New Mexico Has The Best Skies
Hand-painted raku tile, 6.5" x 7" image
New Mexico might rank among the poorest states and the bottom of the national barrel for related indicators such as teen pregnancy, high school drop-out rates, and average household income… but we’ve got great skies. Dramatic, expansive, 365° beautiful skies. One sky often has 15 different displays of color, texture, light, shapes–something you just don’t see everywhere. While living at various times in other parts of the country and world, I think it was the New Mexico skies that I missed the most (green chile was a close second, followed by my family).
[Sept 14 4pm, west view]
(Sept 14 4pm, east view)
I’ve sold paintings of New Mexico skies for the past 13 years, and I’m telling you: more than anything, people love clouds. I once talked to a fellow artist who said he made his living in Santa Fe for 10 years drawing and painting nothing but clouds. No landscapes, no clever content, just skies with clouds. I’m not sure what it is, but clouds seem to inspire people in a special way. There are cloud clubs, Flickr Groups, and even a Cloud Appreciation Society who offer interesting ideas in their manifesto:
…We think that they are Nature’s poetry, and the most egalitarian of her displays, since everyone can have a fantastic view of them…
Clouds are so commonplace that their beauty is often overlooked. They are for dreamers and their contemplation benefits the soul. Indeed, all who consider the shapes they see in them will save on psychoanalysis bills…
Small raku tile, 3.5" x 25."
Finally, monsoon season has come to New Mexico, bringing us closer to our 6″ average annual rainfall. These are my attempts to pin down a bit of the beauty in photos (phone cameras are so handy!) and raku tiles, soon to be listed in my Etsy store and available at Mariposa Gallery in Albuquerque.
Large raku tile, 9.25" x 6.25" image size
Small raku tile, 3.58" x 3"
Hand-painted raku tile, 6" x 9.5" image size
Live Clay 
I could not agree with you more. I miss those dramatic skies. I just found your blog and it has brightened my day. I love reading what you write, now I can have more of it. I may be slow to discover stuff, but this treasure will be on my ipad weekly. You are truly one of my favorite writers.
Hi Ginger, so nice to see you here! And wow, you’ve just made my day! I am truly humbled and grateful that you appreciate my writing and will look forward to it each week. It means so much to me that other people value what I put time and effort into–weather ceramics, writing, or the work with Haiti. I feel so lucky. 🙂