Viewing page 21 of 88

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

July- 3 - Sunday -

Invited to supper at the Allan Clarks [[insert]] ranch [[insert]] near San Ildefonso. One of the guests was Oqua Pi (Abel Sanchez) of San Ildefonso a quaint but solemn figure in dark coat and white trousers, with sleek black long hair in two braids [[insert]] wrapped with green [[insert]] down the front of each shoulder. His wife quiet of behavior but gay in bright green dress and brighter red cape [[insert]] + white deerskin boots [[insert]] was with him and they tended with anxious care the two little ones who were dressed like their elders  - down to the sweet white bootees. 

After supper under the trees we sat on the roof at twilight and looked at Oqua Pi's water colors of deer and other subjects. I brought home a small purchase, but better still a promise from Oqua Pi to come to Santa Fe very soon to paint a wall. We have been trying for two weeks to get him - He says he has been doing a set of drawings for Leland Stanford, also one for Miss White - which kept him home.

July 4. - Mr Ferris called this morning to say the Rhoadeses had arrived + could I find time to see them. I had kept the day free for them. And we all met at the dining room. Julian Martinez was there before us + Mr. Ferris had set him to work on the light globes which we put everyone on when he runs out of work. Mr. F. said "I am glad to have him doing that when Mr. Rhodes comes as he does it freely with no previous marking [[insert]]  or measurement [[insert]] + it is [[insert]] in fact [[insert]] like watching magic to see him develope a design - beginning at one side + arriving around a pot or globe in logical sequence of the pattern, without a hitch or a mistake. 

The school was gone on a picnic with Uncle Bunny - down near Cerrillos but on this hottest fourth of Julu in forty years - Julian, Richard, and Romando were working hard. The room seemed to fire Mr + Mrs Rhodes with great hope whereas they declared they find much to depress in many of the Schools - the Arts building (by John [[?]] architect + presidid [[?]] by Miss Morrow), too they found beautiful and inspiring. It was all [[underlined]] fresh and clean, simple and sweetly Indian like a house on a mesa [[underlined]]. Now the old dining room was such a dingy hole to begin with that no decoration can make it perfect, but they know that, and they caught the great truth + proclaimed it in all the delight of discovery, that we were starting something of broad and ever widening proportions. They seemed to feel I was making a sacrifice to be only directing this work and not painting myself - thanking me + praising the "unselfishness" of it, which quite abashed me for truely I never had a better time in my life [[strikethrough]] + declared it was quite what I liked [[strikethrough]]. Romando was gracious + gave thoughtful answers to Mrs Rhodes who had many questions to ask about the designs.