In September, my friend & fellow artist Kathleen Moore joined me for a 9 day visit to New Mexico. It was something of a trip down memory lane for me; I've been visiting the area since 1980 and my hubby & I spent parts of many winters RVing in NM.
We flew into Santa Fe from San Jose CA. Then we took the rental car on a fun circle tour.
Our route
While we were in Santa Fe we spent our days checking out the Galleries and shops around the Plaza where we discovered some amazing art and took advantage of some incredible bargains. We quickly learned that food offerings everywhere were exceptional. As a retired architectural designer, I was fascinated by the local architecture.
The ristras reminded me that I miss this decorative element - I need to order one!
After a couple days we headed to Taos via the High Road. This road winds through the hills and passes through tiny villages. We planned our trip to coincide with the High Road Art Studio Tour. Again, we were not disappointed with the art nor with the artists we visited.
Our hotel in Taos was just a short walk from the Square, and we managed to put on plenty of miles. We discovered a major art festival was underway! Again, we had a great time.
While in Taos, we spent a day at the ancient Taos Pueblo; it is the oldest continuously inhabited city in the country. It's still very very poor, but many superb artists open their homes/shops and we again scored some great deals on jewelry and Christmas ornaments. It really amazed me that this city still uses a stream that flows through as their only source of water - they haul their water in buckets still today.
Heading from Taos to Chama, we stopped to visit the Earthship. This development is part of Great World Earthship community. It's located in the high-desert mesa near Tres Piedras and El Prado. It's a fascinating place that I urge you to learn about.
After a beautiful drive through the mountains, we arrived in Chama. The next day we took the historic narrow-guage steam train into Colorado High Country. The Aspen were turning, and everything was lush & green and streams were flowing. This was pretty exciting since the area has been in a drought and everything was brown the week before. We got lucky with all that rain!
Then we went on down the highway and explored the Georgia O'Keefe Welcome Center & Museum in Abiquiu. Another place everyone should visit, especially artists!
Finally back in Santa Fe we spent another day checking out the galleries on Canyon Road. More inspiration!
Our final day we went to the Santa Fe Meow Wolf - a new experience for both of us!
Back home after an absolutely lovely holiday for us two old widow-woman artists.
Both of us found inspiration in literally everything we saw. Now we need to get busy and Create Art!
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