Bluedunes Whitesands

Here is my first serious piece since settling in NM; (Hopefully this marks the beginning of at least seven more pieces before the end of the year!) The inspiration behind it is of course the White Sands National Monument that I have visited twice now, as well as Richard Diebenkorn's New Mexico period (a precursor to his famous Ocean Park series.) Medium is colored pencil on gessoed hardboard, 16.2" X 30".

Currently this drawing exists as a backdrop to my cichlid tank. The fish seem to enjoy it so far!

Book Review: Death Comes to the Archbishop, Willa Cather

I was pleasantly surprised by the random musings, frontier folktales, and historical pictures contained within this book. I had no real expectations when I picked it up, just that it was written about New Mexico. Not a Catholic myself, the religious aspect of French Priests bringing salvation to the Mexicans and Indians of the American Frontier was to me only a vehicle for the writing, but I was touched by the spirit of humanity and the deep fellowship of these people towards each other; Even amongst differences of race, culture and religion. I thoroughly enjoyed the lush descriptions of the mountains and desert, the trees, and people inhabiting the land; The quality of reading a journal of reflections.

Among the many reflections of the Archbishop Latour, is this; In New Mexico he always awoke a young man; not until he rose and began to shave did he realize that he was growing older . . . He had noticed that this peculiar quality in the air of new countries vanished after they were tamed by man and made to bear harvests . . . One could breathe that only on the bright edges of the world, on the great grassy plains or the sage brush desert.

One of the tales includes a vivid scene of the demise of a Padre among the Acoma Indians; They carried him down the ladder and through the cloister and across the rock to the most precipitous cliff-- . . . and after a few feints, dropped him in mid-air. So did they rid their rock of their tyrant, whom on the whole they had liked very well. But everything has its day.

I would refer this book to those who enjoy a slow journey of ambiance and savoured glimpses into another time and another culture . . .

Inspiration

With a host of furious fancies
Whereof I am commander,
With a burning spear and a horse of air,
To the wilderness I wander.
By a knight of ghostes and shadowes
I summon'd am to tourney
Ten leagues beyond the wild world's end.
Methinks it is no journey.

--from Tom O'Bedlam's Song