Madrid NM

Madrid (pronounced mad-rid) is a former ghost town that was invaded by artists and other assorted characters. It's about 40 miles south of Santa Fe on Hwy 14, otherwise known as the Turquoise Trail.

Welcome to Madrid, NM

Ghostly traces of former residences can found all over town.

The ghost of Sears & Roebuck

Former ghost town now houses humans

Madrid has a lively mix of art galleries and other businesses... all more affordable than Canyon Road.

Courtyard of a coffee shop

with it's own mix of found objects

A colorful clothing store

Many of the artists in Madrid specialize in what I call Junk Art, but they call "Recycle Art."  No matter what you call it, many of the pieces are pretty inventive with objects that may have ended up in the local dump.  In fact, the baristra at the coffee shop tells the local joke that the reason there's so much junk used for art in this town is nobody wants to pay dump fees.

Faces from an array of cast off objects

Toaster art for Doug

Bottle cap fish for Pete

We stop at the Range West garden fountain shop and lo and behold we finally find the perfect rock for our patio garden project (after looking for two years ... or more).  What's the perfect rock? It's the one that Peter and I both agree we like. Yup - that's right, we hadn't found one we both could agreed on before. Sally - thank you for being so patient with us. The rock came from the Lazarus Valley gold mine.  It has some streaks of gold and even some turquoise in it.  We love it.

The perfect rock

Top bubbler

Peter demoing size

After we make arrangements with Josh for a minor adjustment to add more of a basin to the bubbler  and the shipping, we happily ride off into the sunset back to Sante Fe.

Uh Josh your dog Fuzz, may not be the best guard dog for your shop