Chillaxin' at the Tohono O'odham Nation

Playing cards with Janice and Misha in TorC

So in my last post, I was about to head off to Truth or Consequences, New Mexico, for a solo art show at January's.  

I knew my Geo Tracker needed some work.  Specifically, I wanted to get a relay replaced so that the air conditioning would work on my trip.  But then the mechanic warned me that, if it was his vehicle, he wouldn't drive it on a trip that was 1000+ miles without first replacing the CV axles.  

Well, there simply wasn't enough time to do this repair before I had to leave, so Steve drove me to Tucson where I could rent a car.  I got a very good deal through Priceline--less than $200 for about 10 days' use with unlimited mileage, and Enterprise upgraded me to a very comfortable, brand-new Chrysler 200 because it was the only car they had on the lot when I arrived.  I enjoyed driving that baby!  Great A/C, great radio, comfortable seats, and, unlike the vehicles I usually drive, this car could drive as fast as the speed limit.  

So, with a nice new car to drive, the trip to TorC was easier than I'd anticipated.  I had a great time staying with my friend Janice and trying to catch up with as many friends as possible over just a few days.  

My opening went very well, and I had so much fun!  Many of my friends came and some spent the entire evening.  When January closed the store at 9 pm, a few of us stayed a little longer for tarot readings, and it was great fun. 

I went home by way of Phoenix where I won my stupid MVD hearing.  Now I will be entitled to title and register my Tracker in Arizona, as soon as I get the judge's order that removes the restitution lien from the car.  Any day now.  That's what he said.  A couple of weeks ago.  

I really enjoyed driving the back roads from Bowie, AZ, up north to Phoenix, rather than staying on boring I-10 all the way.  The highlight of my trip home was stopping at the Apache Gold Casino Resort in San Carlos, Arizona, just five miles east of Globe.  I had a beautiful king room for $59, and I took a dip in the hot tub and watched swallows flying around as the sun set.  Really nice.  For joining the players' club, I got a free breakfast and $20 in free slots which took all of about 4.5 minutes to lose.        

Since getting back home to Why, it's gotten up into the 90s, but we're not ready to leave this area yet.  Steve has to update his insurance eligibility at this time each year--always right when it's getting too hot to want to stay here any longer--and now I seem to be on the same cycle, as I'm waiting to hear (any day now) whether I'm covered by AHCCCS, Arizona's medical assistance plan.  So we are waiting around, because we need to be at a residential or street address (rather than, say, a PO box) until our insurance matters are settled.  The State is not flexible on stuff like this.  Recently I got a form asking for more information, and, if I hadn't received it and filled it out and returned it immediately, I would have been up a creek.  So here we sit for a while.  Weeks or a month or how long, we don't know.

This is the first year I've been in Why, AZ, late enough to see the saguaros in bloom.

But the really good news is that we've moved to an RV park just down the road from our home at Coyote Howls, a primitive campground with no electrical hookups and hence not enough power to run an air conditioner.  Now we're hooked up at Hickiwan Trails RV Park on the Tohono O'odham Reservation.  I would strongly recommend this park to folks who are interested in traveling in this area, but maybe aren't set up to provide their own electricity with solar panels and/or generators.  It's inexpensive ($85 per week or $285 per month for a full hookup site, including electricity) and it's very pleasant.  It's particularly nice right now, because the snowbirds have all gone back north, and there are just a few of us stragglers still here.  

It took me a few days to turn the Beluga back into a place to live, after using it all winter as an art studio.  I packed up a lot of stuff and then we took the short drive to the new RV park, stopping for propane along the way.

This receipt tells it like it is

Now that we're settled again, Steve has taken off for his monthly visit to see friends and relatives in Tucson, and I'm here by myself for a few days, beginning work on new projects.  The pieces you see throughout this blog post are mixed-media panels that will be part of a larger installation in December.  It's going to be an art production kind of year.   

     

Time to Hit the Road Again

A poster for my upcoming solo art show

I have this thing going on in Truth or Consequences next weekend.  It's Second Saturday Art Hop on April 12th, and I'll be showing my recent acrylic paintings and mixed-media works at January's.  If you're nearby, I hope you can come!  My artwork will be showing at January's for several months, but the opening on Saturday night will be the most fun, with live music and a tarot card reader.  

My work for this show has been very enjoyable and, in fact, it's kind of hard to stop painting and get moving.  I've been making monoprints from everyday objects--egg cartons, the wire binding on a notebook, bubble wrap, corrugated cardboard, etc.--and then painting whatever I am inspired to make from the simple print.  Lots of fun!  And it's interesting how something can transform from being just a bunch of rectangles to, say, runes or cards that are perhaps predicting a fabulous future.  I really don't know how that happens.  It isn't deliberate on my part.  Sometimes I really feel like my job is just to dip the brush into the paint and move the paint around on the canvas.  What it turns out to be seems to be a process that I am involved in, but don't dictate.  

 Snapshots from Space, acrylic on stretched canvas

Well, I'm in Why, Arizona, so I have a trip to make this coming week.  I'm packing up most of my recent artwork into my Tracker and I'm heading over to TorC.  I'm not taking my motorhome, the Beluga, with me on this trip, since it's a quick one and I have a friend to stay with in New Mexico.   

Meet Me Downtown, acrylic on stretched canvas

My Tracker is maybe not turning out to be the best tow vehicle for me.  I'm not sure at this time.  This winter, I've had to make a lot of trips to Phoenix and a couple to Tucson, and I've found that the Tracker is not a comfortable vehicle for these longer trips.  So, I'm going to take my time and take two days to drive to TorC, and I hope to stay at a motel with a swimming pool.

Incubator.  Acrylic on stretched canvas.

I'll do the same on the way back home--except it will be a longer trip, because I have to go by way of Phoenix for a Motor Vehicles Division administrative hearing on April 15th.  I bought the Tracker in New Mexico, and when I got it back home to Arizona to get it titled and registered, the Arizona MVD records showed that there was a criminal restitution lien on the vehicle because a former owner had a driving while intoxicated conviction.  He was probably two or three owners back.  I have to go to this hearing to prove that I had no knowledge of the lien when I bought the car.  Boy, that should be easy!  If I'd had any idea there was this kind of glitch involved in buying the car, I would never have bought it!  I guess they just have to be sure that the buyer isn't somebody who is in collusion with the criminal defendant, trying to help him get rid of the car without having to pay the victim. 

 Runes.  Acrylic on stretched canvas.

The Tracker has also needed some repairs.  A new starter, then a timing belt.  Now a relay switch for the A/C, which I hope can get installed before I leave for my trip on Wednesday, because it's supposed to be in the 90s during my two driving days to New Mexico.  I use a shade tree mechanic who is too thirsty to work some days, so I'm not sure if this will happen.  If he's not at work on Monday morning, I'll bite the bullet and go to the bigger repair shop in Ajo.    

Two-spread from an altered book

I'm also going to go sign a will at a lawyer's office while I'm in Phoenix on the way back home.  So I'm taking three days to get back from TorC, and I will do a little sightseeing and relaxing along the way.  

Two-page altered book spread with spiral pop-up

And then when I get back, it will be almost time to head off to cooler climes for the summer.  We're thinking Prescott.  And it will be time to begin work on my next show, which will be another solo art show at the Happy Belly Deli in Truth or Consequences, coming up in November.  This one will be an all paper show, and I'm looking forward to spending the summer exploring paper crafts.  I've finally begun doing some altered books and pop-ups, which are bucket list items for me.   

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!

Update from a Norwegian-American Sitting Quietly in the Desert

I'm continuing to do mixed-media decoration of little boxes, journals, shrines, altars, etc.  All of the small places where we keep God.  I find nice wooden, cardboard or tin boxes at various thrift shops when I'm out looking for eBay fodder.  I also find some pretty great magazine photos, wrapping papers, scrapbook papers, etc., in my wanderings. 

These boxes are for my "Faces of God" show at RioBravo FineArts gallery in Truth or Consequences, New Mexico, at the end of 2014.  There will be a table in one corner of the gallery with an installation of dozens of little boxes.  The other pieces for the show will be BIG.  

This peacock hexagonal box attracted some attention when I showed it to my FaceBook friends, so now it's in the mail to Joe Possley, a friend from my college days back in Wisconsin in the 1970s. 

This mixed-media mostly-painting is called Amour-Dillo.  It was suggested by my friend Cindy Mitchell, who knows how much I like to paint animals weirdly.  I'm entering it in The Red Show in Ajo, Arizona.  

Ajo is 10 miles north of Why, and it's where we go to buy groceries, get library books, mail my eBay packages, etc.  There is a lively arts community in Ajo.  There aren't as many opportunities to show work as there are in Truth or Consequences, because there are few galleries.  But the community definitely supports its artists.  The International Senoran Desert Alliance (ISDA) rehabbed the old Curley School into artisan apartment/studio spaces. 

Besides doing artwork, I've been having a little more social winter here in Why than I have in past years.  As I mentioned in my last blog, several TorC friends have camped here at Coyote Howls, and my friends Susan and Dan from Eugene, Oregon, visited for a few days.  I've also gotten to know Michael and Pam, a couple from Albuquerque who are new to RVing--they also happened to stay at the Artesian, the same place I was in Truth or Consequences, but I missed meeting them there.  The longer I stay in this area, there are more parallels and ties between TorC and Why.  I look forward to my friend Janice coming to visit me from TorC next weekend.

I've been up to Phoenix a lot lately.  Five trips up there in about a month.  Really a lot for me, since I prefer to sit around by myself most of the time.  I ran across the perfect meme on FaceBook to describe my attitude:  It's not that I'm anti-social, I'm just pro-solitude.  But I needed new glasses, which took a couple of trips, and then my younger brother Sheldon, his wife Lori, and their four younger children were vacationing at a resort in Peoria, so I went up to spend some time with them.  In the picture above, Sheldon is whistling and acting innocent.  I can't explain why. 

Here's a picture of most of the family--Andy (14), my sister-in-law Lori, Elena (16), Charlie (the small person turned away from the camera), and Sheldon.

 

Here is a picture of seven-year-old Charlie, whom Sheldon and Lori began to adopt when he was an infant and were finally able to bring home from Guatemala last year.  Lena is in the background.  Charlie's favorite thing is to tickle and be tickled. 

 

Val (age 18) did not make it into the family picture in the kitchen because she'd been working out and then showering.  Sorry about the wet hair pic, Vali!  

On my latest trip to Phoenix, when I visited with Sheldon and family, I also got to have lunch with Roxanne of Good Luck Duck fame!  

I've been keeping busy with eBay in addition to artwork.  Yesterday I mailed out some borderland cowboy boots to a New Yorker.  I'm trying to stay focused on work right now, during this quiet time in the desert where I have good Internet access thanks to the cell phone tower at the nearby Border Patrol Station, because I simply do not know what's next.  I'll definitely be here through the beginning of April, when I'll have a show to hang at January's gallery in Truth or Consequences, NM.  But after that?  Steve and I are undecided.  Maybe a work camping job somewhere, maybe wandering the New Mexico state parks for the summer, maybe a knee replacement.  

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

Downsizing...Again!

 My eBay inventory and art supplies--all of my work life--

ready to be transferred into the "basement" of the Beluga

I've been looking back at my blog posts from just over two years ago, when I was getting ready to leave Oregon and travel indefinitely (or so I thought at the time) in the Guppy, my 22-foot 1982 Toyota Dolphin Class C motorhome.   

It was hard to downsize then, and it's still hard now, even though I have less stuff and I'm more experienced with the process.  

Fortunately, I have learned a lot about how to do this over the past couple of years.  An essential thing I've become very aware of is the need for self-acceptance.  

I am not, by nature, a well-organized person in all aspects of my life.  Some, yes.  I'm really good at organizing my eBay inventory and getting the stuff that sells packed up and mailed pronto!  I'm good at organizing my kitchen cupboards and coming up with creative ways to use up food.  And, once I actually get around to making myself do it, I'm good at filing important papers.

But in the more creative parts of my life, such as my art supplies, ooh, boy!  That's a different story.  

Being a mixed media artist, I see the potential in all sorts of odd stuff.  An empty banjo case discarded in an alley is a treasure, even though I don't play the banjo.  It's the armature for a collage/sculpture tribute to Steve Martin.  A tired old rococo shelf can be brought back to life with some papier mache and gilding.  You can add legs to antique glass windows and make them into fabulous shabby chic coffee tables.   

So...in one year in my Truth or Consequences apartment, I managed to amass the goods to make at least 20 cool art projects that never happened.   

Now, in anticipation of moving into the Beluga, my 35-foot 1991 Holiday Rambler Class A motorhome and traveling for the summer, I've had to get rid of a lot of the things I'd hoped to make into art.  

I've become okay with the fact that I drag home things that I dream of making into artwork, and I've become equally okay with the fact that I sometimes have to later say goodbye to those same materials and fantasies.  That's just who I am.  It may make my life more complicated, but there's no shame or sorrow in it anymore.  Just a little frustration until I remember, "Oh, yeah, this is just what I do."

I've learned a lot in these past few years about taking responsibility for myself and my possessions.  My boyfriend Steve has more clear and healthy boundaries than anyone I've ever been involved with before.  Even though he's a guy with a pickup truck, he doesn't jump to rescue me when I need my stuff moved from one place to another.  He gently points out that I make my own choices.  And this has helped me to really grow up, finally.  

I made a decision today that some of my heavier art supplies will go into storage here in TorC.  The Beluga is big enough to handle everything I own, even my mosaic tiles and drywall mud carving materials, but I don't anticipate using any of the heavy stuff while I'm on the road.  I have a couple of solo art shows coming up next winter for which I'll be doing some lighter work (collage and painting) while I'm on the road. 

Another aspect of self-acceptance I've had to learn about downsizing is that I need to stay entertained while I'm doing it!  So I've watched lots of DVD movies these past couple of weeks while sitting and sorting through my stuff, and I've picked out some lighter reading than usual for when I need a break from packing.  

I've also been doing what I can to make the rest of life easy while I go through this process--I've had simple-to-prepare foods available so I can throw together a meal quickly, and I've gone out to eat more often than usual. 

Steve has had the Beluga at his place in Arizona since I purchased it last month, and he'll be bringing it here to TorC in a few days.  My landlord has already found another tenant, so the sooner I'm out of the apartment, the better.  I'll get a little of my rent back, plus the deposit once the place is all clean.  

The plan is that we'll spend about a month here, getting acclimated to the new rig and how everything works, and then hit the road.  I'm excited!  I'm looking at maps, asking people about places they've been, and daydreaming. 

We do not have a set itinerary.   We may make it up to the Pacific Northwest to see family and friends there, and we may get over to Minneapolis for my 40th high school reunion in August.   

However, if we find someplace along the way where my Verizon internet connection works really well for my eBay work and where Steve is happy fishing or treasure hunting, maybe we'll just sit in one place for the rest of the summer.  We're planning to truly take our travels one day at a time.   I do know that we will aim first for the Mogollon Rim.
         

Don't forget me, Mom!

Postcards, Treasures, and Art from the Heart

I've been doing artwork.  I had the opportunity this month to participate in several gallery shows here in Truth or Consequences.  

One was an annual Postcard Show at the Happy Belly Deli.  Last year, I just missed this one because I decided to go spend the winter in Arizona, and I was busy packing and getting ready to leave when the artwork was needed.  So I was really pleased to participate this year.  All of the work had to be 4 x 6 inches, in any media just so long as it could be attached to a wall fairly easily. I did the four doodly mandalas shown above.  

I got interesting feedback from several friends--one asked me if I used to be one of those nerdy artsy girls in high school who doodled on all of her notebooks.  "Why, yes, I was."  

Another friend, Brian Many Wheels, suggested maybe I'd done too much peyote in my youth.  "Well, no, I never tried that, perhaps I would've devoted more of my life to art sooner if I had?"  Then I reminded him of his earlier observation:  "I really like your art, Sue, but I wouldn't want to be inside your head."  Ha!  Brian bought the green postcard and has it in his Chinooky van for his current travels.

About the same time the postcards were due at the Deli, the "Treasures of Truth or Consequences" show was hung at Grapes, a nice big gallery on Main Street.  I played around with several different media for that show.  

 

This is a dry collage and acrylic paint representation of the Black Cat Books and Coffee logo.  Black Cat is a wonderful little used bookstore, one of the first places I experienced here last year that made me realize that TorC was "home."  I visited the store on my way through town when I was heading all the way to the East Coast, checking out various places I might want to live.  When I got back here a few months later, one of the customers overheard me tell Rhonda, the store owner, that I had just moved here, and she invited me to come sit with her and her friends.  That's the kind of place the Black Cat is, and that's why it was my first choice of subjects for the "Treasures of Truth or Consequences" art show.

 

Here's another dry collage and acrylics mixed media piece I did for the same show, called "We are the Water."  The mineral hot springs here in TorC are one of our country's secret treasures.  If people realized how inexpensively they could vacation or live here, while frequently "taking the waters," this town would be growing like Phoenix.  Fortunately, just a few of us find it and move here each year.  

Dry collage is an easy technique for successful mixed media pieces.  When I've done traditional collage using various types of glue, I've sometimes had paper bubble or become transparent or even regress to pulpiness.  (That is, the paper does these things...I usually don't.)  Dry collage preserves the integrity of all of the elements and the final work.  

Whatcha do is coat all of the pieces you want to put in your collage with acrylic medium (I bought a thick liquid type rather than the gel), let them dry, and repeat on the other side.  You also coat your canvas (or wood or paper, whatever you choose as a background) with acrylic medium. Then, using release paper (the slick paper that's on the back of labels or Contac paper), you can iron all of your pieces into place. If you've coated everything well, there are no bubbles and no corners or edges that pop up.  I totally love this technique and will be using it a lot in the future. 

One of the things I love about collage is the subtle or not so subtle use of subtext.  People looking at my Black Cat or Water pictures from a bit of a distance won't notice, but those looking closer will see that the backgrounds are all words.  The Black Cat collage has scores of poems about coffee in the background, which I stained with strong coffee and coffee rings.  The Water picture has wall tiles as a background, and the tiles are made of articles from scientific journals or newspapers.  Some of the words are about local controversies on who has the rights to the water.   

Another new-to-me technique that I used for the "Treasures" show is drywall mud carving.  I learned about this when I was on vacation up in Jemez Springs this summer.  I saw some work by an artist named Kristin Mendenhall that just knocked my socks off.  She coated pieces of wood with joint compound, also known as drywall mud.  Then after the mud had almost completely dried, she would re-wet some areas with a sponge or spray bottle and carve designs into the mud.  Later she thinned down some acrylic paints and used them to lightly color different areas of the picture.  

Kristin mostly does pictures of pottery, fruit, and flowers.  I could tell from her work that she was a former potter.  We talked and she said, yes, she no longer wanted to be tied down by a wheel, kiln, and all that shelving.  Dry wall mud carving was a great find for her, and she's developed the technique way beyond anything you'll find in print or online about it.  How lucky for me to happen to walk into the co-op gallery on the day Kristin happened to be working the desk!

The picture above is my drywall mud carving of El Cortez, our local movie theater.  I called it "Enjoy the Movie!", because that's what the theater owners' kids always say right before the show begins.

This picture is another drywall mud carving.  I call it "All Who Broke Down Here and Stayed," because the people of Truth or Consequences are its greatest treasure, and many people arrived here exactly that way.  
  
After getting these pieces to Grapes Gallery in early December, I took a little breather from creating artwork and worked hard at the retail biz at January's art and antiques gallery while also enjoying a long visit from Steve, who stayed through Christmas.  We had some interesting items come in at January's from consignors, including one person's lifelong collection of pigs which I spent about three weeks pricing.  Pig Christmas tree ornaments, piggy banks, pig shaped cutting boards, you name it, she had it.  We had one entire 9-foot Christmas tree that had only pig ornaments, and it was packed!  People loved it, and bought a lot of pigs.  Steve and Sonja did not work retail:

Then it was time to start gearing up for the next gallery show, which will start early next month at January's gallery.  The theme is "Art from the Heart," and the work can be about any aspect of love, romance, or related symbols.  I've done four pieces for the show and may do more.  Briefly the completed works are:  

An untitled "love the Earth" mandala--mixed media

Another mixed media, called "Warm Hands, Chile Heart"

"Black Heart Mandala," framed colored pencil on cardstock, above; and "Heart Mandala," also framed colored pencil on cardstock, below.

    

The latest development in my life here in TorC is my recent decision to forego having a part-time job.  After about three months of working for January, which I enjoyed immensely, I realized that I was feeling a constant and growing sense of financial worry.  It's hard to make ends meet working at a hair over minimum wage, and I couldn't ask January for more money, because she's recently expanded her store and has a lot of new expenses to deal with.  So I decided to put all of my energy and efforts into my other streams of income:  Selling on eBay; continuing to consign antiques and vintage clothing at January's store; and making art.  Fortunately, January is a good friend in addition to having been my employer, and she sees the wisdom in my decision and supports it.  

I loved bringing my skills to work at January's, but now I'm putting all that time and energy into my own business.  So, since Christmas, I've been listing auctions on eBay like crazy, and it's already paying off.  Who knew that a little metal wastebasket that I paid a buck for at the thrift store would sell for over $20?!  To me, selling on eBay and doing consignment at January's is great fun--I get the thrill of the chase, I get to shop even though I don't need anything myself, and then it's like gambling to wait and see how much return I get on my investment, except I don't lose money like I do when I actually go to a casino to gamble. 

Next episode?  My son Sly is coming to visit me, just about exactly a year after his last visit, and a very changed guy.