Two Shows, One Desert: “Desert Rinpa” & “Wander” at EPMA

Two Shows, One Desert: “Desert Rinpa” & “Wander” at EPMA

There is a particular light in the desert — long shadows from scrub brush and ocotillo staccato the dry, sandy ground. Hot red, yellow, and fuchsia wildflowers burst along trails and from the center of “ankle breakers,” or barrel cacti. In the morning, you can taste the dew. On a hike, you can smell rain by rubbing the small, greasy leaves of a creosote bush between your fingers.  Two exhibitions at the El Paso Museum of Art require us to slow d…