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!

Reading for the pictures...

As a kid I remember pouring over my grandparents National Geographics, but I probably was in my thirties before I read a whole article. Curled up in the corner of the couch at my grandparent's house I would study every single photograph and only reading the captions....only read the captions, the all white pages of text were quickly flipped past in search of more pictures. Isn't there a joke of reading Playboy for the articles? Well, we did get in trouble at a friend's house for pouring over the pics of an African tribes, where the villagers weren't wearing much clothes, but that is a different blog.

I would do that with all my families books, living surrounded by big beautiful books from Time/Life covering all aspects of the West...Didn't read the text, looked at the pictures and captions. Especially remember a big big thick book on the Civil War-

full of Brady's first photographs of battlefields, with the dead still where they fell and haunting tin types of idealistic soldiers heading off to war.

Never was much interested in nature articles- flora and fauna- but like looking at animals...History is always what I would love to look at.

I really didn't tackle reading novels as a kid, there were a few, fantasy, always needed a romance in them. I have dyslexia, though no one called it that even when I was a kid. I wrote every letter backwards and started from the right to the left when I wrote. Still don't know my left from my right. I did get sent to the Special class for about two grades- and walked a lot on a balance beam and had a very clever Special Ed teacher, who knew I loved are, so she had me make bulletin boards, with very long phrase I had to cut out all the words and get them the right way on the board- got very good at pulling out staples from bulletin boards and trying again and again.

Wasn't a good reader at all as a kid, was in the Brown section of the SRA reading program, my best friend was in the Fuchsia Pink. Never was able to work my way up to the Fuchsia Pink. If that isn't a testament to how I still see myself...I will never be Fuchsia Pink.

Still love history, but now can BS my way into research libraries and flip through the actual photographs and diaries of interesting people...like the Wetherills, who were the first whites to gain extensive knowledge of  the ruins of Mesa Verde. My current obsession is looking over their archive at the BLM's Heritage Center's research library.

Humm, makes me do some thinking... I still read way more nonfiction then novels today, too much white on the page- too many letters, no pictures? Watch five times as much movies as I read fiction...cause well it is pictures in motion...only finished writing, successful writing I have done is in the form of  nonfiction, done a lot of that with teaching and in writing scripts- school plays, church events all produced and  audio bible stories-which were produced with sound effects by Group Publishing, years ago... theater friend once told me, "You could write a script in your sleep" she is right I could, and I have- going to sleep running an idea in my head and waking up, still running it.

Is this turning into a " walks like a duck, talks like a duck, is it a duck" things? or " doesn't read novels, why am I trying to write  a novel cause novels don't have pictures what is fun in that!!! "

Avatar-Why I love this Movie

With no coincidence, James Cameron's Avatar was released on Earth Day 2010. Marketing is at the top of Cameron's brilliance, just read an interview that he is intending to finish six minutes of delete scenes and re-release the movie again in the movie theaters in August and then a mega packed, behind the scene second DVD launch in November for the holidays.
And you know what-I am unashamed, I will be first in line to experience all of that- not so much the avatar action figures or video games, am a little old for that and not a single geeky boy that lives in my mother's basement ( I know there is more to that demographic- different blog)- but here are the reason why I am so impressed with this movie.
1. It's a sheer artistic feast for the eyes. Avatar is a testament to what artist, of all kinds- writers, visual artist, computer artists and actors can do when they are unencumbered by management. Only someone like James Cameron, almost a sure deal ,could be trusted by the money people in Hollywood to make a movie like this. The Lord of the Rings was another movie, where the artisans were allowed to go farther then would ever be seen on the screen, but the rich creation of that world did show in the final version. When artist get an opportunity to do it, it is magical, I hope someday to be part of a collaboration like Avatar or the Ring Trilogy, mabe hired on to stitch rich tapestries. When creative people hands are tied you get.....Disney's Narina, a disappointment- it could of been wonderful too.
2. Its Composition- I mean that literally. The camera angles are better than most live action movies, when Sully is being chased by the black oil slick leopard and the animal grabs his backpack and the camera angles swings around in slow motion, wow- again- discovered because there was time to think of such things and discover a cool camera angle- Cameron actually took the cast into the rain forests in Hawaii so they could remember the feeling of wet, smells of musty air and sounds when they were back running around in black suits with computer lenses zoomed in on them. But my favorite compostion of all that is so powerful is right before the last battle, Sully stands, totally transformed perfectly in a tribal leader and camera pans around to show all the tribes coming to defend their homes- wow.

3.It's skin. Literally. Monster INC. was a technology breaking film because of Sulley ( hum, I wonder if there is any connection) the monsters hair moved, independently, in an organic way- making it look real. I think the most amazing break through as far as technology for Avatar is  literally their skin- skin is translucent, it is golden ( or blue) and toned because of the blood vessels and muscle tissue below it and it looks freak real in the movie, look at the veins in his hand, which in every frame, every frame was created-wow!!
4. The message of Creation. JRR Tolkien did not write "metaphors" meaning there was only one meaning for what a tree represented- he wanted the viewer to find his or her own understanding. I don't know Cameron's reasons- not do I think he is much concerned other do- but what I see is story about respecting Creation, and frankly as God's stewards of this earth, we suck at it. God created this amazing planet, unique and beautiful five times over, with each continent offering amazing diverse people and landscapes. He created sunsets and sunrises, tides and snow, mountain peaks and a whole lot of other things that scream one thing, " I am God" Yes he created it as a home for us, but didn't our mother's teach us how to take care of special things, and why should be allowed to destroy the gifts we are given. The Navi worship and are accountable to a single Creator- and recognize the connection they have to the earth. The main plea in the Bible is not " to exchange the Creator for the Created" and frankly we suck at that too.

5. Main reason why I adored this movie- it is simply ,with all its advanced technology and hype, a "Boy meets Girl" story, my favorite and testament that when two people dare to love, they can change their world and make a better one....Happy Earth Day!

What We Woke To....

Almost 5'' of snow on the ground on April 22! Yes it is at 7,000 ft. elevation but still, April!!

(scroll down to previous post to see what the pergola looked like three days ago!)

And yes the Apricots are done for....

But the unpredictablity of Colorado weather is why I love living here...I think...but snow in April, we haven't had a cropped of apricots in two years- guarnteed the liliac will be lovely this year- we either have apricots or liliac-my own theory~

Fingers Crossed...

Our Apricots are in bloom...

And since we are at about 7,000 feet above sea level, it is always touch and go if another frost will come before the blooms set. People, in town, want to be kept updated on if we are going to have an apricot crop, many coming out and picking them for canning and even a secret recipe of "apricot brandy", that somehow start out as vodka?

These are big apricot trees, biggest most people have ever seen.... and old...

We live on an old homestead. The barn in the back is made of railroad ties, pulled up from the tracks of the old spur lines of the railroad that is now gone. Mr. Ruben, who we bought the homestead from, remembers climbing in the big tree in the foreground when he was a boy- he was in his eighties when he told me

that... 

It has to be at least 35 feet high and over a hundred years old. There is a "Centennial Tree" program, for the biggest trees in Colorado- we could see if it was one biggest in Colorado. My littlest still plays under its branches and up in it for that matter, there is always something hanging there, ribbons, flowerpots, or more interesting fair....old trees and little boys and girls will be forever friends.

Overload on Inspiration

A couple days ago I discovered TED- a great website of eighteen minute videos of "Big Idea"- see previous post for the lowdown- well I spent a day listening to the likes of Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat Love Pray, on the fact artists are connected to something greater then ourselves. I listened to a multi millionaire wine entrepreneur, who started a web based wine show on the importance of branding yourself and touching the world through new technologies and having passion for what you do and then to top it off I listened to JK Rowling's commencement speech at Harvard where she talked about being a voice to those who had no voice and how that passion was installed in her before her fame when she was responsible to read the mail at her job at Amnesty International. Blogging about the above-lead to some intellectual virtual discussions, which is great, but I started to feel some anxiety- kind of under the heading of "There is so much to do in this world!" and being anxious about not being able to do it, which is so...........stupid.
Everyone knows the story of Elijah showdown in the Bible- how even though his alter was covered in water, after the Baal Priest failed to call fire down on their alter- Praying to God fire was brought down from heaven and not only lit up Elijah's alter but also burned up Baal's alter and his priests for that matter.
What is less know is Elijah basically freaked out after that- hid in the wilderness out of fear- but God had mercy on him and the birds brought food- and God listened to Elijah go on about well..." the fact he was an unique brand, had touched the world, been a voice for those who had no voice, etc. etc. etc." and you know what God said- "I had six others I could of sent and well, I just happened to pick you."
Humbling...which leads me to Otter Pops.
What got me out of my anxiety- I picked up my girls from school, came home and headed out again to go to Karate class. My sixteen year old second degree brown belt got in the car sucking on an Otter Pop- and I saw her for a split moment as if she was four again, giggling and being goofy.
I don't have to be " a unique brand, touch the world, be a voice for those who have no voice", I need to be a mother to those two girls munching on Otter Pops in the car, I need to be a wife to my husband, a friend and a child of God and well....simple grow where He has planted me.

Know your Muse

I found this amazing video from TED, a cool site collecting videos of talks on it looks like about everything-need to dig deeper- am always looking for entertainment to occupy my "other voices" while I am in the studio.
But this talk is by Elizabeth Gilbert, author of the hugely popular book and soon to be released movie ,Eat Pray Love, about where the source of creativity comes from. I have to give credit to finding it to Writer Musings blog- though she has some disagreement with Ms. Gilberts belief in something outside herself being the source of her creativity. Watch the video and then read below for my take- for what it is worth and check out Writer Musing's blog as well and please throw in your two cents too.


So what did you think?
I think Ms. Gilbert is spot on- Artists throughout history have given credit where credit is due- to someting greater than themselves. Julie Cameron in her widely popular books- Artist's Way- talks about an Energy Source in the Universe that is just there to tap into.
Me?
I think, I know what that source is and at the end of the video Ms. Gilbert hit on it- God.
I have felt the transendence she talks about on numerous occasion- I have watched my hand move across a piece of paper and captured the lines of the model in front of me ( yes- Christain artist draw nude models) and wondered to myself how I was doing this- other days nothing magnificant comes from my hands- in fact sometimes I lack the ability to draw- go figure that one?
I have also had argument with God, like the write in the car Ms. Gilbert talked about- when He has tried to instruct me in really inconvinient times.
Once at a writers conference He would not leave me alone, so I went to the snack bar during lunch break and sat down and humored Him and read Hebrews- but then it was time for the next workshop, so I ignored Him and headed out to my next workshop, I had paid money to go to this conference- traveled hundreds of miles  and not to  sit and read my bible- well- twenty minutes later I sat in an empty room- the instructor never showing up, and all  the other writers finally giving up and heading out, and finished reading Hebrews. In all the time I have been going to conferences, I have never heard of a instructor just not showing up. Explain that?
He sent me up into the mountains another day of the conference I had paid good money for- and you know what I have the skeleton of an entire book etched out because of that "vision quest" or whatever you want to call it. Wilderness for me being Rocky Mountain National Park- when I was surround by hordes of other people and relatively close to the parking lot at all times and the snack bar.
Ms Gilbert did not get into this and I totally disagree with Julia Cameron about an energy source just there for us to tap into- God is a jealous god- he says so on many occasions- there is a spirtual realm we as artists tap into to- but there is also consequences- we are "for or against God"- I know a whole other discussion- but I'd just like to stay with the discussion of yielding to a source- a muse, a genius, a spirit, a daemon or God- without well....a proper interview of intent, bacground check and references. Just because there is a spirit- far more knowing and powerful then me that is offering to lead me- doesn't mean it is wise to listen to it... unless you know its intent.
I know God's intent- I know what he want of me- he has laid out all parts of our mutual Contract- His part way more heavy and  dangerous then my little part of completely surrendering to His will for me. He breathed this gift into me and all credit goes where it should - to Him and I am very very wise when I actually listen to Him and not so much when I don't.