D.H. Lawrence is one of my favorite authors; he was a restless spirit and literally went around the world, searching for something that he could not define himself. While searching, however, he stopped at various places, i.e., Australia, India, all of Europe (Italy was his favorite on the continent) and lived alongside the population of that place, never a "tourist." Some of the world's best travel writing emerged from Lawrence's search for meaning. He died in a sanitorium in France at the age of 45--his lungs had been damaged due to a serious illness in his teenage years.
Lawrence and his wife, Frieda, were invited to visit the southwestern part of the U.S.--the area around Santa Fe, Arizona, specifically Taos. Although Lawrence didn't die there, his ashes are buried in Taos in a simple memorial. Why in Taos when he had lived in so many other places? Lawrence loved New Mexico; Frieda knew that Lawrence had been fulfilled both personally and professionally there in a way that had never happened before.
The natives there called him "Lorenzo."
I've wanted to take a trip and see this area for a long time and that's what is going to happen on June 28--in two weeks. My husband and I are going to spend two weeks in the southwest.
I chose this painting for my blog because Georgia O'Keefe went to live in southwest also and I'm looking forward to seeing the museum that houses her art work.