It's a quiet, astonishing, ancient, and wild place. Still. As in, nothing really moves here other than the sky and shadows. Also still in the way that, despite its many attractions to the outside world, it remains almost frozen in place. From this earth come the bones of dinosaurs. From its cliffs, artistic inspiration. It's easy to see why Georgia O'Keeffe was so attracted to this wild land. Her 1940 purchase of Rancho de los Burros was purposeful, but naive. For in this par

Photo by Danielle Shull I have been traveling like a fat little bee lately, touching down to find my creative spirit pollinated by the sweet beauty of Portugal, Spain, Washington State's San Juan Islands, Zihuatanejo and Mexico City. But back home in New Mexico, I am constantly confronted by the beauty in my "backyard." From the glimmering Aspen-topped Sangre de Christo mountains to the glowing red rock of Ghost Ranch, there are places that speak to me; places with "aina", as

You know those experiences that are so surreal, you're not quite sure if they really happened or not? This was one of those. I finally went to the Abiquiu house. I can understand now why thousands of people tour it every year. There's just something about this place. It's like the sky above it is different. And the land around it is different. And the energy in it is different. Everything about it is different than other houses. But I can't say exactly what, or why. The Georg

This morning I took my first steps into the house Maria built for Georgia. Trying to tidy my unwashed hair, I untangled a small chaff of wheat. A dry reminder of my mowing activities of the previous few days. As I let it go with the wind, I was struck by the connection between the house I was standing in front of and the one I left just yesterday -- a little farmhouse cottage in Walla Walla. For Maria, the home and studio atop the hill in Abiquiu was a labor of love for some

Maria Chabot in Mexico, 1933. Courtesy of the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum Research Center In March of 2017 I moved from Walla Walla, WA to Santa Fe, NM to continue researching the life of a slightly distant relative of mine who has fascinated me since my teenage years. My relative's name is Maria Chabot. In the beginning, all I knew was that she was my Great Grandmother Edith's sister and that our family had very few stories about her. I knew that she was instrumental in founding