What’s in Ken’s Sketchbook – Postcard from Santa Fe

Ken packed the rental car with his easel and art supplies and headed out into the bright, clear sunshine of the desert around Santa Fe. He saw Pueblos, historic sites and even a battlefield. And he hung out at the Ghost Ranch in Abiquiu (and all I got was a cool T-shirt).In someway, that he had his easel and supplies with him tended toward the miraculous. His luggage did not arrive at the Albuquerque airport with us. TSA probably detained it – all those fancy paints and metal boxes. My bet is that they had a hard time repacking his careful layout of art supplies. But Delta at least got it too him by the following morning and everything seemed mostly in order.One day after he picked me up from a long day in the studio, he showed me a postcard landscape he painted for his mother. He used gouache and watercolor. It was so lovely, I could not bear to just let it take its chance in the mail, so I preserved it in the photo above to share with you.As I look at the image and write this paragraph, I realize I have one more takeaway from going to a workshop in Santa Fe. Every day when Ken and I had dinner, after telling him the minutia of solarplate gravure, he would describe his desert adventures. I admit to having many pangs of jealousy. I would have loved to ramble around in the desert with him, standing in the blown-away footsteps of so many great photographers. So, the next workshop I attend will need to exist in a place of less temptation.On the plus side, I did get a little desert time and on my days off, it was my decision to spend the time in galleries (so don’t go all “Poor L.S.” on me). I’m using a series of images I made to create new monoprints for one of my summer classes. And yes, you guessed it, you’ll hear more about those soon.