It was a “girls get away week-end” and we arrived in the early evening, after spending the day soaking in the mineral waters at Ojo Caliente. My friend Pam and I just wanted to have some quiet time, away from our normal life routines, and experience the wide open spaces of Ghost Ranch. The roads from Ojo to the ranch were winding and everywhere the scenery beckoned a closer look. “…The skies and land are so enormous, and the detail so precise and exquisite that wherever you are, you are isolated in a glowing world between the macro and the micro.” -Ansel Adams
This was our room, up on the mesa. At night the quiet was thunderous, a roaring silence unlike anywhere I had ever been. Not a dog barking or even a cricket could be heard…it was a quiet to contemplate, no noise of any sort, a quiet to allow into the soul and think back upon when life roars all around. I wanted to save it in a jar, like the lightning bugs we caught as kids, and open it up when I needed a dose of Ghost Ranch!
It was Georgia O’Keeffe’s backyard where she spent years painting and living in this remote land. I am so captivated by her lifestyle, her art, and the dedication she pursued in painting. She had a vision, and was true to herself. The world interpreted her work through their paradigms… she did not intervene or acquiesce to their interpretation. She remained in her own flow and personal truth. I read that from the first time she came to New Mexico she stated, “I loved it immediately…from then on I was always on my way back.”
Behold the cerulean blue skies!!
The vast spaces and landscape are beautiful, so many vistas to capture with my camera.
“From heaven the Lord looks down and sees all mankind; From his dwelling place he watches all who live on earth – he who forms the hearts of all, who considers everything they do.” Ps 33:13-15
Located in a small rustic adobe casita, the Ghost Ranch library is a special place. Filled with books from floor to ceiling on a variety of subjects, open 24 hours a day, an original card catalog system for keeping track of books which you check out on the honor system, it is a place for seekers. I am drawn to books and libraries and always seem to find just what I am looking for even though it is serendipitous! Naturally I discovered an amazing book in this quaint place and wrote down many quotes in my journal.
“The painting is like a thread that runs through all the reasons for the other things that make one’s life.” Georgia O’Keeffee
This is how she lived….this is how I want to live.
Ghost Ranch is filled with many gifts. A place for creativity, reflection, discovery, and contemplation. There is something sacred about it, not in the religious sense, rather in a raw, unaltered, perfect sense. I think that is what I found most attractive and perfect. It is simple. Adobe architecture accompanies the landscape and does not draw attention to itself. It is a place for subtle transformation, quiet reflection, conversations and making art, prayer and laughter, and discovery that can only take place when we step back and open our eyes.
A place I am on my way back to.
If you like the western landscape and Ms. O’Keeffe’s work, put Ghost Ranch on your bucket list, it surely will not disappoint.
The Permanent Collection has some beautiful pieces by Dale Chihuly
This piece has been accepted in the Manitou Springs Commonwheel Artists Co-op show entitled Recycled Art. The stubstrate is a vintage piece of sheet music. When the pages are closed, the title of the music Forest Sketches is visible, when opened the mixed media of Wings appears. There is a story behind this piece of music! While poking around an estate sale in Denver I discovered a stack of vintage sheet music and also learned about a woman named Lois. She had been one of the first medical missionaries to China in the early 1900’s. Her hands had played this musical piece as well as skillfully healed the sick. She was a true ministering angel! I used a Cathedral themed stencil with acrylic inks and paints as the first layer. With white acrylic ink I drew the angel and added hand painted pieces of paper as wings. Words are written on top of the wing and also around the angel. The opening reception for the show is October 21 from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. If you are in the neighborhood please stop by and say hello. To enter a piece in the show, it has to be for sale. I was reluctant to enter this piece because I love it so much. Time will tell if someone else loves it too!!!
Here is a close up of a painting that I just completed. There are so many layers of paint on this canvas, it is unbelievable. I started by painting loosely and letting my muse out to play. It sounds fun, and it is, but let me just say once the figure emerged, the design and color scheme became challenging. It was a constant push and pull of color and shapes, and finding a balance of the two. There is a small bit of collage that I left without paint, the word earth…and a bit of Hebrew text. When the shapes began to form, the painting looked like land masses viewed from an airplane window. I enjoyed the process of letting the painting give me direction, being free to apply paint and then cover it up leaving just a small glimpse of the previous layer. This created a depth of experience for me as the artist, and also invites the viewer to come closer and see the elements of a hidden layer. The intent of my painting was to capture the essence of land masses, and the secrets held beneath the top layer. Whether gifts of nature or the work of man, the land beneath our feet is full of secrets.
Upcycled glass bottle, collaged with pieces of vintage sheet music, angels, papers I found in Florence during my travels, acrylic paints, and beaded embellishments. This piece has been submitted to an upcoming juried show at The Commonwheel Gallery in Manitou Springs, CO. In a few weeks I will see if was accepted, sure hope so! I learned the process from “Bottle Art For The Soul” an instructional DVD purchased from Artful Gathering 2012. Using a bottle for collaged art is an interesting concept and fairly easy to create. I enjoyed turning the bottle, looking at each side to make sure the artwork and collage flowed around the piece. Soft gel matte medium adheres the first layer of white tissue paper to the bottle and after 24 hours of drying time, the rest of the collage elements can be glued with matte gel. Once dry, acrylic paints highlight the surface, and finally the beads are attached to the top. It takes several days to complete and I suggest collaging several bottles at a time. The piece looks great displayed on a bookshelf or on a dining room buffet. This particular design has an old world flair which I love! I plan to make a few more to sell at the Bemis Instructor Sale in December.
The first application was to cover chip board pages in white gesso and then a layer of hard pastels in various colors was added just before the gesso dried. Acrylic inks applied over stencils created another layer.
Fused shopping bag makes for a great journal page. With an iron on a medium setting, place 3 to 4 bags together with the “star bag” on top. Lay parchment paper on top of the pile of bags, and parchment underneath the bundle. Iron away, slowly, to fuse them together. Trim to the right size, and hole punch the edge… wa-la… a page of texture and a reminder of shopping at Harrods!
Photo image transfer with acrylic paint and some vintage letter stamps, a family heirloom one of the students brought to class for all of us to use.
Letters made with clear tar gel and acrylic paint.
Stencils and drips make for interesting backgrounds.
Teaching Travel Pages was a wonderful experience for me, and the pages created by each student were full of interesting subjects, techniques, color combinations, and layers of collage. Every student had an approach that reflected their personal travel experience. Each page was unique and demonstrated a flair for using ephemera from their adventures to make artful pages. Maybe it is time for you to pull out those maps, brochures, postcards, photographs, ticket stubs, crumpled napkins, and found papers to create an artifact of your travel escapades. It is easy to put a travel journal together using some of the techniques I have described, it just takes time, a precious commodity…but it is worth the effort!
Take a peek inside my travel journal pages. This journal was created with ephemera, found papers, and purchased postcards from my trip to Europe. The countries visited included The Netherlands, Paris, Spain and Italy. Fortunately we have a family member who was a pilot for NATO and had a lovely flat in Maastricht, Holland where we had our home base. From there we travelled to neighboring countries, mostly by air, and a quick road trip to Paris. It was the trip of a lifetime. 
The first time I saw the Mona Lisa was at The National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. It was 1967 and I was in 2nd grade. Jackie Kennedy was instrumental in bringing the masterpiece to the nation’s capital and fortunately my mother took us to see it. Even at a young age I found the painting intriguing. Seeing it again at The Louvre was meaningful and reminded me of how influential art can be at any age. I loved standing in front of this fine lady fifty years later!
I am using a chipboard kit by Recollections for Travel Pages. First I gessoed every page and added a light color of oil pastels. This helped tone down the white and I used a variety of colors, scraping the pastels over the almost dry gessoed pages. There is a layer of liquid acrylic paint that coordinates with the ephemera. LADUREE is a fabulous macaroon shop and restaurant in Paris, the page is made from the bag which held my delicious macaroon purchase. It was amazing to find a coffee shop in Paris that carried Guatemalan coffee, my husbands homeland, so I had to include part of the bag from the coffee we drank. These paper treasures are perfect for collage and spark memories of time spent travelling.
This page is an altered mailing envelope, painted, stamped with Da Vinci text, Florence stickers and specially made collage papers. The horizontal accents were created by dissolving the ink of pages in a National Geographic magazine with Citrasolv. The papers are perfect for adding interest and design.
While walking on the streets of Paris, my stepson’s friend asked me, “Do you collect anything in particular?” Indeed I do…was my quick reply. Paper, all kinds from all sorts of places…cafes, museums, hotels, maps, ticket stubs, even rubbings made on vellum paper while walking around the Cathedral in Sevilla near the spot where Christopher Columbus is buried. And who could imagine the paper pocket which held a warm croissant from a tiny Parisian bakery would be so colorful and intricately made? This is the composition of stash which has lovingly been put together to create pages of art, and a bundle of treasured memories.
She purchased Vive le Color at one of our favorite shops in Denver, Artisan Center. If you are ever in the Cherry Creek shopping area this is worth a stop. They carry a unique collection of gifts from around the world, lots of unique items by artisans and creatives.
I am using Prismacolor Colored pencils and have finished one page. Bright colors, shading in some areas, and being precise by staying in between the lines is a delightful way to spend time. It is very peaceful to choose just the right pencil for a particular spot and know that however it turns out is OKAY, no pressure. Just like art journaling, it is a process activity, one that nurtures my creative spirit and let me say, this is addicting! No wonder sales of adult coloring books are skyrocketing, we all long for creative expression in this digital, analog, age we live in.
