Santa Fe, New Mexico; Albuquerque, also.

So. Thursday we called Lefty back to the car and were away into the glare,

briefly stopping for air and fuel north of Walsenburg,

past Maxwell

with a pause to enjoy the balmy plainness of the plains

and made La Choza  by one for a spicy lunch and potent coffee where a nice mostly original ’33 Chev sat perkily in the parking lot.

Thus fed it was downtown to the echoing halls of the New Mexico History Museum’s new wing [apparently the money went into the architecture with little left over for collections or decor] to see “Voices of the Counter Culture” [photos not allowed], which came highly recommended and not without reason.    Well-curated and replete with visions, surrealistic vitrines, audio [I do hope they found room for Terry Allen in among the noises], a small dome and an actual [if inauthentically pristine] VW bus the show was far too encompassing to take in in the time allotted so we were delighted when the bookshop claimed to have a catalog.  Unfortunately

they were either sadly ignorant as to what a ‘catalog’ of an exhibition might comprise or lied and we ended up with a not inexpensive but nearly unreadable publication of counter-cultural musings compiled by one of those ubiquitous fullaself hipster dudes from the sixties which was tangential at best to what was so brilliantly presented in the galleries.  Ah, well; with a picture on the cover of a tipi with a rainbow over it we shoulda known.  Subsequently detouring to Gerald Peters’ Palace of Hubris so Linda could meet the “Projects Space” director and obliged to witness Works of Cringeworthy Mastery while waiting I fled the Inevitable Despair

such Affluent Effluence and the Very Idea of Santa Fe Art forever inspires in me

to take refuge in the parking lot, the better to amuse the dogs under painfully blue winter skies.

Leaving town we dropped in on the David Richard Gallery, where Richard showed off their new space as well as, having grown up there, enlightened us as to where to locate lunch in Trinidad.

The day’s adventures wrapped up with sixty miles of eighty mile-an-hour rush hour traffic rushing precipitously into the lowering sun to Albuquerque for the usual quirky stay

at John and Roberta’s, replete with mole, Italian Reds, mezcal, orange peel fights and more.

The next chill morn, after the dogs were walked

and

John went off downtown

we stopped for provisions [not shown], traded driving at the same plain plains reststop

and continued

to Richard’s Trinidadian lunch recommendation, Nana and Nono’s Italian deli and restaurant, which made us both most happy though the food was so soporific I could have napped at least

as far as Walsenburg.  Errands there [also not shown] and home in time for a sunset

completed the deal.  We transitioned to waiting for snow

which came, tentatively, early Sunday

and continued fitfully through the day.

But Monday morning, chill bright and windy…

sun melting snow, sun-warmed studio,

last paintings of dust, last week [this week’s the last week, get it?], last days…last walks

T’anks a lot, Libre…

After a dreaming evening by the fire

and a last trip to the Lopine with Mary Ann’s fast dog, Kiku,

End.

End.

 

10 thoughts on “Santa Fe, New Mexico; Albuquerque, also.

    1. mikesmoore Post author

      “Watercolors” are actually two 4×4′ acrylic paintings, near done, I guess. What’s a moqui marble? The stuff at Peters looked like Carrara Modern Art to me…but I didn’t ask.

      Reply
      1. Steve Stern

        A moqui marble is a secretion of harder material in sandstone. When the sandstone weathers away, the secretion is left.

        Reply
  1. Kirk Moore

    Glad you made it to that Counter Culture show… I guess it closes in just a few weeks.
    Love the shots on the road to Santa Fe and returning to Trinidad; also the one of the skeleton tree shadow on the building before Kiku’s romp to LoPine. Is that a new addition? The tree, not the building. The building is your guest quarters next to Trigger?
    New “dust” paintings look great!
    You may like the desert dust in this short movie, to augment car photography
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sP3dwAReEuw&list=PLGtxWHI6a_wBtscxFY8er-gaUCSIpe4PM

    Reply
    1. mikesmoore Post author

      Counter Culture was way too much to take in, it turned out…had you seen that when you were in Santa Fe?
      The “new addition” isn’t all that new; it was done in time for Luz and Christine’s wedding…guest quarters and shop, it is..

      Reply
  2. Janet

    La Choza…..a familiar ring to it and suddenly realized that is where my cousin Laura and her husband Larry (who live in Santa Fe) love to eat and I have been there. Even the parking lot triggered a memory only I did not see the beautiful red pick-up with a great license plate. The images of Albuquerque stimulated lots of memories and I really like the dust paintings!

    Reply

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