Holbrook Route 66 Day

Hope you are not skipping days you THINK you read, as I have my camera, my big computer, and a keyboard that can actually type and spell-check!  So I updated the cell photos and there were some nifty things to see...

Jake was my Ranger helping at the booth:

It was WINDY!   But it was Route 66 Days and it was full of cars:

Had a really amazing Elvis impersonator among a full day of music....

Trouper and his Ranger on horseback came by and gave out free horsie kisses!  He is such an attentive and patient representative of the Park!  New in town, he picked up right where he left off!

Most of the day was spent hanging on to the roof.  Finally with a couple of hours to go, we pretty much lost the tent!  The wind kept  you cool, but without the shade, it was a lot more oppressive than I counted on.

There was a Hash-knife Posse breakfast, Navajo Tacos (... watching me balance it on my boot was a supernatural feat in the gusts!!!) but I wore much less than expected. And the shaved iced even gave me a frozen headache!  So I was not THAT hot!

Home in the casita, I had to race out to see a sunset on Blue Mesa...

....."She's Back!"

Yup.
I got recruited to help at the PeFo booth at Route 66 Days on Saturday in Holbrook!
Bringing rocks, although I just found out the early breakfast is sponsored by Hashknife Posse.  Not precisely the same guys I know, but .... Just rocks....

Got out a little later than expected and I will be only posting photos from the phone, because I forgot the loader for the camera card.  May take a while.. but GREAT FUN ALREADY!!

The other casita is at an angle.  The kitchen is bigger and the view out the door is pretty spectacular.   I  No protective wall and top to bottom view of that hill (the one the deer were wandering) and only the neighbor and road are hidden from view!
I immediately re-arranged it.
I was not facing the sunrise when I woke.  The cat might have been confused.  I can look at walls at home.  I moved the desk against the wall and maybe shoved the bed a bit into the corner, but makes the room very spacious.

I also met my neighbor.  I told her I had valued my solitude and she was welcome to talk the me, but I would let her be, so she could have it all to herself.... then proceeded to move furniture, drop things, talk to the cat and pretty much be noisy.  I just realized I talk to myself ALL THE TIME!

The bathroom is even cool!  It has a smaller tub and the same size water heater, so I am able to fill it warm!  Not that I am as excited about a HOT bath, as the casita had windows open and was 86 when I got there!  I know the nights are cooler.  That is what I am most looking forward to:  Silence and dark.  Wind blows most days and it is calmer at night... or it was when I was here!

Ran across the street for my ice cream and then I had to head over here (yes, the old visitor center) to find out what I am doing tomorrow.  The rumor is to meet at the Adamana exit at 7:30.  I CAN SO DO THAT!

Wanna know the best of the best of it all???

There was a Tony Hillerman book in the desk for me!!! I may be too tired to read, and THIS time I know what to do with all my spare time, but JUST FOR ME!!!
I am in heaven for a few more days...

********
Since there's no Wi-fi anyway, and data is a bit more reliable in the Casita and Wi-Fi at The Visitor Center, (where I saw a moth that was easily four inches wide)

I have a few updates in the first evening.

Is though the thing has found the outdoors very entertaining. He managed to squeeze through a rip in the screen. This one is not nearly as well put together as the other one. So I noticed out of the corner of my eye he was in the window and then kind of not in the window. Never quite figured out where he went but it was in the other room and I had gone outside to watch the Sun go down. When I went in I couldn't find him, and that's when I noticed that although it was somewhat small, there was a tear in my screen with lots of fur around it. No cat. I found him on the other side of the house. I had been outside the whole time. He just didn't come around that side.

I was rewarded with a pretty spectacular Sunset, which I usually get! However this one was from the other side of the building. And I was lucky to have witnessed my second full moon! This is it rising over the old place...

Back to the Hell of the City

Not much pretty to post, but as it is only my second full day here, I have a couple of updates.

My computer only malfunctions at home.

On my short day back home mid-May, I must have spent a couple of hours frustratingly trying to get my desktop to not boot, run and turn itself off and on again after about 3-10 minutes.
I blew it with my hair dryer (hot off), I took a very soft brush and tried to find hidden dust bunnies.  The interior fan was known to literally stick.  I opened the side and gave it some help so I assumed old parts, dust and oncoming heat might be part of it.  I finally gave up.
When I got home on Thursday, I had no stamina.  I called ABC computer repair in Tempe.  They took it in and of course it ran like a TOP!  Two days and I asked them to replace the sticky fan ($15 and the $40 one obligatory hour fee seemed great!)  Data Drs. cost something like $200+ and it did the SAME thing and they replaced NOTHING.  I know it was hardware, they kept checking software.

Well, I got it home yesterday and it did it again.  3 times!  We all seem to think it must have something to do with the house, but I have never figured why everything else in the house works consistently but not the computer.... MONTHS at a time and then it hates me.

MY opinion was still monster dust bunnies.
And this time I think I saw one blow INTO the power source.
They say it is not reasonable to pull the power unit  apart to clean.  I do understand why, but I think the bunny is JAMMING, not burning out the fan.  Moving it to the shop would jostle it out and bringing it home, it may migrate back... ok, it is the stuff of dreams but....
So when it failed again, I called.  It was Friday and I could not tolerate one more day on the tiny computer.  As you can tell, my thoughts flow freely when the keyboard is willing!

At any rate...my solution was a small fan.  It was to keep it cool and circulating.  For some odd reason, after about 14 hours now, it is still working....
So.....

I hope to go into the blog and edit my typos, expand on things and possibly even add some better photos that I could not edit from the tiny laptop.

Both of us are NOT happy.
I have been doing paperwork and balancing budgets and such so it is depressing but, I believe I am nearly done. That means I should actually unpack the car and bring the cat's cage in.... I want to run off with him, but the trip ANYWHERE is so hot, I should stay home and regroup.

As far as the Park is concerned and my participation in the blog.. More to come!
As I am no longer a public commodity, as part of the park itself, I can swivel my thoughts to making a bit more money off of all this inspiration in my head .. and camera!

Route 66 Days in Holbrook has a table for PEFO and I am going to firm up my participation by Monday so Kip can plan on me!  I will be trying like mad to do a few more animals from the actual park and maybe some 66 sights... not sure how,. but it will be fun, and make more rock transfers.
I have a wealth of legal scrap rocks here.  There is a tiny cache I got on the road to Holbrook that will be labeled as such, but t is setting up the office, the digital editing programs, scanning finished art etc to get started for a bunch of goodies by next weekend.
I will update you on the donation to the park as well.
There is nothing very beautiful around here to photograph, so I will try to send progress shots as I go....
Your PEFO AIR!
dj*

Holiday Weekend Pt 2

EXHAUSTION.
Woke up with mysterious belly ailment.  I did not feel bad, but spent the day (happily unsurprised) waiting for a second explosion!
But I had worked so hard on a few duplicates and was ready with a new one and it did not work.  I forgot the demo... why?? I do this all the time!?!?!
I took forever drawing a new head to paint from scratch.
It was old 43 the ram, again.
I always say, don't demo unless you KNOW how it will turn out. I try to look like a genius in front of people, and do all my experiments at home.  Although this actually was the fourth try, one first day demo, the original big one, the sketch I left at home, then this, I always feel like I will fall on my face.  It was a little slower but actually there was a lot more spontaneity in the piece!
It happened.  It was good, but have very little to show for it.  I was talking a lot and meeting people.
I think I will look at the cars parking at the PDI and see if it gets busy.  I am not a 7 hour a day worker any more...

Just loading in tonight to keep myself on track.  I don't remember even taking photos... so you have none!... (well this:

If I cheer up, I may spend a little time tomorrow seeing if I forgot anything...
OH...Not only did  I meet the guy from Central City last weekend, TODAY I met a guy from Catalina! Another place nobody can possibly be from!!!
So that was cool...

Demo Day for Holiday Weekend, pt1

I had it explained that this weekend is not going to be all that I figured.
It seems as though Tuesday will probably be the big day.  That is when kids are all out of school and families begin long vacations. This is the kind of place that usually is your first stop on a prolonged travel. Although this is a long weekend that would allow slightly longer trips, the Big Crush will probably not be for a few days. Kind of makes no sense but these people know more than me.

It was not what you would call either profitable nor productive, but I did get some entertaining interest from a couple from Germany who thought they might want a portrait. The logistics have yet to be determined, but the desire was there! It's a little like what they say about golf: any day golfing is better than whatever the heck the opposite is. And this is so much better than what the opposite is.
So this is the summary of the whole day:

The top is a partial piece from the morning visitors, two mule deer. The bottom 2 are transfer demos. You can see, why this process is not exactly straightforward....
The top one you can see is after touch up. It initially had no beak, no tail and a chunk of its back was gone, but I went in with my tiny little brush and repaired him.
The bottom shows how it looks when I peel the paper off...ugh
My posts of late have not been quite as lavish, as I have actually been able to avoid going into the visitor's centers for Wi-Fi! Do we call this a victory that I have given up on my little computer? Or do we just call it too lazy to drive the extra 15 minutes up to an hour?
I ended the day with a run down to the teepees for Sunset. I never had managed to do that.

It was definitely worth it. Photos were in the real camera, however and I'm not sure if any one sums it up. But it was quite spectacular.

Science Experiments

Having plenty of enthusiasm for finishing #43, I tried a seemingly elegant way to stabilize my sandstone from parts up and down route 66 and 180, Dismal failure.. so I spent the AM scrubbing off the "transparent" surface, and went for a simple fixative to see what would happen.  I prepped some up to demo my transfer method during the long weekend.  

Then went hunting reference for paintings... rocks or paper?  My hyper kicked in... Below are the rocks in progress and my experiment on paper for a painting... ONE of hundreds I have in mind.  NEVER make a dent in 6 days.

I have a beautiful idea for the scene of the four deer I caught on camera last week from the casita.  The stripes are the first round of dawn out here.  Very often cloudless and there is an amazing transfer of color from dark at the top and gold at the bottom.  So that is coming...
Here is a drawing for the big piece I think may wait, as the experiment above is so perfect for another, more intimate but similar piece...

As a reward for all the work... and how I felt I had wasted a really BEAUTIFUL day, I walked across to find the WiFi working like a champ at PDI!  

While typing, four more unfinished projects hit me.... back across and hopefully, to the PDVC to get a couple of prints made for my rocks of the ground squirrel and ram....

I can paint when I get home, but I really sort of hate it when my brain goes into overdrive here!  I can paint in the dark... the scene from the patio is perfect!  The weather is PERFECT...

Does NO ONE want to adopt a permanent Artist In Residence to live and work for them?  Somewhere that you can open your windows from June through September???

*****

Forgot this... Up way too late, nearly counted on tomorrow, the first experiment was successful.

Big Party!

I decided I would be seen.
I loaded my rocks and goodies and walked over to see the doings at PDI.   The day was warm (they started calling it hot) and morning had no wind so I set up on the outside patio.  With lots of rocks holding things down, I had no problems.


It was such fun!  I met an actual person FROM Central City Co.  Nobody actually is from there!  We talked about the good old days before casinos!  There were Chinese, German and possibly Belgian folk and unusually a few non-English speakers, but lots of Coloradoans.  Felt like old home week.

I finished my little ground squirrel pretty quick.  Smaller than usual pieces because the big rocks are still at home.  OR in the suitcase all wrapped and tagged and unsold!

I even made a lot of progress on good old #43!
Although I was not there a long time, I was pretty tired out.  The early mornings are not for me.  I got up again, a bit too late to make it to my deadline on Friday but I keep trying.





The dust and wind finally did me in at the PDI, but I went home and with a dinner party pending, found I was actively doing a LOT of stuff and nearly didn't get there in time.  MOSTLY because the internet was a total pain all day.




I met up with Suzy and Steve, and Jim and Annie and a couple visiting Suzy and Steve and a neighbor in the park at the mobile home of my favorite ViP Dennis and his ViP wife,  Jo Lynne.

They fed us.  
MY oh, my did they feed us!! Steak and mushrooms with onions, big salad and baked potatoes!  We fought the wind, but honestly, I am pretty immune to the wind.  Perhaps the picture of my hair expanding around me, and ending in my meal could be disconcerting to the observer, but for some reason, it seems like the park, playing and hugging me... seriously, I feel embraced.


I was excited to bring the cookies my client had donated to the trip that I PROMISED I would save for pot-luck donation and not snarf all by myself!  We adjourned in to their luxury land yacht (which reminded me so much of my Mom and her husband, Tom's traveling home) and chatted until after 8!  Great company and elegant hosts!

My hostess gift was a small print (perfect for decor on the road) of the drawing I made the night before.

PROBABLY part of why I am not doing mornings so well.

Demonstrating at the Painted Desert Inn

Cat and I have a rhythm.  Sun is about to come up, he digs me out of the covers.  I grab a hand full of food and throw it in his bowl in the bathroom and lock him in.  I got to sleep nicely until 5:30.

Had loaded all of the rocks in the car the night before and cleaned up and when out about 9.


It was a cute little display and it was SOOoooooOOOO windy!

The people who came in and braved the blow were (as always) great.

I showed how I put the laser print on the rock for the repros and just enjoyed the people.











Much chatting and I worked on a smallish... 4x4" painting of good old 43.



He is the ONLY bighorn I hear about in the park.  He was spotted earlier this year, but I have a shot from last year's journey.



Got the bulk of the bighorn to show.  Odd rock but turned out rather well if I say so myself.









Took down about 3:30.  Always an ordeal!  Got the car loaded between gusts and felt rather satisfied for the day.

With specific projects out of my head, I have a couple of ideas for the week... OR NOT and after I upload this at the PDVC,  I might start a few new projects.


But it has been kind of fun actually getting to bed early!  Not that I expect it with a whole day out of the house....

Day 13

I am writing this in real time.  It actually IS he 13th.

One of the problems with my blog idea is when and where I can upload it, so I am sitting with day 12 in the mini computer waiting for me to go to wifi capability, but not always able to do it in the earlier parts of the day.

I put the cat in the bathroom at 4 and managed to sleep through to 7!  This is somewhat of a milestone.  I am sure it was the exhausting day in Holbrook, and I do not have a voice anymore.  Having become a hermit in town, has made this so very easy, but I blossom when I do get out among folks. But I get raspier and raspier.  I did stay up working pretty late and was happy at the progress on my portrait, but figured to get busy with some bird or small things to demo for the weekend in honor of Mother's Day.

I was advised to get out and do a walk in honor of Migratory Bird day.  Hallie who is such a great voice for the park and in charge of the daily notes on the Facebook page, met lowly me at 9 as publicized, in the Puerco parking lot and we went to a few semi forbidden places, accompanied by more wind than the birds needed to migrate around us.

I know I am allowed to avail of the rangers, and volunteers as long as I don't interfere with work, but I still have nothing but questions.  Each new discovery leads to more to look for.
Who would have thought that her love of wildflowers would have lead me back to the casita, after an attempted and non-productive nap, to go sit in the wind on my patio.  The temperature was perfect.  The grasses were dancing and all I saw was wildflowers.  I just walked around snapping these microscopic little things.
The sound of the wind is perfect now.  Tomorrow it may be more scary, but just for now, it is so soothing, I am happier NOT to be asleep, just listening.

What exactly is expected of an artist in residence?  The more I ask, the more happy I become.  I am such a night owl... besides if the cat watches me in the evening, he is less inclined to be bored and keep me up all night.  I do more painting in the casita, even though I did enjoy both jaunts into the public venues, I would rather talk and snap photos.  I will easily have over 2000 photos when I am done.  I do wonder if I could be a professional former Artist in Residence!  I know there is work for me but I have GOT to find an audience.  I get funky thinking about how to sell it, and that is when I stop THINKING.

My statement that AiR fall into two main categories.  The very rich with plenty of time on their hands to drop out for a month and the very poor who have NOTHING else to do for a month.  Guess where I am.  I am choosing to regroup.  Not probably the wisest but the healthiest.  I want to just have all this visual stimulus pour into me.  Painting can come later.
......
 I had originally thought this might be a two-part post. But the rest of the day kind of finished out the way the first of it went.
It was a great recuperation​ day. The cat even wondered why I was napping.

I prepped up for the next day at the Painted Desert Inn, with all my I rocks and reproductions and a little bit of everything.
I actually went to bed 8:30!

Every Little Penny!

I have decided to lighten the load of some of my miniature reproductions on flagstone ahead of my departure.  Of split minds, with the distraction of prepping and planning and the real need to hold down the fort at home, I am putting one up a day on my facebook page.

So I am showing my first sale!

I started making these pieces as original art on great scraps of flagstone for wall decor.  I liked the brown on brown as a great surface for wildlife art.

This is the original piece, 11" wide and I sell it for $250.00.  

By downsizing and making completely handmade decals using acrylic medium, my reproductions are different sizes and directions. After I transfer them on to the rock, I  touch up with paint. It is a recreation of my own work... not really an original, but lets call it Artist-Enhanced... oh I guess I did on the small tag!!