Sunday, April 06, 2008

There are No Straight Lines


One of the charms of living in New Mexico is that our surroundings are all part of many different paintings. But sometimes it takes a visitor from out of state to underscore the point that we're living in the midst of a work of art.

And imagine if that visitor paints water colors and starts talking about how are landscape touches him or her.

Well, that happened to us on a recent weekend. We took our visitor to the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum in Santa Fe and the Santuario de Chimayo on Saturday and to
the Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks National Monument on Sunday afternoon.

"There are no straight lines" the visitor remarked in reference to Georgia O'Keefe paintings.

And the theme came up again
during our visit to tent rocks as the visitor observed the patterns of lines on the layered walks in the canyon that lead to the cone-shaped formations that give Tent Rocks its name.

Indeed, the feeling of art permeates New Mexico and other parts of the Southwest.

The reason is that our surroundings are not monolithic, whether they were made by the Creator directly or through a human being.

Our buildings are round (or rounded) and our crosses are crooked.

And our sky has a depth of blue that is found nowhere else but in the ocean.


And yet, the many shapes and shades of beauty stands out amid a lack of clutter.

Like a museum, we can see different things every time we step back, each time taking it all in a spirit of deep gratitude.

That's what prayer is all about.


1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Beautiful Carlos! Maybe New Mexico is a place where you are all meant to think outside the straight lines of boxes. It is what makes O'Keefe painting so great! Thanks to New Mexico and to the power of art in our midst led by the greatest artist of all! - Robin