Recently we traveled to New Mexico including Santa Fe, Abiquiu (location of Georgia O’Keeffe’s home and studio) and Los Alamos, the site of an unthinkable creation.  Nonetheless, the art conceived, designed and created in New Mexico is astounding.  Equally compelling for me is the landscape and natural surroundings.  In fact, I saw the landscape in the roof lines and snapped this picture shown above in the header for Oct 2011 . . . and as seen here:

This banner is not an image of a distant butte or mesa in the landscape. Rather, it is the roof line of the adobe casita next door to our desert lodgings north of Santa Fe.  It is difficult for me to describe the vantage point from which I captured this image, but imagine this:  Walk up to, and get within 6 inches of, the adobe wall.  Look straight up toward the sky so that you can see vertically up the adobe wall.  Where the wall ends, the roof line is silhouetted against the blue sky.  Included in this roof line contour is a hump to accommodate the chimney flue . . . or is to mimic the landscape’s buttes and mesas?

I am curious what you see in the image–distant butte or adobe roof line or both!  Let me know.

What else is new?  My sketch pad was a constant companion on this southwest trip.  At the airport I was taken by a notion as I sweetened my espresso with brown sugar from a bag marked, “Sugar in the Raw”.  My next sketch (pictured to the right) captures my notion of “Sugar in the Raw”.  Other sketches from the trip can be viewed by clicking here  for the Santa Fe Sketches slideshow.

And . . . see an image (right) of a recent installed mailbox stand and click here for a Running Postbox slideshow.  The stand takes the shape of a runner’s legs in motion and is made of steel mounted on a base of concrete, 300 pounds worth!  I am fortunate to have several commissions and this is the culmination of a long standing one.  Completion of two other commissioned works will follow closely on the heels of this work . . . I am excited by the prospect of closing out the year with the conclusion and installation of three commission works!

Finally, New … in the Studio shows a rare self-portrait done in acrylic and ink.

Thanks and best, Tom