The New Yorker illustration contest...

Every year The New Yorker magazine on their anniversary -celebrates their iconic character Eustice Tilley by sending out a call to illustrate him in a unique way. Winner will get their images on a bookbag.

Here is mine- Tilley vacationing in Telluride Colorado and here is a link to The New Yorker's blog where you can see it again and other illustrators interruption.

New Yorker Blog

Feeding the Spirit

Today, I am working here, in a coffee shop- still deep in winter the walls of the studio just felt like they were closing in the last couple of days and decided I needed to be looking at people instead of my dogs, cause I think I was talking to them a little bit too much!

My attention was brought to the counter when the owner was trying to hand out samples of a new rich velvet cake he was thinking of selling- and well everyone was turning it down- declaring they just couldn't. Now these slices consisted of about three bites, four if you took tiny ones, and I had to laugh, as I enjoyed my little sample- at the fact that everyone else in the room declared they just couldn't, as they ordered their skim milk lattes and wheat bagels with just a skim of butter were MEN!!

What have we come to here in the US- where people talk in terms of proteins, carb and glutens- instead of in well food!

Remember food- the bounty that we partake in with those we love or at least like sitting around us. Gifts from God for our "daily bread" with no clarification it is or is not gluten free. The bounty of fields, orchards and gardens, enjoying the sight, smell and taste of it with out guilt.

Now we can drink our fiber without eating fruit, pop a handful of pills to get our daily vitamins, and save time and get the one meal we do chew, instead of drink, out of a box or smashed together in a protein bar.

But what have we lost- I think a lot- I think that many souls are starving, that a little slice of Red Velvet Cake can help heal. That a little perfect chocolate fudge sundae, if eaten without guilt but savored might make one sleep better that night- instead of popping a sleeping pill, which seems to also be on the  rise.

That days spent working hard, should be rewarded with night spent in the company of friends enjoying delicious food- for a platter of hot goodness will feed more then our physical bodies.

There was a new article out on yahoo- this morning on that Carbs- slow starches are back- and should be 65% of your diet.

I know I could find an article saying the exact thing about protein.

I think about my mom and my grandma's cooking- where the plate consisted of starch- potatoes usually, good farm food, bread, vegetables, some over cooked and some pickled- and a little meat- you were considered rude to not fill your plate with mostly the starches- the meat was a condiment- but you know what sitting around the table together the food feed the soul- and the craving for more wasn't so strong.

Think how good you feel when you walk into somewhere were you can smell something good cooking, or wake up to the smell of breakfast - people usually physically react in joy to such smells- I just think protein bars and fiber powders and shot blocks will never feed the soul like Red Velvet Cake.

IF: "Dusty"

Moab, Utah is "dusty", covered in red dirt, ground from the red rocks that surround the Colorado River as it meanders down through twisting Canyon in the southeast part of the state.

Eventually the river opens up in a valley and there is where the little town is nestled, once the center of the great "Uranium" boom of the 50's and 60's.

When we go to Moab to bike, hike and camp, only about two hours from where we are in Colorado- the only choice  is to accept the red dust. So does everyone else, everyone stained with it on their shoes, clothes, merchants actually sell tshirt, dyed in the red dust of the area. Every one walking into City Market, has red tinted unruly  hair  because of the wind and the dust.  Moab is not a place for those who desire to be prefectly coiffed- the land is to wild and strong to not be under its authority- literally it will kill you if you are not.

Not really a New Year

Now for two days, I've been thinking I should post a "Happy New Year" something on my blog- but was at a loss or just wasn't in the mood. after a month of Christmas cheer- Christmas movies, lights, carols, gifts and good food. I came to the conclusion this Holiday Season that we have almost taken all resemblance of God out of what should be the mostly Godly of season and are actually quite happy with what I will call the "residual leftover of his power and love. We like that "feeling of good cheer" without any of the responsibility.

No more arrogant  than this day, when we declare with any authority what 2011 will bring to us. 2011 will bring what God choose to bring to us and sometime joy is poured down on the wicked and the blessed and sometime grief is poured down on the wicked and the blessed.

I was finally inpsired looking out from my bedroom windows in the loft of our cabin at the  pinon trees surrounding our house- two to three hundred year old pinon trees, according to an arborist who came out to access their health, an arborist who by his excitement, hadn't seen many pinons older or taller than these, dwarfing the power poles in our front drive. Pinon trees older then this country, older then any record keeping and from a time when we humans had a little bit more respect for the power of God and his creation because we didn't think we knew as much as we think we know now!

This view give me hope because God's creation reminds me of his everlasting love and comfort, whether we acknowledge it or not.

Many animals have found shelter and substance under the protection of these great pinons this holiday season, right before Christmas a herd of lose wandering horses and donkeys found our yard a nice place to graze, our stack of hay bales too inviting.

Yesterday, a herd of deer also sought shelter and went to nibbling.

What a powerful thing God's creation is, it goes by no calendar or resets itself every January 1st- but  the reminiscing of years past good or bad held inside the great pinon's tree rings of years of drought, years of rain and it's bark holding the scares of lightning strikes and wire fencing.

Seasons come and go, but the pinons just stand as sentries over the passing of time never losing their leaves like other evergreens, another symbol of God's everlasting love for his people. Since bad times come to both the wicked and the blessed, all we can do is be wise like the animals who this winter sheltered under the old pinons in my yard,  and abide in God's protection because storm and sunshine are going to come in 2011.