In 1991, after I packed my youngest off to college, I rented out our little Philly rowhouse and took a train to Albuquerque in northern New Mexico. I brought a suitcase and a portfolio, and everyone thought I’d be back in 6 months. As it turned out, I stayed for 21 years. I bought a place in the country near Santa Fe in the village of Glorieta, at the foot of the mesa. I loved it there very much.
Life brought me back to Philadelphia in 2013 and I’ve been making paintings about the rural southwest a lot. About how it felt to live on a wonderfully dusty dirt road among mountains, mesas, canyons and the big sky, with only narrow ribbons of asphalt connecting a few small cities. This piece is about the deep snow at 7500’ and the P.O. - the only event in Glorieta - where Postmaster R. Wilson, one of the greats, made it such a pleasure in atmosphere and conversation when picking up one’s mail.
It’s a work on primed Arches paper, 58”Hx42”W in acrylic, pencil, and oil. I like this painting because it is simple and to the point, borderline naive/innocent, which is how it felt to live in the wildness.
-Barbara Mayfield, Norristown 2022