"You Are Here"

Here is a promotional idea for our library I have been working on.

Fixing What We Hadn't Fixed Before....

Before I pursued freelance illustration and writing, I wove baskets. Loved it. Days would fly by with me in my studio, wrapping a piece of reed around another, forming a beautiful basket. I quickly learned an important lesson-  a tiny imperfection in the first few rows could be a gigantic frustration at the end, every row the gap spreading farther and farther to the point there was no other choice but to rip the weaver out, until I could fix what I hadn't fixed before.

Now, trying my hand at writing a full length novel, I have thought back to my weaving days, because now I guess I am weaving a story and the same lesson holds true, an imperfection in the story structure in the beginning, can lead to great frustration later on. Sometimes days have been spent to "fixing" a problem that I have finally notice, and more times than not, it is something I have not laid the ground work for chapters back. Or truthfully, often the other solution the plot point is just not needed and the delete key is the answer.

Makes me think of life, and how much of our frustrations are the result of not so much something now, but possible something we didn't take care of when we should have, or forgotten to do the things we should way back when, but now it is "big enough" for us to feel it.

Once again, I just feel frustrated and once again it is because I have put aside things in my life that "feed my well", making art and cooking for the ones I love. My kitchen had become a hurried place to grab nourishment. This weekend, our fruit trees were ready to pick, and I made a pear pie to take to a church potluck. I spent the morning, in the kitchen, thinking of the lessons my grandmother and mother had taught me and probably made the best pastry dough I have ever made, sliced pears while talking to my family and held a warm pie in the back seat, while the full car of my family drove to church and enjoyed fellowship and good food.

I am beginning to think there is great power in the "rituals" of life, the things we have been doing for a thousand years, the talking around the hearth, the sharing a meal, the strolls with a fellow traveler, the rendezvous of lovers, the moments of awe, the things that feed our souls and when we don't get them, our "gap" grows wider and wider and we don't know why....until we remember to look back and fix what we hadn't fixed before.

Harvest Time

 

 

It is that time of year and we had a good year. Not only did we have apricots for the first time in like four years on the homestead, see HERE for how hit and miss it is, every year, but we got a bumper crop of pears and several varieties of apples.

 

 

I got Jon a book on old varieties of apples, Old Southern Apples, Revised & Expanded: A Comprehensive History and Description of Varieties for Collectors, Growers and Fruit Enthusiasts  by Creighton Lee Calhoun. What a title, but it is a beautiful book, with colored plates showing watercolors used to identify the different variety turn of the century before colored photography was even thought of. Many, many of the illustrators were women.

We have a potluck at church, so think we will be taking a few boxes, cause this is just what was ripe today. The fridge in the barn is full of apples, cause next weekend we are headed to Grand Junction, Colorado where there is a Brewing Store downtown, we'll either make apple cider this year or a really scary science experiment!

Our plum rum is already mixed up and sitting in the pantry. We have a half an acre of plums left on the trees, the deer are very happy.

 

 

IF: Imagination

 

Why are some of us so compelled to record what is deep down in our imagination? That question became so real to me a few weeks ago when we went to Moab, Utah  in search of water and found it where the Mill Creek pours down from the La Sal Mountains...

The trail is half in the water, half on the side of the slick rock and the only place I could sit down to sketch while the family hiked up the trail to explore the pools and waterfalls created as the water dropped from one slick rock steppe to another, down to the Colorado River....

I know I wasn't the first person to sit here, to use my imagination and make art.... it has been a place for that for quite some time.

 

Did their children play in the creek, like mine, as they chiseled away these surreal creatures from their imagination?

Going, Going....Gone!

About noon today, the Pro Cycle Challenge whipped through Dolores, it's the revived American version of the "Tour de France"...

There was a "200 Meter Sprint Line" in Dolores, as you can see sponsored by Waste Management, in fact there was advertising plastered and wrapped around everything...

The crowds started to grow, well it's Dolores, there wasn't much of a crowd...

But the excitement started to build, everyone ringing mini-cow bells provided by a bike shop over in Cortez, Kokopeli Bike and Board...
Stage One started in Durango, Colorado, circled the town a couple of times, raced over a few passes, free of cars, the powers that be closed the highway, ( some locals were not happy).
A loud speaker announced the approach of the break away group, motivated to win the sprint in Dolores for points and $$.
The increase of support vehicles and media, excited the crowds, as well. This guy cracked up when I turned away from the excitement to take his picture...

But then a wave of cheers and cowbells at the edge of town...

signaled the challengers of the 200 sprint...

And then more official and support cars "whooshed" by with more advertising....

A little bit more of a wait and then the loud speaker declared the approach of the large race pack, called a Peloton, French for "bunch")
More official vehicles and then the pack approached....

and "whooshed" through Dolores and we hooted and hollered for them...

A heck of a lot more support vehicles "whooshed by" (another real vocab term in racing apparently)...

along with the media, he laughed again at me ...

Everyone racing up towards Telluride where the finishing lane waited. Dolores "fifteen minutes of fame" was over and everyone started to pack up...

Friends hung around to catch up, since already in town on a Monday...

Even local business used the "hoopla" for some advertising, bringing the crowd to them with some free hot dogs...

But when the front loader came to take the bleachers back to the football field, all knew the festivities are over and it was time to go home...

IF: Lonely

Funny, I always feel the "loneliest" in a group of people? Not my family, I am thrilled to spent as much time as I can with them- but  I hardly ever feel lonely when I am by myself.
This is a portrait of my daughter, its okay, but I am  almost done with an even bigger one of her at Arches National Park in Utah , which also has a couple hundred hand stitched butterflies, I kid you not!
This one, the background is the Salt Flats, going West out of Salt Lake City. It is a very, very lonely place. Did it as a sample to get some book cover work, so far, no luck- will be sending out the new one this fall hopefully- have improved on the portraits I think.

IF: Lost

Illustration Friday theme this week is "Lost". I don't think we were "lost" per say- a few weekends ago when we went camping. We were up above Dunton, near Telluride but headed towards Ground Hog and ended up above Fish Creek. Let's just say, I think if Jon got bonked on the head, me and the girls could have probably found our way out.
It was a great weekend, just us and the dogs, who woke me up early, well, never let me sleep much, by the end, I just gave me sleeping pad to the white one. Once up, I tried to do some yoga, but apparently the only reason one would bend over in Downward Dog, would be to pet the dogs, they did settled down for me to do some sketching though...

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!