Inside View and Out

Monsoon Rush

​I went on a hike in the foothills to day around noon; the sky was clear and the sun was warm.  We had had some snow throughout the week and snow capped every mountain in five directions.  But the air had the feel of Spring.  It astounds me every year; it seems that Winter darkness is going to last forever. But that is a falsehood.  I wake before sunrise nearly every day, and I no longer see the pitch of night when I draw the curtains open. I sit at a table at a window facing east and as I write my daily notes, I watch the lightshow of dawn coming to New Mexico. 

Today at noon, the Jemez Range, and the City of Santa Fe

View Inside, work in progress from Coral Reef Series

​​I took some photos of the snowy mountains standing serenely against the blue blue sky. The snapshots can not do the moment justice. Somehow the scale is not honored, the vastness of the landscape is diminished.  I was reviewing the photos before writing this blog entry, and I was struck how different my interior vision is from the view I see from the mountains.  On one hand, I see the landscape as a still and magnificent abstract in subtle tones, and on the other, I see in my latest work (Coral Reef Series) the swirling and thrilling chaos of my thoughts and feelings in brilliant and colliding hues.

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​When I am cutting and pasting in public, as I do at the Santa Fe Railyard Artisans Market, demonstrating my technique, people watch me, and ask questions about my procedure.  One comment I hear frequently is “Oh my, you must have such patience!”
​I always laugh, because while my process is slow, my thoughts are always racing; I experience the thrill of discovery every time I sit at my easel to work.

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​A few weeks ago, the Railyard Artisans Market hosted a Valentines Collage Workshop. I showed my technique to the participants and we all sat together and made emblems of love for the holiday.

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​At the end of March, I will be hanging my show in the Northern New Mexico Regional Art Center, in the Plaza in the center of town of Española, New Mexico.  The show will be open by March 23, although I plan the Reception for the week after Easter; Holy Week in Northern New Mexico brings tens of thousands of pilgrims to the Sanctuario of Chimayo, and the highways will be crowded. Besides the Opening Reception, on Friday April 6, I plan to do a demonstration of my technique and a workshop, on Wednesday April 18.  

Love and Peace,

Deco

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