Escapes WEEKENDER
Tap into your creative side with an artist’s retreat in Santa Fe Think Delight
BY ANNELISE JOLLEY
uring the weeks I spent learning to write in Santa Fe, New Mexico, my afternoons took on a predictable rhythm. Between classes, I’d sit in a courtyard on St. John’s College campus, reading Willa Cather and Cormac McCarthy. I might take a break to run the nearby Atalaya Trail, weaving through sagebrush and piñon pines. More than likely, I’d get caught in a sudden summer rainstorm. Clouds often brooded over the Sangre de Cristo mountains, allegedly named because of the bloody tint they take on in the southwestern sunset. By evening, the thunderhead clouds would retreat and leave the sky scrubbed clean. With a day of lectures and workshops behind us, our cohort of writers would head downtown for smoky margaritas. D
Attending grad school residencies in the nation’s oldest capital convinced me that Santa Fe is an enchanted place— the ideal escape for artists, art appreciators, and anyone even remotely creatively inclined. Sage and wildflowers bloom along winding roads lined with adobe homes. Bundles of drying chile peppers hang from eaves. The city is compact with a highly walkable downtown. Despite its small size, Santa Fe ranks alongside New York and Los Angeles as one of the country’s top art markets. It’s a place where artistic traditions and mediums converge, from Native American painting to Pueblo pottery to contemporary sculpture. In fact, artists of all stripes have long been drawn to Santa Fe. The city’s creative roots reach back much further than its 1610 founding. Early Pueblo tribes crafted pottery and wove baskets and blankets in the area. After the 17th-
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JULY 2023
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