A WOMAN OF COLOR "I paint in color. I live in color. I breathe in color."
A WOMAN OF COLOR "I paint in color. I live in color. I breathe in color."
I made a turn off of Highway 84 through an archway reading “Ghost Ranch”. Driving down the dirt road, the landscape enveloped me, colors dazzled me, and the quiet peacefulness overwhelmed me. There was a girl on a ladder picking apples from the trees just past the welcome center. She offered me one and I came away with my white sweater full of little sweet apples that turned into the best apple cobbler I have ever made. She never told me her name but casually said to me, “they have jobs here.” I tucked this information into the back of my head and continued with my day. Returning to New Jersey, I began to correspond with Debbie Manzanares about the possibilities of a position at the ranch. I was taking care of my mother. She was terminally ill and my life revolved around her care. As an artist and writer the visions of Ghost Ranch were ever present in my mind. Many people visit this area to learn about Georgia O’Keeffe, when I came here it was the mountains that drew me. Somehow I just knew I needed to spend some time here. In January of 2010 I returned to the ranch to talk about a volunteer position and went to the top of the Pack Memorial Trail. I had begun learning all I could about the history of the ranch. Returning home after meeting with Debbie Manzanares and Marla Ulibarri I felt more of a connection than I thought possible to Ghost Ranch, but whether or not I was to return was in God’s hands. My mother passed a few weeks after my second visit to the ranch. She made her transition from this life as I sat with my head on her chest holding her still warm hand. Seven minutes later my cell phone rang, it was Ghost Ranch on the other end of the phone offering me a the opportunity to reside here.
My aesthetic is “abstractly real” So what is that exactly… art is most usually described as abstract or real, but I submist there is a very thin line between the abstract and the real and it is in that somewhat demilatrized zone of existence I am most comforatable. The eyes which I view the world are mine and mine alone. No one can see what I see or what you see. That vision is uniquely personal. Everyday I walk my little dog through the wooded area behind my house. In every square inch of earth there resides a beautiful abstract painting, however this is nature and nature is realism at its most essential. It has a concrete existence, definate color and texture. The square inch exists essentially on its own. Each work I produce exists in its own private space. I seek to draw the viewer into a world needing no explaination, just feeling, A feeling between the viewer and the image.
Highland Studio
Lilian Thomas Burwell and Betty Murchison Highland