Tuesday, July 10

Another day in Santa Fe

Another day of gallery and museum-hopping.  First, however, Vickie came by to fix a broken roller-shade (the big kind, that is pulled up and down with a beaded chain) that had mysteriously jammed in the down position), and helped us demystify the “charcoal” grill feature of the gas stove.

We stopped to see the award-winning photo gallery and bookstore Photo Eye, run by Vickie’s husband Rick. Several extraordinary photographers were on display, one we particularly enjoyed: Julie Blackmon, whose “Summer Mischief” series of very large photos depicted complex and amusing stories: "High Dive," showing people throwing Barbie dolls off  a balcony while others look on from below; “Sharpie,” a little girl lying on the floor in sheer ecstasy, having just drawn a large dark stick-figure image with a Sharpie pen on a costly damask covered sofa; a street scene ("Olive and Market"), with several people walking on the sidewalk, a dog crossing the street, a flock of birds and an airplane overhead. One suspects a bit of Photoshopping was employed (can’t imagine “cue the birds, cue the dog, cue the plane” to get them all in the right place at the same time). While amusing, they are all beautifully composed.

Another artist, John Chervinsky, showed a series of trompe l'oeil compositions, "Studio Physics:" He would photograph a still life composition -- a bowl of bananas, a Venus de Milo statuette, a dozen oranges scattered about, then create a smaller painting of a segment of the photo, then place the painting over the original photo, matching the part he had painted to the photo, and photograph the combined image again. 

In another gallery (Verve, owned by Nancy’s son Wilson) was a display of dark and fascinating work, “shadows of the Dream,” by Misha Gordon: large black-and white prints showing ranks of somber people, sometimes completely covered in hoods, or zebra-striped, or sitting naked in boxes on tiers of benches. Contrasting these was a brilliantly colorful slide show of street scenes, often fragments of doorways, windows, building façades,  by Jeffrey Becom.

I photographed the backs of several heads of people in both galleries for Joy to paint when she gets home (her “Heads Project” has now produced over 100 of them -- see for yourself on her web site, www.joyhalsted.com).

Then it was off to a delicious lunch at an Italian restaurant, i Piatto.

We ended the day at the Georgia O’Keefe Museum, a must-see for anyone visiting Santa Fe. The current exhibit, running from May 2012-May 2013, is entitled “Georgia O’Keefe and the Faraway: Nature and Image” and includes many scenes from her travels around New Mexico, still lifes of flowers and fruit, and photos of O’Keefe at work and play. The Museum’s many galleries can display only a small portion of her work at a time (its collection runs to more than 3,000 paintings, photos, and archival items) so they have chosen to change most of the exhibit every year.   An extraordinary and unique artist, shown in an intensely moving exhibition.

Back to Nancy’s for dinner, a hot tub, and bed.