The Twilight Report

rt: new mexico

2011-06-01T23:38:00

I lived in Santa Fe for about a year in the third grade. I don't have fond memories of going to school there, and I can't remember any of the kids or teachers at the school. I suspect that this is because I have managed to block them all out. Still, it was in art class there that I learned to appreciate my favourite painter, Georgia O'Keefe. The main thing that we have in common is that we both love northern New Mexico. In the Chicago Institute of Art this weekend I was listening to the recorded audio tour tell me about a painting she had done of New York City before, as the audio tour put it, she went to New Mexico and became the artist that we all think of as Georgia O'Keefe. The painting in question is less of New York itself, and more of the light behind a building obliterating a dark tall monolith. It is a painting of the city but like much of her work it is organic. I've seen paintings like this of hers before in books. I may have even seen this painting years before and forgotten the details. It's interesting and thrilling to experience an artist before she becomes that artist everyone “knows” she is, even in retrospect. I know her style and I seek comfort in it, even when she paints New York instead of New Mexico.

I turned the corner and saw across the hallway two iconic paintings of hers from her New Mexico years and I gasp a little. Even after all these years I can see her work and feel everything that I feel about New Mexico in an instant. It is a complicated feeling, with many dimensions and thoughts attached, but I think the one with the largest magnitude is homesick. When I left New Mexico in 2000 to find my fortune, I could not get out of the state soon enough. I wanted to see the world (and I am not sorry that I did), but now I think if I could arrange it, the land of enchantment is amongst the few places in the world that I would hesitate to move back to permanently.

(some of her paintings)

diner

2010-08-04T00:30:00

nm moments

2010-08-01T20:23:00

(more)

new mexico fragments

2010-07-03T15:17:00

Flying back to EWR via ATL as I type this. The land in New Mexico was enchanting :)

(7x more)

clouds

2010-07-02T04:26:00

mystery slides

2008-11-16T15:53:00

I am not sure who took these. They were mixed in with grandpa's slides, but I am pretty sure they aren't his. They are of New Mexico, I can tell because the bridge (see below) is adorned with the Zia sun symbol, and besides it looks like New Mexico. The film itself is a bit of a mystery, as it is a format that I don't recognize. It is about the size of 35mm film, but there are no sprocket holes so the exposure surface is actually taller than an orginary 35mm frame, but it is also a square format, so it is not as wide.

(more)

old photos 62-86 / july 1983

2008-05-11T19:25:00

Grandpa's photos July 1983.

Bandelier
Santa Fe
[illegible] Springs
Pikes Peak

(more)

we never talk anymore

2008-04-15T03:24:00

internet i’m bored of you; we never talk anymore i miss you black and white; and my time in the darkroom i never was very good at being blunt i like how history is always repeating itself, except for the nice parts; the future always seems like a cut down discounted version of something you once remembered i hate missing people no longer with us i’ve forgotten more than you will ever know, but do you remember more than i’ve remembered? i am moving to wyoming; yes really! i hate MySQL, but if everything were postgres, it would be pretty boring arguing about it i tasted lime in my drink tonight; it reminded me of someone special new mexico will never be the same; before or after product launch next monday; should be a grand crash

fence

2007-11-19T13:14:00

Ghost Ranch area, New Mexico

rocks

2007-11-12T19:43:00

northern New Mexico

more ruins

2007-11-09T04:51:00

Chaco, New Mexico

sunset cactus

2007-10-30T20:20:00

White Rock, New Mexico

harry’s mudd

2007-10-30T18:24:00

Ghost Ranch, New Mexico

alien rocks

2007-10-29T18:19:00

northern New Mexico

shaky

2007-10-29T16:01:00

Santa Fe, New Mexico

alone.ness

2007-10-29T01:33:00

Chaco, New Mexico

precious water

2007-10-29T00:01:00

Pecos River, New Mexico

mem.o.ra.bil.ia

2007-10-28T14:38:00

from the 2007 New Mexican expedition

ladder cliché

2007-10-02T13:26:00

Mr. Killer Phrog

2007-10-02T03:14:00

Land of Enchantment, August 2007