My introduction to the Southwest
My introduction to the Southwest started on a train trips with my Auntie. She had a terrible fear of flying. Once, a flight she was on had to make a crash landing so.... all future trips with her were traveled by train.
The train trips included Florida,Texas and California.
On these train journeys we traveled in the comfort of a private room that had its own toilet, shower and bed ( an upper berth and lower). At night the porter would come in turn the long seating unit into a bunk bed.
There was an additional large comfortable chair that my Auntie would sit at. The room had a large picture window -like a movie screen- with the ever changing view of the country side.
For breaks my brother and I would walk to the dome car. This was a special train car with stairs that went up into indoor covered roof with "sky windows" that were great for panoramic viewing.
These were my first views of the great southwest!
I recall at one stop cowboys & Indians boarded the train!
These train adventures occurred in the late 1950s when movie stars train traveled too. Next to our room lodged the actress Greer Garson & her husband. They were on their way to New Mexico. My Auntie said " say hello to Miss Garson" so I did.
Small world but years later, my husband & I would visit New Mexico & the national monument with land that they had donated for its preservation.
Our southwest trips made an impression on me and my artwork has been influenced by these early travels into the Southwest.
Throughout my life I felt a pull that I had to go and live there.
The Desert was always unconsciously there...Even my childhood dinnerware was the popular Franciscan pattern: "Desert Rose" My auntie even took me to the Franciscan factory in California!!!!
So - when I got married I bought this pattern for my own home and continue to this day to collect vintage pieces!
I thank my Auntie for this!
After years of longing to be in the desert, in 2017 my dream came to a reality when my husband and I moved to the desert.
When I die....My ashes will be scatted to the four directions... near a saguaro.