Boondocking and Apple Pie Along I-10 in Eastern Arizona

 Yum! 

Since I wrote my last blog post in February, I've traveled between my homes in Why, Arizona, and Truth or Consequences, New Mexico, and I've made some better stops than I used to along I-10.  

I don't attempt the eight-hour drive in one day unless Steve and I are traveling together.  That much driving makes my body hurt, so I always split up the trip into two days.  Plus, breaking up the trip gives me lots of time to run errands or go junking in Tucson or wherever I want to along the way. 

In the past, I'd usually stop at a truckstop overnight.  I rarely want to spend the money on a paid campsite or RV park site if I'm just going to rest up for another day of driving.  But on my last trip, I tried two free spots that are really worth knowing about.

On my way west, I'd intended to stop at the TA truckstop in Willcox, which is not a bad place to overnight.  Since I have a small rig (22-ft Toyota Dolphin), I can park just about anywhere and stay a little ways away from the noisy trucks.  But I always have to use earplugs to get to sleep there.

 Level parking lots on several sides of this fun store, plus there is a Cochise County visitors center next-door with additional overnight RV parking

This time, just before exiting at Willcox, I noticed some RVs parked by a store of some kind that was several blocks further away from the freeway than the TA truckstop.  As I exited, I saw signs for Apple Annie's Country Store and followed them.  This upscale pie/jam/gift shop has a nice level parking lot and it's next-door to a local tourism information building which also has good overnight RV parking in its lot.  No charge.  I don't know how long it would be okay to stay there, but it was much quieter than the truckstop and very pleasant.  I got up the next morning and went into the store when they opened at 8 am and bought a fabulous $14 apple-rhubarb pie and managed to get 5/6ths of it home to Steve in Why later that day.

 A tabletop for my friends at Passion Pie Cafe in Truth or Consequences, NM

 A sign I will hang once the permit is approved

I spent several weeks in Why, working on a new tabletop for Passion Pie Cafe and on a sign for my Sun Gallery in TorC and enjoying time with Steve.  On my way back east to New Mexico, I tried another overnight spot that was new to me, Indian Bread Rocks Recreation Area, a BLM picnic area south of Bowie, Arizona.  You can't boondock in the picnic area itself, but you can pull off a nearby road and camp close enough to use the vault toilet at the picnic site, and you can camp for free there for up to 14 days.  

The view from my campsite at Indian Bread Rocks Recreation Area

This area is beautiful--I heard and saw lots of birds, and there were cattle walking right by my rig and horses down the road a bit.  It took about 15 to 20 minutes to get from a gas station in Bowie to the BLM land, with the last two miles or so being dirt road.  It was well worth the detour off I-10, even for just an overnight stay.  This BLM area was so pleasant, I could see making it a destination and staying there several days to paint.

Some of my neigh-bors at Indian Bread Rocks

I got home from my trip to Why in time to attend an annual Open House at Spaceport America.  It was a beautiful drive out past Engel and one of Ted Turner's ranches to Spaceport.  I didn't understand much of what they were saying in the presentation because the acoustics in the hangar were awful, but I enjoyed seeing the facility and spending the afternoon with my friend Kat.  I'm guessing the $49 Spaceport Tour would be a lot more informative and interactive than the Open House was, but I haven't tried that yet.   

 

Visiting my Arizona winter camp, creating artwork and running my gallery has kept me pretty busy these past few months, but I also found some time to explore some primitive camping opportunities closer to Truth or Consequences...places I can easily get away to for just a few nights when I want to have some uninterrupted time to paint.   Both Elephant Butte State Park and Caballo State Park have primitive areas where there are no services and very few neighbors, for $8 per night.  I've been enjoying exploring the various roads into the isolated outer edges of these parks.

The Gallery goes well.  Both my artwork and my antique finds are selling, and I enjoy the interactions there with friends and the public.  

 Mosaic tile projects including an early 20th Century occasional table on wheels, a mirror, and a teardrop trailer shaped birdhouse

 

 Hi there!

Now that I've been in my storefront for a while, I've been able to resume doing mosaic artwork for the first time in a few years.  As an RVer, I really didn't have the space or weight allowance for tiles, grout, etc.  I'm also helped by a new compound tile nipper, which allows me to make plates into tile without hurting my arthritic hands.  I'm making birdhouses that are flying off the shelves, and it's fun.

I've also been experimenting with Day of the Dead type motifs, with mandala style backgrounds.  

 Reviewer James Durham writes about my gallery in The Ink, a Southern New Mexico arts magazine

Second Saturday Art Hop has been really fun each month at Sun Gallery.  In February, my friend Claudia made poison pen Valentine cookies which made everybody laugh.  

In March, we had a Peep Show--a marshmallow Peeps diorama contest that got enough entries to make it really a fun exhibit.  

Peeples Choice Winner:  Martye Allen

 Gallery Choice Winner:  Linda DeMarino

I'm looking forward to more fun events that include artists of every age and experience level.  In May, I'm going to keep the gallery open for two weeks in a row for our local Fiesta celebration and then for Second Saturday Art Hop.  During that time, we'll have a community art show at Sun Gallery on the theme "So Many Chickens, So Little Time."  

The next several weeks, I'll be in the East Village, trying to beat my friend Marcy at Scrabble and soaking up all that New York City has to offer.  Flying there, not RVing.  See if you can find me in the audience on the Tonight Show with Stephen Colbert on April 18th.  I'll be there.           

"Overachieving Chameleon"--A Papier-mâché Sculpture

To me, papier-mâché is a fun, nostalgic craft medium as well as a challenge to master now that I'm a "professional" artist who sells some work now and again.  I'd like to be able to do it consistently well.  So I took on a fairly big papier-mâché project for practice and to participate in a ladder-themed show at Grapes Gallery in Truth or Consequences, New Mexico.  

Initially I wasn't planning to make anything for this show, because I was busy with other work.  But then when I went to TorC last month to hang my solo show at January's Gallery, I got inspired by what the other half-dozen or so local artists had done with ladders of all sizes, shapes, colors, etc.  Fun stuff!  And I was assured that I could still add a piece, because they plan to keep the ladders installed for several more months.   

So I took two small, unadorned wood ladders home from Grapes and got going.  Ya'll know how much I love to make mandalas, so my first thought was, how can I make beautiful mandalas on these nice little ladders?  Then, an idea hit me of a chameleon who is changing his skin to match a mandala.  Yikes.  Weird but fun.  

 This is how it starts...

 
Because some of my FaceBook friends have asked about papier-mâché, this blog post is sort of a sculpture play-by-play.  (Hoping one of my not-to-distant future blog posts will be about travel...but I'm kind of stuck here for a while.)

When I got the chameleon idea, I figured I would have him climbing the ladders somehow, and that I'd make him out of papier-mâché, because I figured some sort of clay figure would be awfully heavy to mount, plus I don't have ready access to a kiln these days.  And papier-mâché is fun!  At least, that's the way I remember it being in the past.

I wired the two ladders together to make a sort of corner lattice, and I created the chameleon by making a rough figure (called an armature) that I could use as a base, using newspaper, wire, and masking tape.  I'd already cut up the entire Sunday paper from Tucson into 1-inch wide strips, and I started dipping these in liquid laundry starch and then draping them over the armature.  I could make a layer and then I needed to stop and let it dry completely (which doesn't take long in desert heat, let me tell you).  

 Some chameleon sketches and ideas

 
For days, the chameleon did not look anything like a lizard.  He looked almost entirely like a large gray rodent.  It was a bad case of reptile dysfunction.  

After a while, I decided to round out the chameleon's shape and features using another papier-mâché method.  I had a bag of paper pulp called Celluclay which I mixed with warm water to create a clay-like paper mush.  It was easier to sculpt and mold than the newspaper strips, but it also was kind of granular and hard to smooth out.  When I use paper pulp again, I'll want to have a Dremel or small sander handy to smooth the surface before painting.  

 Here you can see the Celluclay being used to round out the figure's shape.  Also note the roll of galvanized electric fence wire to the right, which I used for making this sculpture.  Those of my readers who have followed me since I became a full-time RVer in 2011 may remember when this same roll of wire saved my bacon after the back bumper of my Toyote Dolphin fell off on I-10, somewhere just this side of Biloxi.  This wire was one of my all-time best garage sale purchases.

 
This time, I didn't have that sort of tool, so I just sanded like heck with wet black XX fine sandpaper and gessoed, and sanded and gessoed, and so on.  It was still pretty bumpy when I started painting it.  It was not going to get any smoother on my watch.

That's the beauty of being an Outsider primitive naive crafter or whatever the heck anybody wants to call me.  It's finished when it feels like it to me.

While working with the Celluclay, I ran into another problem, besides overall ugliness of the project so far.  I'd envisioned the lizard crawling up the lattice one way, but that way was making the whole thing unbalanced.  So I had to cut the chameleon off the ladder and rewire him to the other side.  Consequently the sculpture turned out to be less compact than I'd figured, and it also needed a base, which I made from a piece of a styrofoam cooler, once Sonja was done using it.

I listened when my friend Lise said, "It's all in the tail."

Next up was some base coat paint, a pistachio mint green followed by extreme glitter green for the chameleon, saffron yellow for the ladders, and pine green for the base. 

Then the really fun part began.  I found that the sculpture had three main planes and I used these as the bases of where to put the mandalas.  I used the same colors and patterns in all of the mandalas, so that the whole sculpture--both chameleon figure and the ladder and base that he was supposedly trying to match--all had a uniform look.  A mixed-up, patchwork, crazy but uniform look. 

It was very fun to do this piece, and I'm glad to say that it did finally turn out much as I had hoped when I first saw it in my mind's eye.  There were numerous times I was ready to chuck it in the dumpster, but then I would remember that there was a lot to be learned from this project, even if it turned out yuckier than lizard poop.  

On another topic, which I brought up in my last blog post, I did get on the Arizona state insurance plan, and I am very happy about this.  I still need to stay put for a few weeks or maybe a month while paperwork gets handled, but I'll be seeing a new primary care doctor soon and hopefully getting referred to an orthopedic for knee care.  

I'm still enjoying staying at Hickiwan Trails RV Park, and it's a good thing we're hooked up to electricity, because we're having some 100-plus degree days right now.  The early mornings and late evenings are very pleasant and cool, though, and I spend them outside as much as possible.  We get some fun neighbors sometimes.    

New Work, and Some Thoughts About the Summer

 Steve's altar--you should see the cat jump when he plays the singing bowls!

It's that time of the winter here in the Senoran Desert that I begin to feel like one of the luckiest people alive.  I read about snow deluges in other parts of the country, while here it invariably turns into shorts and T-shirt weather every day by noon.  I have a quiet routine of getting up at sunrise, having coffee and thinking thoughts, doing artwork, selling on eBay, cooking good meals, sitting outside with a book, and being semi-social, then turning in around 9:30ish.  Life is good and simple.  
  

  
This past week our friend Janice came from Truth or Consequences, NM, to visit for about four days.  It was great!  I showed her around the area a little bit, and we played lots of games of Quiddler (a rummy-like card game, with alphabet cards, where you make words instead of runs or three-of-a-kind) and we had bonfires every night.  I decided to take a few days off from my strenuous routine while Janice was here, so it kinda felt like being at summer camp with a good friend. 

 Janice and me in front of the Beluga

Artwise (apparently not a real word 'cause it's got a squiggly red line under it), I continue to work on boxes, plus I'm painting for an April-May show at January's in Truth or Consequences.  I'm painting scenes from my own life, some pivotal moments when something inside me came alive.  Sometimes it's hard and I don't want to do it, so the mixed-media boxes are a welcome break, like going outside for recess.  

 Here's a box I made for Steve for Valentine's Day.  It's decorated inside, too, 
but that's a secret.

So, the only thing that's not going well in my life, which I haven't talked about much here in my blog, but which my closest friends know, is that my left knee is almost useless these days and I really, really need a knee replacement.  I haven't had health insurance since 2012 or so when my ex's COBRA premiums became too burdensome, and then I was turned down for insurance due to pre-existing conditions (I had arthroscopic surgery on this same knee in 2011).  I've been limping along for about 2.5 years since this knee became a debilitating problem that causes severe, chronic pain.  Now it's gotten to the point where I can barely walk, so I'm finally turning to some social services to get some help.  I'm hoping to get onto some health insurance within the next few months, probably through the State of Arizona, and eventually get this surgery done.  We'll see how it goes!

 A mixed-media wooden champagne box, with hinges and clasp

In the meantime, I think Steve and I will be staying in Arizona for the late spring and summer this year rather than going to New Mexico as we usually do when the weather is nice over there.  As I'm being considered for several programs, I'll need to maintain an Arizona mailing address and presence.  So we're thinking of heading up to Prescott!  I've only been there once, but liked the look of the place and have heard so much positive about it from other travelers.   

That's pretty much all the news.  No picture of Sonja this time--Steve rang his chimes and she skedaddled!

Living the Good Life in Why, Arizona

 Our Christmas tree--a thrift store wooden saguaro cactus that I painted

When I last wrote, I was struggling to get ready to leave Truth or Consequences, NM.  I had to replace all of the batteries in my motorhome, and get some work done on both the Beluga and my new Tracker in order to tow. 

Steve came over from Why, Arizona, via public transportation, helped me get ready to go, and then drove back with me, which made the trip much more pleasant.  We both drove and found that driving a big rig with a car behind it isn't that much different than driving a big rig without towing.  It takes a little longer to stop, you have to consider the added length when you are changing lanes, and you never ever want to put yourself in a situation where you'd have to back up.  But since most of the time, you're just tooling down the highway, it's really not that big of a deal.  

Getting the car unhitched once we got here was a little more of a challenge than I'd realized.  But, like everything else I've learned since taking up RVing several years ago, it's just a matter of getting used to stuff like this.  Eventually hitching and unhitching will become routine.

Baskets that I admired at the Heard Museum in Phoenix

I have had one more hiccup with this Tracker.  Once we got the Beluga to Why, we turned around and drove the Tracker back to Tucson where Steve could pick up his truck at his sister's house and I could get the Tracker retitled and registered in Arizona.  But, after spending several hours at the Motor Vehicles office, it turned out I could not get the Tracker street-legal because there's a restitution lien on the car.  A previous owner had a DWI and owes money to the court.  I had to file a motion with the court, asking that they remove this restitution lien, since the guy who owned it hasn't owned it for several years and there have been several sales of the car since he had it.  We'll see what happens.  In the meantime, I've got a 90-day temporary registration sticker in my back window. 

Oh, and the Tracker has some sort of a short that makes starting it interesting.  If it won't turn over right away, I have to get out and wiggle some wires until it does.  It's better when I have someone with me to act as Wire Wiggler while I stay in the driver's seat.  

My friend Feral Willcox is a great Wire Wiggler, but she's leaving.  I've had a really nice time getting to know Feral, first in Truth or Consequences and now here in Why.  I met her at the TorC Poetry Reading one Sunday this past fall.  We sat next to each other and quietly introduced ourselves.  The following week, I must have seen Feral a half-dozen times at various coffee shops and stores.  Finally, I thought maybe I'd better sit down and talk with her, before I get hit on the head with a 2 x 4 or something.  Well, it turned out we have lots in common--both former pottery, tile, and mosaic artists who are now doing lighter forms of artwork due to health issues and having a mobile lifestyle.  Lots of other commonalities as well.  The type of person I could talk to all day, probably, if I wasn't quite so introverted.  

As a result of our first meeting in TorC, Feral came to Coyote Howls for a month!  She was heading west towards LA, anyway, and wanted to try some inexpensive camping for a while.  She tented and hung out in her pickup truck.  Feral told me yesterday that she's basically treated the front bench seat of her pickup like a couch.  At dusk, she'd sit there and watch nature unfold just outside her truck.  Coyotes would walk into her campsite and she watched lots of birds, rabbits, and ground squirrels.  I had never thought to do that in my several years of coming to Coyote Howls in the wintertime.  I'm usually fussing with making supper about that time of the day, but maybe we'll just have to start eating earlier or later.

Feral has probably already pulled out of camp this morning.  She's heading to LA to stay with friends and get things arranged to leave for India, where she hopes she can live and get needed medical care more cheaply than here in the U.S.  I may be following her sometime in the future--not to live in India for very long, but perhaps to have a knee replacement done there.

My friends Pat and Fred from TorC just pulled in to Coyote Howls on Sunday and plan to spend about a month, maybe more.  They have been full-time RVers for years and usually are either work camping in a park or boondocking in National Forests, and this is their first time to Why.  

Sly on a day trip to the Tohono O'odham museum

We celebrated Christmas with a nice dinner at the Why Senior Center, and we went to a lovely open house on New Year's Day at the new home of Donna and Noel, the managers of Coyote Howls.  Then my son Sly visited for a little over a week.  I went up to Phoenix the last two weekends, first to get him from the airport and then to take him back up to the airport.  It's only a couple of hours to Phoenix, but each time I made a little overnight trip out of it, doing some tourist things and shopping at thrift stores and staying in a motel.  It was nice.  Sly and I especially enjoyed the Heard Museum and a nice dinner out one night at a Thai restaurant.  I hadn't been to a Thai restaurant since my last trip to Seattle over a year-and-a-half ago.  Sly is doing well--he's been on the same job as a barista in a coffee shop for over a year, and he is moving this week from a residence for at-risk youth to an apartment with a friend.  

These two panels provide me with enough power to run my computer or sewing machine in the Beluga, and also run the furnace for a little while in the morning to take the chill off

Today is one of those much-needed days when I don't have anywhere I have to go.  I relish the thought of staying home and getting things in better order and doing some artwork and eBay work.  I've already cleaned the fridge, and Steve threw the uneaten leftovers over the fence for the coyotes, so this evening might be a good one to follow Feral's lead and sit in the driver's seat of the Beluga and look out at the wildlife.  I feel so fortunate to have such a great set-up for my lifestyle here in Why.  Steve is lending me a couple of solar panels until I buy my own to install on the roof of the Beluga, and I can spend time in my own rig doing my art and business, so I don't have to drag everything into Steve's space, which we reserve more for relaxing. 

A God box in the works

Art-wise, I have started on something for my "Faces of God" show that is scheduled out about a year.  As part of that exhibit, I envision having a table full of mixed-media altars, shrines, reliquaries, God boxes, journals, etc.  All of the small places in which we keep God, y'know.  So I'm acquiring boxes and stuff as I browse thrift shops and eBay, and I'm doing a mixture of collage and painting to richly decorate them.  

A small completed God box, formerly an Altoids tin

A Long and Satisfying Stay in Truth or Consequences, New Mexico

 Sonja, helping me pack for our winter migration to Arizona

When I haven't blogged for a while, it kind of feels like entering the confessional.  So many reasons and excuses, or, as my friend Janice says, "Blah, blah, blah, Sparky."

I guess what it comes down to is that I haven't gone anywhere for a long time, except short trips to Las Cruces to take a friend to a medical appointment or some other errand.  I've been here in Truth or Consequences, NM, for about five months, staying at the Artesian Bath-House and Trailer Court.  Sometimes I don't think I have anything to say unless I can show you pictures of where I've been.

I've stayed busy! When I posted in August, I had just hung a Mostly Mandalas solo art show at the Happy Belly Deli.  That show was well appreciated--the walls at the Deli were freshly painted a sunny yellow and my work was all very cheerful.  Most everybody seemed to like it on the Deli's walls, though, rather than their own walls at home.  

People are showing more monetary appreciation for my latest show, though!  I spent a couple of months painting and collaging works for another Happy Belly Deli solo show that went up this month.  It is called Entree:  Mixed-Media Images About Women and Food.  In today's blog, I can show you pictures of where I've been...in my head:

 Hot Mama, Mixed Media on a Bamboo Tray

 

 Cut Out Yo-Yo Dieting

Mixed Media on a Brass Tray

 

 Home Economics

Mixed Media on a Metal Tray

 

 Kitchen Shiva

Acrylics on a Tin Tray

 

 Ranch Dressing

Acrylics on a Tin Tray

 

 You Look Marvelous, Darling!

Mixed Media on a Mirror

 

 She Asked for a Sign (with close-up)

Acrylics on a Tin Tray

 

 Three Sisters

Mixed Media on a Bamboo Tray

 

What'll It Be, Hon?

Acrylics on a Tin Tray

In between painting these pictures (among others that I didn't photograph), selling vintage designer scarves on eBay, and hunting up antiques to sell at January's, I have had a very active social life this fall.  My ambulatory Anatidaen friend Roxanne visited TorC for several months, house and cat sitting for Annie Whitney, a local salvemaker.  While Roxanne was here, there were many games of Scrabble and Quiddler to be played and much food to be eaten and many cups of coffee to be drunk at both Passion Pie Cafe and Black Cat Coffee & Books, often in the company of Janice and a new friend, Tina, who is another adventurous woman living the dream in her RV.  Sometimes we went outside, too.

Another time-sucker this autumn was finally getting the Guppy sold.  The plan to sell to an online friend did not pan out, so I listed the Guppy on eBay.  There were not very many bidders who were interested in driving to the Middle of Nowhere, New Mexico, to pick up an old RV, but I did manage to get her sold to a lady from Texas at a few hundred dollars over my rock-bottom price.  Next time I'm selling an RV, I'll drive to San Diego and get what it's worth there!

A matter that took a great deal of emotional energy this fall was my mom's death.  She was 95 years old and had needed around-the-clock care for the past nine years due to Alzheimers.  My sister Sharon was Mom's caretaker all these years and did a marvelous job of being compassionate and kind, often in difficult circumstances.  Mom finally let go in September, and my siblings and I gathered in Minneapolis for a memorial service in early November.  I didn't drive my RV up there--I thought about it, but with my various art show commitments here, it seemed smarter to fly up for just a few days. 

Now that my Entree show is hung, I am spending November getting geared up to finally leave TorC.  I'm listing lots of scarves on eBay, because this is the best time of year to sell 'em, and I'm using my new sewing machine to make fun patchwork pot holders (pics in my next blog post) to sell at January's for the holiday season.  I'm also working on getting my minivan, which I've used here in TorC for the past couple of years, sold so I can replace it with a smaller vehicle to tow behind the Beluga.  I'll get to celebrate Thanksgiving with my friends here at the home of Misha, the most fabulous choclatier you could ever hope to meet.   

I'll be heading to Why, Arizona, to spend most of the winter with Steve and his coyotes and wild burros.  As much as I enjoy my more active social life here, I'm also looking forward to the quiet.  I have committed to doing three solo art shows in 2014 and it will be good to have lots of uninterrupted time to work.   

Just in case you've always wondered where lost socks go, here is the answer, which I painted for a Space-Portal exhibit at Grapes Gallery:

The Planet of Lost Socks

Acrylic on canvas, 16 x 20 inches