From Today's Artists' Letter by Sarah Genn

What's under there is your personal, private history, and the story of your painting life. Gather up all those scrapes and cover-ups -- your improvisations in emergencies -- and you've earned the ability to recognize when your brush is sparkling. Go for excellence, knowing perfectionism is a canyon of toil. Enjoy the therapeutic satisfaction in fixing a dog -- it's like darning an heirloom sock. By then you're the editor, the re-writer, the restorer and the conservationist. There's imagination in that, too. "I am seeking. I am striving. I am in it with all my heart." (Vincent van Gogh)

 

Brief Encounter

Two women exiting their vehicles come face to face at a highway rest stop in Mississippi.  The one in jeans and a sweatshirt starts to turn away but comes back and asks, "Where are you from?"  The one in the black head to toe burka with narrow eye slits says with a heavy accent, "Crystal Springs."  "No, I mean where originally?"  "Oh, India."  First woman, confused, says, "but people don't dress like that in India."  Second, covered woman, "Muslims do!"  First woman, "But all the Muslims went to Pakistan!"  End of conversation.  First woman gets back in car thinking to herself, "I really wanted to say how creepy and stupid it looks to dress like that.  No, I really wanted to ask her, what kind of God would want women to dress like that?  Muslim woman, who had been sitting in back seat, hurries after her husband (dressed completely in white) and a carful of  kids in skull caps, thinking, how ignorant, these Americans.

Volver

Being in New Mexico is like being no place else.  It's not like being in the Republic of Mexico.  It's nothing like Arizona or Texas.  I like being here, the feel of the state of being.  Tonight I especially like being here after driving across Texas for two days in the aftermath of an unusual ice storm.

Car completely covered in thick sheet of very bumpy ice early on New Year's Day

Dozens of mishaps on the frozen Interstate 20 heading west from Dallas area

Tucked in tight in a big back up, I thought at least we won't starve!

After almost 300 miles at 30 miles an hour, we reached Midland/Odessa oil fields.

This is where George H W Bush brought his young wife and baby boy W to live.

Somehow George HW made it really big here.

It doesn't seem like a very nice place to live.

I've heard it's still a good place to make a lot of money.

Next day, after another snow and ice storm, the sights were better.  In places, it was a winter wonderland.

The best sight of all was good old New Mexico in late afternoon sunshine.