Signed American Oil O/C Landscape Painting RoadREMEMBERING A WESTERN WHITEOUT WILDERNESS ON NM 53 - ALONE

Signed American Oil O/C Landscape Painting Road  

This has the makings of another 'when I was younger and fearless' account, made more poignant now that I am often afraid of my own shadow.

It is said that during his second European visit Marsden Hartley lamented, 'the farther away I travel from the New Mexico mountains the more they elude me...' or something along that vein.  This before he handily captured Dogtown Cape Ann depictions on numerous canvases without being tormented so.  Was this because this neck of the woods up East is less challenging to paint than that vastness out West?

Would that this had been the scene as in this painting when I found myself driving alone on NM 53 at or near 35* 2' N 108* 21' W, during a most treacherous, white knuckle drive that November night so long ago.

That devilish drive comes to mind on this November night without a single snowflake in sight here in New England, as New Mexico just got walloped with wild whiteout conditions that can occur as early as October and as late as May.  The images conjure up as if it were just yesterday.  

Starting out in the area where Billy the Kid is rumored to have died in hiding of old age, what should have been a 50 minute drive to Grants, turned into a 5 hour drive.  There were no villages nor towns along the way.  White all around me... nothing... nothing else... but darkness against all that maddening white.  Not a single street nor road light to break the dark night.  There on NM 53, visibility came to a screeching halt at hood's end, as the enormous fluffy snowflake clusters raced horizontally across into the windshield, mesmerizing me into an almost spellbound trance while I struggled to keep my wits about me and my car on that narrow desolate often windy road.

Panic was present and my temples pulsed knowing that the nearest telephone was 20 miles away.  No cell phone at my side.  Although a family member owned a Motorola mobile ala Miami Vice, I had to wait until the 80s to own my first mobile phone.  That night, there were no radio waves way out there in the darkness to keep me company.  

I was alone.

In my car was a camera loaded with what would be pictures of the Southeastern quadrant of the Northwestern quadrant of New Mexico.  Pictures that were meant to assist in what were to be hopefully, future paintings depicting the magnificent mountains of New Mexico.

The fastest speed possible was 10 - 15 MPH, slipping this way and that as I stared ahead whispering, 'five more miles... five more miles... five more miles'... knowing full well that it was more like 40 miles which included crossing the Continental Divide and attempting the wild curvy road up ahead around the Bandera Crater and Ice Caves.  Yes... that part of the road that many named...Dead Man's Curve.  Indeed it seemed so, especially that night in such a powerful snowstorm!

Not another single soul in sight the entire time.  I was alone.

Approaching and inching my way on Dead Man's Curve around the Ice Caves, I glanced nervously to the left of the road at the invisible nearby stretch of Zuni Mountains where Mike Todd crashed his plane, The Lucky Liz,  just over two decades before.  No consolation there.  I was determined to keep the car on the road.  I was not going to die there alone.  I was going to paint New Mexico someday.  Nov 28, 2013

GEMSTONES BANDERA CRATER & ICE CAVES:  

Simply said most gemstones, precious and otherwise, are formed deep in the ground by extreme heat and pressure, yet often found on the surface after being expelled by volcanic forces or natural disruptions.  At the Bandera Crater and Ice Caves area, kids of all ages may just find amethysts, emeralds (while some red beryl in at least two mountain areas in the state), sapphires, topaz, obsidian, fossils and other natural stones to delight rockhounds of all ages.  Nowadays, bags of sand can be purchased so that kids can do some sluicing and just maybe bring a gem home to mom.

New Mexico, with its numerous ancient volcanic activity areas, can provide the rockhound plenty of opportunities to find gemstones of all types and colors to delight the jewelry collector in all of us.  

If hiking and a little spelunking makes the perfect holiday, then the area mentioned here could be just the ticket.  There have been some tourist friendly improvements made since my last visit, when all this non-outdoorsy girl could manage was a quick visit to the minty green cool ice cave and crater area, during a perfect summer day and not during the harrowing drive mentioned above!   December 1, 2013

All images design concept content text are original and solely owned by Mimi Dee and many not be reproduced in any form.  Dec 1, 2013

EXHIBITION HISTORY:  This original oil painting titled Road Out West and another oil titled Out West II  were shown at the Reading Art Association 2014 Spring Art Exhibit and can now be viewed by going to www.mimideeartwear.com and searching #: 1183868.