Mark Andrew Bailey

Because of several of the better galleries have closed recently, we were a little reluctant to venture out in the cold for the monthly Columbus Gallery Hop. Our friends were up for it, so we went along and discovered the work of a gifted artist, Mark Andrew Bailey in a new gallery replacing one that had grown old and a little stale.

Mark seems very impressionistic to me, but with a line that is uncannily photo-accurate. He had two works on exhibit, with a restaurant/kitchen/bar theme, as seems to frequent a lot of his work that is available on-line. I'm looking forward to more from Mark, especially his other themes. Here are a couple of links to his web presence:
http://markandrewbailey.blogspot.com/
http://markandrewbailey.com/home.html

Mesilla, NM

Lynne spied some local salsa in the gift shop area of our RV park. That required me to get out the bike and reconnoiter some suitable chips from the local mercados. That trip took me into the historical town of Mesilla, where the Gadsden Purchase was completed.

I also went past a very interesting looking building which turned out to be an art gallery. This is no ordinary store-front art shop, but a first-rate museum and instructional center -- the Preston Contemporary Art Center. What I found was culture and history on a par with what I expected in Santa Fe or Sedona -- without the cold!



On Friday, we stay over to visit the craft show in Old Mesilla about a mile away from our site. We bike over and walk the square, stopping at every table and store. Indian-style artifacts are in abundance, along with a very aged ambiance. We stop for lunch and split a green chile platter of taco, enchilada, and tamale. Later that evening, the campground puts on a margarita happy hour that totally killed what little appetite remained for dinner.