Coalescing, Healing, Abandoning in Why, Arizona

 Ready to hit the road! 

After our return from China, Steve and I had to sit in Truth or Consequences, New Mexico, for about three weeks to recover from whatever nasty virus we caught on the way home.  We got out of there on Sunday, March 22nd, and headed over to spend some time in Why, Arizona, our home.  Steve has a big 5th wheel that he leaves here and there is plenty of room on our lot for my rig, too.  I hardly spent any time here this past winter because of being busy in New Mexico, and it's nice to be back.

We used to drive from TorC to Why in one day, but we're not getting any younger.  I've learned that for me, with lots of arthritis, I do better driving or even riding for just a few hours a day.  We are thinking of adopting the Rule of Twos on our West Coast meanderings this spring and summer--that is, never drive more than 200 miles in a day, arrive at your campsite by 2 pm, and stay at least two nights once you get someplace.  

 Steve at Karchner Caverns campground

On this two-day drive, we stopped at Kartchner Caverns State Park just south of Benson, Arizona, and stayed at the campground overnight and went on the Big Room tour the next morning.  It was delightful, and I was so appreciative of being able to walk this tour without a cane, in contrast to the time I was there about four years ago.  It made it much easier to concentrate on what the ranger tour guide was saying.  We also stopped in Tucson to have lunch with friends, so our second day on the road, while only driving about 160 miles, was very full.  It was good practice for when we really get moving.  

We've been slightly delayed here in Why, too, due to taking care of our annual checkups and such at the community health clinic in nearby Ajo.  I need a tooth pulled and we're going to Casa Grande on Monday to see an oral surgeon because the extraction might be complicated.  And it's been hot enough here that we're really feeling ready to get going!

 To-do list on a hot day in the desert

We'd originally thought we'd head pretty much due west from Why and go to Yuma and parts of southern California on our way to the West Coast.  However, these health-related delays mean it's going to be quite hot traveling that way.  So, after my appointment on Monday, we're going to head to northern Arizona and explore and cool off for a while, and we'll probably head west on I-40.  

So, in the meantime, we've been just biding our time here.  My cat, Sonja Begonia, has started a travel journal:

I'm working on an altered book.  Here are pictures of the cover and a page that I've altered:

After some contemplation, I have removed the word "eBay" from the title of my blog.  Since qualifying for Social Security Disability last summer, I no longer sell much on eBay.  I may sell a few fun vintage finds along the road as I travel, but the focus of my life has changed to art-and-travel more than eBay-and-travel. 

I do have a book nearly completed about selling on eBay while traveling in an RV, and I will probably publish that within the next month or two.  But what I really want to do on the road in upcoming months is art abandonment.  Making art and leaving it for the right "patron" to find, accept and enjoy. 

Abandoned in the travel section at the local public library

Surprisingly, some of the members the art abandonment group to which I belong seem kind of attached to their artwork and what response it receives from the people who find it.  To me, one of the major reasons to abandon artwork is the removal of ego from the process of making and distributing art.  To abandon means to let go of all concern for or interest in the outcome, and abandonment in this sense is my intention. But, yes, I must admit, I checked to see if my first abandonment had disappeared, and it was gratifying on some level that it had.

For years I have been practicing "letting go" of many things, but, as the saying goes, sometimes the things I let go of have claw marks all over them.  I think this is gonna be good for me.  I look forward to sharing this journey with you. 

One Week Until I Become More Bionic!

 View from the door of the Beluga

A month has passed since my last blog entry, and almost everything I've done since then has been focused on my upcoming total knee replacement, which is scheduled for a week from tomorrow.  

When we moved to Tucson for the summer so I could get medical treatment, I had these ideas about joining arts organizations and maybe joining a collective studio and all that.  But it wasn't realistic.  Pretty much, I can't walk anymore.  So I can get out and do stuff if there's a scooter or wheelchair available, but otherwise, not so much.

 One morning when I had the pool completely to myself!

So I've mostly sat at home, but I have no complaints.  There is a nice swimming pool and hot tub here at the South Forty RV Ranch, and I can hobble enough to get into the pool, which is nice and refreshing at the end of a hot day.  We're close to lots of good restaurants and grocery stores and everything else we might need.  Steve has friends and relatives here, so we've had a built-in social life.

And, it's temporary.  Once I have my surgery and have completed my PT, I'll be able to get out again, in ways that have been beyond my abilities for several years now.  

In the meantime, I'm working on some larger acrylic paintings for a solo art show in Truth or Consequences, New Mexico.  I'll be at RioBravoFineArt Gallery in December 2014 and January 2015.  My show is called "Faces of God," and it's a fun exploration of spiritual beliefs and ideas.  Here are some of my pieces so far:

 God As Explained By a Four-Year-Old, 24 x 30", acrylic on gallery-wrapped canvas

 Love, Sweet Love.  24 x 30", acrylic on gallery-wrapped canvas

Chosen and Unchosen, 18 x 36", acrylic on gallery-wrapped canvas

That's pretty much all that's going on with me from now until my surgery.  I'll be in the hospital for about four days and then at a rehab for twice-daily physical therapy for about a week.  I'll probably be back home, continuing PT on my own, when I post again in a few weeks.

Surgery Scheduled! Yay!

 View from our door at South Forty RV Ranch in Tucson, AZ

Some of you who have been following my blog for a few years know I've had some knee problems.  

In 2011, I went out four-wheeling with some friends at the Monticello Box and felt a painful crunch in my left knee while getting out of the back seat of a Geo Tracker.  Afterwards, I had arthroscopic surgery to deal with the most immediately problems, but it didn't really solve the underlying issue of my knee being worn out.  

Then I was without insurance for several years, so I've been limping by (literally) just trying not to be in too much pain, and my activities have become fewer.  I mean, I still get out and have some fun, but I almost always pay for it, even if it's something as basic as going shopping at just one store.  I hurt worse afterwards.   It's very limiting.

One of a series of modern icons.  This one celebrates devotion to the family pet, and it's called Holy Cookie Puss.

Fortunately, as an Arizona resident, I was recently able to get onto AHCCCS, the state Medicaid program that was expanded to cover more people as part of the Affordable Health Care Act implementation.  So I was able to see a Physician's Assistant at my primary clinic, and she referred me to an orthopedic surgeon in Tucson.

Steve and I moved into Tucson a few weeks ago so I could pursue treatment here.  I saw my surgeon last week and he immediately scheduled me for a total knee replacement on July 28th.  

A handmade book that, when complete, will have some interactive and pop-up elements

I am really thrilled.  I had this same surgery on my right knee in 2008 and it was truly life-changing.  It restored my ability to walk long distances, hike, bike, etc.  In fact, once I started to feel better physically after the surgery, I was able to also take initiative to make my entire life more happy.  I attribute my becoming a full-time RVer (and happily divorced!) to that knee surgery a few years back.  And I'm hoping for really positive consequences again this time.  

Steve came into Tucson for a visit before we moved here and checked out a lot of RV parks.  The one that seemed to make the most sense for us is South Forty RV Ranch up in the NW part of Tucson.  It's more expensive than what we usually pay for an RV park, but, hey, it's in the city and it's temporary.  In late September or early October, I'll be recuperated enough to head back to New Mexico, where I'll have some more solo art shows this fall and winter.

South Forty has a pool and other nice amenities.  We've been swimming many nights just after dark, when the air is cooler.  Our daytime temps have been over 100, so that cool-down in the pool at night feels great.

 An altar about freedom from drudgery.  When it's complete, the guy on top will be holding a fishing pole with a key hanging down in front of the workers.  Did you notice her hair is on fire and so are his pants?

 

Now I have a little over five weeks until surgery, and I'm hoping to utilize that time to get a lot of artwork done for my art shows.  I'm working on all sorts of mixed-media these days...altered books, papier-mache, altars, and more two-dimensional mixed-media stuff such as pseudo-religious icons.  My December solo show, "Faces of God" at Rio Bravo Fine Arts Gallery in Truth or Consequences, is challenging me to explore new media, new ideas,  and skills that I am acquiring on the fly.  

We're also enjoying being in a city!  We went to see "Maleficent" at the cheap showing yesterday morning.  Steve went into the mall first and got a wheel chair, then came out and got me in the parking lot.  What a difference that made!  I would've been exhausted afterwards if I'd had to walk the several blocks from disabled parking to our seats in the theater.  We've been trying a few restaurants.  Steve has friends and relatives here, so we're doing more social things.  I'm gonna have fun right up until the anesthesiologist puts that mask on my face.

"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!

A Week of Relaxation in St. Johns, Arizona

 A castle-shaped rock formation on the Zuni Reservation

It's been two weeks since we left Truth or Consequences, and I just checked Mapquest--we are 257 miles from TorC.  Of course, we've driven more miles than that, because we went a little ways up north in New Mexico to visit our friends on the Ramah Navajo Reservation.  But after we left their house, we headed across the border into Arizona and then started south on Hwy 191, which follows the Arizona-New Mexico border and puts us closer to where we started.

 Red and yellow striped rock mesa

I mentioned in my last blog that I saw some pretty cool things on the Zuni Reservation, but I couldn't take pictures the first time through because I was scared spitless while riding shotgun on a narrow, winding, hilly road with no shoulders.  On our way to Arizona, we drove across the Zuni Res, but on a better road this time, so I was able to take a few photos. 
 

 A rural Zuni house made of yellow limestone from the area

We did not stop and pay to enter the Zuni Pueblo itself.  It costs about $11 per person, plus an extra $10 if you want to take pictures.  We've done similar pueblo tours elsewhere in New Mexico, so we passed this time. 

 A larger building made of sandstone in the town of Zuni, near the actual pueblo

We were in kind of a hurry to get to St. Johns because I wasn't feeling well.  I did some online research before we left our friends' place and found out about North Country Healthcare, a low-cost clinic with a sliding scale with locations in 13 northern Arizona towns.  I'd emailed the clinic director in St. Johns and got an appointment and the paperwork rolling for my getting a low-cost appointment.  

It all worked out great.  I got to see a wonderful nurse practitioner for over an hour, and she addressed all of my problems.  They are female problems, so I won't go into detail--suffice it to say that nothing is life-threatening, and I just needed some meds.  Getting the prescriptions was a good experience, too.  St. Johns Drug is an old-fashioned pharmacy where they stock lots of old-time remedies such as Bag Balm and horehound lozenges.  They charged me far less than retail due to my lack of health insurance.  

We are staying at Moon Meadows RV Park on the west edge of St. Johns.  We'd planned to stay only one night, but we liked the park--it has large lots with trees, and it's affordable, so we are staying for a week while I recuperate.  Most of the other residents live here full-time here in their RVs and are working on construction projects in the area. 

I definitely am getting better.  Sometimes I think the meds are worse than the underlying conditions they treat.  I have to nap a lot, and I'm kind of spacey.  Steve and I were sitting down to play cribbage the other day, and he mentioned something about not wanting to "take advantage of a stoner"!  Well, I made sure to beat him 2 out of 3 games.  Stoner, indeed!  He says he let me win, but I don't think so.

So here are some pictures of what the cat and I have pretty much been doing lately:

Sonja on her back, sort of

 

 Sonja on the Bucky, on the dashboard

 

Sonja on the--"Seriously, do you  have to keep taking my picture?!"

We haven't spent time exploring St. Johns.  It's largely a Mormon town, and the Udalls are all from here.  There are some historic buildings, because this is one of the first areas of Arizona that LDS pioneers settled in the 1870s.  

Steve has been riding his bike into town to get groceries, and he's been doing a great job of taking care of me.  We're paid up here through Tuesday night, so Wednesday morning, we'll be heading to Show Low, where we heard there is some good boondocking on Forest lands on your way into town.  

Staying Put Never Keeps Me From Rambling

Sly and another critter at the Arizona-Senora Desert Museum

When I last blogged a few weeks ago, my 19-year-old son Sly and I were on a camping trip to several Tucson area tourist traps. (By the way, our tickets to most of the places we visited were BOGOs because I bought a Tucson Attractions Savings Passport. If you're going to visit Tucson, you should buy one, too.)

Sly and a portion of Biosphere 2

On our penultimate day on the road, we visited Biosphere 2, north of Tucson near Oracle. Years ago, Biosphere was an experiment that had humans living in a domed environment to explore possible space colonization and ways to survive on Earth in case of environmental disaster. Due to funding and management disputes, as well as factors of "confined environmental psychology" (we used to call it "Cabin Fever" in Alaska), the experiments that involved having humans live inside the facility ended. A few years ago, the University of Arizona took over management and later ownership of the site, and now they are running experiments on climate change and other issues.

We enjoyed the tour at Biosphere 2, and it was fun to imagine what it would have been like to live there back in the day. There are several really warm, lush biomes, as well as harsher desert environments, all in one big complex. I never felt like we were getting the whole story as to why people no longer live inside the facility, but it really didn't matter. There is still a lot of interesting stuff going on there, and it's a great learning environment for both the University and visitors.

Harris hawk

After our tour, we hit Tucson's rush hour traffic to try to get to the campground in Saguaro National Park that lies west of town. We had hookups and bathrooms there, but no showers. The next morning we drove to the nearby Arizona-Senora Desert Museum, which is one of my all-time favorite places to enjoy and learn about nature. They have it all there--museum exhibits, art institute and gallery, zoo, trails, cafes, gift shops. It was all fun, but the highlight of the day was seeing a demonstration of Harris hawks in flight, sometimes so close over our heads that we were brushed by their wing feathers.

After the hawk fly-over, we headed back home to Why, where we spent the remainder of Sly's visit, mostly in quieter pursuits such as playing board games, doing jigsaw puzzles, and sitting outside reading in the afternoons. When Sly had been here for a little over two weeks, we drove up to Phoenix for his flight back to Seattle. However, this was on the first full day of the Seattle Snowmageddon, and all of the flights were canceled and it was hard to predict when Sly could get out. So I rescheduled Sly's flight to have him stay an extra week. As it turned out, this was a good plan--some parts of the Seattle area were without power for five days.

Deer, deer

The extra week also gave my ex-husband a chance to look into some resources for Sly. Within a few days after his return to Seattle, Sly started a day program in the psych ward of a hospital near his dad's home. They're making a new assessment of his condition and revising his meds, which had been giving him a lot of scary side-effects. So far, switching up the meds is making things more difficult, and Sly is also having to do a lot of hard work on issues that he'd rather not look at, but ultimately this should all help with his recovery. In the meantime, the Social Security Administration has determined that Sly is disabled and has started providing some funds, which will really help in getting Sly into a semi-independent living situation as well as funding his future healthcare needs.

Sly's painting of a blue one-eyed singer

Sly's extra week here in Arizona also gave him time to do more artwork. He finished painting some deer antlers for the neighbors, who had him over for dinner one night, where he showed their friends a painting he'd just completed and sold it on the spot! That was very encouraging. Sly has also had some sales in the past on his Etsy site, and maybe he'll be able to add more paintings there once he finishes his partial hospitalization program.

Dina in Brian's Chinooky Van

Another benefit of Sly's extended stay was that my friends Brian and Jon from Truth or Consequences, New Mexico, came through and stayed with us a couple of nights in Why, so my son got to meet some of my friends and vice versa. Somehow I managed to only take a picture of Brian's dog Dina while the guys were here, rather than any photos of the guys themselves. But we had some nice meals, a campfire, time to all sit together in the sunshine, and all that good quality camping-with-friends stuff.

Since my son left, I've been really concentrating on taking care of myself. Steve and I drove up to Casa Grande, a city that lies between Phoenix and Tucson, one day so I could get my Arizona driver's license. Becoming an Arizona resident will enable me to get on a state health care program, which I need because my pre-existing knee replacement and other arthritis problems make private health insurance prohibitively expensive. I had a scary high blood pressure spike one of the last day's of Sly's visit, and I've been more aware of blood sugar issues lately than in the past, so I'm planning to call on Monday to set up a physical at the community clinic in Ajo, where they can get me started on the state program for low-income residents.

Steve and Sonja in the leather chairs

I've had a little more time for socializing since Sly went back to Seattle. It's a big arts weekend in Ajo, and our friends Arnold and Dusty have their historic house on a home tour, so they've been painting and redecorating, and last weekend Steve and I ended up with their nice old leather chairs.

The past couple of days, I've been helping our friends Clyde and Joan (silversmith and quilt designer, respectively) with their booths at the annual "Quilting in the Senoran Desert" show, and that was really fun. I saw beautiful, inspiring work and learned a lot, and got compensated for my time by getting some of Clyde's beautiful handmade jewelry as well as having a good lunch from the Oasis Cafe both days.

Now I'm ready to chill...like Sonja:

Sonja having a sit-in