Rio Rancho Art Association Members,

If you are interested in finding new material for your art, I did a trip to Quemado that was very interesting. It was organized and guided by Ranger Jen and is offered every second Sunday of each month. I found it through meetup.com Arts-New-Mexico. (Check out meetup.com online- there are many groups that you might be interested in as well as this one) You meet up at the Ranger Station 9 miles west of I-40, (the Quemado exit off I-40), Highway 117, at 9:00 and Ranger Jen caravans us to various sites around the Grants area and the Quemado National Conservation Area. It doesn’t involve a lot of real strenuous hiking to get to the sites, most are very close to parking and there are facilities as well, but does offer you an awful lot of great vistas and close-ups. The guided part of the tour only lasts 3 hours (way too short!), but the group may stay as long as they'd care/need to.

It has been suggested that if a lot of the Art Association members would be interested in making this trip that instead of carpooling, we could take a Parks and Rec. bus if that would be available. Ranger Jen was excited by the possibility of an having an actual art association visiting there and would tailor our visit accordingly. And, for anyone who wanted to, for just the cost of a Cibola Arts Council 1 year membership of $25.00, the National Parks Service and the Bureau of Land Management encourage you to enter any past, present or future work highlighting the malpais area, including La Ventana Arch, Sandstone Bluffs and the lava flows, to hang for sale at the Double Six Gallery in Grants to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the establishment of El Malpais as a national monument and National Conservation Area. The exhibit will draw lots of statewide and national attention. Deadline for submissions will be August 17, 2012 and the show will open September 4th and run through December 31st, 2012. Information and membership forms are available at: cibolaarts@7cities.net  Their phone number is 505-287-7311, Robert Gallegos. Website is cibolaartscouncil.com

There are probably other National Forest and BLM offerings available as well and I will check and see.

As an aside, the trip turned out very profitably as well, as I did have to make a pit stop and chose the Route 66 Casino. The jackpot I hit more than defrayed the cost of the trip! So, the possibility of an art excursion could be combined with a casino/buffet type of thing!

I have attached several pics of the area to give you an idea of what you might find there.

Anyone who is interested, start talking it up with Annette Kingman and we'll see if we have enough interest to make it happen!

Hopefully I haven't forgotten anything!

Joe McDonnell