Georgia On My Mind

Yesterday was the celebration of the 10th anniversary of the opening of the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum here in Santa Fe. I had the privilege of attending the private opening 10 years ago and it seems like only yesterday. Today the museum is one of the top tourist attractions in New Mexico and is visited by people from all over the world. The museum now owns 1,149 of O'Keeffe's works and regardless of the exhibitions on display, it always has a representative group of her paintings hanging.

The museum has become much more than a magnet for O'Keeffe fans. Acquisitions of her homes at Ghost Ranch and Abuquiu, her art collection, libraries, papers and personal property have made the museum a one-stop scholarship spot for academics studying the artist and her work.
To celebrate this occasion there was a big birthday party held on the Plaza with entertainment all day long, birthday cakes, cookies, free admission to the museum .... it was a very big and well attended event. They anticipated around 3,000 people to pass through the Museum before the day was over.

We had a real treat in store and didn't even know about it. Manzanares, one of our favorite Latin-American jazz bands played on the Plaza, so we got to listen to them for a couple of hours. This group is from Abuquiu, so the agreed to play at this special celebration. The lead guitar and singer looks like Johnny Depp, so that always makes the group very special :-)

When we left there we went to Maria's for a Margarita and lunch. That's the place where Frank held my surprise dinner party when I celebrated my 70th birthday last year. Lots of good times and memories there. It's a little like Joe T. Garcias's for memories and special times for me on a much smaller scale.

We had dinner at Jinja last night with some good friends from here, Chuck and Linda Evans/Gratz. We attended their wedding here in Santa Fe many years ago and have remained good friends. She is an artist and we really enjoy their company. We had a great time catching up on old times.

I'd better get ready for church. Like Betty, one of my CbC friends has asked, "Do you blog before breakfast" and today my answer is yes! Have a great Sunday and there will be more to come. Tonight is Vanessi's and the Opera singers. Bonnie is coming from Albuquerque to go with us. Can't wait. A good time will be had by all.

Pcasso