Trooper, the Equine Ranger in Progress

So much that has nothing to do with anything has been happening, so a brief update.
I had my first presentation in Scottsdale at their art league and it went so well, another group asked for me.  The scheduling will probably end up in November or so, with the league's schedule and mine.
Tempe, which is very nearby also wants me and this time for AUGUST!  So we will put that on the agenda.  I figured out the issue I had been having with projectors.  You see my reliable little laptop does not have the proper hood up for almost EVERY available machine I can borrow or afford.  The new laptops don't tend to come with the plug either!  SO... I literally got and returned FOUR adapters before I finally found a small, rather old, but running win10 very slow and very old model REFURBISHED notebook that I will try to use ONLY for presentations.  If it wears out quickly, it was only $30 more than most of the adapters I exchanged.
I am breaking it in.

And I have been working on a portrait.
Still not done but here are a few progress shots....

 I knew what I wanted to do with Tooper, one of the horses that come (two days before I left) to stay in the park for the summer, but I was a bit unsure of what I wanted to do with the background.  So I drew him, sketched the background (which changed) and painted it all in black acrylic so I could do the background and still see the horse.

I finally decided on the scene and blocked it all in before I even began to paint the horse.  I called it eating my veggies before I had desert.  I am so bad at landscapes.  I love vignettes, but it is a bit nuts, to be around all that beauty and not use it at all in the paintings.  So this area was from a snapshot on the road.  I am pretty sure it is just around Kachina point, very near home... but I had blur in the thing and just loved all the stripes of color.

So,  90% done, horse near ready for the rest of the tack and I really did not like it.  Could not put my finger on it, but it did not do what I wanted, did not look like a place that was truly there.  I spent a lot of obsessive time trying to fit the time of day (noon and strong vertical light) with a scene that would make sense, and try as I might, I was not able to get that sense of abstraction I wanted behind his realism..

I asked some friends and tried him in other backgrounds (more complex and suited to my obsessive mind)  and there was a general consensus that ALL of my ideas were good.... which did not help, but a friend reminded me of something I LIKE TO SUGGEST to artists stuck like I am.... Put a piece of plastic over it and experiment.

I am sure she is aghast at the horrible plastic I used, but I just needed to decide what color and how far I needed to go.
So why is this in this blog?
I am aware of something that happened to me there.  I have become REALLY unhappy now that I am home.  I do not feel connected to much.  The heat keeps me in the house like a cage and I don't know what to paint, don't know if anyone will buy them, how much more I can fit in here, and I basically and to afraid to start anything for fear of failing.
This was a free pass!
I gave myself permission to let go.
I got in there and started by darkening and moving the sky a bit...

Not too dramatic but then I started darkening the space behind to show the shadows of the clouds and eventually stopped trying at all to match the reference, just started playing with the colors.  I put the purple in the shadows of the rocks close in , and dotted the background with glints of light and basically started playing.  It was more about me painting my OWN Painted Desert.

I know you all don't think there is much going on that is revolutionary about this, but to me, it was very freeing, with my house full of art, to risk it and come back from where it was not so safe!

I need to let it be.  

It is finally to a point where when I leave it and come back, it is pleasing me!!!

Next post will be the finish.  I might have my donation piece....

Found My Direction!

Because I am trying had NOT to load up my photos every day with beautiful scenery I will not be painting, I had a run down to Route 66 which Kip had mentioned was a place to look down and see JUNK, but we all need to realize it is HISTORY. (.....Forget the fact I was around when it was still a road.)  History does not have to be ancient.  We make it every day and when others are interested, memorabilia becomes historical.

Geology, Paleontology, Archaeology, Anthropology, Biology and HISTORY!  This literally has everything!


I did stay in bed until 8.   No, the cat is still trying to get me up before sunrise, but I am sticking him in the bathroom after he begins digging me out of the blankets.   I feed him.  If he gets wacko, he chills.

It was a day of weather!  We actually got enough rain to call it rain.  The red walls of the patio were red and the ground was muddy.  I had a plan to wait until everyone was working and get in to see how the rec. room and the single washer and dryer worked.  Rumor had it that people left laundry supplies.  I forgot that in Holbrook too.  Although I had a bunch of tops and blue jeans, I was not sure how large the machine was so decided the sheets and I could hack it until after the trip into town on Friday.
LUCKILY one load was left in a bottle of Tide natural and the washer could easily handled my sheets.  So now I know it is a big loader.
The rain had completely stopped by the time I got in and I posted the blog from the cafe while it washed.  It is very slow but it was raining intermittently as I arrived.  The patio was not healthy for electronic devices. The power had gone out a couple of times... once while the clothes were in the dryer.  I met a couple of paleontologists who were moving casts with bones and they showed me the breaker boxes...which were unnecessary.  Came on all by itself and apparently was park-wide, as I had to reset the clock in the casita.

I fruitlessly went seeking someone to see if I could be a vendor in the park stores but I pretty much realize, like our own zoo, local artists who are not into mass production are out of the loop.  So I guess the trip into Santa Fe us still a venture to plan.  Much harder to market and get info on galleries from a wifi from nowhere. But it is nice to check in with civilization in the AM.

I loaded my piece of Jorge in the car in case there was a break in the weather and possibility of painting on it.  The PDI was pretty action packed.  There was a young man and his mother again selling their rugs and wares but they were excited to let me paint them.  I may use them as the demo in Holbrook.

I ALSO RAN INTO KIP!  We had a long and productive discussion about what I am doing and what is expected of me.  I have been fighting the guilt to be making things, which is sort of counter-productive to feeling artistic.  He basically gave me permission to paint where I want, and just text it to him, in case there are issues.  He gave me the info and game plan for Holbrook and encouraged me to bring my wildlife and work on some rocks to show on the weekend as it is Mother's Day and they are having a migratory bird seminar.  I do wish I had more visiting fine feathered friends, but the sparrows and ravens are lovely subjects too.

NOW I have things to be involved in.



I even seemed a bit energetic.  Although the light is pretty wacko, I did work late on Jorge.  In the morning light I see a bit more work but it is good for the unveiling.

This is how I feel about the journey in the park.

The smile on the ranger in the tiny office as you come through the gate.  This is a place where people don't just work, they love what they do.  They have a passion for the actual locale.  Some were born inhaling the dust of the Painted Desert, others migrated from far and wide to have the experience of just being here.  Jorge is always there with a beaming grin, crisp uniform and so happy to see me and ask what I am doing!

This is such a privilege.

Quest for Nail Clippers,

Okay, tonight is the full moon...Unfortunately, even with clouds that let me sleep thorough the sun searing in, the cat began his wake up call at 4!!  He may sleep in the bathroom if this is not going to calm down.  Should have known. Also should have brought nail clippers.  My Swiss Army scissors just don't hack it.  He was so sweet yesterday it was amazing!

Second try at the day, I got up and began sketching Jorge, my favorite (today...) ranger in the entry box! I am just going to do a nice watercolor and set up anywhere out of the wind.  That is what I am inspired by.

Trying to post my blog over at PDVC, I brought a minimal bunch of stuff and it is always too much.  JUST a bit of cash and the laptop.  Had a "trip" on the patio, looking for better signal out of the sun and took a header.  In my brain, as I fell, I was trying to figure out how to not crash the computer, but how do I not do serious injury.. couple of faster and faster missteps and down we went.  Not hurt but fearful of damage to my little toy link to the outside world, it landed as a teepee butt up and scratched its edges.  I pushed the framework back and heard little clicks and the screen was still working so I had hope.
It seriously had a migraine, but I just kept rebooting (... when in doubt, just reboot) and it seems to have a lingering stick when looking for my files, but IT WORKS!!!
NOW I have a reason for aches and pains!  Double win!

Discovered Kip had gone south as I was up there.  My knees are a bit shaky and my head bounced a bit, not on the ground, just from the jostle.  Feeling old I decided to hit the sheets for a little while then give it a try... and I HEARD THUNDER!  READY for the rain and all the color that comes with it! Set up so I could see and started painting in the kitchen in the natural light.  Forgot the nap and was all set...

....and it stopped.  Well, perhaps tomorrow.  It smelled so amazing!

I decided one more jaunt down around closing to see if Dennis was right again.  He was. Found ONE solitary but amazing set of progs!... here is how dedicated I am (and have better vision than I thought)  This is the scenery in low 5 ish light....where the guy was:


I mostly don't like how my camera does not have a viewfinder, but I can sure use these grainy enlargements at like 85x zoom!

I ran out of the park to see if I could get some nail clippers for the cat, found the tourist trap just outside the south entry closes at 5.  But if you want to bring home your own rock, it is MUCH cheaper than the fine for pilfering from the park.  Actually there were some BEAUTIFUL rocks in the mortar of the shop with the concrete teepees and way better karma than from the park!

I came back to the visitor center and met a kid practically born in the park. She was running the shop and we hit it of great.  Really fine artist in her own right and we both loved the park for the things and the people who make it go.

While I wi-fied, I here is the view of the ceiling:

And the observation room where I was painting on Friday.

If the cat lets, me, I feel like it will  be an early evening.  If not, more to do on Jorge.
 The trip home had some stupendous tonal images.  A sunset without color over scenery of grays and brown.   Garish in the minimalism.
IF I paint scenery, that will be the stuff.

I also got the two tourist books that they all have recommended and if it is nasty tomorrow, we will try laundry and more wet photos and painting,  probably a day doing this and watching this on the bed:

 By the way... no nail clippers without a trip to Holbrook.

One Week Down... Waaaa!

I know, I am being a whiner, but I am very upset that I am almost 1/4 done... One week?  Not cool. I really don't want to do art, I want to plan art and stare at things.

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!

Productive Doesn't Look Productive

Last night, sitting with my computer on my lap, updating posts jumped on the PD wifi I was so excited - did so much!
But when I looked through my photos... I was working, not snapping.  No photos today of the Petrified Forest Museum, or gift shop.  I felt very much at home down south.  Aside from the hour round trip, and high gas prices in here, the drive would be the main order of business every day!

So, morning....
NOW he is my hairdresser!  Last night I took a nice bath (the heater only warms exactly half of that seductively big tub...waaa) and I guess the cat belives that clawing my hair will get me up faster.  Grrrrr.  Again, as dawn turns the sky red, he is letting me know it is time to rise and shine.  Like Tom, in Glass Menagerie, I am not thrilled.  But it was fine.
I did see a jack, but the photo was horrible and he left.... so here is one of our morning bunnies instead:



Officially the sun rose at 5:30 and my great plans of getting to the RFM early and setting up for 8 when they opened WOULD have been OK, but Steve, the guy on duty, got their plenty early and left the doors open.  So in came the tourists.  And if you know me, I don't shut up...
First exciting meet was the Lees...two Korean women, one of whom was an artist.  I LOVE MEETING PEOPLE!  I had just set up and they were great to talk to.  I am going to have to have that clip board tied around my neck! I keep forgetting to take the pictures!
I next met a wonderful woman from Utah that took my PET card and seriously wanted my contact info... (fingers crossed).

Challenging myself is one thing, and I sort of proved I could DO art (I have horrible blank canvas terrors if I am not backed up with pieces getting ready or finished on the easel for other people.  I have NO idea which of the millions of ideas in my head will capture the fancy of others and keep a roof over my head.)
Were the cholla not so mind numbing, I had a great day.  Painting is so automatic and Steve was a good guy who was really lonesome having lost his 3 pound chihuahua only 6 months ago.  He had great tales to tell about his brother and the agate magnate!  How ingenuity and seeing the bigger picture parlayed him into definitely one of the richest men in Holbrook if not THE.  I loved the story of how he watched a guy gutting some old buildings and after the workers left found pounds of old Wells Fargo stored ledgers and checks!  After a few donations for history, old cancelled checks were going for at least $20 a shot and he had a DUMPSTER full.  I would loved to have a few ledger pages for toned backgrounds.
One mans trash...(again, no photo, but HE will be a colorful character in the series...)

The wind picked up good at about noon. I really wanted everything in the car, so I didn't risk it blowing away... but I totally forgot about the wifi.... what wifi!  It was on and it worked.  Stayed after loading the car, as I didn't want artwork sailing down the road, to catch up... not much I really needed to know.
Came home and made lunch from the bran flakes left by a previous AiR (thank you)  and my milk from the store and set to work trying to get  finished of this painting. Listened to NPR, until my eyes got blurry, then drove over with camera about 5 to see the cloud shadows.  MIGHT HAVE TO MAKE A PLEDGE NO MORE PD PIX.  I am daunted and it is not helping.

But I took the computer and drove over to sit in the parking lot for a little while to post the sunset in the blog.
Came home and, having taken out the contact lens and going sans correction, worked some more on it.  Pretty much grass and grass and grass...much like fur I guess
DID see a really fleeting rainbow!  Pale but spectacular.

With tomorrow's wake up call, I tried an early to bed.  ha.
I learned that the cat is obsessed with the moon or changes in the clouds.  He has tried to climb into the window overhead a few times, so I closed the curtains.  Now he is chasing moths.
BUT before we turned the lights out, I will say I have something that can be put away for a while with some satisfaction:

Food Run

NOW the cat breathes on me.
I awake to whiskers and worry, as if I were moving so little he was worried I was dead.  As the morning shadows begin, he is obsessed with the changing shapes on the walls.  Lucky us, there are not framed pictures on the wall, but I do fear for the Painted Desert poster above my desk...

So we wake at 5-5:30, depending on how tolerant he is of me.  Literally he has started biting my elbow again.  If he were Lassie, he would be tugging me to the well... just in case someone had fallen in! A good thing about being locked into the park from 7 to 7, is that I don't feel guily dawdling, but somehow, making coffee and arguing with the cat tends to make that hour and a half fly by!  I thought I would drive to the west and get photos of everything I got pix of at sunset, from the other shadow, then escape as the gates open and head into Holbrook to get my supplies.

I am getting depressed about the lack of wildlife.  I spotted frolicking pronghorns the day before, with a car behind me, on a narrow road with no way to pull off.... and when I could ,they had rolled over the hill into the plains. I connected with the raven at Puerco Ruin yesterday and met my family of poodles, but barely a shadow of the bird up by the casita.

Heading out of the park, I saw three lovely cream white horses in front of a mesa by a stream.  They thought they knew me as the female and her baby started yelling at me as I took photos.  They apparently got bored and I tried to snap the family as they went up along the river.   NOT PEFO, but this is all about the experience.

For info, Holbrook Library is not open until noon on Thursday.  I ended up camping in a McDonalds for about an hour and a half updating the blog and getting things up and downloaded. The Safeway is across from the teepees hotel and although I parked by the end that said pharmacy, I forgot to get nose spray... I have been having sinus (not migraine) headaches and taking aspirin daily.  Don't like that.    I seem to be getting nosebleeds from the unrelenting dry. And the emotional ties to the city are still dug in.  

I came here to literally heal. 

 I know the nature most people think of is green, and dense and lush and maybe a little more dangerous (nah, rattlers don't want to deal with us any more than we do them, and scorpions are really happy outdoors this time of year - not too hot, not too cold.) So I am trying to keep this in mind.  The picture frames of beauty that serve as windows are perpetually refreshing.  The silhouette of my kitty in the diagonal made by the window swung open is worth spending hours staring at.  If he doesn't come down to bite me.  So, with shaking hands (IT IS MORE DRY THAN PHOENIX, and I think I am dehydrating!  This could be helping...) I actually managed a very brief nap which did refresh me.

Coming back in, I was setting up at the sign when tourists took my photo!  Missed the "AiR" signage but I look happier! (Footnote from the future... the tree there, or possibly up the road is where I have heard a family of Ravens are making their home..... Project for Friday)

I had a neighbor. 

When I pulled in to my space at about noon, there was a nice shiny (I envy great paint jobs) small SUV in my spot.  I was in no mood to chat, but a little later I heard a bit of noise and saw a park person getting on a bike.  "Hello, person on a bike." I called and tried to run outside to chat..forgetting there is patio wall and he was off and on the road by the time I got there.  After the nap, I met Al.  That was his son on the bike.  Al said he was visiting as  VIP (which is actually our acronym for Volunteer in the Park, but when they can arrange a great little individual dwelling for worker's families, this is VERY IMPORTANT...or was we used to call them PP's Privileged Persons).  He had a German accent and was thrilled his son had arranged the room and he took a train from Williams which was late.  Late being a wonderful time to continue his exploration of La Posada and he raved about the wonderful breakfast!  He said his son had told him he was parking in MY spot.... ha... it is a two car park smooth gravel with bricks to frame the space in the ground.  I felt myself widen and lift as we spoke..  I love people.  I like talking to the visitors.  It is obvious this is my project, not stupendous, overwhelming vistas.  Tooooo much info for humans.

I spend an hour or so looking over my photos and deciding on images and ideas to work on in the PDI or RFM (Painted Desert Inn and Rainbow Forest Museum.  WORTH using the letters and I am remembering them which is comforting.)  After the revelation with Al, I only had the one picture of Matt, enraptured discussing his first-dinosaur, then NOT dinosaur and I wanted to show how much he loves what he does and how important that love is to all of us. I actually ended up working til about 10, then fighting to midnight with the cat.  He now likes jumping on the counter.  Yesterday we emptied the top of the refrigerator.  I almost think the storage closet needs reorganized to accommodate... well... everything that is not tied down.

We Got A Tour.

I paced my self, after the sunrise and remembered to eat my protein bar... and only the protein bar... might have to get some real breakfast in me.....and did NOT end up having a lot of time before we all met at the lab to see the bones and stones and artifacts in the collection.
I do believe it may deserve it's own post, as it was a very informative tour and I am pretty sure I took away some of my own fallacies from all the info I was presented.   Matt Smith... yet another alias like mine.... was the master of the Collections:

HE LOVES HIS WORK!

In the main lab we saw a lot of relocating Paleo-Lab items. On my trip through last year I got to see how the 3D printer and scientists work together to make models, and say, you have one shoulder.... digitally you can flip it and create a model that mirrors it, so your jigsaw puzzle has better pieces. More in the longer post..... Down dark corridors we found skins of animals from within the park bounds (A SPOTTED SKUNK NO LESS)  and pottery that is historical, such as was once on display at the museum and even artifacts from CCC workers. 

Every type of visitor is represented.  He even took us to his LAB-O-RA-TORY.

Amazing machines for counting microscopic petrified scales and all on a budges of about $1000 a year.  PLEASE FOLKS, we depend on the kindness of strangers, so get yourself involved with the National Park Service associations and donate whenever, wherever you can.  The work is done by a handful of professionals, who have been mostly trained through on the job experience.  Something that books and classrooms cannot teach. Careful use of volunteers and the amazing personal involvement of the people who intimately know these creatures  from ancient times is what sets this sort of research apart.  The Dept. of the Interior is in charge of things and they MUST protect one of the largest collections (total) in the world.

I loved that he didn't even start the talk by dumbing it down!  My bits of Latin and good old public school education had me following RIGHT along.  Some of the actual names got jumbled in my head, but I have only remembered (not cheating by looking at tags) about 5 staff... I don't do names.

When I left, I realized the dust and eyefry from taking more photos yesterday PM helped me get the old sinus headache back.  I am feeling ancient.   After a couple of hours I think, in the courtyard by the offices where the wifi is thin but there, I had updated the blog from yesterday and did my little mail etc.  Heading home I thought a short nap... (WHICH I REALLY DID NAP!) and I might take the paints and pencils across the road, quietly, at long shadows, to see the Painted Desert vistas.

Jim's (the other AiR) easel was still up in the observation area, even though he was off for the day.  I AM NOT A LANDSCAPE painter, although painting outside is fine with me, so I took to a trail to see what I might sketch.  Had a great chat with a couple of visitors and decided the rocks were lumpy to sit on the but the view was worth it... on the way back up I realized I WILL NOT be hiking.  Some longer flat walks, ok, but now I KNOW I am not fit enough.  Went back, got the camera, raced back, took it out, snapped 2 shots and promptly ran out of battery.  AAARRRGGGHHH.

So Thing and I (and the headache) decided to eat out.  

I had spaghetti on the patio and he joined me in his travel apartment to watch the sun finish its day.

NICE!  NICE!

(I hear it hit 100 back home.   NICE!!!!)

Getting Oriented.

There is something about having a REAL WINDOW SILL for a cat to settle in for the day, that makes this Thing, so much more cat-like.  Although he was still a total pain the first night and was banished for a few hours in the night (his plaintive cries did touch my heart..) he eventually actually curled up next to me and we slept.   Not really what you would call a long night (I did too much straining and stretching packing and the car ride whacked out my hips so I was up and down.  I even spent a while watching what I figure in the morning to be reflections from the OTHER window of the road out east. I thought it must be campers but they were  spookily nearby.  Ha.  I think this may explain the haunting across the road... reflections.

Before the sun actually came up (maybe about 5) a yellow orange glow fills the cloudless sky in the east.  Startling colors.  Not soft gentle pinks one is used to... but not enough to rouse me.  THAT happened a little over an hour later when the sun BLAZED in on my eyelids.  Once up and over the sill of the window, it was a perfect alarm.  I adjusted the center panel in the blinds to block the earliest rays and found myself brewing a pot of Mr. Coffee to load into my travel mug and see if I could play alone on the Painted Desert Inn patio and start loading the blog.

In the morning I realized the wifi was a phantom to chase, not a real thing available to me near home.  The PDI has a transmitter that only temps, not rewards wifi seakers.  But the walk across the Park Road was worth it.  Long before the the tourists and rangers showed, it was a chilly but not cold start of a day.  I found some amorous birds enjoying the shortening shadows with me as I slowed down again to sip my coffee and enjoy the view.  Every morning and evening, it is going to be different.  I am sure the  possibilities will overwhelm me.  I am going to try to just WATCH.

The actual environs around my place are pretty nifty. 

Aside from the greeting I got from a The landscape is full of blooming yucca. I  remember Mom valuing the pods for crafts etc.  

I also thought there was a scattering of actual litter.  White flowers individually stood boldly against the dusty, scruffy landscape. 

I wandered on the hill above the casita and got lots of little things... 

There were little jewels of rocks and shrubs.  I picked up two stray bits of petrified rock to admire in the cottage during my stay.
I saw a huge footprint of a wild beast.. fearing Coyotes or worse, I realize in a dog friendly park, Just good old Rover leaves his traces...
I met a Tarantula Wasp, and the little lizard (who I hope is not the one later in this tale..)

Late morning I went to the visitor center and scouted the wifi and laundry and loaded yesterday's blog. Kip was going to be at PVI all afternoon and I said I would bring the spare car magnet for visitors... Then I went off to see the museum in the ACTUAL Petrified part of the forest.

I had chatted with a cute woman from England who said her whole reason for being here was a discovery of Route 66.  

I am still working on  my theme of visitors, but it was initially following the ravens... all of whom have abandoned me so far. Packing up pencils as if I would do anything besides photograph, I filled up the card with the same amazing views as a year ago....then suddenly near Puerco Ruin, they found me.

My first painting will definitely be him, as he perched atop the silver vent on the restrooms, the 1/4 moon faint behind him in the bright day....

I met four lovely poodles on their way home from a club meeting in St. Louis.  They may be the second in my series.

A LONG eye-burning windswept trip through the park, found me exhausted but I managed to roll into the parking lot before the PDI shut and I walked the sign over to Kip.  I met my fellow artist, attempting to capture the vista across the street!  I am too daunted for that!

When I came back, the cat was looking intently at something....

It was a mortally wounded lizard who did not seem too excited to leave or to stay.   

After brushing him out the side door, I felt pretty sad.  

I had found a tiny broken egg this morning on the patio from the nest directly above my door and a petrified smaller lizard body.  

It is all natural, but it all made me sad.

We Have Arrived!

A really uneventful trip but late start, made me too anxious to just get there so I bypassed the trip into Holbrook, figuring a spare (they made it wrong..) SuperSonic Breakfast Burrito from Payson would make my dinner, with breakfast bars, coffee and sustenance to keep me from starving for a few days, I would be fine!  We got the key and used the cabin-provided sheets and such (I brought my own... too small...ugh) I made my own "Decorator Showcase"of a nest, complete with deep windows for cat viewing of the world!

Being a recently ingrained slug of a couch potato, I knew I was not fit, but seemed to pull a hip out of whack and 4 hours behind the wheel was not helping.  I arrived stiff and getting sorer.  "What a wonderful testament to how fun the park is for the handicapped" I thought as I finished loading in to my new home..... Dragging and whiny, I did take a walk across the main park road to the Painted Desert Inn RIGHT at closing. and wandered off into my own little reverie thinking of the FIRST wave of romance the park had inspired......

I circled the perimeter and looked out on to the Painted Desert as the shadows were lengthening.....

I began feeling the peace and calm.  

Returning to the casita, as it got dark, I tossed and turned and argued a little with the cat, but turned off the internet, read a bit of the journal of previous tenants in this historic structure and decided my task was to explore the wonders of actual silence....

Last Friday at Home, I Hope....

Today we got new brakes, and oil change.

Although I would not allow my car in the Park to be viewed by visitors if I had the power, I began doing longer trips when it hit 100,000 miles.  The CarTalk guys convinced me of the "nothing to lose" aspect of letting things fall off and keeping it running for the lowest investment.   If it is rolling, it is just fine.  Now it stops too!
In my mind it is like a jigsaw puzzle, packing for a month away.  I am really funny, as my last few trips to Denver went with entire art shows of 30 paintings in the trunk (I did not unload the last 20 until this week...) and my cat and the necessities of life, but I will no longer have the ability to run to the local 7-11 and grab a bag of potato chips at 11 at night.  I am visualizing planning ahead!  So today I got canned food, a salt and pepper shaker, spaghetti and sauce and will bring the last of what is in the fridge, freeze things that can't go bad and stop in Holbrook on the way in for milk and cold stuff.... need to learn where the grocer is anyway! And all for a whopping 4 hour drive!!
My computer is completely ported into a small external drive, I have the home phone now all computerized so I won't miss the tons of unidentified callers looking for that OTHER Debra Jones who has outstanding bills! Thinking of adding a few GB to the cellphone, and if it works, may even experiment with a "hot spot".   I am such a tech addict....hoping for withdrawal.  I am boxing up all the peripherals and a small printer and paper to begin fitting into the trunk.
I have a list of minimal clothes and the knowledge there is a laundry makes me feel much better about that plan.
Refilled all my meds, updated insurance for the year, paid all the bills and go out nearly broke, but tapping savings for now.
This weekend I have a few obligations and figure tomorrow will be actual loading anything not critical at home so I can figure the amount of finished art to carry for demos and show-and-tells.
The cat is a piece of cake. We have made about 8 individual trips in the past couple of years and he is cool!  As you know, he lives in that cage at home too.  I even opened the portable red kennel to get him used to it and he is sitting in it, supervising now.
So the weekend awaits and I am saying goodbye to the windy, concrete box I live in for the windswept (so much different) beauty of the millennia in this stark and amazing National Park.

(Nothing picturesque about all this... that will begin on MONDAY, if the internet gods shine on us!)

(....well I did find some wonderful traveling glasses....

First Event is on the Schedule - May 12

Holbrook, the little metropolis on the edge of the park, has wonderful arts events featuring the Artists in Residence at their historic Train Depot!

The Park cosponsors the Holbrook Art Series featuring the monthly artist in residence and give a great way to see what the Park is doing and help me with promoting my art.

I am planning a demonstration of my Tin Cup style.

I did a lot of the Pony Express historical re-enactors from the area a few years ago.  I figure showing my pieces and explaining my technique would be a great way to make a new PeFo related piece and interact with the community!  I will post the images when we get going.