Deep Fears

We had just finished watching our shows when we decided to check the news. The headline flashed across the screen. 

War. Russia had invaded Ukraine. 

A chill raced down my spine.

Suddenly I was 12 years old, running to the front door of our house where my youngest sister was standing, tears running down her cheeks.

"We're at war," she sobbed. "We're at war with Russia."

I was stunned. Her words echoed my worst nightmares. I lived in fear of Atomic weapons. I had read books and seen photographs of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. I studied the ranges of the missiles of the day and stared at maps plotting the distance from Cuba to Atlanta.

At school we practiced duck and cover. We knew our emergency plans. Rendevous points where I would gather my sisters. We even practiced walking home together, taking the most direct route which meant following the railroad tracks, not the streets. Walking home to a place that I knew could not protect us from the nuclear fallout.

Those were the thoughts. Then there were the dreams. The nuclear nightmares. 

The sixty intervening years dissolved in a flash.

First Pots

 We bought our first pot in Taos forty years ago, an etched seed pot by Raymond Tafoya. Thirty years ago we met Sandra Victorino at a fair in Dallas. We were amazed at the way she painted. Susan found an old Hopi pot in Fredericksburg and then we were hooked, buying as we could on our annual vacation. When our son moved to Santa Fe frequency of our visits increased and so did our collecting. We were fortunate to inherit some nice pieces and researching their provenance kicked our collecting chops up a notch. We began to focus on older pieces and pieces with linkage to the great Matriarchs. Our knowledge deepened during the pandemic as we spent hours online with MarvinLee Martinez, Dee Setalla, Dominique Tafoya and especially Franklin Peters as they livestreamed. And we significantly expanded our collection. So our tastes which started in Santa Clara and San Ildefonso, are now focused on Acoma and Hopi. We love new pots with a nod to traditional designs and we love older pieces because 'old pots got a lotta soul.'