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Monday, July 30th, 2007

Still Life With Desert, Crucifix, Tower, Guillotine

Driving north, back from Taos I pulled the truck over, just north of the New Mexico-Colorado border. I needed to go for a run. It was one of those days that didn't know if it wanted to sun or rain... you could call it indecisive. Or "open to suggestion".

There was a small lake by the dirt road where I parked. I got out, put on my running shoes and started running around the lake, headed west. Within 10 minutes, I was running down a remote dirt farm road, surrounded by sage and scrub and sky and dirt. The mountains surrounded me on all sides, waiting, off in the distance.

At a bend in the dirt road, I turned around to look for a landmark that would lead me back to my truck on the return trip... I found it in the form of a red and white radio tower off in the distance. It reminded me of an old friend who loves towers, perhaps even was a tower in another life, and it made me smile.

About 2 miles in, my dirt road turned into a path and took me beside an irrigation ditch with a large iron flood gate. On top of the gate was a large screw device used for opening and closing the gate... As I approached, it appeared as a crucifix mounted atop a guillotine... silhouetted against the sky. Out in the middle of the high desert, a crucifx, a guillotine, a man and a radio tower -- juxtaposed for comparison, for consideration.

If felt obvious to me that I was an object in a much, much larger painting... "Still Life With Desert, Crucifix, Tower, Guillotine". Or bit player in a very old and slow moving play. It was one of the most beautiful things I've seen or done in a long, long time.

Posted By John Common at: 12:07 am

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Monday, July 30th, 2007

Still Life With Desert, Crucifix, Tower, Guillotine

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