A Few Things I Learned When I Visited Santa Fe- July 10-13, 2015

• Shade is another season

• A hat is not a fashion statement, it’s critical to well being

• White trucks predominate - Five in view as we pulled into a gas station… Alex said it’s because other colors blister.

• Alex was told it's not pc to wear straw hats on Native American land, it’s a sign of an oppressor.

• Sunscreen is also a carcinogen http://m.huffpost.com/ca/entry/3280578

• Anasazi is a repugnant word to native Americans

• In the day, men with briefcases arrived at a business a block from the plaza in Santa Fe, went through the back and got into trucks to be taken to work on the atomic bomb at Los Alamos.

• Conversation: It's raining. Who ever is wearing the shirt that wicks the best, runs to get the car.

• Sage in the scenery soothes the eye.

• Green chilies are added to everything, including eggs and ice cream

• Aphrodisiac shot - Vodka with mango and strawberry, critical to a successful 75^th birthday celebration.

• I understand the sign outside the Jewish temple off the Edens, "Never again is now." I understand why tearing down a confederate flag is critical to the zeitgeist. I understand why the statues, street names and ballrooms that hold the names of conquistadors… murderers of Native Americans are an affront; though there have been apologies, it changes nothing. 

• The smells of the Farmer’s market begin with basil, followed by garlic and are not replaced but added to one after another with herbs and flowers as we pass by each stall.

• At the lavender farm the pungent fragrance didn’t take long to melt into an indifferent breath, but a slight breeze tousled it awake. 

• At a festival on the Purple Adobe Lavender Farm in Abiqu NM,  http://www.purpleadobelavenderfarm.com/  one tent offered oxygen and a massage. Though I said I wanted shoulders and neck worked on, the massage therapist spent 15 minutes massaging my scalp, a cranial sacral energy work. She placed her hand under my shirt and thumped my heart. Said it was slowed, obstructed. My shoulders held the weight of the world. She worked more on my scalp, moved to my neck. My breathing changed. I got boiling hot. Something released. Instead of 20 minutes, she gave me an hour. Heaven.

• Can you imagine? Outside.  In a valley of surrounded by mountains, under a shady grove of green trees naturally frangranced by fields of lavender and mountain air. She was nearly done when she asked a colleague where "the healing stuff was." It reminded me of Marya, an old friend who grew up Christian and married Ben, a Jew. She stored items in boxes marked Jew stuff and Christmas stuff. The massage therapist found the box and emptied the contents on my chest... stones, crystals and other totems placed on all chakras but my skull. She shook a rattle to pull out the negative energy. Returned from Santa Fe with only positive energy.

Concrete -The New Green

I picture California as lush and green... except for the desert part. The draught in California is shocking, especially after living with our lush too much rain spring and summer. I have needed to water my patio pots of herbs twice since I planted them in May.

The drive from the San Francisco Airport to San Jose was a scene of brown after brown rolling hill and deadened trees. California is often the canary in the mine for what the rest of the United States will experience.

I saw a man at Starbucks this morning wearing a t-shirt and across his back was Conscapes. Having just witnessed the two escapees from New York and hearing my traveling companions tour of Alcatraz I didnt rightly think about what his business might be. Back in my hotel room, I read the letter left on my desk that explained that the hotel was proactive in its drought mitigation and relief efforts. They are repaving in  concrete wherever they had green space. I take away from this a sense of horror at what is to come and a sense of entrepreneurism for those who work in concrete.

7.22.15

Urban Sketching - Plein Air June/ July

Since taking the online Sketchbook Skool classes I'm rarely without at least one of my sketchbooks, pens, Niji pens and watercolors. None of these are more than 15 minutes of effort. My lines are out of perspective, but with each I learn. 

A Workers Rally in Union Square, San Francisco with Tuba, Horn and Drum

Casa Tortuga, our Air BnB Santa Fe, NM

Evanston IL, Lighthouse

 

Fourth of July - Prep for Parade

China Town, Chicago, IL 

Vegetables For Sale 

Guest Artists

Missed My Train by a Minute, Riverside Plaza, Chicago, IL

Condoms as Art

Condoms as art in my room at the Westin in San Francisco. Fitting for an old health educator like me. Oh, Brick Lancaster, those were the days. (As County Health Department staff, he took me on my first health education foray with the public, where I had to do a talk on sex education.) If you ever wondered why I'm not particularly scared of public speaking, I used nearly every bit of fear that day in front of twelve women who knew a whole lot more about the subject than me.