September: a time to prepare in Santa Fe

Wednesday, 22 September 2010 10:11

Every year, during the final weeks of September, Santa Fe begins to prepare for winter in many ways. Seems to me, most of what we do has to do with how we feel about summer, and what we face in winter. It can be a fairly emotional time for some. We have our annual Fiesta and the burning of Zozobra, who purports to help us get rid of everything bad that happened during the year so far. People throw in their divorce papers, bad messages and personal writing in order to burn them into oblivion. Zozobra is an ugly guy, a giant puppet fashioned after a similarly barbaric activity in Spain. The tradition was brought to Santa Fe by an artist many years ago, and is not a local native tradition. Be that as it may, the burning of a writhing, screaming, moaning Zozobra is all ours now. My husband and I walked in the Fiesta Parade this year, after many years of sitting it out. We walked in support of a politician; it seemed like the right thing to do. However, my feet will never be the same.

I'm painting every day for the November show. As long as I have ideas (just finished three paintings of Indian girls with face paint and flowers), the work will flow. I'm thinking "horses" now.