Mural walking in Duke City

Popsicle stick fence in melted ice cream colors

Flew into Albuquerque for two days of creative refueling. I was there to see the Cross Pollination exhibit at 516 Arts in downtown. Started my adventure with the downtown mural walking tour.  This was one of two Cross Pollination theme murals new this summer:

Botanical Mural Project by Argentinian artist Pastel

Sam-I-Am takes the train to Night Vale

I really liked the mural at Silver Street Market. I would have taken better photos if standing in the middle of the street was a good plan. Albuquerque is a slow-moving small city most of the time, but getting run over would be a bad thing for the rest of the already short-staffed folks at my workplace. It reminded me of Green Eggs and Ham, Roswell aliens, and the Night Vale podcast. That's just the kind of place ABQ is. Would you, could you on a train?

Albuquerque has been called "Duke City" since conquistiadors arrived to complicate life for the Pueblo Indians who lived there. The minor league baseball team was named the "Dukes." Nowadays the baseball team, the Albuquerque Isotopes, is named both for Homer Simpson's Springfield Isotopes, and for New Mexico's connection to nuclear energy and science.

My other favorite was the 2016 mural "Color Sphere" on Gold Street. It looks like my friend Bonnie's blouse on a much larger scale. Bonnie and the blouse are not larger, just the mural. It's an unusual mural because of its loose, watercolor painting style.

© 2013-2017 Nancy L. Ruder