Back to Reality

I'm back to living in real but scarce time after three wonderful weeks traveling through the layers of ancient worlds in Grand Canyon. They say our lives are a blink of an eye in the lifespan of this earth, and it sure feels like it. I did manage to post some photos...more to come, including, you know — paintings!

Photos from my residency on Flickr

A weak signal from the Grand Canyon

Well, internet access from my cabin on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon is not only iffy, but often non-existent, so looks like daily blogging is not going to happen. But I am keeping a journal of my residency and will post it before long. Meanwhile, I've been busy exploring, trying to process this overwhelming landscape, and struggling to breathe at 8500 feet.

Oh yeah, and struggling to capture the experience in paint. Failing miserably so far, but I'll keep trying!

Off to the Grand Canyon!

On Tuesday I'm off to the Grand Canyon for my 11th artist residency and 3 weeks in a little cabin on the north rim. I can't wait to get on that big red plane and head west, but for a few more days, life will continue in its hectic, scattered east coast way.  I've already shipped off a box of art supplies, but it's still challenging to decide what to bring for 3-weeks far from art supply and grocery stores.

And it will be HOT. Usually temperatures on the North Rim are in the 70s, but they've been reaching the 90s lately, and I don't even want to TALK about how hot it is at the bottom of the canyon.

OK, I do want to talk about it.

How's 115 sound to you? I really would love to hike to the bottom, which would probably not be too bad if we started early. But even after a night at Phantom Ranch to recoup, the hike up would be daunting at those temperatures. No water, no shade, 1 mile up and 14 miles long. Gee I hope I get to do it....

As happy as I am to get away from my day job for 3 weeks, it does have a little perk. While designing web sites for the newspaper, I can't help but learn a whole bunch of html, css, js, photoshop, etc.  Which may not be such a perk as it makes me feel the need to redesign my own site to keep up with all you crazy ipad, iphone, droid, and who-knows-what viewers. But my site was overdue for a redesign anyway, and god help me I do find it kind of interesting, so I've been spending way too much time after work at my computer... My last redesign only made it halfway through my site but I'm going to streamline this one, estimated launch date - August!

 I'm also designing a Wordpress blog which will hopefully serve as a forum for the community of Artists in Residence. It's so much fun to find other AIR's journals and blogs to read before applying or arriving, so I'd like to create a place for us all to post links and interact. But a community Wordpress is surprisingly tough to set up, so that may also have to wait till August to launch. If you've been an AIR, you may receive an email from me inviting you to join, or just check back, I'll be posting it's debut for sure!

 

I am planning to blog daily from the Grand Canyon, but internet connections can be iffy, and my resolutions tend to be iffy as well. But I will try, so if  you want to come along, check back!

My studio is a star...

I'm madly getting ready for my AIR in the Grand Canyon, packing a box of art supplies to take to UPS tomorrow to arrive at the north rim ahead of me, but taking a break to post my thrill of the week, having my studio featured in Hyperallergic's "View from the Easel" series. If you've never visited Hyperallergic, I highly recommend it, it has interesting tidbits about the art world several times a day.

 http://hyperallergic.com/74471/a-view-from-the-easel-26/

Dontcha hate people who post about not posting?

[insert obligatory apology for not blogging here] but I vow to be back better than ever soon! I am working on a major redesign of my website which will also accomodate all of you tablet and smartphone users who refuse to be tethered to a desktop or even their own lap, and hoping to launch a wordpress blog (sorry Blogger) dedicated to AIR's in the national parks and forests. And I vow to finish my journals. And last but certainly not least [standard vow to update this blog more frequently]! So stay tuned!

One thing I will be sure to do is to write a journal from the Grand Canyon, where I will be in about two weeks!! Hope it cools down a bit before then...

A painting for Petrified

 

70 days till I leave for the Grand Canyon and I finally finished my painting from last year's residency at the Petrified National Park. I didn't quite make the 1 year deadline but hopefully will be forgiven. I'm still working on Alaska paintings so haven't really gotten ramped up on the PEFO work, but when I do I'd like to work big, maybe a wall sized 5-panel panorama of "The Most Beautiful Place in the World"

Other than that, I'm still struggling with trying to do too many things with too little time. Maybe I should make a list and see what I can eliminate. . .

(ok, I started the list but it got too overwhelming, so I will eliminate making a list, that's one thing crossed off anyway)

Sometimes I think I should give up blogging (and if I have any readers they are justified in thinking "I thought she DID give up blogging") but I can't quite do it yet. So I will try to update more often, because otherwise what's the point?  Which brings me to this post...  an excuse to upload my latest painting and do a little whining.

Stay tuned for a raccoon in a gold mine.