murals

Everyday Art in Everyday China

2026, art, China, , , , , , , , , , , , , View all 12 comments
Sheaves of grain along a village wall

My month in China was one beautiful scene after another. The natural environment is gorgeous and so is the formal art — paintings, architecture, sculpture. But even more, I loved the art of everyday things in China — the art you don’t find in museums — like the ways shopkeepers display their goods or design that is incorporated into packaging or how people tell stories in ways that are accessible to everyone. These small ways people express their love for what they are selling or a little part of their environment are gifts to the rest of us.

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Lavapies, Madrid

2022, art, Spain, , , View all 3 comments

On Friday, I went on a walking tour to see the murals in the neighborhood of Lavapies with Mimi and Gerardo, both artists themselves. I loved the mural behind them for its playfulness. You can see the reference to Matisse’s dancers in the top mural. Below, the mural is taking a poke at itself: the word “Spectaculum” means a place of entertainment and refers to the way street art can gentrify a neighborhood. So far, Lavapies retains its international not-gentrified character, and is full of immigrants from all over the world with a very strong sense of community.

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The Mother Road to Tucumcari

2021, New Mexico, United States, , , , , , , , View all 8 comments

India’s most holy river is called “Mother Ganga.” America’s most holy highway is called “The Mother Road.” Route 66 is the highway equivalent of Old Glory and the American equivalent of the Silk Road. Between 1926 and 1985, it linked Chicago and Santa Monica for vacationers and every kind of itinerant during a period of westward migration. It’s been a symbol of American freedom and hope in some of our best literature, like Jack Kerouac’s On the Road and John Steinbeck’s Grapes of Wrath.  

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How I Learned to Love Albuquerque

2021, art, New Mexico, United States, , , , , View all 24 comments

At first, I wasn’t crazy about Albuquerque. Miles and miles of strip malls, empty lots, parks with highway roar. Although the city’s Old Town is atmospheric, most of the stores sell junk, and the Old Town’s “best” café served me a greasy chili rellano with a side of canned spinach. Wasn’t canned spinach banned in 1959?

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Navajo Nation

2021, Arizona, United States, Utah, , , , , , , , , View all 17 comments

I left Arizona on Sunday, half-safe after my first Covid shot, and headed east to Monument Valley in Southern Utah. If you haven’t been to Monument Valley, you’ve probably seen it in films. It was first featured in “Stagecoach,” 1939, with John Wayne. Since then, the Valley’s spectacular sandstone formations have been the setting for more than a dozen classics, including “Thelma and Louise” and “Forest Gump.”

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