Biennial Art Fair Santa Fe

Yesterday we drove up to the international biennial art fair in Santa Fe and were properly astounded by the art we saw. Galleries from Italy to New York were showing their stuff. It was like a fireworks show of talent.

In these times when clever often passes for art, I was glad to see only a little of this being represented. I was glad to see painting, the actual business of moving color around on large squarish planes is still something people are doing and taking seriously.

J as usual met a bunch of interesting people, even a gallery owner from France who suggested we swap houses for awhile in the future. And as soon as we have a house to swap that will be foremost on our to do list since we are both eager to go there.

So, inspired, we headed back over the magical undulations of landscape to our Albuquerque apt and I got to work painting immediately, two paintings, both of which I am satisfied with. Especially "Rome", which features a petroglyph I saw on my morning dog walks. Over the petroglyph I have written "Mary is a cooty". The biblical name juxtaposed with our modern illiteracy, set in stone as it were, as an act of vandalism of these 3 to 4 thousand year old petroglyphs (something that is actually a problem now) seems poignant and absurdly funny.