January 17th: Santa Fe -Part 1

Saturday mornning, January 17th Diana, Roger, John and I took off for a visit to Sante Fe,New Mexico.  Starting with a tour of Old Town Santa Fe and the Loretto Chapel with its' absolutely beautiful architecture and amazing staircase.

The Loretto Chapel in Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA is a former Roman Catholic church that is now used as a museum and wedding chapel. It is known for its unusual helix-shaped spiral staircase (the "Miraculous Stair"), the name and origin of the builder has still not been verified. The Sisters of Loretto credit St. Joseph with its construction. It has been the subject of legend and rumor, and the circumstances surrounding its construction and its builder are considered miraculous by the Sisters of Loretto and many visitors.

The resulting staircase is an impressive work of carpentry. It ascends twenty feet, making two complete revolutions up to the choir loft without the use of nails or apparent center support. It has been surmised that the central spiral of the staircase is narrow enough to serve as a central beam. Nonetheless there was no attachment unto any wall or pole in the original stairway, although in 1887 -- 10 years after it was built -- a railing was added and the outer spiral was fastened to an adjacent pillar.^[3] Instead of metal nails, the staircase was constructed using dowels or wooden pegs.  The staircase has 33 steps, this is the same age of Jesus Christ. The risers of the 33 steps are all of the same height. Made of an apparently extinct wood species, it was constructed with only square wooden pegs without glue or nails. It makes over two complete 360-degree turns, stands 20’ tall and has no center support.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loretto_Chapel

After visiting the Loretto Chapel, we had lunch at a wonderful restaurant and toured the rest of Santa Fe including the Outdoor market, Sorrell Sky Gallery which is owned by Senator Ben Nighthorse Campbell's daugher and we saw the senators beautiful jewelry is on display. We also visited the Sugarman-Peterson Gallery.  Then, we continued on to the Georga O'keefe Gallery!( See the next blog)  What a day!

Mural at the Restaurant

Another Art Piece at the Restaurant

Gentleman on a bench at the park.
 Diana says he is there everyday. 

John and Roger 

"Life out of Balance
 2014"

El Palacio Real

Senator Campbells daughters Store

Senator Campbells' beautiful jewelry

Michael Sugarman

I was thrilled to visit the Sugarman-Peterson Gallery.  I had not seen Michael for over 15 years, not since the last JCK Jewelry Show in NYC that I attended in July of 1999.  He looks wonderful and his gallery was fabulous!  We are standing in front of one of my favorite paintings he has for sale in the gallery. Check out his website to see
his beautiful jewelry.
http://sugarmanpetersongallery.com/painters.php?artist=74