Souvenir Chronicles: NEW MEXICO, DAY 3: ABIQUIU AND GHOST RANCH

June 27, 2021

We spent the morning of Day 3 in what we called "Georgia O'Keeffe Territory." As mentioned in the prior post, O'Keeffe owned two homes in New Mexico. We stopped at the second one she bought first, was a crumbling adobe on three acres in the village of Abiquiu (pronounced A-bih-cue) when she purchased it. She remodeled it extensively, and it became her principal residence in 1949 after her husband died. She lived there until 1984, two years before her death in 1986. The name "Abiquiu" means "wild choke cherry place" in the Tewa language.

We got there pretty early in the morning before anything was open. Unfortunately, advance tickets are required to take a tour of the O'Keeffe property, which was declared a National Historical Landmark in 1998. Tours of the O'Keeffe home on the property are not available right now because of Covid, and we couldn't even find the actual house on the property, which nowadays is dominated by the Abiquiu Inn and what looks like upscale cabins/casitas for rent.

However, as we drove around the property, we discovered that it also serves as an outdoor art gallery, with most of the art for sale! We had a good time checking out the various pieces, such as Water Garden by Brenda Jones:

Viajeros (Travelers) by Hebe Garcia:

I couldn't find the plaque for the one on the left, but it is three origami swans balanced on a triangular stool. The one on the right is Que Viva el Sol! (Long Live the Sun) by Miguel Edwards.

Flowers in a Blue Pot by Mother Nature:

This unnamed bronze sculpture by Star Liana York was Bob's favorite. It did not have a price tag attached and must be a permanent fixture.

This was one of my favorites: Spiral Blooms #3 - Red Roses by Christopher Thomas. For just $28,000 I could have it for our yard. (Does that include shipping?)

Chat by Shohini Ghosh:

Petal's Piglets by Carrie Quade:

Cascajal/Alchemy Span by Michael Sharber/(L) and Subphylum by Doug Gray (R):

My absolute favorite was this one, Southwest Table Totem - Dark by Kim Louise Glidden. At $2,700, it is a steal relative to other works in the show. I love the adobe house/church with the cross on top, the stacked rounded blocks, and the geometry. It feels very New Mexico-y, doesn't it?

One of the most intriguing was 6 Flower Rose by Kevin Gauna. It has solar panels that "photosynthesize" to illuminate the glass roses at night.

The flowers are amazing.

I also quite liked both Prickly Pear by Michael Mladjan (L) and Snake Dance Moon by Doug Coffin (R).

Flare by Rose Burek (L) reminds me of the gazing balls I've seen in some gardens, and Sojourner by Sara Lee D'Alessandro (R) makes me think of the sorting hat in the Harry Potter books.

The developers have created a beautiful, peaceful setting for the art, one that seems fitting for O'Keeffe's world.

After our stroll through the sculpture garden, we got in the car and drove the 13 miles to O'Keeffe's other property on Ghost Ranch. She began spending her summers at the ranch in 1934 (and winters in New York--go figure). In 1940 she purchased a house and seven acres (out of the 21,000 acres total that made up a dude ranch at the time). This was three years before she bought the house and property in Abiquiu, which is where she would spend the winters instead of New York.

Many of her paintings are of the Ghost Ranch area, and apparently there is a tour of Georgia O'Keeffe painting sites, which we did not take.

The drive between the two O'Keeffe haunts was haunting itself--and not just because O'Keeffe had her ashes scattered nearby. There was something ethereal about the view, partly because of the geology, partly because of the particularly gorgeous sky, and partly because of the loneliness of the scenery. It is easy to see what drew the artist to these vistas.

Not too far down the Ghost Ranch road we came across this log cabin which looked vaguely familiar. It turns out it was part of a movie set. Can you guess the movie?

Here's a hint: It was an American Western comedy made in 1991 and starred Billy Crystal and Jack Palance, among others.

Got it yet?

O'Keeffe, a recluse to the end who once said "I find people very difficult," would have been appalled, but it seems appropriate that the movie would be filmed on what was a real dude ranch during her lifetime.

Besides the stunning scenery I did like a couple of nice artistic touches. One was this sign:

The other was this beautiful ceramic tile Tree of Life on the outside wall of the Welcome Center. Next to my obsession with Frida Kahlo, I think the tree of life motif is next.

The scenery on the way back down to Abiquiu was just as beautiful as the scenery had been coming up the same road.

We had reservations at Café Abiquiu for lunch.

We started out with elote dip (Mexican street corn) and, yes, more chile cheese fries. These were fries with chile sauce rather than chopped chiles mixed in with the cheese. They were okay, but the elote dip was better.

I had a beautiful and very tasty dish of Crispy Blue Corn Trout Tacos and a small bowl of cold cucumber soup that apparently were "inspired by Georgia O'Keeffe" (as marked on the menu), who "was passionate about food and loved to create meals using herbs, fruits and vegetables from her wonderful garden . . . carefully and simply prepared."