Both Mabel Dodge Luhan and I arrived in New Mexico with similar cavalier assumptions and an absence of prior research before buying land and building homes. There was a great deal neither of us considered or understood about the place. But the thing is, we thought we knew.
a soulful life
Isabro Ventura “Charro” Ortega, at Home in the Clouds
Isabro seemed to embody the spirit of what used to be, bearing history and the generations, in his bones. He was of this place. He was ancient and he was a child. A force of nature.
Stick
But something vital I’ve come to know is this: no matter how hard it is to hold on sometimes, we are not disposable. Our selves, our dogs, our relationships, are not to be shunted aside when they become too difficult.
The Miracle That Is Kathleen Ramsay, Part 1
Ramsay’s wild patients represent the untamed world we’re running out of space for. So she takes them deeper into the mountains and forests, back to where she hopes the sweep of time may forget them.
The Miracle of Kathleen Ramsay, Part 2
I was there when she handed a rehabilitated Great Horned Owl back to the man who had saved it, ready to be set free into the forest where it was found. I was present for the release of three fat, healthy bears—overhearing a Game and Fish officer note with immense satisfaction that “Ramsay always releases fat bears.”
Giving Birth to Art
This is where the abstracts were born. They waited years to show themselves—until I came to New Mexico, where the mountain scooped me up and held me in her deep, cool, embrace.
Transitions and the Place Between
A birthing was taking place and my paintings reflected all of it—the growth, the pain and the confusion.