Lifescapes

Morphy Lake

Morphy Lake is a little gem of a lake about 10 miles from our cabin in New Mexico, at the eastern edge of the Pecos Wilderness, at 8,000 feet. A lovely place for a picnic and for a dog to splash in the water. Canoeing (bring your own) and fishing, too, if you're into that--it's stocked with rainbow trout. Surrounded by lovely mountains and forest, with the bluest of blue New Mexico skies reflecting in the lake.

Last week, we drove to Santa Fe, Ghost Ranch, Abiquiu, and Taos--background research for my O'Keeffe project. I'm working my way through a half-dozen biographies and books about her art and her life. Of American artists, she is certainly the most remarkable, and the most marketed. I say that with a great deal of admiration, although I also suspect that she had to sacrifice some elements of self and personhood in order to achieve the persona.

Someone asked about my Gertrude Bell project. I've set it aside for now because it is too large and complicated--given her political and historical context--for a single biographical novel. I have another idea, but it will take some time to develop. File under "thinking about this." 

In the meantime, I'm working on another (#7) Dahlias mystery, expecting to have it ready for you early next year.

This week, we will be driving north to spend some time with our Colorado family at Woodland Park and Colorado Springs. And we have a brand new great-grandson to celebrate, in our Nevada family. His name is Jett--such a lovely baby.

Reading note. I think it's so foolish for people to want to be happy. Happy is so momentary--you're happy for an instant and then you start thinking again. Interest is the most important thing in life; happiness is temporary, but interest is continuous.--Georgia O'Keeffe 

A Visit to Abiquiu

Georgia O'Keeffe's Abiquiu house

I'm taking some time off at Coyote Ridge, our cabin in New Mexico. This week, Bill and I drove over to Santa Fe to visit the O'Keeffe Museum there, where her work from 1915-1917 is on display, with many other paintings. Her work spans decades--an amazement to see the creative achievements of such a prolific artist, most of it on the cutting edge of American art in her day.

Then we drove on to Ghost Ranch, where O'Keeffe lived and painted during the summers in the mid/late 30's, and where she bought a house in 1940. The landscape forms and colors are simply awesome. No wonder she was smitten.

Photo by Brian Spencer

We stayed at the Abiquiu Inn, then on Friday morning toured O'Keeffe's Abiquiu house. She bought it in 1945 and lived there until 1984. At 96, she needed more care than she could get in this rather remote place, and moved to her home in Santa Fe. Here is the studio in her Abiquiu home. The room, the whole house, really, is flooded with light--skylights, light walls, floors--important for an artist.

We drove back home via Taos, where we stopped briefly at the Mabel Dodge Luhan house, where O'Keeffe stayed in 1929. Friends in the artist colony there called Taos "Mabletown." 

We drove home from Taos over the Sangres--a long, twisting mountain highway across the pass and down into the Mora Valley, lush and green, with the trees all in leaf and the creeks rushing full. And then back to Coyote Ridge. A lovely couple of days...

Reading note. Whether you succeed or not is irrelevant, there is no such thing. Making your unknown known is the important thing--and keeping the unknown always beyond you.--Georgia O'Keeffe