in the distance. A quick walk through town led us past several galleries, the best of which was Len Wood's Indian Territory. The gallery had a huge collection of antique American Indian art, including pottery of Maria Martinez. I did covet most of the pottery. It's an interesting phenomenon that when art is in a gallery and can be purchased, my consumerism raises it's ugly head. But museums just leave me happy to look.
Tonight we ate at a great restaurant in Southern California, Ki's. The food was fresh, clean (my description of great tastes), and inventive. The service friendly and the place was full of laughter. It sits on Rt. 101 directly across from the swells of the Pacific.
Installation at Laguna Beach Museum, Parrot Man and the beach walkway.
'twas a beach day for the travelers. After a lazy morning of coffee on the veranda, we drove down the Pacific Coast Highway and stopped at the first available parking spot. It happened to be a rocky beach. But we found a nice boulder to lean against, settled in and watched the surfers, the dog walkers and the van people. We spent about 2 hours reading and then drove down to La Jolla for Margaritas and calamari. The view from the bar of the cove was expansive, blue, violet and lavender.
So, after 18 days we have managed to traverse the country coast to coast and see a lot of beautiful places in between. Today we drove along the edge of the Mojave Desert as we headed to Encinitas, CA and the Pacific Ocean. We think we could see the Sierra Nevada Mountains in the distance. At one point there was a great salt area among the mountains in the Mojave that appeared to be fog or a lake. It was a beautiful mirage. The pictures should show this. However, they were all taken through the car windshield and are marred with reflections. We arrived in Encinitas around 3pm. We are staying in the home of people we exchanged with last October. They are off to Arizona in their RV while we use the house. After collecting the house key and some general information, we immediately put on shorts and sandals and took off for a stroll on the beach. There were surfers everywhere, joggers galore, not an ounce of fat to be found. We are definitely not in Kansas anymore. We are very happy to be settled in here for 10 days of patio life style.
We had a beautiful drive to Las Vegas through the Virgin River Canyon. I think it looked more like the Grand Canyon area than where we have been. We needed to have the car serviced so went directly to a dealer and had lunch at NY Pizza while it was serviced. After we walked most of the strip, had drinks at The Wynn, and ate dinner at Olives in The Bellagio. We were remembering it was almost 5 years ago we were in this same hotel. Vegas was temperate and not as crowded as I've experienced during the summer. It was sort of a culture shock after our nature immersion.
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