IF: refresh

Some people find it "refresh"ing to get in water when it is hot like this. I personally am a "cat" and hate getting wet. Now put me by the ocean or an interesting lake and I am great at watching the towels and sketching the amazing scenery!
This came from the many hours spent at the city pool, when my kiddos were little and they were big enough I didn't have to get in the water with them!! I sketched this scene from across the pool and then turned it into a fabrice collage.

IF: Space

I actually have a literal illustration of Space! Usually have to kind of come in sideways on an Illustration Friday theme.
Did this several years ago for Earth Day. Not much of a "conceptual" illustrator, more towards "story" but thought I would try my hand at it.

A Plume of Smoke....

Went over the pass to Durango with Daughter #2 and friends to see the new Disney/Pixar movie Brave, click here for my review on my other blog and for awhile wondered if we would be getting home, for the plume of smoke we were driving towards, that for a while covered the sun and turned it blood red.
See the road, it curves around that front hill, right where the fire seems to be and right where we need to get through. If the road is closed, we have to go back and make a circle the other direction literally into New Mexico and back around. I was debating that or going back to Durango and going to the nearest grocery store, getting five toothbrushes and checking into a motel, when the radio finally  announced the fire was in the back end of Weber Canyon, a side canyon, on the backside of the cow town of Mancos and very near Mesa Verde National Park, but a safe distance from the highway and if the winds cooperated, I should be able to drive by it.

Reaching the top of Mancos Hill, the wind was blowing the plume away from the highway and I wasn't the only vehicle which pulled over to marvel at it.

Driving into Mancos, I had almost circled it entirely and all the area firefighters, both agencies, like the Forest Service or BLM and local volunteer trucks where approaching it from all sides.....

This vehicle that I pulled over for was headed towards Cherry Creek, the next valley over towards Durango, and where the wind was blowing towards....

I just happened to have my high powered camera in the car and from a distance got this picture of the main road block to the Weber Canyon enterence. Two women in flat bed trucks had just pulled up and appeared to be pleading with the officers to let them through to their ranches and animals...

Coming past Mancos on the highway, I cringed at the track of the smoke which seems to run the back half of Weber canyon and up the side of Manafee Mountain....

A bomber plane came down low and dumped fire retardant on the canyon, a smaller spotter plane talking him in...

There happened to be road construction right after as the highway approached the Mesa Verde National Park entrance and a five minute wait on the road allowed me to stand on the highway and get a picture of the backside of it...

And now back home, the sunsetting, we can see it blaze up and spread, through oak brush on top of the pass, damaged from a late frost and dry from no rain for weeks...

We are twenty plus miles away from Weber Canyon, but the flames can be seen just fine from our bedroom window, right now it is going the other way, which is not good, since Mancos Pass is covered in oak brush with hardly any fire break and there are several socked in homes up there. See what the morning brings.

Courtroom Artist for a Day...

Last week I got to play court room artist, when my husband, a country attorney, appeared before the Colorado Supreme Court, in Denver. No cameras were allowed, so I took out my sketch pad and captured the monumental hearing, to decide the rights of natural parents v.s. the rights of foster care parents. Both a regional T.V. station and newspaper covered the story...

The decision of the Colorado Supreme Court will set a precedent for future laws, so the hearing is a big deal...

Of course, I was unbelievably proud. Though I am certainly bias, but think Jon did an amazing job. We will see what the judges thought when they issue their decision, which will be weeks.
We took Daughter #2 and a friend to Denver and they got to sit in and see how our state's court system works at the top in this country. Pretty big opportunity for two teenagers.

IF: Hurry

This week's theme for Illustration Friday's  is "Hurry". Which I was doing up until last Tuesday when I was done with my commitments for the school year. Last weekend Daughter #1 graduated with 35 other students...

many I worked with in Kindergarten!! Some really great, great kids!I can't type any more about that cause I still am getting weepy, something about letting go of this little being that I have been responsible for, for the last eighteen year is now going off into the big bad world......

As a teacher, my school year is also over and hopefully the "hurry" with it!

We ended the year at the Anasazi Heritage Center near Dolores Colorado. The museum is very interactive, very hands on for kids of all ages....

Built decades ago to house the artifacts from the ruins now under water from when the Dolores Canyon was flood to make the McPhee Reservoir, it also has an extensive archive of the Wetherill Family who were the first Whites to enter the cliff dwellings of Mesa Verde and one the of the first to try and preserve the ruins from the pot hunters that were destroying them.

After that we head to a cool playground down near the river and played...

And rest....

which after a hurried end to the school season is welcomed! I'm ready for a non-hurried summer of art and writing, what are you ready to dive into this summer!

Soooooooo?

Sooooo, now we don't talk to each other, but apparently talking to our phones is cool? Wow!