September 1

The desert summer seems endless this year. Hot and dry, the distant thunderstorms are nothing more than a torment to thirsty desert folk. I wake early each morning to walk Ole, before it's too hot. Even at 5:30 am, the temperature gauge reads 77 degrees - which really isn't that cool. The camera seems heavy, the sand deep. But the light remains as beautiful as ever, and there's really nothing like the quiet of a desert morning. 

​I'm working on a coyote painting that has been sitting on the floor in the studio for months. It stared at me as though it were already a finished work, but it wasn't and I couldn't touch it for all this time. FINALLY, I worked up the courage to pick it up - deadlines looming. On the easel for days, I finally got the drawing where I think it should be, only to realize that the back end of the coyote is going off the edge of the surface. So. This is making art. So much like life, where finally ONE THING seems to be going your way, when you discover something else isn't. No point in getting worked up over it. Just wait to see what happens next. 

I am just now re-starting my blog, after giving it up in favor of other things. Since life is all about new beginnings, I am also just re-discovering my connection with my art. We lost our old dog, Pono, last fall, and I couldn't paint at all with out him - for many months. I still miss him. Grief takes its own sweet time to reach a tolerable level. I finally have gotten the new studio-assistant-in-training to a place where I can have a few hours to myself. Puppies are a lot of work! I am feeling more like the artist I know I can be. Ole will be a great dog, I think, but there were a few months there when all I seemed to do was chase him around the house saying "no" and "drop it!" and "LEAVE IT!" Working at home means that the dog rarely gets left alone, and sometimes, putting him in the crate seems like a cop-out. (I do it anyway.) So now things are back to a new normal. If only it would rain.

​I hope to write something once a week, so I hope you stop back in and see how disciplined I can be. Greetings from the High Desert, all.

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