Working Artist on the High Road to Taos
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.
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. Winston Churchill famously said that “Success is not final, failure is not fatal. It is the courage to continue that counts.” And mercifully, Dr. Kathleen Ramsay does just that. She continues.
When asked what she thinks her biggest contribution is to her community, Kathleen Ramsay says that it is her Cottonwood Veterinary Clinic in Española, New Mexico. It’s a fairly rural area, and quite poor. She says, “Probably 60% of people living there make $10,000 per year.” And she has personally seen to it that her community can afford the very best medical care for their animals no matter their status and means.
… this is where I caught my first true glimpse of me. THIS is where the abstracts were born. But I wouldn’t fully understand it until this very moment as I write it out to you.
Apparent or not, these pieces were all born of the land. They illustrate a period of intense soul searching and growth that could only take place in the embrace of this place I had come to trust.
… when a local artist accused me of painting wallpaper, I had my first glimpse of raising the bar. Welcome to New Mexico kid! The home of the big boys and truly exceptional art.
I was living in a pale blue world. Snow covered the ground and the shadows cast on its surface offered up just about every shade imaginable—the sunlit sky of day with its blue and white clouds… pale blue everywhere.
