May 5, 2023

Corny Agricultural Quirk or Crop Art? The Corn Palace, Mitchell, South Dakota

 Why shouldn’t things be largely absurd, futile, and transitory?
They are so, and we are so, and they and we go very well together.

George Santayana

2022’s Theme – Under The Big Top
South Dakota prairie’s folk-art wonder

Asked for their impressions as they leave The World’s Only Corn Palace it isn’t uncommon to hear ‘It’s just a gym with corn on it’ from one visitor to ‘It’s the most incredible thing I’ve ever seen’ from the next.  Such is life for the so-called ‘world’s largest bird feeder’, which is derided as ‘corny’ by some, great ‘exp-ear-ience’ or hailed as ‘a-maize-ing corn-ceptual ear-chitecture’ by others. 

But enough with the bad puns – let’s start with its history.

Mar 17, 2023

Rugged Desolate Beauty, Badlands National Park, South Dakota

 The effort of the imagination is to turn the boundary into a horizon.
The boundary says, ‘Here and no further.’
The horizon says, ‘Welcome.’

Barry Lopez

Ochres, pinks, greys, violets, and whites sprinkled with sparse greenish life,
the unpolished colors of the Badlands

Some describe it as surreal, otherworldly, even eerie.  The Lakota Indians called it ‘Mako Sica’ or ‘land bad’, because its rocky terrain, lack of water and extreme temperatures made it tough to safely pass through. Early French trappers called the area ‘Les mauvaises terres à traverser’.  Both essentially meaning ‘bad land(s) to cross’.  For centuries humans have viewed the Badlands with a mix of fascination attenuated by dismay. 

Nov 19, 2022

An Artist’s Extended Love Affair, Mundos de Mestizaje

 Some cause happiness wherever they go;
Others, whenever they go.

Oscar Wilde

Mundos de Mestizaje
One could spend days looking at this fresco
Here, you can admire a quarter of its full adobe canvas

New Mexico is home to very deep, rich cultures, especially those of its Hispanic and Native American citizens. The magnificent fresco, Mundos de Mestizaje, created at the National Hispanic Cultural Center (NHCC), in Albuquerque, depicts these remarkable, closely intertwined, cultures and their long history.

Jun 19, 2022

King of Colors, Color of Kings, Traded for the Color Blue

 Science is how we solve problems.

Art is how we cope with them.

David Zinn

Rogue Cop, Angel Indigo, Little Jaguar,
Rolling Calf, Indigo Trinidad, Indigo King (L to R)
Wearable costumes in several shades of indigo
Part of Intervention Indigo
by Laura Anderson Barbata, 2015 & 2020

Lacking the chances to tour abroad smoothly or safely (due to unforeseen or sudden covid changes or restrictions), I choose to ‘travel’ more locally via events or exhibitions.  Journeying through time and places, history and knowledge, art and culture.  Great opportunities to continue questioning my own world understanding, as well as remaining in awe of people’s creativity and innovations. 

Dec 24, 2021

To a Delightful 2022!

“We all get the exact same 365 days.

The only difference is what we do with them.”

Hillary DePiano


 “Life’s not about expecting, hoping and wishing,

it’s about doing, being and becoming.”

Mike Dooley