Beauty, Beauty and More Beauty


Randall LaGro is an artist, part of the large art community in Taos and the rest of New Mexico. He has found success in the art world for his paintings and monotypes. He is also a man of deep faith who works hard to remain open to God’s leading in his life. He is a family friend of one of our passengers, and he generously invited us to visit his incredible studio today.
His studio was once the studio of artist Joseph Sharp, who was one of the founding members of the Taos Society of Artists in the early 1900s. Sharp built the studio in 1915, and it is on the National Historic Register. It’s an incredible space all by itself, but Randy’s art makes it even more fascinating. 
Randy had watercolor supplies laid out for the girls, and they set to work creating some art. Meanwhile I watched them and did my best to carry on an intelligent conversation about art when I know so precious little about it! He was gracious about answering my questions and giving suggestions and inspiration to the girls as they worked. His life story is one of learning to listen and wait for the Lord, something I’ve never been so great at.
I was interested in a couple of pieces of his art, and debated asking if they were sale, but I felt uncertain about the whole thing and wasn’t really sure if his work was in my price range or not. Turns out I made the right move, because when I looked online at some galleries, they were listed anywhere from $4,000 to around $15,000! Definitely not in my price range.
When we finished, we stopped for lunch at the Taos Diner, where our food was good and our servers were as fully tattooed as the rest of young Taos. Honestly, I’m starting to feel a little naked without any ink.
After lunch we drove the short distance to the Millicent Rogers Museum. Millicent Rogers was a wealthy, fashionable heiress to Standard Oil, and in her 50 years she pursued both fashion and education. She ended up moving to Taos after breaking up with Clark Gable in 1947. She amassed an enormous collection of Native American jewelry, weavings, and pottery, and the Millicent Rogers Museum was started in 1956 by her family after her death. We didn’t spend a lot of time there, but it’s a great sampling of beautiful handcrafts and artwork.
We couldn’t spend much time there because we still wanted to get a hike in before it got dark. Google maps couldn’t find the Italianos Trail in the Taos Ski Valley that we were searching for, so I had some approximate directions from online commentators. After a few false stops we finally found it. We hiked up the gravel entrance road and started down, or rather up, the trail. After just a few minutes we found ourselves on a very narrow path with logs down over it, and it eventually turned into a hill-hugging ledge of rocks that lead to a very unkempt path.

We had passed another trailhead earlier that we thought was the Italianos trail, but wasn’t. Driving back to that trailhead we started over. This was the trail we had actually been looking for, but it had a different name, one I can’t tell you because I forgot to look at the sign as we were leaving. The trail crosses back and forth over streams through a forest much more lush than I had ever expected in this area. With all the sagebrush and dusty roads and dry air, I expected the hiking trail to be the same. We worked our way up to a clearing with aspens, took a break, and then headed back down. Most of the girls ran down the trail for the first part, leaving my aging self to pick my way through the rocks and streams. Considering I’ve had two hip surgeries in the last year, and that before them I could barely walk down the street, I figure I’m doing pretty well, but it’s still a work in progress! 
Tonight we’re taking it easy and starting up the packing process again so that we can drive across New Mexico tomorrow. We had some mac & cheese for dinner, and we watched a deer munch on the vegetation outside our back door as we ate. With our windows open we can hear the occasional horse whinnying, or donkey braying. We’ve seen a coyote several times as we’ve driven past an open field near our place. It’s hard to imagine that we haven’t seen all the beauty the state has to offer, but I expect we’ll see a different side of it for the second half of the week.

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