This weekend I went to Santa Fe with my college roomates. Our plans included walking, wine, galleries and good eats, but of course some science-related moments popped up amidst the art and the appetizers...
When sending mail to a secret laboratory...
While on a restaurant tour of some of Santa Fe's best eateries, we stopped into La Casa Sena Wine Shop and Lounge. Turns out that in addition to some lovely bottles, the wine shop is also know for its address, 109 E. Palace. This was where all the mail from Los Alamos was sent during the Manhattan Project so that no one would find out why a whole bunch of physicists were sequestered on a mesa 35 miles outside Santa Fe. For more on the history of the Manhattan Project, check out Jennet Conant's 109 East Palace.
Sci Fi Art
Canyon Road features gallery after gallery, so we spent one early afternoon strolling through town checking out the artistic offerings. My favorite by far was Chalk Farm Gallery, which bills itself as "The world's leading gallery for visionary art." It was a treat to see fantastical works by Daniel Merriam, Robert Bissell and Michael Parkes up close. I was particularly thrilled to catch an exhibit from science fiction and fantasy artist Stephan Martiniere, who has done work in a variety of entertainment fields including feature films, animation, video games, theme parks, editorial, commercial and book covers. His work as a concept artist for live action films includes such movies as Star Wars Episodes II and III, The Time Machine, Red Planet and I,Robot. Seven 36" x 24" fine art canvas giclees of his pieces were on display - I wish I could have jumped into them to explore some of the worlds he's dreamed up.
World Too Near
Pic from www.martiniere.com, where you can purchase the artists' work and find out more about him.
