Greetings from San Cristobal, NM, and beyond. This week, a road shot of Blanca Peak, the whole massif in color and black and white, followed by a shot of the sandhill cranes, soon to arrive at the Monte Vista NWR, flying over a herd of elk as they make their way north.
Blanca Peak, Colorado
I’m rather partial to the black and white.
Blanca Massif, Colorado, Black, and White.
The cranes return every year in mid-March to the Monte Vista NWR. Let’s go!
Sandhill cranes and elk at the Monte Vista NWR, Colorado.
Greetings from San Cristobal, NM where the temperature is a balmy 60º F (15.5ºC) This week the crescent moon and Veus with a beautiful sunset. Red-winged Blackbirds, a crow, and the Village of Valdez, NM
The view from the front gate. All rather pleasant to watch.
Crescent Moon, Venus, and the sunset.
I zoomed in a little closer,
A close-up!
This year we’ve had large flocks of Red-winged Blackbirds, and Evening Grosbeaks, in the old cottonwood tree and Siberian Elm tree each morning and evening. Last year we had thousands of Pinyon Jays in the valley but they haven’t returned this year… yet!
Below is the Village of Valdez, just north of Taos in the snow. The scene depicts the chapel of San Antonio de Padua in the center of the village plaza. This picture was taken in winter 2007. It’s fun to relive past moments and look at them with a fresh perspective eighteen years later.
Valdez Village in snow.
As always, thanks for looking. Have a great week. G
Greetings from San Cristobal, NM. This week, new chair work. It’s spring-like weather out there, including the cold wind. And as of 30 minutes ago snow. I’m gearing up for new projects this year, starting with the pieces below.
Below is a large print on paper or canvas, entitled “Twenty One Chairs'” photographed with a storm brewing, just north of Taos.
New chair work, Twenty One Chairs. 38″ x 60″
Three chairs and a tree. 40″ x 60″ paper or canvas
One chair in the aspens. 32″ x 40″ paper or canvas
Two white chairs in aspen grove. 26″ x 60″ paper or canvas
The image below is one taken in Ranchos de Taos twenty years ago. I like its simplicity and to look back on images that inspire my work today.
Chair and a shovel.
I’m back at it sculpting new pieces and will post them and more of these large prints in a “new work” gallery on this website as they become available. Stay tuned.
Greetings from San Cristobal, NM. This week the Great Blue Heron, (GBH) and a poem by the late great Mary Oliver.
GBH in black and white toned, Bosque del Apache NWR, NM
Heron Rises From The Dark, Summer Pond
So heavy is the long-necked, long-bodied heron, always it is a surprise when her smoke-colored wings
open and she turns from the thick water, from the black sticks
of the summer pond, and slowly rises into the air and is gone.
Then, not for the first or the last time, I take the deep breath of happiness, and I think how unlikely it is
that death is a hole in the ground, how improbable that ascension is not possible, though everything seems so inert, so nailed
back into itself– the muskrat and his lumpy lodge, the turtle, the fallen gate.
And especially it is wonderful that the summers are long and the ponds so dark and so many, and therefore it isn’t a miracle
but the common thing, this decision, this trailing of the long legs in the water, this opening up of the heavy body
into a new life: see how the sudden gray-blue sheets of her wings strive toward the wind; see how the clasp of nothing takes her in.
Mary Oliver
Great Blue Heron
Great Blue Heron ready to strike …
Action …
The catch.
“Native American Lore: In Native American cultures, herons represent wisdom and patience. They are seen as intelligent creatures that guide humans to live harmoniously with nature.”
As always, thanks for looking. Have a great week. Stay warm. I hope you enjoyed the snow in Florida. Send some our way. G
Greetings from San Cristobal, NM. This week “out the window”, the dining room, kitchen, and car window.
It’s cold outside, and because the view is there, and the indoor warmth kept me from venturing out, I thought, why not post the picture out the window, opportunity?
The first shot is from the kitchen window. When I open the window pane initially, a cold rush of air follows but I’m fast, and boom it’s done. This is our direct view when doing the dishes.
Columbine Hondo Wilderness, out the kitchen window.
Then there’s the waxing moon rising out of the dining room window. Some months, it rises directly over the peak seen in the previous image. The full moon puts on quite a show from our vantage point in San Cristobal. The upside is that it’s like daylight in the house, so no nightlights are needed. The downside is that sleep can be elusive on such a night when it slaps you in the face shining through the transom windows and skylights.
Waxing moon, San Cristobal.
On a drive to town two days ago I had to pull over fast for this shot of Lucero Peak, peaking through the clouds anchored by the cottonwood trees in the meadows, (El Prado). I shot it out the car window. I had time to pull over and wind down the window before it was gone. So fleeting like most things in life. You have to grab the opportunities when they arise.
Lucero Peak, El Prado, NM
And back home that evening out the dining room window as the sunset on my neighbor’s tree, with the mountains of the Columbine Hondo Wilderness in the clouds.
Greetings from San Cristobal, NM. This week, a scene along the Low Road to Taos was shot last week in the shade of the canyon walls on a warm winter day in New Mexico. If there’s a high road to Taos, there must be a low road.
There is, and it runs along the Rio Grande in the Gorge from Santa Fe to Taos.
Here’s a picture taken in 2006, the same cross but someone flipped it around in this photo. My goodness time flies. 18 years went by fast.
Driving approximately six miles further north on the low road to Taos we rise out of the canyon and encounter the majestic view of the Rio Grande Gorge.
I shot the view below in the winter of 2014. I have many more images from this iconic location always in a different light.
Rio Grande Gorge Overlook.
… and in a freshly fallen snow in 2014.
Rio Grande Gorge in fresh snow.
Lastly, something to warm the heart and soul, is a flashback to an image from Christmas 1985 at the Taos Pueblo Bonfires held on Christmas Eve.
Taos Pueblo Bonfires held on Christmas Eve.
As always. Thank you for looking. To all my friends in southern California, stay safe, our thoughts are with you. And to everyone. Be well. G
Greetings from San Cristobal, NM. A very Happy New Year from our family to yours.
This week a sunset to see out the old year and a Red-tailed Hawk to usher in the new year.
Sunset, to say farewell to the old year.
… and a Red-tailed Hawk to herald the new year, albeit a little bedraggled and battered but still with enough life left to do the things necessary to live life and do what hawks do.
Red-tailed Hawk
As always thank you for looking. Happy New Year. I appreciate all the support, kindness, comments, and compliments over the past year and beyond. G
The Red-tailed Hawk is one of my animal totems, and I am uplifted every time one appears. What is your animal totem? Please leave a comment if so inclined.
I sit in the top of the wood, my eyes closed. Inaction, no falsifying dream Between my hooked head and hooked feet: Or in sleep rehearse perfect kills and eat.
The convenience of the high trees! The air’s buoyancy and the sun’s ray Are of advantage to me; And the earth’s face upward for my inspection.
My feet are locked upon the rough bark. It took the whole of Creation To produce my foot, my each feather: Now I hold Creation in my foot
Or fly up, and revolve it all slowly – I kill where I please because it is all mine. There is no sophistry in my body: My manners are tearing off heads –
The allotment of death. For the one path of my flight is direct Through the bones of the living. No arguments assert my right:
The sun is behind me. Nothing has changed since I began. My eye has permitted no change. I am going to keep things like this.
Greetings from San Cristobal, New Mexico. This week, three scenes: one each from Taos Pueblo, Las Trampas Church, and the wintery peaks of Truchas and the Pecos Wilderness.
I shot this image of Taos Pueblo many years ago. I think it was shot on Kodachrome 64 and scanned. I like it for the feeling and remember how cold it was when I look at it now.
Moonrise at the La iglesia de San José de Gracia de Las Trampas.
And lastly, the snow-covered Truchas Peaks. A view from south of Taos on an evening hike many moons ago.
Truchas Peaks.
As always, Thank you for looking. I hope everyone has a good holiday season. Thank you for your constant and continued support, and I’ll see you next year. G
Greetings from San Cristobal, NM. This week, the El Salto rocks are a familiar view for those familiar with Taos and El Prado (the meadows), where most, if not all, of these shots were taken.
