Taosenos Wait and Wait and Wait

Taosenos have little to do but talk about mitote today. Although Taos Ski Valley hasn’t reported its final ticket tally yet, earlier predictions by expert observers suggest skier days will total 220,000, down about 10% from last year due to poor snow conditions.

In downtown Taos, even as new cantinas open or are proposed, the art gallery business continues to shrink. El Camino, a new cantina, has opened in the Cantu building on Taos Plaza. A brewpub has been proposed for the old Eclectic space, across from the U.S. P.O in Uptown Taos. A five thousand square foot Quonset hut has emerged as the eventual home to a brew and rave pub out behind Waste Management on Highway 64 West. We hear Hotel La Fonda is looking for a bistro operator.

But, like the art business,  the post office, due to home delivery and Internet sales or competition from UPS and Fed Ex, is a shadow of its former self. The crowds are gone, the talk diminished.

Reasons vary for the decline in art sales: Decline of middle and upper middle class interest in the visual arts, a decline in disposable income, an aging population, the generally poor economy. There’s an absence of high quality or exciting art being exhibited in public galleries. The new show at the Harwood “NEW MEXORADO: ARTISTS LIVING & WORKING IN THE ALBUQUERQUE-DENVER CORRIDOR” seems as if it was curated by a public relations team instead of a critic.

Parks Gallery owner, i.e. Steve, noted that four galleries have closed on Bent St. He moved from Bent St. to a new location, next to Michael McCormick’s, a short distance north of World Cup on the main road. He represents just two artists—Jim Wagner and Melissa Zink—and has cut back square footage by 60% and overhead by 50%. The new intimate space affords the viewer a different way to look at Zink’s rather weighty ruminations on the historical tradition. Zink figures contrast nicely with Wagner’s more whimsical paintings of this enchanting region. Where Zinkian images tickle the synapses, Wagner’s work (and life) make one giggle silently to oneself. He’s the quintessential Taos artist.

Internecine rivalry, political attacks and counter-attacks between elected officials and activists, whether in the town or at the Coop and Taos Municipal Schools contribute to an atmosphere of uncertainty. The decline in the economy allows folk to focus more on political mitote than on taking imaginative action. Solutions are in short supply.

But there are optimistic inklings and a few hopeful innuendos riding on the tails of these dust-laden devil winds this spring. Construction teams are completing the fabulous new courthouse—a facility being paid for by revenue from (ironically) gross receipts taxes. The new soccer field is about to make its debut. Attendance has increased at the UNM Branch and UNM Upper Division and Graduate Programs here in Taos.

The numerous vendors at the Rio Grande Gorge Bridge seem curiously busy. Perhaps, like the Parks Gallery above, the vendors are capitalizing on the “less is more” strategy.

The price of gas makes one gag. Northrup needs to get out his sign and work some magic. Neither the PRC, nor the courts, nor another election will fix the quality of life in El Norte. Joseph the Starwatcher can offer commentary but not an antidote to the disease of disagreeableness. Any number of politicos seem eager to replace the cantankerous one in the headlines.

Nature and culture apparently abhor a vacuum.

As Les Francaise might say, existential ennui and la malaise seem in ascendance. Like those famous players, Vladimir and Estragon, we are all “Waiting for Godot.” Neither Beckett’s heroes, above, nor Barack Obama, who has announced he’s running for president, will save us from our selves. Taos needs to reinvent itself but not at any cost. By doing less, we may do more. It may be time for a long nap. Wake me up next summer, Pozo.