I had been by San Francisco de Asis Church in Taos before my most recent vacation, but it wasn't until after I got back home and shared my pictures of it with friends that I realized it was THE church made famous by Georgia O'Keefe.
On the "eat your heart out"? Well, a mix of HDR camera settings and Photoshop does this:
Oh, that embiggens a LOT at the original. And, more variants are in this album.
On the legend? When explaining to friends the background, I referred to the church's website and specifically its history subpage. Then I noticed this "mystery painting" it mentions, but coyly doesn't discuss.
So, I Google, and get a hit from the Taos News, which first gives me the O'Keefe backgrounder, then discusses the mystery painting in detail, complete with authorial viewing.
Problem? It's largely uncritical and in some cases outrightly untrue. Joe Nickell at Center for Inquiry had reviewed the painting 15 years earlier. It's never been scientifically examined, could have been produced by some underpainting techniques, said techniques were around at the time of the painter, and the painting gives some evidence of using them. (At least the newspaper labled the piece as "opinion.")
This is nothing new in New Mexico. I've been to Chimayó, the "Lourdes of New Mexico" at least, if not of the whole United States, and seen the then-parish priest walking with a cane and a limp. I've been to Loretto Chapel and know the truth about the non-miraculous staircase.
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