Loree

Dave and I have a favorite artist in Ruidoso named Loree Belin Marin. She is a tribal elder in the Mescalero Apache tribe who lives on the reservation, and is an amazing woman. Her work is displayed at the Jordan T Gallery, which is owned by Jordan Torres, another Mescalero Apache artist.

Our relationship with her started a few weeks before Cooper was born when my parents purchased a print for the nursery entitled “First Born”. The gift came complete with a picture of the artist. I was drawn to her immediately.

The next year, when my parents went back to Ruidoso, they visited the same gallery. They told Loree that we had had a boy. Without batting an eye she said “That is why I was driven to paint my first buffalo. I knew to paint him as a baby. He is my first buffalo, and Cooper is your first grandchild. I didn’t know why I was to paint him, but now I know it was to be a gift to you.” She proceeded to give them an original oil painting of a buffalo.

A couple of weeks later we joined them in Ruidoso and introduced ourselves and Cooper to her. We felt like old friends within minutes of meeting her. My parents brought the painting back to the gallery so we could take a picture of it with Coop and Loree.

While we were there, we found two pieces we couldn’t live without. One of the paintings is of an Indian woman who I knew immediately was my childhood spirit guide. She had finished it just moments before we arrived. In fact, she didn’t even have time to make a giclee or prints, so it is an original oil painting with no other copies. The other is a painting titled “Tribute to Mother Earth.” It tells of the ceremony the Apaches have to thank the earth.

This year, we returned and picked out a new piece that we absolutely love. It is a work in progress and we can’t wait to see the final piece.

When we saw the painting, it was in her studio, perched on the wall at her working area. Imagine how surprised I was when I looked above the painting and among the brush strokes on the wall of an artist testing her colors before putting them on the canvas, was a small picture of Cooper!

Perhaps the most gratifying part though, was enjoying a wonderful meal with Loree, Jordan T, and Jordan’s wife, Annette. We bombarded them with questions about their culture, ancestors, and life on the reservation. I felt so honored to be in their presense, and am surely honored to forge the friendship I have with Loree.