The Well is Dry....for now

The last month is a blur- completing the biggest writing and illustration projects I have ever done- both spec- but will keep you updated and then a week focused on the 12 Hour Mesa Verde Bike race- right before a week in Boulder, Colorado for the Big Sur in the Rockies writer's conference put on by the Andrea Brown Agency,  where after the conference was over , I waited a day to come home and sat in my mother's bedroom at a cardtable to finish a requested illustration sample by a publisher, so I wouldn't lose a day on the road driving back, overnighting it from Loveland, which apparently is actually two days to  Maine- and now a week home to regroup get another illustration done, spec for another conference in the Fall- before a week in San Franciso- and that is just the start of the summer!! Was I whining about wanting summer to come- shame on me!

I have a lot to tell, but frankly after a week in Boulder, writing and critquing manuscripts and being critiqued...I got nothing. Will fill you in on all the adventures, when the words can flow.  

12 Hours of Mesa Verde

6 A.M. and getting ready for the race, warming up.

Race meeting, all 600 racers couldn't fit in the building- rules? basically be nice and courteous, most through the day did...

since it was Mother's Day weekend we honored the moms with pink ribbons.

First lap racers had to run to their bikes to spread out the pack..

Lap = a 17 mile loop out in Phil's World at the base of Mesa Verde.

Racers checked in at time table, either heading out again or trading off to the next rider on the team.

No serious injuries this year, one guy flipped into a pond, another came to the time table missing half of his helmet, the stryofoam gone from an endo ( over the handle bars)

Waiting for the riders to come in.

Many faithful dogs!

And lots and lots of pasta eaten from one of the days sponsors- Lotsa Pasta in Cortez Colorado.

Coming in...

Another successful race, 600 racers- all proceeds to benefit the Montezuma  Partners Program.

To see racer results or think about coming next year- see 12 Hours of Mesa Verde

What is your Magnum Opus?

So spent this weekend working the 12 Hours of Mesa Verde mountain bike endurance race, both my husband and daughter were racing. It is out at Phil's World, a 17 mile single track mountain bike trail at the base of Mesa Verde National Park and from 7 in the morning to 7 at night, racers see how many times they can ride it. Winner this year rode it 8 times I think, that is 136 miles if you are wondering.
Friday we check in 600 racers, including the top names in the circuit, from places as far as way as Bozeman, Montana. Since it was Mother's Day weekend, we had little pink ribbons for the moms to tie on their handle bars at the registration table, finding out who the mother's were got downright dangerous.

I would say out of 600 riders, about one fourth were women and out of that one fourth, only one fourth were mothers. The mother's we did find got teary eyed about the ribbons, the others...oh my!
Now the demographic of mountain bike racers is healthy ( very!), educated, and financial secure, and many let us know in no uncertain terms that motherhood was a path of life they had no desire to go down, with comments like "I am a mother of a dog," and my favorite "I have a mother, and have no desire to be one." All the more funny or sad in the fact that all of at the table working to register them were mothers!
Apparently motherhood is not condusive to Endurance Bike Racing. Got me thinking about "Magnum Opus", achieving a great work, a work that tales will be told about - and how much motherhood gets in the way of it!
Please consider these women who achieved a Magnum Opus and the fact......none of them were mothers!

Jane Austen, novalist of Pride and Prejudice and several more and not a mother.

All three Bronte sister, authors of such works as Wethering Heights and Jane Eyre and none of them mothers!

Mary Cassett, friend to the Impressionist and most famous women artist from that time and....not a mother, but is know for her mother and child paintings!!

Georgia O'Keefe, not a mother!

Betrix Potter, not a mother.

Margret Wise Brown, author of many beloved childrens books, but not a mother!

Mothers....are you depressed now? Don't be, never forget that your "Magnum Opus"- your greatest work, is one or many living breathing human beings that your gave life and love to, whatever else you do is just icing on the cake!

This is one of my "Magnum Opus" finishing  her second lap- that is 34 miles for the day!

 

Okay this is cool!!!

I have been checking the Group Publishing website to see whe they are releasing their Summer 2010 cirriculum- guess what....it is out- my major effort this winter, the Preschool Editon Amen, themed on the Sermon on the Mount. Worked with a grea great art director, who really knew how to get the best out of me, Paul Povolni, I hope I can work with him again. Have not received my comp copy, when I do I will show you some more detail.  Check out Group's catalog here.

IF- "Cacoon"

I am not this butterfly, I am still in my "Cacoon" partly because this is what greeted me this morning...

for the record...snow on the morning of May 2, 2010.

No butterflies, saw one hummingbird a few days ago, hope they are still alive.Apricots are all gone...maybe  Spring will come about the time Summer begins?

Also feel like am in a Cacoon because I took on a big, BIG writing all consuming project at the same time I took on the biggest illustration I've done. Finished writing project last night, should finish the illustration today, sense it's deadline is tomorrow. But luckily stitching uses an entirely different part of the brain that is exhausted from writing!