Biblioteca

Oaxaca has beautiful libraries and this one is my favorite. I can't remember the name but it's not too far from the Hotel Azucenas. The last two photos are of the first and second floor views from inside the library. In the middle, a ceramic Virgen de la Soledad looks out onto the courtyard from above, and a collection of black clay pots is found nearby. I loved the night my after school wanderings brought me to this library where I did my homework in a room filled with art books open to the courtyard, the rain falling just a few feet from my desk.

Back here, in the US, I've been falling in love with libraries again. Through graduate school the library was a place I went to get other things done, with books as a background. A recent long walk brought me back to the UNM Fine Arts Library, with its view of the Sandia mountains and amazing collection of art books. I felt giddy, sitting cross legged on the floor, reaching up with both hands to pull out books according to whatever title or color caught my eye. Titles like "Baroque Art in Bohemia," "The Artist Who Swallowed the World," "Courtyard Gardens of Kyoto's Merchant Houses," and "Lament of the Images."

Alone in the stacks, discovering artists I'd never heard of, like Edward Bawden, Koloman Moser, Lasar Segall, and Henri Riviere. Students with laptops filled the periphery of the room while the books, like radiant tombs, held their center.