Raven Travels: SANTA FE and THE OPERA

Today was overcast with a strong threat of rain in the afternoon, and on into the evening. You could say that this was our day for culture!

After breakfast we were off to a couple of museums located on “Museum Hill”:

Our first stop was the International Museum of Folk Art. This was a fun place to visit with many examples of hand crafted collections of toys, dolls, costumes, beadwork, textiles, etc. One of the most fascinating exhibits for me was “The Red That Colored the World” Exhibit which is about the American Cochineal insect and how it has colored the world in red. It is fascinating. The research on it shows that it has been used to color items red for hundreds of years.(See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cochineal)

Then it was onto the Museum of Indian Art and Culture. This was also interesting and diverse. It highlights all of the many facets of Indian Art. One of the exhibits was of the work of David Bradley, current artist of many media: paintings, mixed media, and bronze sculptures. A number of his paintings are wonderful spoofs on the modern ideas of who Native Americans are.

I apologize for the lack of photos but I would rather enjoy the museum than photograph what is there. I recommend both of these museums highly.

After lunch at the Museums’ Café we returned to our hotel for a nap before getting ready to go to the Opera.

The Santa Fe Opera setting is world renown, and quite beautiful. Here is a link to it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Fe_Opera. Scroll through the images. Imagine sitting at the Dapples Pavilion with it pouring rain down those giant sails. We attended the Preview Buffet and discussion by the musicologist on the Opera “La Finta Giardiniera” written by Mozart when he was 18. The setting is lovely and the Opera was beautiful, though complex in story line. There were only seven members to the cast, and all but one was involved in various love schemes. While we were at the Preview dinner it started to rain and continued all evening. Though the area is open it is covered and we were dry except when returning to our car, but our umbrellas worked fine. I do not know the amount of rainfall but it was well over an inch for the night. We enjoyed the evening and our first experience with live Opera.

THURSDAY – SANTA FE

The weather forecast was for rain, heavy at times. We decided to spend the day around downtown Santa Fe. First we visited the Museum of New Mexico History and the Palace of the Governors. It was interesting to see the evolution of the settlement of New Mexico.

Browsing Downtown Santa Fe

Museum Building

A Tribute to a Wonderful Photographer

"Mud Coach"

We then visited the Georgia O’Keefe Museum located downtown. This was a small museum but had great examples of her art, philosophy, and life. She was a very independent person and artist and showed her love of the natural world in a large and wonderful way. These is a quotes from Georgia O'Keefe: "Nobody sees a flower - really - it is so small it takes time - we haven't time - and to see takes time, like to have a friend takes time."
"If I could paint the flower exactly as I see it no one would see what I see because I would paint it small like the flower is small. So I said to myself - I'll paint what I see - what the flower is to me but I'll paint it big and they will be surprised into taking time to look at it - I will make even busy New Yorkers take time to see what I see of flowers."

Our lunch was at the San Francisco Street Grill located on the second floor of one of the buildings downtown. Across the street from us was a group of ladies having a good time and taking “selfies”. I could not resist and proceeded to take photos of them taking their pictures.

After lunch we visited the Basilica of St. Francis of Asis, and the Loretto Chapel where there is a beautiful spiral staircase to the choir loft. No one knows who built the staircase which was added after the Chapel had been completed.