Homage to Georgia O'Keeffe

At the settlement of Ranchos de Taos, N.M. 68 "passes the mission church of San Francisco de Asis [constructed in 1776], made famous by the paintings of Georgia O'Keeffe and the photography of Ansel Adams" (Santa Fe, Fodor's Compass American Guides, 4th Edition, 2003), where on January 23, 2004 a large spotted bird stood sentinel.

Arriving mid-day, shadows from the trees nearby complemented the shadows of the mission church projected on the church itself.

As the day wore on, some of the snow slowly began to melt.

Across the way, there was ample opportunity for the purchase of religious figures and other Southwestern peraphernalia.

I found I could say things with color and shapes that I couldn't say any other way -- things I had no words for.
---- Georgia O'Keeffe

Photographer's Note: Close-up pictures of San Francisco de Asis were taken by Hoy Loper, who says:

The church's wide, angled slabs. Shadows giant and sharp. The detailed and subtle texture layered with the dark and the light browns. The juxtaposition of dark slabs and light slabs was fascinating to me. Sometimes it hinged on an angle of the enshadowed, sometime on the shape of the shadow-caster. So sharp and clear, like the drops from the drain, splitting off in the sky and sliding down to earth.

I really paid too much attention to the drops I was trying to capture in that picture, and not enough to the building. I guess that side of the building, all light, simply didn't interest me. It would have been a much better picture if I could have captured it from above, and you could have seen the little pots into which the water was supposed to fall.

But alas, then you would miss the beautiful contrast of the drops against the blue sky. Tricky. I am mainly fond of that first picture because of that detailed little electrical thingummy in the shadows in the middle there, and the telephone lines zooming overhead. Technology looks so primitive next to the church, the light, the shadows... (Hoy Loper, electronic mail, February 16, 2004)

See also, Love the One You're With.