NEW MEXICO MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY AND SCIENCE

As I mentioned in my previous post, the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science is just across the street from the Albuquerque Museum (of art and history), and both venues are essentially adjacent to Albuquerque's Old Town district.  The science museum is not huge, but it is extremely well organized, fresh, and consistent with current scientific knowledge.  It includes exhibits that can appeal to all ages.

We had a couple of hours available for our visit before our flight home from New Mexico and focused on those exhibits that traced the history of the universe, the earth, and life since the Big Bang.  We somehow found our way through the exhibits in reverse order chronologically, but it really didn't matter.

Some of the exhibits were aimed more at adults, such as the following regarding theories on the origin of life.

Others address the evidence concerning the earliest known forms of life, from some 3.5 billion years ago.

In addition to well done exhibits concerning the asteroid that led to the devastating extinction event, including the end of the age of dinosaurs, there was also an interesting exhibit on an even bigger extinction event from some 250 million years ago.

New Mexico has been a rich paleontological source, particularly during the age of dinosaurs, and there were plenty of displays of fossils, as well as what appeared to be a working paleontological lab.

There were also aquatic exhibits, both recreated extinct models, as well as living fish.

More recent exhibits included this saber-toothed tiger that I shot in silhouette.

One of the crowd-favorites was a model of an animated dinosaur.  Most of the time the model remained "sleeping," just gently waving its tail.  But the docents could "wake up" the dino, at which point it would make menacing gestures and sounds, much to the delight of younger visitors.

All in all, a great museum.

John

ALBUQUERQUE MUSEUM

The name of the Albuquerque Museum of Art and History was recently changed to simply the Albuquerque Museum.  Its collection and layout, though remain essentially the same.  We revisited the museum earlier this month at the end of our New Mexico getaway.  The museum is not large, but it is excellent.  It sits just to the northeast of the city's Old Town district and is essentially across the street from the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science, which we also visited.

On the history side, the museum sports a number of interesting exhibits, including one on "The Face of the Enemy," juxtaposing information on the unfortunate internment of Japanese Americans in World War II with information on the current treatment of Muslims and Hispanics.  The implications were obvious.

There were also a number of novelty exhibits.  One that I caught was of a small poster showing Lincoln being embraced by Washington.

And another exhibit of photos, apparently of studio portraits that involved a good deal of whimsy.

The art collection is much smaller than Milwaukee's but I liked it, most of which I would classify as modern to contemporary.  Here are some those pieces.

The following sculpture, positioned in an exterior courtyard, was strange but somehow caught my attention.

Following is a shot of another courtyard.

What attrracted me to this was the geometry that the stark light and dark shadows provided.

There was a good deal of sculpture art in other courtyards that surround the museum building.  Here is just one of those pieces.

Not only was the museum interesting and well laid out, but the price of admission was a bargain. A real gem, I thought.

John

SANTA FE SCENES

Santa Fe, if nothing else, has great Southwestern charm, and I thought I would end my posts for our fourth visit to this town with a few shots I took during our strolls around the town.

First, a puzzling doorway on the side of a typical adobe structure.  I assume the painting, both of the door and the surround, has a private meaning.  (Needs work, though.)

There is a colonnade outside a museum of contemporary native American art on the main plaza that presented an interesting opportunity.  The museum was a disappointment, but I did like this walkway.

And here are a couple of signs outside establishments in the town's historical area.

I stumbled on the following cabinet door in a shop filled with such apparently dilapidated wooden furniture.  I couldn't figure out whether the piece was specifically painted to look old and shabby or had simply wound up looking like it does through wear and tear, but I did like the overall effect.

Finally, here is the front facade of a local hotel fashioned in adobe.  I converted the shot to a black & white and darkened sky to accentuate the lines and create a little drama.

John

NEW MEXICO MUSEUM OF ART

During our recent visit to Santa Fe, we didn't get back to the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum, but we did pay a quick visit to the New Mexico Museum of Art.  The museum building is typical Santa Fe adobe and quite handsome.

To be honest, the museum does not have a great art collection, but I did take a few shots, particularly of the sculpture pieces, which are more fun to photograph anyway.  Here are a few of those.

I particularly liked the hands in the above sculpture of a native American woman.

John

LORETTO CHAPEL

The Loretto Chapel is located only a couple of blocks south of Santa Fe's central square, close to the end of the Old Santa Fe Trail.  The small chapel was completed in 1878.  Once again, the morning light for a shot of chapel's front facade was wrong.

Once the chapel was built it was realized that there was no stairway for access to the balcony.  A traditional staircase would have taken up too much space in the small venue.  Apparently, this was not unusual for small chapels, where the balcony was considered decorative only.  The story goes that a mysterious carpenter appeared who built a space-efficient spiral staircase, using only hand tools.  The construction is remarkable, although the carpenter did not include railings, which were added later.  The staircase has some instability issues and guests are not allowed to use it.  In fact, it is roped off so that I could not get a good shot from underneath the spiral.  This was about the best I could do.  Not great.

The chapel's ceiling is overshadowed by the staircase, but is really lovely in its own right.

The sanctuary features a small but lovely crucifix.

There is a small admission charge to see the chapel, and exit is through a gift shop (of course) which features a genuine plethora of religious gifts, including an entire wall of crosses and crucifixes.

John

CATHEDRAL BASILICA OF ST. FRANCIS OF ASSISI

Santa Fe, New Mexico features a beautiful cathedral, the Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi, which was completed in 1887 and is situated at the eastern end of the city's central square.  I couldn't resist photographing the basilica, even though I have shot it on each of the other occasions on which we have visited Santa Fe.  With one possible exception, I don't think I improved on my prior attempts.

First, a ho-hum shot of the basilica's front facade.

The morning light was all wrong for this shot.

Another repeat was of the statue of St. Francis that stands in basilica's front courtyard.  And, yes,, I positioned St. Francis so that his head was centered on the rose window.

There was also a statue of a Native American which was well done but seemed too modern given the architecture of the church.

The brass front doors to the church were quite well done.

Here is a closeup.  I assume each of the panels tells a story.

I didn't keep any shots looking toward the sanctuary from the back of the nave, but I did keep a photo looking back from the sanctuary.

There was an interesting crucifix hanging over the sanctuary.  However, even though I reduced the depth of field as far as I could, the background created a distraction.

I thought the following shot of the side of the nave worked well.

But my best shot, I think, was of the rose window.

John