Outside

It is very windy and grey outside today here in New Jersey. Looking to brighten the mood, I found these sunny photos that I took during my trip to Santa Fe. New Mexico is called the Land of Enchantment and you realize why when you look at its vast blue skies and large fluffy cheerful clouds. New Mexico is also a land of colors, predominantly copper and blue. These photos were taken at the Native American Museum and the Folk Art Museum plaza and at Abiquiu.

Linked to Our Beautiful World and Image-in-ing.

Also linked to ABC Wednesday. My words for C are Clouds and Colors. See below.

Thanks for visiting.

K is for Kateri aka Catherine

Do-Something-Everyday, Sept 19, 2016

For this week's challenges, I am posting a few photos from hundreds I took on my visit to one of my favorite places in the U.S., Santa Fe, New Mexico. The photo above is the statue of Saint Kateri Tekakwitha installed outside the Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi. She was the first North American to be canonized by the Roman Catholic church. She was an Algonquin-
Mohawk woman from New York but here she is all dressed up in New Mexican finery looking suitably beatific. I suppose a little bit of artistic license is okay.

Linked to Image-in-ing and, ABC of Wednesday where the letter is K this week. My word is Kateri which is the Mohawk version of Catherine, the name given to her upon conversion to Christianity.

Thanks for visiting.

After Midnight

This is a mixed media collage based on a photo I took of the marquee of the musical After Midnight. It was a dance musical revue based on the 1930s Harlem Cotton Club and featured songs by Duke Ellington, Cab Calloway and many other jazz luminaries of that period. It was a fabulous 90-minute non-stop song and dace show. I greatly enjoyed it.

The year is coming to a close and this is probably my last post for the year. I wish you all a happy and healthy holiday season and a very happy 2016.

Before signing off, here are some more pictures from my visits to various museums in Santa Fe.

First Native-American Saint

The photos below are from the Museum of Indian Arts ad Culture. These are artwork installed outside on the museum grounds called Sculpture Garden.

Thanks to Kristin and Eva. Linked to Paint Party Friday.

Dia De Los Muertos Flamenco Dancer

Last week, I took my third trip to Santa Fe, New Mexico. This time, the five days of vacation was spent primarily museum hopping and soaking in a lot of Georgia O'Keefe. One of the museums I went to was the International Folk Art Museum. Apart from the permanent collection of folk art from all over the world (huge and delightful), the museum had a special collection called The Flamenco. Unsurprisingly, it was all about the flamenco dance showcasing the dresses worn by women and men. The dresses were lovely, of course, yet, hung on the mannequin they looked inert with nothing to hint at the great waves  of motion they can produce when the dancers move in them. But, I did take a lot of photos.

When I came back, I wanted to do a painting of the dress with a human figure in it. Yet, I was reluctant to do a female figure mainly because it felt like objectification of the female body. So, I settled for a Day of the Dead  image. After all, it is very New Mexican and seemed a perfect medium for what I want to portray.

I used pencil, gel pen and watercolors to do the little painting above.

For some eye candy, below are many of the photos of the dresses. Enjoy.

Channeling Dan Quale

What is Missing Here?

Two very highly intelligent creatures are left to wonder: what is it? RANT RUNNER? RAIN RUNNER? RANK RUNNER? RAVE RUNNER? RAPT RUNNER? Do you know? Answer is at the end of this post.

The art work was created using Google Street View map of Santa Fe for this month's Virtual Paintout Challenge. If you click on the link below you will see the station board with missing letters. I added the road runner and his elephant pal as an amusing touch.  Handpainted with brush pens and markers.

At Zia Road, Santa Fe 

Linked to Virtual Paintout and Paint Party Friday.

The answer is: RAIL RUNNER. It is part of Rio Metro New Mexico transit system.