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this is what it looked like the entire weekend, pretty much! lol

~What happened in Laughlin stays in Laughlin~

Our nephew got married last weekend. It was simply beautiful in every way. It was held in the Mohave Desert in Arizona in a huge, sprawling, desert home in the middle of the desert. They were married on a pier, standing over a large pond. The weather was perfect. The people were beautiful. The location was amazing. It could not have been more elegant and memorable in such a unique setting.

We stayed across the river and down quite a few miles, in Laughlin, at the Riverside Resort and Casino , where the rest of our family out of towners stayed, as well. It was lovely. Not only did we have a great room overlooking the river, but it was so fun waking up at any hour and going down to the ground floor to the casino and running into family members. So many sisters and brothers and babies and nephews, nieces, etc. I haven’t seen many of them for years. It certainly warmed my heart to get in touch again and put my arms around them. I still have memories of our conversations and hugs. It was sweet. I miss each one of them already. It is so good to see that in such a large family, everyone is doing well, for the most part, and everyone seems to be in really great places in their lives. There’s nothing like a wedding to bring families and friends together in celebration of love and life with an abundance of joy.

We had a lot of babies and little ones at the celebration~this is our great niece, Gabby, she has a lot of personal style.

After a weekend of revelry we turned a three and a half to four hour return drive home into a nine hour trip. We stayed on the I-40 and drove along route66 and through Williams, Flagstaff and then cut off to Oak Creek Canyon, Sedona, Page Springs, Cornville and back over through Cottonwood, Jerome, the backside of Mingus mountain through Prescott Valley, through Prescott, over Yarnell Hill through Peeples Valley, Skull Valley, Yarnell, Wickenburg and back into Phoenix from whence we came. It was the most breathtaking, beautiful drive. We released all stress and shared creative ideas and thoughts and secrets ( between my hubby and myself). The fall has changed the leaves in the forests and the gold, yellows, oranges and reds all arranged amongst the green pines and other plants that are hanging onto their green colors.

Williams/Flagstaff

Mingus mountain

Oak Creek Canyon

Sedona

Jerome

Jerome

Jerome ~ Artist’s Cooperative

Jerome ~ Haunted ~ Connor Hotel

Jerome ~ Spirit Room ~

Jerome

Jerome

Prescott

Whiskey Row~Prescott

Prescott~ Everything became a blur from this point on. The sun began to sink beyond the horizon and we were about to drive into a series of never ending mountain road curves. It seemed like we would never get off of that mountain and when we did it was night and the sky was black.  What was such a great trip the entire way, seemed so difficult during the last hour and a half. We were exhausted and seeing double.

~ When lonely days turn to lonely nights
you take a trip to the city lights
And take the long way home
Take the long way home ~ ( Supertramp)

AHHHH~TUMN! My favorite season of all. After spending almost an entire year at St. Joseph’s hospital, this past year, I believe that things have calmed down and we can settle back into our groove at home again. It has been rough, but what a perfect time of year to recover and to bounce back in! The weather has broken away from the triple digit temps and everything is coming back to life again. I finally did something that I should have done many years ago. I hired a housekeeper. Not just a housekeeper, but, an AWESOME housekeeper! My house is SHINING tonight, from top to bottom. Everyone who lives here walks through and breathes in the shiny, super clean goodness! Even the animals are extra relaxed and content.

My friend, Lynne Bonnell, makes the stuffed pumpkins with the real stems attached. They are really popular here, I have seen them at shops all over Phoenix and the surrounding area. The Farm at South Mountain and funky boutiques like that carry them. They show up in random places when I am out. I LOVE them and have collected quite a few over the years. I fell in love with them from first sight and had to have as many as I could afford! They are made out of all kinds of cool fabrics, like vintage chenille and velvet. Lynne really has a talent for these pumpkins, as well as many other cool arts that she creates. I haven’t seen her in ages, though~unfortunately. I have been so out of touch in general that I don’t know exactly what and where things and people are these daze. I intend to correct that problem of mine. As fate usually has it, about the time I begin wondering about someone, I will pick up a magazine and there will be an article on them and their art! Funny how it works like that!

So happy to have autumn back again!

~harvest an abundance of love and peace~

"Sitting here in limbo, but I know it won’t be long.

Sitting here in limbo, like a bird without a song.

Well they’re putting up resistance, but I know

that my faith will lead me on."

Jerry Garcia plays in my head the past few daze as I am just sitting around waiting to have a
big surgery next week. In the meantime, I have been hanging prayer flags that a friend sent
to me about five years ago when I had the brain surgeries. I have kept them indoors because they
are so beautiful. But, the weather is changing and falling into fall, so that means we are
spending more time outside in the backyard. In this house of artists, we are managing to make
the place a magical wonderland, beginning with the gorgeous weather (thank you,
Mother Nature) and the hanging of the peaceful prayer flags and, of course,
replacing the little white, twinkling lights for our night time gatherings.The further that we
get into autumn and winter, the more we gather with good friends
and kindred spirits. So many creative ideas have been dreamed up on our back patio!
I think the key to a happy life is being surrounded by happy, creative
people. Come to think of it, I really don't know any truly creative people who are unhappy.
Or more than likely the unhappiness is due to being creatively stagnant or
blocked.
The time that I have been spending laying around in pain, waiting for my surgery,
I have compiled a hefty list of art projects that I will conquer after I
recover enough to be physical. I always have my paintings and they are mellow and easy
enough for me to create, pretty much anywhere that I am.
I cannot imagine a world where I didn't have pictures to draw and paint, words to write,
photographs to take, or sculptures to build.My mind would
probably be an empty place because these things are what occupy most of my
thoughts. Who ever said that daydreaming and staring into space was a waste of time?
I believe it to be a very crucial part of well being. It seems to be what artists
and scientists do best. Wonder into space with our heads in the clouds, seeing
things in different perspectives, asking ourselves questions and answering them.

   What would you be without your daydreams?

Last night I watched another burning man go up in flames and it was spectacular. Although some of my family members and friends attend each year, I comfortably watch it on the live stream on line in my home studio. This year’s theme was “Rites of Passage”. A good friend of mine passed away at the beginning of this year and her daughter solemnly placed some of her ashes at the Temple. The Temple of Transition is a place where people gather to honor the loss of loved ones, places and things that have disappeared from their lives. This year’s Temple was graced with the works of local artist Jason Alan Davis. He constructed the gorgeous gargoyles on the Temple with the helping hands of a few local artist friends. You can find the construction videos on YouTube. Last night’s celebration of drumming and fire spinning, fireworks, light shows and crowd cheering was intense. I could feel the vibrations through the screen and felt a very part of the whole scene. Everyone who attends IS Burning Man. There are no spectators ~ only participants. You can read about Burning Man on their homepage at BurningMan.com. It is a week of utopia in the Black Rock Desert in Nevada. I cannot wait to hear the stories and see the changed faces of the ones who come home transformed by living on the playa.

The photos above are courtesy of other websites about Burning Man.

This is all perfect timing for us Phoenicians to celebrate the break in our extreme heat that we have been living through and breaking records with this summer. So happy to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Our 117 degree daze are behind us at last.  ~Burn, baby, burn~

A ceramic artist recently moved into our abode and there is all kinds of crazy, beautiful, wild and wonderful art going on inside and outside of my studio. A breath of fresh air is being blown into our sacred space with inspiration abound. It is exactly what the doctors have ordered and why the gods and goddesses are smiling down on our house lately. The patio is abuzz with art chatter and ideas, dreams and visions too much to contain into a simple conversation. It is delicious. Everything is sacred, yet nothing is safe from paint and clay splatters and glitter spills. The studio is alive and well. Coloring books have been cranking out of the copy machine, one by one. And I am returning to some new paintings.

Digging out some old clay that I have had stored for quite awhile came as a welcomed surprise to our new resident and house guest. I woke to find these fabulous “bridges” drying on the patio this afternoon. And~ Yes, you read that correctly, when “I woke this afternoon” ( ah the life of an artist~ crazy hours). Apparently, the dry clay can be brought back to a workable state with a process of wetting, kneading and drying.

This excellent new addition to our art tribe has brought with her a spark of wonderment. We are all resonating in perfect harmony ~ riding the vibrations of creativity.

in progress~ the very beginning

Why, yes, that is glitter spilled on the floor, I am graceful like that!

An evening summer storm is brewing. The locust are buzzing, singing their summer song and the winds are kicking up enough to set my tie dye flag flapping and ring the Arcosanti bells. All of this makes me happy. This is probably the best part of August in Phoenix. The threat of stormy weather is not good enough for Phoenicians. We are only hard wired for dry heat or full on water works, no in between for us, although I do love overcast daze ~ just not with high heat and humidity combined. That type of weather should not be wasted on desert dwellers, rather used best on beachcombers.

Our sunsets have been gorgeous due to the dust storm activity. I had to shoot a few shots of the sky, yesterday, dripping with shades of golden honey and light lavender and pink. No doubt that the southwest has some of the most beautiful sunsets. That never grows old. These photos were taken from my backyard.

All of this sparks my creativity, naturally. Today I was productive in the studio and that is as grand as a rainbow sky, in my mind! I LOVE making art in my studio. Everything is possible, even the sky is no limit. There I find the freedom that my soul desires. A blank canvas is a gateway to another universe. I can stay there as long as I want as well as, leave and return whenever I wish. Yes. Visual art is my passion and my escape into the life that I want to live. It is where I set any rules, if they are to be set.

Find your bliss and immerse yourself in it. ENJOY! See you on the other side of the rainbow sky!

If life is a piece of cake, mine would definitely be a tall, layered, rainbow cake with lots of frosting and sprinkles. Looking around my home, I realized how layered everything is. Although, I LOVE the look and feel of an uncluttered space, I cannot survive very long in an empty space before adorning it with patterns and prints and creations, (preferably handmade) large and small. One picture or painting on the wall would never do. They must be accompanied by prayer flags or other pieces of art. And, by the way, that empty space next to the “lovers” painting, above, is now holding a beautiful Frida Kalho portrait. It hangs above our bed and that small, empty wall space was driving me crazy!

I even created a small, hippie room for my guests to stay in with the walls covered in hippie tapestries. It is actually, quite a peaceful room considering all of the patterns that are hung in there.

Sometimes, after watching a marathon of “Hoarders“, I will go through the house, dismantling everything and filling up boxes to donate to Goodwill and friends. It does feel good to accomplish a good house cleansing, complete with a good saging. It also feels great to donate to a great cause and pass things onto friends. Of course, over time “things” begin to collect again~only to repeat the process.

At my half century mark in life, I realized that the first half of life we accumulate things and the second half of life we spend trying to get rid of things. Everything that I surround myself with now is either something I love or something that serves a purpose at this moment in time. If I don’t need it or love it I pass it on. I could probably open up a pretty cool Free Store all by myself! lol

There has been a little too much on my plate lately and there comes a point when everything becomes one big, foggy. blur. When reality becomes too real and life crashes down pretty hard, I have to take a second or third look to see the magic in everything. Today it all came flooding back to me of how easy and free and beautiful life is. Fortunately, I found myself at Fantasia ~ a magikal place. They have everything to open my mind’s eye and please my senses. They carry gems, incense, beautiful art, everything magikal and magical. After feeding my head, I ended up at That’s A Wrap to feed my body with some healthy grub. I love a place that has giant jars of free water with cucumber slices in it. It is so refreshing in this part of the country, especially this time of year.

Now, with a clear mind, fed head and nourished body I can breathe easier and feel my feet on the ground again. This should make the conditions perfect for taking the next step towards creating some new art. I have all of these visions floating around my mind and running through my veins. There is no possible way that I will ever capture it all in one lifetime, so I figure that much of it is for my own personal pleasure. However, if enough bits and pieces make their way onto canvas or paper or take some other form, I will be satisfied enough.

When you are stuck in the heaviness of circumstances in life, take a moment to get out and away to get recharged ~ a little goes a long way.

oh, yah…… and shop locally!

El Mirage Fourth Friday was Hawaiian Night, last month. Tere Bingham and I had the privilege of showing our art in the main gallery that night (the gallery show will run through June 18th). It was a magical night, filled with music, art, dance, food and happy people. There were food vendors, artisan vendors and entertainment  from 6 p.m. until 9 p.m. in the square that is in the middle of the center. This is a place for families to go and have a good time. There was also a painting demonstration booth. So many things going on that I surely missed a lot of it because I was staying near the gallery visiting and meeting new and familiar faces. I was thrilled to have finally met up with some kindred spirits there. Alicia Bay Laurel began the entertainment by singing Hawaiian songs with her sweet style. It was delightful.

Bookmark the next fourth Friday of the month and try to get out to this hidden, little gem of a place in El Mirage. 6p.m.-9p.m. is when the party is rocking. Gather up the family and be prepared to enjoy yourself!