Several days in Santa Fe, New Mexico and on to Amarillo, TX

The La Fonda Hotel is the oldest hotel on The Plaza in Santa Fe.  The rooms look so elegant and cozy on the internet.  A room with king size bed for two is $179.  

 The Plaza is lined with adobe buildings, but behind a couple of doors are extended, more modern malls.

  Santa Fe is known as the town of chiles.  They hang everywhere, even outside Walmart!  When ordering Mexican food, guests are offered the choice of red or green (meaning chiles).  If you want both, say "Christmas" and you are considered a local. The only seasonings are chiles.  

Canyon Road is the artist colony of Santa Fe.  It is narrow and one way, most of the way.  Park and stroll through the many galleries.  As you can see, the stroll is full of beauty on the outside.  This is not the cheap seats.

 This is the commuter train that runs from 35 miles south of Albuquerque to Santa Fe during the week for a maximum of $10/one way.  With a ticket, Santa Fe offers free commuter service from the station to town.  There was a station close to our RV park.  

Notice the second name in this law firm; Udall.  Those of you who are old enough should remember Mo Udall, from New Mexico, who ran for President in 1976.  Two of his sons are state Senators right now and a cousin of theirs was in the Senate until recently.  

Someone has "raised the roof" on this old trailer in out park.  Clever.

Our final sunset in Santa Fe.  Ahhh.

 Some park owners seem to try a bit hard to have a marketing symbol.  This isn't exactly an inviting greeting in my book.  Thank goodness the park was an easy "off" of I-40 near Amarillo, TX and clean with long sites.

We are so glad to go from 7,000 feet to 3,300 ft of elevation.  We can breathe more easily and have our energy back.  These two sea-level residents are wimps.

28 Mar 2014 Santa Fe International Folk Art Museum

One of the more difficult things to do here is to decide where to spend your time.  Today, we opted for the International Folk Art Museum.  It is situated along the Santa Fe Trail.

 The plaza entering the museum is fascinating in and of itself.  Here is a spirit maze.  It represents the directions one chooses and the impacts they make on our lives.  The center is dark, traversing the maze can represent the journey from light to darkness, or darkness to light depending on which direction one traverses it.

 At the top of the plaza is the Laboratory of Anthropology.  Penny would loved to have looked over the shoulders of the people who work there.

 To the left of the plaza entrance, outside the Native American Art Museum, is this statue of an Apache Mountain Spirit Dancer.

 The bench outside the Folk Art Museum is a work of art in itself.   This outstanding museum, opened in 1953, was founded by Florence Dibell Bartlett who donated 2500 objects.  By far the greatest part of these displays, 106,000 objects, were donated from the collection of Alexander and Susan Girard. Alexander Girard was an architect, interior, and textile designer.  He designed the uniforms for the Braniff airlines stewardesses.  You may remember that many of those uniforms were quite avant-garde.  Penny had a cousin who was a stewardess for Braniff and Ted briefly dated a Braniff stewardess (not Penny's cousin).  How serendipitous is that? This type of connection is one of the many reasons we love this lifestyle.

 The gift shop, near the entrance, is perhaps the most fascinating one we've ever been in. 

  This lentel, which now marks the entrance to an exhibit of Hindu art.  Perhaps this lentel once graced the entrance to a Hindu temple.  Serpents are regarded as potent guardians  The peacocks symbolize spring, birth, growth and love.  To the right is an elephant.  Elephants are sacred in India.  They represent Lord Ganesha, oldest son of Shiva, who had the head of an elephant.  An elephant figure is present in almost all Hindu temples. 

 The exhibits were truly international.  Next to the exhibit focusing on the art of India was this Thai household spirit temple.  Across the aisle, behind it is a collection of doll houses from late nineteenth and early twentieth century England and the U.S.

 Just the tapestries surrounding the exhibit room were worth the trip.

 Here is a Peruvian festival.  Note the cathedral in the background and the costumed figure to the right.

 This display represents a festival at a pueblo in the American Southwest.  There is a mixture of Catholic and Native American rituals which, over the years, have become almost indistinguishable from each other.

 The scene comes complete with tourists taking photographs.

 Anyone who is a member of PETA may wish to look away.  This scene depicts a cockfight.

This one, a Plaza de Toros.  The display is shallower than it appears.  This effect is created by the continuous scale-down of the figures as they get further back from the action. 

One of the featured exhibits at this time are the folk art of Brazil.

 These puppets are a part of the Brazilian exhibit.

 Nearby were these cutouts which kids could use to color their own puppets.



Next door was an exhibit of Japanese kites, many of them fighting kites.  They were all beautiful.  There were also cutouts of many of the kites, crayons, and a ball of string which kids could use to make their own versions.



27 Mar 2014, O'Keeffe

 We never tire of the architecture here in Santa Fe.  This house was formerly quarters for officers attached to the Marcy Military Reservation.  Today it is the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum Research Center dedicated to the artistic legacy of Georgia O'Keeffe and the study of American modernism. 

 Across the street is this lovely Presbyterian church.

 One of the exhibits was this re-creation of O'Keffe's studio located in her house in Abiquiu.  The photo on the wall is the view out her picture window.  Fortunately, photography was allowed in several rooms of the museum, so the works you see below are photos of her works.

 Black Lines was one of the works in her first exhibits. This was a far cry from her experimentation with color, shadow, and scenery that she did later in her life.

It was through this exhibit that she met Alfred Steiglitz, a well recognized photographer,and one of the first who strove to elevate photography to an accepted art form.  They eventually became lovers and, later, husband and wife.

 He took several photographs of her, many nude and quite erotic.   After these photos were exhibited, many critics, to her dismay and indignation, placed Freudian interpretations on much of her work.

While this work Music, Pink and Blue No. 2 was a poster child for that interpretation,

there were several of Steiglitz' photos that showed how they influenced each other's work.

 Like O'Keefe, Steiglitz valued form and shadows. She simplified what she saw into color with shadows.

After exchanging letters for three years, O'Keefe moved to New York in 1918.  They married. in 1924.  During her time with Steiglitz, she did many fabulous cityscapes and several gorgeous landscapes at their retreat in Lake George, New York. New York City Street is shown here.  Still, she felt stifled. 

After Steiglitz died in 1946, she moved to New Mexico, which she had fallen in love with years before.  This was one of her Out Back of Mary's series, and one of Penny's favorites.

  One of Ted's favorites was Trees Abiquia IV.  She did this series looking out the back of her house at the cottonwood trees along the Chama River.

These two paintings show different moods of one of her favorite areas which she called the White Canyon.

Also, on exhibit were several of Ansel Adams' photos taken on a commissioned visits that he made to Hawaii.  In the same room, were O'Keefe paintings from a commissioned visit of her own.  Unfortunately, photographs of the exhibits in this area were not allowed, but several may be found on the internet.

Should you choose to view these, you may recognize many of O'Keeffe's works, such as this one, from old Dole pineapple labels.

26 Mar 2014, Taos

 We had both heard about Taos for years.  Today we went there.  When we go anywhere, we always enjoy the voyage, often as much as the destination, and today was no exception.  This car sported a sample of the wind-vanes crafted by the owner.  We are in Santa Fe, after all.

 The roadside art in New Mexico is always enjoyable.  In addition to this toad, there were depictions of horned lizards, rabbits, and numerous other animals.

 When we see an overpass in the distance, we can hardly wait to get close enough to make out the decorative designs on it.

 This dancer was particularly nice.

A few miles north of Santa Fe is Camel Rock.  Most of the drive was scenic and interesting.

Other parts, not so much.

Rock fences lined the uphill side of the road.  In many places, it was clear that they had done their job.

Our first stop in Taos was the Visitor Center.  They gave us a wonderful graphic map and pointed out the highlights for our short visit. Based on this information we drove through Taos to the bridge over the Rio Grande Gorge.  This Zia sun graced the bridge structure. 

 This is the view south from the Bridge.  Note the rain and the snow in the mountains in the distance.  At its center, the bridge is 650 feet above the surface of the water.  It is the second highest cantilever bridge in the United States. Scenery like this make it easy to see why this area was so favored by Ansel Adams and Georgia O'Keeffe.



Lovely and interesting as the surrounding area was, Taos was somewhat disappointing.  Much kitschier than we had hoped.  However, Penny found a fabulous quilt shop and her favorite moccasins at another shop.

This is the entrance to the San Francisco de Asis church at Ranchos de Taos.  It was a favorite of Ansel Adams and Georgia O'Keeffe.  It is one of the most photographed churches in the world.

Every spring, the locals turn out to refresh the adobe.

At the side of the church was this statue of Joseph, Mary and Jesus.  Note the necklaces that have been hung around the neck and hands of the baby Jesus.  

You may recognize the back of the church from the famous Ansel Adams photograph, taken from the other corner.  I would never have the hubris to try to duplicate his photo.  Besides, there was an ugly black car in the spot where Adams would have stood to take the photo.  We also didn't have any sun light. 

Most, but not all, of the surrounding structures have been restored and maintained.  It is always good to see a place for ourselves so that we have the full context of the area.  It makes mention of the place in literature or views on TV or film more interesting.