day 14 - santa fe art scene

sleeping in a real bed, warm and snug can be an unappreciated event some of the time.

downtown to cruise the galleries.  part of the ride in is along an active railroad line.  well, it will be active again starting may 30th.  the new mexico railrunner, santa fe to albuquerque.  how nice is that?  it'd be like a nashville to knoxville or knoxville to chattanooga train.  wow, what a thought.  

and the city promoted a development along about a mile of the route, including a park, some housing, art studio, art school, offices and farmer's market.  the farmers market was wide open.  masks and distance requirements in effect, though hard to maintain.

         farmer's market inside and out (active rail to left off frame)

santa fe survives off tourism now.  oh, and it's the state capitol, of course.  though interesting enough, i never saw the actual capitol.  but definitely some beaurocratic style buildings surrounded by large parking lots.

tourists were out on this memorial day weekend, but pretty low key.  the galleries were allowed to open last weekend, restaurants take out only.  interesting that people bought food, but because they couldn't eat it in, they were sitting on the park benches in the plaza.  every bench had some small group eating.  all major festivals, including the opera, have been cancelled for the season.  all the big tourist dollars are gone.

the galleries are a mix.  there are a lot and some items seem to be csrried by muliple galleries.  a surprising amount of sculpture, especially brass castings.  plenty of bears, wolves and dogs for all.  cats were highly under represented.  lots of lovely sculpture gardens.

suzi would have spent alot of time, but a couple of hours pretty much wore me down.  most of the gallery staff were eager to talk, the season starting on a down note.  learned alot from a galery specializing in native pottery.  did you know the natives got their black glaze from a wild spinach plant?  some nice things though.  several things i would have liked, nothing alot of money couldn't have  bought.  beautiful wood bowl with inlaid glass beading.

but plenty of painting, native pottery, some fabric, etc.

and, for the more frivolous, a whole courtyard of wind ornaments.

after a couple hours and an orange in the plaza, it was time to head back to the hostel.  eat, sleep, and prepare for the final leg of the journey.  tomorrow, 70 mi. into albuquerque.  relatively flat, i'm told, net downhill of two thousand or so feet, but with a slight headwind, 5-10 mph.