For the last 20 years or so I’ve made an annual pilgrimage to my favorite old casa ruins.
They are located in a small mining town high on the Sierra de la Laguna Mountains.
Every passing season I have witness the erosion and decay of these beauties. I will not be surprised but sad when they fall to the elements…..and they will. To me they
represent the history and character of the region and I cannot leave them alone. The old Hacienda American Spanish style is simple yet elegant featuring arched doorways and thick walls topped with great crown moldings. The weathered adobe plaster walls become etched in beautiful textures like some ancient hieroglyphic language and the exposed red bricks are the bones beaten by the winds of time. The structures speak of strength, hope and character of the souls that worked this land. ‘If the buildings could talk’ but then again they do in a non-verbal way, they would invite us to give them meaning. Like all visual experiences when you get beyond the obvious, there is an underlying story, a life. The subject as metaphor… a springboard for the imagination, a gate way into the unseen world where all things abide. It must be true for thinking and seeing mechanically would be…well, boring at the very least. I would have no where to go in my mind’s eye if it were just bricks and mortar. My favorite old hacienda would be just another piece of junk for a D-9 to clear from the face of the earth. I suppose this is why I paint and return to paint the old buildings. They remind myself that the real stuff in life is right under our noses. It is up to us to give it life.
Below are some photos and paintings from San Antonio and El Trunfo and my beloved old Haciendas…
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