Today, me and my group of crazy people mostly focused on learning about Georgia O’Keefe. Early in the morning, we woke up to a pre bought, fast food breakfast that we ate in the car. We were in a rush out the door to get to where we were going. We had a very long, very pleasant car ride with amazing views of the landscape and of the cultural differences between where we are from and the New Mexico lifestyle. On our first stop today, we arrived at a place called Ghost Ranch. It was previously owned and visited by Georgia O’Keefe. While we were there, we rode horses around a small loop on the property, where we learned about all the legends and lore of the ranch. We were told stories of flying cows and giant rattlesnakes that ate children. We were told stories of buried treasure and dinosaur digs. We saw many sights that Georgia O’Keefe painted throughout her years. After getting back to the stables, we dismounted and were off to our next great adventure. After lunch of course. We ate lunch at a small restaurant where we ate an assortment of food, ranging from classic burgers to the most New Mexican dishes you could think of. We then proceeded to get back in the “Magic school bus,” to go find our next adventure. We traveled another log few miles to arrive at one of the three houses that Georgia O’Keefe owned. We toured the house with two guides, learned all about O’Keefe’s life and how she lived it. Some fun facts we learned that interested us, were things like how she lived in New York till her husband died. She then moved to New Mexico where she fell in love with the surroundings and views. She found an old, abandoned lot that had been rotting away for years. She rebuilt the property in her own image. She built a pretty good sized house on the three acre property, with a large garden for her to grow her own produce, which she ate out of year round. She was a very organized minimalist, who only kept exactly what she needed. And most of what she needed was food, and inspiration. She built large windows in the house, she only used natural light for her paintings, and these windows lit up entire rooms. They say she wasn’t an architect, she was just a navy designer. The oldest part of this house dates back to 1740. She lived with two dogs at a time and had up to seven dogs by the end of her life. One thing she loved to do other than eat and paint, was to travel. She did some massive international travel after her husband died. Over the years, O’Keefe had slowly lost her sight. This allowed her to try a whole new style of art. Pottery. She had a friend/ caretaker introduce her to pottery. She said she could finally “See with her hands.” She created about 25 pottery pieces. A little hobby of hers was collecting cigar boxes from everywhere she went. She said they were perfect sizes to store things in. After the tour, we went back to our van and moseyed on back to our hotel. Easton WaddellWed, Mar 11, 10:55 PM (12 hours ago) to me Today, me and my group of crazy people mostly focused on learning about George O’Keefe. Early in the morning, we woke up to a pre bought, fast food breakfast that we ate in the car. We were in a rush out the door to get to where we were going. We had a very long, very pleasant car ride with amazing views of the landscape and of the cultural differences between where we are from and the New Mexico lifestyle. On our first stop today, we arrived at a place called Ghost Ranch. It was previously owned and visited by George O’Keefe. While we were their, we road horses around a small loop on the property, where we learned about all the legends and lore of the ranch. We were told stories of flying cows and giant rattlesnakes that ate children. We were told stories of buried treasure and dinosaur digs. We saw many sights that George O’Keefe painted throughout her years. After getting back to the stables, we dismounted and were off to our next great adventure. After lunch of course. We ate lunch at a small restaurant where we ate an assortment of food, ranging from classic burgers to the most New Mexican dishes you could think of. We then proceeded to get back in the “Magic school bus,” to go find our next adventure. We traveled another log few miles to arrive at one of the three houses that George O’Keefe owned. We toured the house with two guides, learned all about O’Keefe’s life and how she lived it. Some fun facts we learned that interested us, were things like how she lived in New York till her husband died. She then moved to New Mexico where she fell in love with the surroundings and views. She found an old, abandoned lot that had been rotting away for years. She rebuilt the property in her own image. She built a pretty good sized house on the three acre property, with a large garden for her to grow her own produce, which she ate out of year round. She was a very organized minimalist, who only kept exactly what she needed. And most of what she needed was food, and inspiration. She built large windows in the house, she only used natural light for her paintings, and these windows lit up entire rooms. They say she wasn’t an architect, she was just a navy designer. The oldest part of this house dates back to 1740. She lived with two dogs at a time and had up to seven dogs by the end of her life. One thing she loved to do other than eat and paint, was to travel. She did some massive international travel after her husband died. Over the years, O’Keefe had slowly lost her sight. This allowed her to try a whole new style of art. Pottery. She had a friend/ caretaker introduce her to pottery. She said she could finally “See with her hands.” She created about 25 pottery pieces. A little hobby of hers was collecting cigar boxes from everywhere she went. She said they were perfect sizes to store things in. After the tour, we went back to our van and moseyed on back to our hotel.
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Today we visited Chimayo and made tin adornments. Our teacher, Sharon, helped us make tin hearts and we turned them into necklaces. The people there were very nice and the whole atmosphere was very relaxed. The weather was amazing because even though it was hot the breeze cooled us down.
Te Mayo was the original name of the church there which means falling ground. It’s seen as sacred earth. The name of the church is called Santos Niño. This town is known as a pilgrimage village because people from all over come here. They have a snack called corn nuts. They have regular and spicy ones which are very good. We ate 5-6 bags of them. We later went to Ojo Caliente and enjoyed the mineral baths there. It was relaxing the wonderful. Now we are off to Taos. Here's to yet another fun day! This morning we went to The Museum of International Folk Art. Folk Art is traditionally made by hand using synthetic and hand made elements. It can be used as utilitarian or decorative pieces. The main exhibit we toured today is the Alexander Girard exhibition. This is the museum's longest running exhibition that opened in 1982. We learned about what folk art is and Girard’s view and creations of folk art. I learned that he loved putting together miniature theaters and he’d been doing that since he was a young boy. Some of my favorite display’s were of the “last supper”. Placed in the case were Jesus and his disciples, as well as another member. Girard placed a dog in the back right corner of the case. In this scene the pup represents loyalty and infidelity. This is what they called a reputare, this is an object or shadow placed at the edge of an artistic creation to create depth and focus. He also created a display designed to be perceived as a chapel. He added the roof to create the feel of a sacred shelter. He realized that humans need peace and stimulation and believed that art can do both.
In the afternoon we went to a Encaustic Painting workshop. Here we were testing our minds to not be such perfectionists. Encaustic means to add heat and pigment. This method dates back to about 100 A.D. the main colors that were used then were: red, black, gold, and white. Here we learned how to turn a simple perfect black and wite photo into something beautiful and not so perfect. It was so much fun to work with some new mediums that I have never worked with before. We mainly used wax pigments and oils sticks on the photo that we chose. I had so much fun in this workshop with our group and I wish that it didn't have to end. Today was quite a fun day learning about Georgia O’Keefe through her history and art. Let me first start off with this morning during breakfast. We went to the center of Santa Fe and went to this delicious French bakery and let’s just say I stuffed my face with loads two orders of Nutella and crepes. It was quite the breakfast! Then we walked over to the Georgia O’Keefe Museum and got to take a tour of her amazing and unique artworks. What I learned today is that she normally would focus her artwork on nature and then it would lead to more abstraction. A few techniques I admired the most were Cubiism which is a painting with infused color and a rather sober tone, and her landscape paintings were rather eye catching to me as she involved different shades of colors; going from light to dark. Although what I found the most distinctive were O’Keefe’s botánica flowers, as the coloring was light yellow and bright pink which enhances a person's mood and conveys a calming atmosphere. Furthermore, O’Keefe painted many major sky scapes, however, they were not painted as they were seen which is a way to get away from realism and going to be more abstraction. For lunch, we had chicken fajitas off the center street of Santa Fe, as well as having limeade which wasn’t too sweet nor too sour. I thought that was an excellent cultural food that we tried and was worth it. In the evening we went to this very exotic flamenco dancing. It was a rather small interior, low light, loads of people talking. However, the dancing was very emotional and expressed very fierce facial expressions as if they were depicting a story and what really amazed me was that all the performers would be improvising. As the music was very rhythmical which made me want to get up and dance. The women were wearing polka dot dresses and the guy wore a button down shirt and jacket over it. For dinner, I ordered ceviche which had shrimp, grapefruit and orange slices. It was rather an interesting combo but I loved it. For my main coarse I had chicken tacos which were the best tacos I ever had! Overall the day was very well spent and left me excited for the remainder of the days to come! Today we went on a bike tour with a man named Josh. We met him at La Fonda which is one of the oldest hotel buildings in Santa Fe and it was also one of the first places that allowed women to work full time.
Josh showed us an area of Santa Fe where the whole neighborhood was full of art sculptures, and one of the artists he wanted to show us was a man named Kevin Box. He is a sculptor who shows his way of art through Metal sculptures which replicate origami designs. We also went to see Meow Wolf which is an interactive art experience! You are probably wondering how it got that name. The artists wrote random words, put them in a hat and the two words that came out were “Meow Wolf” and so it was born. Meow Wolf puts you in a position where you have to solve a mystery of a missing family that disappeared without a trace looking for clues in the different rooms created by 100 different artists. We left Albuquerque this morning at about 10. We checked out of our hotel and tonite we arrive in Santa Fe where we will spend 5 nights. Today we are on our way to hike in the Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks National Monument. We had planned to go on to Taos and visit the Taos Pueblo, however our hiking expedition took longer than we thought it would and we didn't have enough time to go to Taos today. Unfortunately, starting tomorrow the Taos Pueblo will be closed for a month.
It too about an hour and a half to get to the Kasha-Katuwe Monument and we decided to hike the Slot Trail. Please look at our pictures from this hike. The rock formations were incredible. Eduardo "There was a lot of climbing, but you didn't have to go up very far to see good views of the canyon. The tent formations were made of tuff which is ash and melted clay". Nia "When you got there it was calming and eerie. The colors of the stones were muted and faded. The sky was clear and the day was warm. It was interesting because where I come from (Bermuda) there are no mountains. This was very different for me. Sasha "I thought today was a riveting experience because it was something that I, as an adventurous spirit, love to do. I was dehydrated and exhausted, however the views from the top of Tent Rock was worth it!. Emma "We had to take a narrow path up there but the climb was worth it. There were patches of snow in the shaded areas but it was hot in the sun. I had minor setbacks because of my knee and the walk was difficult, however I was able to appreciate the natural beauty of the roc formations". Easton "I am so dehydrated and tired I cannot think of what we did today". We arrived at the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center at about 10 am. The Indian Pueblo Cultural Center is owned and operated by the 19 Indian pueblos of New Mexico and is dedicated to the preservation of the culture, history and art of the people. Our host/guide Jon is passionate about educating visitors as to the accomplishments and history from Pre-Columbian time to the present. The center explains the diversity and accomplishments of the people who are of the 19 Pueblos.
Eduardo - "I learned that the women were seen as very important because they had the respect of the people. One of the pueblo women was a scientist and discovered important things. I also leaned that the people believed in the circle of life. They thought that everything was connected with each other. Lastly, they valued language and each pueblo spoke their own language". Jon was very clear about explaining that language must survive if the culture is to survive. Nia "I learned from Jon that the when the Spaniards came to the pueblo they felt that the native people were similar to the Spaniards in their culture. The Spaniards tried to convert the people of the Pueblo to Catholicism". Sasha "There were many images at the Pueblo Cultural Center that fascinated me. Some of those images were very eye catching". We began our day walking to Route Biking Tours and met our host Josh. He fitted us up for bikes, and because Nia had never ridden a bike before she lucked out and got to ride a tandem bike with Josh. At the beginning of our ride Josh took us to the town center and told us a lot about the history of Albuquerque. He is a native of the city and seems to know it inside out. Here are some quotes from the kids about the information we learned:
Eduardo~ "It was interesting to learn that the Rio Grande supports 2 million people in the city because it rains so little out here" Easton ~ "When touring the Old Town, it was interesting how all of the roofs on the old houses were curved like a bowl so that the townspeople could hide while defending themselves". Nia ~ "Albuquerque was a city built on lies. PJ told us that the man who founded the city lied to Spain about Albuquerque having the proper resources to become an official city", Nia ~ "The Casa BooBoo was a home for unwed mothers and they were made to be exhibited to young girls as an example of what not to do. This was happening until 1970 and was promoted by the Catholic Church". Sasha " The Old Town was built considering ways to be defensive from enemies. The bell on the church rings on Sunday for church and also for emergencies so that people will prepare for fighting" .We arrived in Albuquerque last night at about 11pm, got our rental van and took off for Hotel Albuquerque (in the future to be referred to as ABQ). All aspects of our trip to ABQ ran smoothly from our ride to JFK and our non-stop flight. Pretty much everyone went directly to bed as it was 1:30 am CT time. We are here now in the hotel having breakfast before leaving at 9:30 for our bicycle tour of the Bosque River Valley. Later on in the day we will be taking a walking tour of ABQ Old Town. Our goal today is to learn about who first settled in ABQ and New Mexico. We will post again tonite with info and photos of the day.
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