Guess I had better get on with the telling of this event, before I forget what we did.
On Tues, Sept. 25, many of us met at a property owned by a local resident - high in the Wet Mtns that overlook Westcliffe/Silver Cliff. The resident is a caretaker of the Nuche Forest and Wildlife Reserve. In attendance was Ute tribe member - Roland McCook. Chief Ouray and his second wife Chipeta are his great great grandparents. He was present to bless the land in full ceremonial dress. All of us participated in his direction of blessing the area and giving prayer to the Creator. As an addition, the landowner asked forgiveness for the atrocities and genocide committed on the Ute Nation. It moved me to tears. It was a beautiful, sunlit morning - it seemed the animals were in agreement with the event as evidenced by their presence, as well.
Afterwords, Roland posed for us - many painted him, I drew him.
As I said, it was a lovely morning, I wanted to take it all in. He sat and talked about
growing up, his memories and the Ute people.
Amazing, to say the least.
Here are a couple of photos I took and the drawings I made in my sketchbook.
Yes, I will paint him later.
After we had a wonderful lunch provided by the landowner, I went home...inspired and
ready to paint the next day.
This particular day will live in my mind for a very long time.
It was one of those amazing ONCE in a lifetime events.
ADDENDUM - How could I forget - there were many activities planned
for us in the evening, and on this evening we were invited to the Greenstone Gallery
in town for 'Bohemian Night' - popcorn, BYOB and chair and watch the movie
"Loving Vincent" - which I had seen twice, but loved it so much, a third time
was welcomed!
2 comments:
Your last two sentences pretty much say it all, Pattie.
Thank you for sharing such a lovely, personal experience.
Thanks for stopping by Chris - as artists there are lots of experiences to be had.
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