"I can create my own reality, populate the world with my own beings and
stretch the imagination. My paintings are confrontational, not comfortable.
They require viewer participation. You have to imagine what it might be out
there that gives a character such a countenance. What is he responding to?
What is the nature of the abyss into which he gazes?" - Lawrence W. Lee

Until 1906, Blue Lake was both a place of renewal for the people of the Taos pueblo and a final resting place. The trees surrounding the lake were revered as spiritual beings. Blue Lake was and continues to be the source of the water for the pueblo and its spiritual pristine beauty was for centuries undisturbed by outsiders. Not even the Spanish occupation of pueblo land interrupted the yearly dancing and ceremonies which are even today, completely secret from the outside world.

Unfortunately, the trees and land surrounding Blue Lake were also seen as income by the U.S. Forest Service. They first opened the land to the public in 1906, making it a part of what would become Kit Carson National Forest. They stocked the lake with trout and fisherman came with dynamite, destroying the serenity of this ancient site. Although members of the Taos pueblo were granted full access to the land, with the pubic opening, their pahos or prayer sticks and sacred oars were removed from the shores of the lake and replaced by the trash and bottles left by the sportsmen and recreational visitors. The Taos people were descendants of those who had for centuries made an annual pilgrimage to this natural shrine. Deeply incensed by the desecration of their most sacred home, people of the Taos pueblo began what would become their longest fight with the United States Government, culminating in almost half of a century of frustrating litigation.