Managed to cover my head for about an hour! Got up at 6 and am feeling better and better. I don't seem to have any unexplained aches and today was promised horrific winds and cooler temps. Not real weather, but "dry lightening" was forecast...OOOoooOOo. Felt almost jolly, having a painting under my belt and more ideas, I ran into the compound and loaded the blog. Takes much longer than at RFM, but weather was nice.
Here is the main parking area and entry to the PD Visitor Center.
You are looking at the gift store and the area where the offices and my area of contact are. They have a library I was very interested in... but it is NOT my kind of library. It is for research and has serious stuff in there. I was hoping for a copy of Desert Solitaire as I don't seem to know how to download my library audio books. They are all set to stream and won't store. Drat!
Here is the Ortega shop and best fry bread cafe in the park!! (only one, of course, but their "baby" is exactly right! I always drown in Navajo Tacos but these are human sized!) To the right is the patio area and where the best wifi is available.
I don't like to admit how much time I spend there. I MUST get my booty down at dawn's early break and learn how to unlock the gate so I can use that extra hour before things get hopping.I know, I am supposed to use the lock-down time to commune with nature on my own, but I am only today starting to understand the ins and outs of how the park is available and NOT available to me.
A weaver and her daughter had set up camp in the PDI over weekend and there was a couple of tables of rugs and beads. The stuff of Pow Wow wares and the loom with the framed samples of dyes. I remember the display in Mesa Verde and seem to vaguely recall the weavers on the side of the road... Alice and Donna had introduced themselves to me on Friday and I got carried away yesterday so I stopped in again. The other artist had given them his space and I think we will need to coordinate. I would have loved to paint them working!!!
Alice is 97 and you don't see her picture.
She is still debating whether I can take a photo to use for a painting. I understand completely! For decades Native American's images have made money in advertising and their snapshots have been turned into art by amateurs and PROFESSIONALS and they are still eeking out livings trying to keep the culture alive. I totally honor that decision........but she will be back the last weekend. I will clear out my Saturday to see if I can work from photos if she lets me snap her on Friday!
I had visited PDI twice and the first trip (wherein I planted the idea of photos... and would return) is where I chatted up Dennis. He was a volunteer who I would have talked to all day. He turned me on to his best thoughts about wildlife and explained a phenomenon that I had a hard time putting into words:
Some of the amazing area near the TeePees is much like the rest but less colorful and it looks dusted with espresso! I didn't understand why it was coated with all this brown. He explained that the layers erode in sequence too. So this area had eroded to the brown and it was falling from the top, although it looked like it was being coated in it! SOOO COOL!
The first trip in, Suzie the amazing woman who is EVERYWHERE, showed me that the flier is done for the demo in Holbrook on Friday. Looks REALLY good! I am going to demo a coffee stained drawing. Always action packed!
Again I have two neighbors. Just for one night and I have already forgotten their names but they are passing through and you could see it in their eyes, they felt so privileged.
I got brave and inspite of the storm blowing up around me I went hunting and FOUND two pronghorns, right where Dennis proposed! Not best shooting conditions but babies with barely horns and new poses.
A great day all together!
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