| I am a Sunday painter and have loved art since a | | | | pueblo at Acoma, a Pueblo Indian reservation on |
| friend bought me a canvas and a set of oil paints | | | | the top of a mesa. The drive into the desert |
| when I was in high school. I'm a frequent visitor | | | | takes a half hour under the big New Mexico sky |
| to museums, and I only view a gallery or two | | | | with eerie rock formations lining the road. After a |
| during a visit. When I moved to Fort Worth in the | | | | while, the rocks begin to look like familiar forms |
| early eighties, my first outing was to the Amon | | | | as you imagine a building or face appearing here |
| Carter Museum of Western Art. One Saturday, | | | | and there in the eroded rock masses. I was |
| the museum had both a Remington and Georgia | | | | fascinated by this strange, new environment. |
| O'Keeffe show. | | | | We drove to Taos a day later and shopped in |
| The curious thing about the first collection was | | | | boutiques selling both Pueblo and Navajo Indian |
| that all of the paintings were executed in black | | | | wares. What I didn't know at the time was that |
| and white oil paint. It was a show of the canvases | | | | we were only four miles from the San Francisco |
| that Remington had painted for magazine covers | | | | de Asis Mission Church at Ranchos de Taos, the |
| before the days of color photography. It is quite a | | | | church that was the subject of Georgia |
| unique experience seeing a painting done in shades | | | | O'Keeffe's painting that I viewed dismissively. |
| of gray. | | | | A couple weeks after returning to Fort Worth, I |
| After studying the collection, I spent some time | | | | visited the Amon Carter Museum again. When I |
| looking at a painting by William Harnett, titled | | | | entered the front door, the O'Keefe gallery was in |
| "Attention, Company!" and I was captivated by | | | | sight, and I could see one of her paintings, "White |
| the trompe l'oeil style of the painting. Before | | | | Camellia." I was drawn into the room and to the |
| leaving the museum, I looked at the O'Keeffe | | | | "Taos Church" painting. I had fallen in love with the |
| works briefly and remember seeing the "Taos | | | | New Mexico landscape and the painting was |
| Church" piece and another macro-painting of a | | | | suddenly magnificent, beautiful beyond description. |
| flower. I neither understood her style, nor the | | | | I felt as if I was standing before the church in |
| importance of her collection. | | | | Rancho de Taos, and could almost feel the heat |
| A few days later, I drove to Albuquerque for my | | | | of the sun that baked fissures into the adobe |
| first trip west of the Red River to visit my family | | | | structure. I felt a momentary oneness with the |
| who had recently relocated to New Mexico. The | | | | artist and the painting--an aesthetic experience |
| sun was setting as I descended down the | | | | that is vivid in my mind even today. |
| corniche carved in the side of the mountain | | | | Perhaps one characteristic of great art is that a |
| toward the valley of the town. Scrub pinyon pines | | | | masterpiece can take on different meanings at |
| dotted the barren landscape and the city was | | | | different stages of a person's life. Through time, |
| dotted with lights as night descended on the | | | | one sees details that they missed when they first |
| desert. It was dark when I arrived in Rio Rancho, | | | | viewed the painting. The experience taught me a |
| situated on a plateau on the west side of the | | | | great lesson about art, that it is to be viewed, |
| mountains with a view of the city that looked like | | | | enjoyed and sometimes cherished without the |
| a sea of diamonds shimmering in the darkness. | | | | rendering of the judgment of a quick glance. |
| The next day, we drove for an hour to reach the | | | | |
