Where in Hell is George?

George of the desert

George was raised in New Mexico and considers himself to be a Southwesterner. He once revealed that the movie, "The Last Picture Show," was a near biography of his childhood and teen years. He attributes his love of the Middle East, particularly Afghanistan, to its climatic similarity to Artesia, where he grew up. Of Afghanistan, he says, "Southern Arizona without cactus."

This past winter and early spring was a particularly taxing period for us due to the illness and death of a beloved parent whose final months were spent in our care. When George called and invited us down to rest and recuperate and to explore his new terrain, we hesitated but a few seconds before accepting. In late April we traded the remnants of a long, bitter winter, coldest and snowiest in memory, for sundrenched Arizona.

From the Phoenix airport, we pointed our rental car south, following George's detailed but sometimes vague directions: "When you leave the highway, turn left and follow the road for 10 or 15 miles up and down a lot of gulleys and hillies." Having traversed many valleys and hills through breathtaking scenery and a myriad of residential communities, each with its own architectural flavor -- Are we there yet? Are we there yet? -- we finally made our last right turn and were greeted at George's front gate by our host, smartly wrapped in an Indonesian sarong, a souvenir from his latest trip.

George keeps busy. He has several rug book writing projects in progress, one being a comprehensive rug literature bibliography that picks up in 1977 where Enay and Azadi left off. The Enay & Azadi bibliography covers the years 1877 to 1977. Though George's study only covers 1977 to the present, he has much more material to work with than was published in the previous century, and he has broadened the categories covered. A parallel project is a general rug book he is writing for a British publisher. Longer term projects include two reprints of major rug titles from the past. These literary projects, some limited rug buying and selling for the few client/collectors with whom he works, extensive travel, some of which entails leading group tours to textile producing countries, speaking engagements, and the occasional guest curatorship of an exhibition combine for a very full life.

When George issued his invitation to visit, he said the three of us could spent our time together in any way Lyn and I chose: sightseeing, visiting friends, or being completely idle. In the event, we decided to adopt George's life-style. We arose between 5:00 and 5:30 every morning, had a light breakfast with fresh-squeezed juice from George's trees, then hiked in the surrounding foothills and canyons or swam under the watchful eye of a Great Horned Owl, being careful to return to the shade of George's patio by 11 a.m., the time of the killer sun. Among many other interests, George has studied horticulture, both formally and informally. Part of his early morning ritual is to water his many flowering plants, shrubs, bushes, and fruit trees. "Watch out for that little hole," he cautioned as I paddled around barefoot behind him one morning. "It's either a wolf spider or a tarantula." In George's part of the world, most people don't have gardeners; they have bugmen.

More bugs and arachnids were on view at the Desert Museum, a wonderful facility, not so much a museum as an extremely well managed preserve for fauna and flora. In addition to cacti in many varieties, it provides a natural habitat for regional animals and birds which, due to injury, are unable to survive in the wild. For visitors, the museum provides an opportunity to obtain a closer view of shy or exotic animals one might never encounter in daily life: cats with unfamiliar names like leoncillo and tigrillo, odiferous desert pigs called havelinas, amusing colonies of prarie dogs, eagles, hawks, and owls of every descriptions.

A saronged George O'Bannon shared the textile treasures in a wooden chest with Ovadan Amanova

During our stay, George honored us with a party, inviting among others members of the area's rug community, including Bob and Paudy Gibson, George Fine and his friend Carol, John Olsen, an anthropologist at the University of Arizona, and his wife Ovadan Amanova, a Turkoman from Ashkabad. Another afternoon, we visited the University of Arizona and its museum, and then attended a lecture at the Center for Middle Eastern Studies given by Brian Spooner of the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Spooner's topic, the deserts of Central Asia and their impact upon the inhabitants and their culture, offered strong parallels to the part of the United States we were then exploring. Naturally, we also visited local Orienal rug galleries and tried to assess the differences in regional buying trends.

Visiting on George's patio was a highlight of every day. George's mission-style house is contained on one floor. A large living and dining area ajoin the patio. Long hallways lead to two bedrooms and to George's skylit library, where his vast collection of rug literature is housed, as well as his computer and office equipment.

The layout and configuration of this house provides George with wonderful space, both wall and floor, to display his remarkable rug collection. Over the 12 or more year of our friendship, this is the third of George's houses we have visited but it is the first where it was possible to gain a true appreciation for the scope of George's collection. Largely made up of Central Asian rugs and textiles, it also includes a few choice pieces from other weaving areas.

Follow us on a brief photographic tour of part of George's collection. Somewhere is a photograph of George talking on the telephone, a not uncommon pastime. Above his head, an Ersari flatwoven tentband defines the upper perimeter of the living room, replacing the tradition molding. A focal piece over the fireplace is a Tadjik woman's coat or chirpy. Below that is a pair of Ersari dizlyks, camel knee covers for use in wedding ceremonies, and an Ersari Germetch. Centered in the fireplace is a uniquely O'Bannon decorating touch: the television set. On the floor is an Ersari Saltiq main carpet, one of a group of rugs that George isolated and first discussed in an article in Afghanistan Magazine in the middle '70s. They are characterized by a rosy pink, distinctive secondary guls and long tendrils and flower heads that run from the lower to upper border on either side of the field, as well as by a distinctive border system, the design of which is referred to by Dick Wright as "a floral quincunx pattern." George is standing on a Khirghiz rug and on the wall is a large Uzbek felt decorative wall hanging.

A wet bar is a typical accessory in many southern Arizona homes, and at Casa O'Bannon it provides more space for display. Through its doorway is a glimpse of George's library and a few of his hundreds, perhaps thousands, of rug books, journals, and ephemera. Sating a rugophile's appetite for textiles, the walls offer up, clockwise from the upper left, an Ersari torba similar to one in the MacMullen Collection. Next is a large Saryk bag. Immediately below that is a Tekke ak chuval, then a Beshir torba and an Ersari juval. Through the left doorway, hanging on a rod, is an Indonesian rongkong or burial cloth, a recent acquisition. Next to it is a Lakai embroidery.

Around a corner is a complete pair of very finely woven bags, flatwoven in the reverse soumak technique.

Among other rugs in George's collection are Baluchis, Ersari Beshir main carpets, a few more Shahsavan bagfaces, Tekke main carpets, Caucasian rugs, many fragments, and many textiles. George told us that six of his best pieces were absent, have been lent for the Turkoman textiles and jewelry exhibition, "Tribal Treasures," at the Bruce Museum in Greenwich, Connecticut, for which he was guest curator. After only five days, we departed reluctantly but still basking in the warmth of George's sensitive and gracious hospitality. Two weeks later, we met George at the opening of the exhibition at the Bruce, where members of the museum staff modeled Central Asian chirpys, which George had arranged to be lent by his friend, Tom Tarantino, who also lent rugs to the exhibition. George was decked out, appropriately, as the Emir of Buchara.

As part of the the opening ceremony at the Bruce, George O'Bannon was presented the prestigious Joseph V. MacMullan Award by James Keshishian.