Santa Fe

 We have spent the past week in Santa Fe, New Mexico.  We have been coming here for more than 50 years and really enjoy it.

It was founded as a Spanish colony in 1610 and has at its heart the traditional Plaza. The buildings are made of adobe and often the windows and doors are brightly painted.

Grill work like this covers many old windows.

We walked along Canyon Road, lined with artists’ galleries.  I really like this sculpture of children playing.  We have seen similar creations—made by they same artist?—in other places.

I wanted to go touch these horses to see if they were sculptures or made of folded paper.  They were sculptures.

These horses were made by a different artist.

 

This sweet girl is playing her violin.

This sculpture of an American Bald Eagle was nearby.

This sweet girl is reading a book.

These creations outside were almost the only “normal” artistic creations we saw along Canyon Road.  Most were really weird, at least to our uneducated eyes.

The next day we drove to central Santa Fe for lunch at LaFonda Hotel on the plaza.  The hotel is old and historic and the food is always delicious.  We each had the beef enchilada plate with posole, black beans and Christmas (red and green) chili.

This is a view of the dining room.

Many of the windows surrounding the restaurant have these painted panels.

One of the lights hanging in the hotel lobby.

We saw these paintings in one of the galleries.  I wonder if this is where Hunter gets his inspiration?

Today we visited this the Traditional Spanish Market that has been held on the plaza since 1926.

Much of the art here was also traditional, not modern.  This is done in some kind of needlework.

We saw lots of jewelry and many santos paintings.  There was a Spanish band and we saw a mother dancing with her young daughter

and a white-haired mother dancing with her daughter.

It was a fun way to finish out our stay in Santa Fe.  We are glad we went to the market this morning.  As I write this blog at 2:30 pm, there is thunder, lightning and heavy rain at our RV park.

Art and People Everywhere

Saturday we decided to check out the art and craft show in Fountain Hills, an upscale community near Scottsdale. The park in the center of downtown has statues of several of our presidents.

Here is Franklin D. Roosevelt

and Ronald Reagan

This fountain erupts for 15 minutes each hour between 9 am and 9 pm.  It was once the highest fountain in the world,

I love these sculptures of children.  We saw several on Saturday and we have seen them in other communities, as well.

Each artist had their own tent and the tents went on for what seemed forever.  There were lots and lots of people there.  This photo only shows a narrow edge of the crowd.

Loved this couple from a local volunteer fire department, sitting out under their umbrella.

I didn't take photos of the wares in the artists' booths. Often they frown on that. We spent the most time looking at fine wood objects and pottery. There were also photographs, paintings and drawings, all kinds of hand-made objects, and lots of specialty foods. We also saw a food court.

We showed great restraint. Really, we didn't need restraint. There is almost nothing in the world we need. Our house already has all the decorations it needs and we keep making more things and have trouble figuring out where to put them. We would have loved some food, but we are dieting.

It was a fun way to spend a few hours on a beautiful, sunny day.

A Funky Little Town

I'm talking about Salida, Colorado. I don't think I had spent any time there before we checked it out last week. When is the last time you saw this kind of store?

Many of the old buildings in the downtown area have been restored. We loved looking at them.

The art around town was certainly interesting. This first piece was done by the members of the Boys and Girls Club.

What a bicycle this is!

This looked more normal, but I'm not sure anyone could ride it.

We couldn't believe this beaded car. It sure took a lot of work and a store full of beads.

We laughed and laughed at this work of "art." I wasn't sure John could stop laughing so we could move on to see more of the town.

I really like this painting. The young girl at the sewing machine was making sachets.

These two women were carefully restoring the 609 names of men from Salida who served in World War I and II. At least part of the wall of honor had been stuccoed over in past years and they are restoring it.

This is a neat mural showing bicyclists of years past.

The flowers around the downtown area were beautiful.

We had a fun visit to Salida. Glad we went.

A Grand Old Place

La Posada Hotel was the last and most elegant of the Fred Harvey Hotels built by the Santa Fe Railroad. Built between 1927 and 1930, it is a must stop when you visit Winslow, Arizona. It was closed in 1959 and converted into offices. In 1997, to prevent the hotel from being torn down, it was purchased and restored to its former grandeur.

The grounds are really nice.











They even have a hay bale maze. We wondered if that was for visiting children.

There is a fabulous gift shop with many fine native craft items located off the lobby.

Look at the chandelier in the shop.

This hallway with iron doors is very interesting.

The hotel interior is decorated with many beautiful works of art. Here is a short movie of some of them.



We think this would be a great place for a short get-away sometime next fall or spring. We love old hotels.

Talented Artists

We visited the Gold Canyon Art Festival a couple of weeks ago and were very impressed with the talented and creative artists that displayed their work there. A year ago, we drove out from Mesa to see the event, but we couldn't find a parking place, so we turned around and went back to our RV. This year, we were determined. We finally found a parking lot with some space at the far end of all the booths. We got our exercise walking to see everything.

There was a wide range of art projects, from gourds to baskets to jewelry and painting. Here are a few of the beautiful things we saw.  There was a lot of jewelry, but nothing really appealed to me, so I didn't take any pictures.

There were quilts and carved figures in both stone and wood. If I remember right, the stone figures were carved from old stone mile markers.

One woman shaped wire to make portraits.

One man made items out to bolts and bicycle chains and other similar items. Very creative. He didn't want anyone to take photos of his work. I can understand that he has a unique craft and didn't want his ideas copied.

In addition to all the art, we had another treat when a roadrunner was almost posing in a garden next to the Methodist Church. These birds are very hard to photograph because they usually run away. This fellow (or girl) was probably confused or frightened by all the people so I was able to get a pretty good picutre.