City Talk

"It was a tough choice but the winner is Pia Jane Bijkerk with the title "City Talk". This title suits the painting quite well. The photo in the background was taken in Harlem, NY. New York is one of my favorite cities for one simple reason, it talks to me. The architecture, the culture, the people, the history, the cracks, the rust, the lovers. I have great dialogue with New York whenever I am there; it makes me feel whole and full of life! Thank you so much to all who gave this painting a name. All your names became a part of the painting! Congratulations to Pia! I hope you find a place in your home to hang this sweet little painting that talks!"



Sage Moon McKee

Inside Out

Amanda Blue Leigh's home in Palm Springs is all about connecting the interior to the exterior. While staying true to the Spanish vernacular, Amanda paid homage to the Modernist legacy of Palm Springs by opening up the house and bringing in light, by raising ceilings, adding skylights and glazed doors that open onto the verandas that surround the home. She used reclaimed materials wherever she could - the stained glass panel in the bathroom was a door salvaged from another home under renovation - while she concentrated on a sustainable garden, filled with native plants, that flourish in the desert, regardless of rainfall. Above are a few shots of the interior of her home. Click on pics to enlarge.

Desert Oasis Redux

I'm posting twice today because I thought I'd show you a few more shots of the exterior of Amanda Blue Leigh's gorgeous Palm Springs Hacienda, featured in the debut issue of Design Book Magazine (click on post title to go there) Amanda and her husband will be spending the summer at their home in upstate New York, to avoid the impossibly hot California Desert temperatures, but their lovely oasis will be awaiting them in October! The perfect life! No Winter! You can visit Amanda at her site Amanda Blue Leigh , to see more of her photography and hear some of her fantastic music!

All photographs by Amanda Blue Leigh

Deadline Time

This Sunday is the deadline for entries to win Sage Moon McKee's mixed media piece. Please keep your entries coming in this weekend! We'll announce the winner here at the end of next week. Thanks to all who have already responded! Hope your weekend is wonderful and a very happy Passover to all my Jewish readers. That's another of Sage's mixed media pieces above.

Bringing It Back Home

Today it's snowing again and after a few really busy days, Im happy to be here, at home. There was a ghostly light earlier - the flurries were softly falling - I took pics of my Spring/Summer living room. In Fall/Winter, when the sun comes directly into these South facing windows, I arrange the room differently - pulling all the furniture into the room and cosying it up with wool throws and more fabric, and opening the area nearest the windows in order to get more of the solar gain. I'm longing for the sunny days to finally set in, but blossoms are appearing on fruit trees around town, and the birds are arriving. For now, a fire keeps the chill at bay and the snow melts before it touches earth.

Over Easy

More of Kristen's stencils decorate another space Joe Wrede opened a year ago. The Mainstreet Bakery is closed for now, but the interior is worth a look. Copper pots hang from exposed rafters and line shelf tops, while stencilled eggs, cover the walls.Kristen can be contacted at krisb@newmex.com And keep an eye on my Etsy shop because in the coming weeks, I'll have some works on paper by Kristen and a few other Taos artists.

Creative Collaboration

Joseph's Table is arguably the best restaurant in a town that has no shortage of good chefs. Joe Wrede is a fabulous chef, who has long been committed to using organic and seasonal produce in his mouth watering recipes. He could cook in a shack and people would still line up. A few years ago, Joe moved from his original location in Ranchos de Taos, to the historic La Fonda Hotel on Taos Plaza. For months before opening, his mother Cookie and his partner, Kristen Bortles (whom you met last week) took their time creating an interior that was as magical as the plates emerging from the kitchen. The decorative painting is beyond exquisite - tulips unfold their fragile petals around the walls of the main dining room, while stencilled butterflies flutter above and behind a life size angel in the area closest to the kitchen (I've shown you his wing) The bar (beer and wine) is always packed with locals and visitors, chowing on duck fat fries and buffalo burgers, beneath the whimsical pussy willow chandeliers Cookie commissioned for the space. Along one wall of the main room, are three love shacks - romantic, private spaces that allow you to draw the curtains and remove yourself from the scene - and believe me, it is a scene! If you want to catch a glimpse of the Taos you don't see while traipsing around doing the tourist thing, book a table at Joes! The paintings are Kristen's.

The Deep End

Three years ago I had a show during the Taos Spring Arts Festival. It was my first in over twenty years, painting having taken a back seat to my writing at that point. This piece was born out of my transition into menopause - a time when most women are called to look at the shadow, a Jungian term that perfectly describes that passage from one aspect of womanhood into another. Like the moon, we are complex and changing beings and I was compelled to explore the change creatively; to process and understand who I had been and who I was becoming. Prior to painting this piece, I had spent several months in Malibu, California, finishing up a novel I have yet to publish. During those balmy summer days, on my trips to the grocery store etc.,I was struck by how many women my age were in denial about these changes, and kept themselves in a state of suspended adolescence with silicone, botox and other alien substances. I am blessed with good genes and an athletic predisposition, which has enabled me to stay in good shape my entire life, even after birthing three kids. Vigilant skin care has kept mine looking pretty good, but that aside, I have always been repelled by the idea of interfering with Nature's course. My mother, a beautiful and very stylish woman, died at 47, and aging was a huge issue for her. Because she passed away before going through menopause, I had no model to go by Essentially I was walking an unknown path. This painting explores that road. The Malibu Barbie doll syndrome, my mother (a natural blonde beauty of the type celebrated during her time) and the Victorian undercurrents that influenced her life and consequently, my own upbringing. I called it The Deep End. I did not sell the original, intending to leave it, eventually, to my oldest daughter, who has two daughters of her own. My youngest daughter, was the model. Instead I had a limited edition of giclee' prints made of this piece, and one other, which I have sold and have for sale in my Etsy shop.

Snow Day

It snowed last night and today it looks and feels like Winter again in these mountains. I have a fire going and a nice cup of hot tea in hand. Thankfully at this time of year, the snow melts quickly, but the downside is that we are entering Mud Season which equals Adobe Everything! It's been known to snow in June here in Taos, so even once we transition into Spring, clothing -wise, we all keep a few woolies handy! A lot of layering and stripping goes on! I'm off to take more pics of Kristen's work today, so I'll have some fun stuff to show you tomorrow. And don't forget the little contest to win a great piece from Sage Moon McKee, that runs through April 20th; if you've not sent in your entry yet, please do! Instructions are above.

The Process

Kristen makes a lot of sketches, using ink and water colours on paper, before she goes to the canvas. Her studio is housed in an old, historical building on the corner of Ledoux Street, right in town. The space is cavernous and typical of old adobes, quite dark. But it is perfect for Kristen, who relishes the few hours she spends there each day, between caring for her two young children. Above are few more studio shots, including one of the artist.

Studio Story

Yesterday, I visited another Taos artist, Kristen Bortles. You may have noticed Kristen's stencilled panels in a couple of my previous posts. (Around Town and Easy Fashion) Kristen is the partner and mother of two children, of Joseph Wrede, the acclaimed chef and owner of Joseph's Table in Taos. Born and raised in Hawaii, Kristen lived n Colorado, Washington DC (where she went to Graduate School) and NYC, before coming to Taos. Her decorative painting is gorgeous and can be seen in various spots around town, most notably at Joseph's Table, which was a collaboration between Joe's mother, Cookie and herself. We'll visit the restaurant later this week. Kristen is currently working on a series of large oils, that incorporate her decorative leanings into edgier pieces that take on revolvers, shotguns and weird apparatus as subject matter. The result is somewhat shocking, once you make out the gun barrel behind a draped curtain that explodes into body parts, barely concealed by Moorish patterns. Above are some studio shots, that include bits of the panels she has installed in the aforementioned places and some works in progress.

For Art's Sake

The artist lives to create and creates to live. There is no distinction for one who chooses a life of dedication to their medium be it paint, an instrument or the pen. Painters, possibly more than any other creative types are apt to be loners; constantly in the process of self discovery via their visual imprint, almost Shamanic in their pursuit of self knowledge. There have always been visual artists - cave paintings and petraglyphs attest to their existence and at times, the collective energy provides a space for many to flourish and create as if part of a whole. i.e. The Renaissance. The business of Art can be a grave and serious undertaking; in certain traditions (Judaism and Islam) art is dictated by a moral code. Graven images are forbidden fruit, which did not stop Islamic artists from creating some of the most exquisite Decorative Arts known to Man, based on geometry and arabesques. Whether the artist approaches his/her work abstractly or figuratively, the urge to paint is both spiritual and emotional: In co-creating with Creation, the painter seeks to know and understand his/her place in the Grand Plan. Even when the blank canvas is faced intellectually, ultimately, the cerebral aspect of the artist's initial idea will be eclipsed by the magical process that seems to take the brush in hand, and move it into uncharted territory, until like a cartographer, the painter maps out a new path to travel. Art is very subjective; you like it because you like it. And that is how it should be. Here is more of Sage Moon McKee's work. Please keep your entries coming in - you have until April 20th - and have a wonderful (and hopefully, sunny) weekend!

"The pictures a man selects to hang upon his wall are a perpetual witness of his degree of culture. They are ever present as an unconscious factor in shaping our lives and thought. They serve no useful purpose and have no meaning except as they bring before us something of the ideal."

Charles Keeler

The Simple Home

Lotus Love

I noticed while browsing through my photo files yesterday, that the lotus flower has been a recurring theme in both Sage McKee's and Stacy Huddleston's work. (We visited Stacy at Human Line Studio a couple of weeks ago) Although these two artists could not be more different in their approach, both have taken on the almost other-wordly, very feminine, mystical and symbolic lotus flower as subject matter. On top is Sage Moon's Lotus (acrylic and collage on canvas) and below, two of Stacy's oil paintings of Lotus flowers, that hang in the hallway of her home and in her dining room.

Cindy Lee Berryhill

During the mid 80's, the Anti-Folk scene flourished on NY's Lower East Side. A reaction to the stale, West Village folk scene that had been frozen in (60's) time, Anti-Folk was exciting, punk infused, poetic and political. The most famous musicians who came out of that movement were Michelle Shocked and Beck, but at that time, my bets were on a young singer/ songwriter (who along with Lach, "invented" Anti- Folk) whom I managed and worked with until moving to Taos in 1991, Cindy Lee Berryhill. Cindy went on to California, where she met and married the writer/Crawdaddy Magazine founder, Paul Williams. Now, all these years later, Cindy is the mother of their six year old son and tragically, caring for her husband, who sustained a brain injury in a terrible accident a few years ago. She has released her first CD in a decade, Beloved Stranger, with help from a few friends, including John Doe (X) Dave Alvin (The Blasters) Peter Case and Lenny Kaye (Patti Smith Band). I am currently working with Cindy again, to promote this fantastic CD, which showcases the artist in her maturity and at her finest. The poignant title track chronicles her experience with her husband's injury, but the entire recording - a celebration of Americana - is chock full of amazing material, that still retains the cutting edge of the punky, Anti-Folk chick I first heard at Sophie's Bar on E 5th Street, back then, when we were young and the world was at our feet. Neil Young has given this recording tremendous support by featuring a song - When Did Jesus Become A Republican? - on his website, helping to make it an Internet hit. Cindy's CD is available through Amazon.com, but you can go to her site for a listen and a few downloads. Click on post title.