The Boxed Set

Rush Creek Gallery near Santa Fe's historic plaza is launching a groundbreaking Boxed Set only format. In offering boxed portfolios of as many as 25 visual artists owner and photographer Steve Zeifman is changing the way that photographic images are displayed and sold. Aimed at the educated collector Rush Creek offers a new way to see and buy fine photography. To learn more log on to www.rushcreekeditions.com.

Martinez Hacienda

Two properties make up Taos Historic Museums. They are the Martinez de Los Martinez shown here and the Ernest Blumenschein house. Best known is the sprawling Martinez Hacienda built by legendary Padre Martinez in the early 1800s. The hacienda is a living history museum that surrounds a courtyard and houses a weaving studio where practitioners of northern New Mexico wool arts ply their craft. Signed photographs of each property as well as other Taos icons are available for sale at the Hacienda and Blumenschein House.

Winter Light

Just after Christmas we received the first of several dumps of snow. I dashed toward my favorite repository of dead pick-up trucks to score this wintery scene. The blue light conveys the damp chill in the northern New Mexico air.

Ablaze with Light

If the holiday season was launched with the lighting of Ledoux Street in early December, it's culmination was the Christmas Eve extravaganza of farolitos in Velarde. For two miles leading north into the northern New Mexico village more than 2000 paper bags filled with sand and a glowing votive candle line Highway 68. Based on Las Posadas, the hispanic celebration of Mary and Joseph's search for lodging and a place for Jesus' birth, the families of Velarde have been lighting the roadway for almost thirty years.

Lighting Ledoux

The Christmas season starts in earnest with the lighting of scores of farolitos along Ledoux Street in Taos. Ledoux, one of the town's premiere gallery and museum venues is aglow with the warming light of countless paper bags filled with sand and single votive candles carefully placed to symbolize lighting the way for Mary and Joseph in their search for lodging in the days leading to the Christ Child's birth. Indeed, the ritual is known as "Las Posadas" which means literally "The Inns."