Joe & I headed up to the Snowy Peaks mountain range in Wyo. to camp over the weekend. The flowers & scenery of the High Peaks with lake after lake after lake was soooo beautiful!! These “Old Men of the Mountain” flowers always face toward the sun:

What perfect days- hiking, reading in the cozy camper during the afternoon rain showers and working on my art work at a picnic table!

Life is good and in balance!!

“To encapsulate the notion of Mardi Gras as nothing more than a big drunk is to take the simple and stupid way out, and I, for one, am getting tired of staying stuck on simple and stupid.

Mardi Gras is not a parade. Mardi Gras is not girls flashing on French Quarter balconies. Mardi Gras is not an alcoholic binge.

Mardi Gras is bars and restaurants changing out all the CD’s in their jukeboxes to Professor Longhair and the Neville Brothers, and it is annual front-porch crawfish boils hours before the parades so your stomach and attitude reach a state of grace, and it is returning to the same street corner, year after year, and standing next to the same people, year after year–people whose names you may or may not even know but you’ve watched their kids grow up in this public tableau and when they’re not there, you wonder: Where are those guys this year?

It is dressing your dog in a stupid costume and cheering when the marching bands go crazy and clapping and saluting the military bands when they crisply snap to.

Now that part, more than ever.

It’s mad piano professors converging on our city from all over the world and banging the 88’s until dawn and laughing at the hairy-shouldered men in dresses too tight and stalking the Indians under Claiborne overpass and thrilling the years you find them and lamenting the years you don’t and promising yourself you will next year.

It’s wearing frightful color combination in public and rolling your eyes at the guy in your office who–like clockwork, year after year–denies that he got the baby in the king cake and now someone else has to pony up the ten bucks for the next one.

Mardi Gras is the love of life. It is the harmonic convergence of our food, our music, our creativity, our eccentricity, our neighborhoods, and our joy of living. All at once.” Chris Rose author of “1 Dead in the Attic”

You know how I love making costumes!? – well living out my formative years in a Mardi Gras culture definitely influenced me!! We visited the warehouses of Blaine Kern where many of the Mardi Gras floats are made – it was awesome to see so many floats all tricked out and how they make the big figurines- either out of fiber glass or carved styrofoam with paper mache on top- then painted.

I love to visit quirky small museums while traveling & New Orleans is the perfect city to have the Museum for the American Cocktail:

and a La. Food Museum where there was a jacket made out of a La. diet  staple (besides the daiquiri): red beans and rice:

New Orleans was the home of America’s first licensed pharmacist. Pharmacies used to put these beautiful colored liquid filled glass bottles in the window as a symbol of their business.    They also sold products such as these:

and voodoo powders or “gris-gris” were popular in New Orleans. You still see some voodoo influences today:

Joe & I visited thee arts district on Julia Street but frankly, after visiting Santa Fe several times a year to see the art there, the art on Julia Street was disappointing. However, as far as living life in a way that stimulates the senses- the food, the music, the architecture, the southern culture & ambiance and quirky sense of humor I would say New Orleanians  deliberately arrange these elements in a way to affect their senses or emotions- they understand living life as art.

Wikiipedia defines art as “the process or product of deliberately arranging elements in a way to affect the senses or emotions.”

Last week Joe & I went down to New Orleans for my Behrman Bees High School Reunion – here’s my “old” gang:

“The minute you land in New Orleans, something wet & dark leaps on you and starts humping you like a swamp dog in heat & the only way to get that aspect of Nawlins off is to eat it off…beignets, crawfish bisque, jambalaya, shrimp remoulade, red beans and rice…” to quote Tom Robbins in “Jitterbug Perfume”:

Taking Tom’s advice, upon landing, we drove straight to a po-boy place on Magazine Street:

Where I happily devoured a soft shell crab po-boy “dressed”!

So many of my memories of living in New Orleans involve eating and not just eating but eating really, really tasty food and discussing the merits of seasoning back in the 60’s & early 70’s-way before the new foodie craze took root in the United States.My first date in 10th grade culminated in eating powder sugar coated beignets & drinking cafe au lait at the Cafe du Monde and then walking in the mist shrouded French Quarter where my date plucked a magnolia blossom for me from an over hanging branch. Sigh…

and then there was the shrimp & crawfish & gumbo…

& oysters at the Acme Oyster Bar- oh my!!

(and heart felt conversations concerning the effects of the oil spill in the Gulf!)

I took another trip down memory lane at Brennans for breakfast where I had fresh strawberries in a thick sweet triple cream, followed by poached eggs on lump blue crab meat topped with a brandy cream sauce and topped off by Bananas Foster which was invented by Brennans- ahhhhhhh sheer bliss!!!

New Orleans is such a fascinating city- and the people there have developed a life style that feeds the senses. Living to eat competes with Living in beauty- the beauty of architecture as Bob Dylan describes it:”Bijou temple-type cottages and lyric cathedrals side by side. Houses and mansions, structures of wild grace. Italianate, Gothic, Romanesque, Greek Revival standing in a long line in the rain. Sweeping front porches, turrets, cast-iron balconies, colonades- 30 foot columns, gloriously beautiful- double pitched roofs, all the architecture of the whole world…”

In the French quarter Music feeds the soul- on every block- from the blues to Dixie land jazz to Professor Longhair and the Neville Brothers. We enjoyed Miss Sophie Lee one evening while drinking daquiris       and Hack Bartholomew  while eating beignets & sipping HOT cafe au lait while sweat trickled down my back- which reminds me that my Mom used to admonish me “Horses sweat and ladies perspire!”

and then there is Mardi Gras and the Museum for the American Cocktail and the quirky Pharmacy Museum and voodoo- to be continued next blog.

Joe & I zipped (and I mean zipped- down on Sunday after work & back on Tuesday) to Santa Fe to meet up with my brother, Win, who is selling his house there & wanted to give me a carved post from India-shown here and a carved panel from a Pakistani dowry chest and a set of mesquite doors. My son Paul asked, “What are you going to do with those!?” (implying that I have too much stuff already!) but as Joe 2 says “That is not the point!” (one of the reasons I love him- he “gets” me!)  I did make plans though, for everything on the 8 hour drive home- mostly revolving around making a new garden- using the doors for garden gates & the Pakistani carved piece for the front of a garden tool shed- the post will go in my kitchen. I love to just sit & think & plan while driving in the car with wide open spaces all around- it gives the head a chance to “breathe”! And this time of year out in Colorado, we are all obsessing about gardening- which for me, at 8,000 feet, can’t really happen until after Memorial Day- unless I want to take the chance that everything will get frost bitten!

We spent the night at the old (right on the Old Santa Fe Trail)Plaza Hotel in Las Vegas, New Mexico- newly renovated & beautiful with 14 foot ceilings, antique furniture, old photos of the area- quite charming!

If I had 5-6 million dollars I would buy up a bunch of cool old buildings there – like the Navajo Textile Building & turn them into galleries, artist studios, antique stores and restaurants.

We poked around town in the morning & discovered a coffee shop/weaving studio, a lovely book store and an antique store filled with all sorts of goodies. My heart raced faster when I found a 1950’s red leather bound book with “wonders of the world” maps in it, for assemblages. One wonder was a picture in the state of Iowa of an old farm truck spraying insecticide on the rows of vegetables- now that does make you wonder how that got into a wonders of the world (!) book!!

On to Santa Fe where the trees were in bloom and

the margaritas & green chile were savored down to the very last bite! I was happy to get a chance to catch up with dear friends & family.

As we headed out of town, my heart & prayers went out to the families & friends who lost their loved ones- teenagers- at this roadside site that is marked with these typical New Mexican memorials. When I pass them I say a prayer for them and one of gratitude, for me, for still being in this beautiful world. I also want to put it out there that if I do die in a car accident that I would like to have one of these memorials with lots of pinwheels!!

Yesterday my sister, mom, dad & I went to the Great Western Stock Show in Denver.

I love going with my family because they are the only ones that I know that will spend hours experiencing & enjoying the culture of the Stock Show. It started with the food- my only regret being that I did not leave room for a fried Twinkie or Snickers Bar- food items I have heard of but never experienced-I know it is probably not politically correct but I figure if I am up for trying iguana pizza in Costa Rica, fried grasshoppers in Mexico or guinea pig in Peru why not a fried Twinkie?

First stop- the cow/calf/bull show. The owners spend hours, bathing, blow drying & sprucing up their cows.

They all had Mohawk upper tails with a giant dread lock ball on the end of the tail.

We noticed that the “in” fashion this year was bling bling belts for the women- Project Runway take note!

Some of the bulls were impressive

But it is the chickens I love- each breed is so different- maybe I’ll become a chicken portrait painter:

the greys in this one were beautiful- made me want to try to capture it in paint!

big red combs- I wonder what the evolutionary reason is behind these?

slightly demented:

fluffy like an angora bunny

proud

curious

the look in their eyes not unlike a rehabilitated eagle that was there:

A lot of my world revolves around art & living in a rural area where I see elk, deer, coyotes etc. daily but not farm or ranch animals or people. I am fascinated how we develop our own sub cultures within the general American culture. As artists -in general- we wear more “arty” clothing- brighter colors, hand woven or embellished materials etc. Funky, unusual jewelry… At the stock show we saw mostly cowboy boots, western snap shirts, cowboy hats, blue jeans & the women sporting the sparkly rhinestone belts. Here is a fellow  waiting his turn to show his pig- which is in the pen below him- checking messages, reading a book.

What a fun & interesting day off!!

P. S. There was an awesome western art show there- the Coors sponsored show- I was thrilled to see about 75% of the paintings sold- in price ranges up to $20,000.00!! No picture taking allowed so unfortunately I can’t share any with you.

I am wondering if I am getting side tracked in my blog by writing about my experiences that are not directly related to my art making- but then again isn’t that what art making is all about? …our life experiences- so, it all ties together in the greater cosmic creation experience- right?

The title of this one refers to my blog of 9-13 which I wrote just after my return from Burning Man where I pondered the question “Am I- as quantum physics & some new age & “old” age philosophies state- the creator of not only my art work but my world?” This time I am returning from the Magical Kingdom of Disney World.

Here’s Concourse C at the Denver airport where they suggest that travel equals Indiana Jones type adventure with this depiction of overgrown architectural ruins from a “lost” civilization. Is that your travel reality?

We arrived at the Magical Kingdom where I immediately realized that there is a certain sense of fashion (just as fun fur, nudity & parasols are hip at Burning Man) that I haven’t seen else where.Of course the Mickey Mouse Ears are everywhere- here with New Age spiral:

the leopard print ears:

the badge collection of Disney ephemera for both women: & men:

the fantasy costumes:

and the bouffant hair do -seriously!-which I immediately tried to create so that I would blend in & not appear as a Disney newbie:

Disney does a superb job of recreating a time & place-the fruit bats of Asia hang among tattered Prayer Flags- the Disney twist being that the Prayer Flags have animal images on them rather than traditional images & prayers. As inspiration it reminded me to take what I see & find inspiring & to add my own unique “twist” to it.

The Chinese Pavilion at Epcot under the full moon looks straight out of China:

The giant Tree of Life made of concrete bark animals & fake leaves is truly amazing:

This is a candy gummy worm being pulled on by a real bird- it made me laugh!! A fake worm that looks real but still tastes good being pulled apart by a real bird that looks just like the fake birds that Disney uses in so many settings!!

The beauty of Epcot at night:

Dogs made of Legos!

We did the backstage tour of the Disney greenhouses where they use hydroponics & perfect growing conditions to grow an abundance of fruit & vegetables in a small space. The eggplant tree:

Mickey even gets involved here- they put a plastic Mickey Mouse shape around a growing eggplant so that it grows up to be that shape. Meaning shapes seeing.

So….back to the question- did I create this holographic world? or did Disney? or did I create Disney so that I actually created Disney World? enough- I know it all sounds crazy & it is making me crazy…I think I will just go back to creating in the studio and leave it at that!!!

Just got back from a mini vaca in Santa Fe with my good friend and fellow artist, Janice Whitmore- whew- I needed the break, the timing was perfect- Janice & I giggled & girl talked & discussed art and art ideas- I came home refreshed and thankful for my home away from home, Santa Fe- oh how I love her…let me count the ways:

1. the drive:  Santa Fe is about a 7-9 hour drive from Estes Park give or take a few depending on Denver rush hour traffic, the weather, the northern route through Taos or I-25, scenic stops etc. We chose the I-25 route- which I love- once we get out of Colorado Springs (traffic usually intense until then!)- the vistas open up & you can see for miles and miles- the cloud shadows, the deep blue of the far off mountains, the rolling grasslands with an occasional antelope or herd of cattle really clears out the head & unfolds into all kinds of dreams and possibilities.

2.hanging out with dear friends: Here’s Eve & I on Canyon Road:

3.the food: eating “Christmas” (green and red chile) enchiladas & margaritas at Maria’s, the Shed etc or melt in your mouth foie gras at Geronimo’s….the food every where is sooo good!!!

3. Canyon Road-did you know Santa Fe is the 2nd largest art market in the United states? 7-8 blocks of art: contemporary, landscape, western, religious, fantasy, sculpture- you name it, it is there. (and all of the galleries and art museums downtown and near the Rail Yard)My “outfit” even matched one of the paintings- is that anything like buying a painting to match your couch? Got inspired by paintings by Nancy Scheinman at the Klaudia Marr Gallery, Squeak Carnwath & Hung Liu at the Turner Caroll Gallery and Christina Chalmers at the Selby Fleetwood Gallery.

4.the Tesuque Pueblo Flea Market- yes, the “flea” is making a come back and has some very cool things and reasonable prices. This trip I discovered the wood figurines used to create papier mache figures called Takaan. It is an industry in the Phillipines that is going out of business like so many time consuming handicrafts do and they are selling off their one of a kind hand carved wood figure molds. They used to do paper mache on top of the figures, then when it dried they would cut the seams down the sides, piece the 2 papier mache sides back together, paint & decorate and send to the USA. Here’s a bunny 1/2 covered with the papier mache. I also visited Outsider artist, Kelly Moore at his booth- love his vibrant & passionate paintings!!

5. Laura Stanziola- I met Laura at the Recyled Art show last summer where I bought some doll heads, arms and legs and vintage postcards. She is an amazing conceptual artist- I am particularly intrigued by her Conjoined Twins Series! And she showed me her latest piece- a very large pair of men’s hunting trousers made of all hand sewn doll clothes representing pedophilia- bright & colorful & very disturbing!! Anyway she sells tons of ephemera out of her house- including vintage clothes & jewelry & toys & figurines, material, paper collage items etc. etc. etc. She doesn’t have a website but if you’re in Santa Fe give her a call.

Laura E. Stanziola

Santa Fe, NM

505-466-2525

Vintage items for recycled art creation

6.This trip was planned around being in Santa Fe  for the every other year Open Studios of Gail Rieke- a beautiful, beautiful artist with the most beautiful studio space I have ever seen!! Her studio should be featured in that Somerset Magazine “Where Women Create!” Her mixed media work is gorgeous- influenced by the subtle yet perfect beauty of the Japanese. Her husband,Zachiriah Rieke, is also a wonderful painter who explores memory excavation through a multitude of techniques. Here are some views in the studio:

the suitcase wall

a drawer pulled out

a corner

Some paint pigments:

Gail’s Pilgrimage Kimono- at every shrine the pilgrim visits she/he would get the special kimono stamped

7. Museum of International Folk Art- I don’t think I have ever gone to Santa Fe without visiting this museum- in fact I make an annual pilgrimage there (I like the idea of getting a special pilgrimage piece of clothing & getting it stamped at each special place- like what Gail has!- anyone else want to make one with me?) just to see my favorite exhibit”Heaven, Purgatory & Hell”

Heaven

Middle Heaven

Purgatory & Hell

I took a couple other photos of things that struck me in the permanent collection

Magical symbols from India

A Queen Bird Woman with a hot pink & orange outfit

And another compelling reason to go during this time was to see the exhibit Writing with Thread: Traditional Textiles of Southwest Chinese Minorities

In the Neutrogena Wing through August 16, 2009.

Writing with Thread features over 500 objects from the most inclusive collection of Southwest Chinese ethnic minority costumes in the world. Writing with Thread showcases the finest and rarest costumes from 15 ethnic groups and nearly 100 subgroups, exploring the meanings associated with the production and use of indigenous clothing. In societies without written languages, traditions and customs are orally passed form generation to generation. The textile arts, largely practiced by women, provide tangible evidence of a group’s history, myths, and legends. The signs and patterns woven or embroidered in their clothing and the ceremonial and ritual use of textiles are often replicated in the accompanying silver ornaments made by men. Photo, Right: Miao Woman’s Ensemble, Gejia style. From the exhibition Writing with Thread: Traditional Textiles of Southwest Chinese Minorities. Photo by Wang Lin-Sheng, courtesy of the Evergrand Museum, Taoyuan, Taiwan. This exhibition was curated by Angela Sheng, Assistant Professor of Chinese Art History at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada from the collection of the Evergrand Museum, Taoyuan, Taiwan. The exhibition closes in Santa Fe on August 16, 2009.

Wow- the pieces that these- mostly women make- are awesome- embroidered, pleated with teeny tiny pleats, batiked, metal work etc- but here’s the thing- they grow the plants that they make the fiber from for weaving, they process the plants into fiber, they weave the cloth then they dye & decorate it- it can take years- and some outfits are only complete after multiple generations have worked on them- hard to fathom in our let’s go to Target or J. Jill society!!!I would like to go to this area of the world next!!

8. I love the Mexican art influences in Santa Fe- so we finished up the trip with a visit to Artesanos where I picked out some tile that I am going to use in my bathrooms- a nice winter project!!        9. and all the things to look forward to next time that we didn’t get a chance to do this time that I look forward to another time- the Traveler’s Market, the Farmer’s Market, the Opera, eating at Geronimo’s, 10,000 Waves,visiting Madrid again,  etc. etc.

Traveling is such an eye opener and the influences from my trip to Bali & Borobudor in Java are showing up in my most recent painting which is my biggest painting ever- 35″by 35″! The Tree of Life and bird women idea came from the stone relief carving I saw at Borobudor and the carved wooden bird woman that I picked up in Bali.

I started out with my background color as a lovely pinkish tan color that picks up the color of the woman’s dress in the postcard and developed the tree with Golden Interference blue paint curlicues and a lot of texture- especially in the petals around the eyes.

The postcard I am using has a blind man in it & a woman with an open umbrella walking past him- it is titled “Pity the Blind”. An uncomfortable title in our politically correct times but I do pity the blind that they cannot see the beauty of this world…that is why I started filling in the background with nature shapes- flowers, fruits and animals. You will also see backgrounds completely filled in by shapes of this theme in traditional Balinese paintings.AND in this painting, which is about recognizing the sacred feminine,it is about pitying those that are blind to it’s existence.Right now I am struggling a bit with the painting because the background has become so prominent- I think I will sand it down a bit. I am unsure of how I will paint the bird women or the flower petals- I am in that stage of painting where I am intrigued by the possibilities of problem solving! Stay tuned for furthur developments

Around & around we drove switch backing up the dense green forested slopes to the Dragon Temple, Pura Lempuyang. One must wear a sarong & sash to gain entry into the temples of Bali.                                          My boys & Joe checking out their sarongs:

Me and my favorite mythological animal- the dragon (I also happen to have been born in the Year of the Dragon)

Here are some photos of this amazing temple:

Okay, I’m going to wind up this series on Bali with some scenes from daily life. Here is a washing machine that has an anti-rat proof base (and with all the mice that get in my rural house in the fall I like this idea!) Speaking of daily life I thought it would be fun to share some of my photos of my studio & the art I have collected in my next blogs…..

Scooters are the vehicle of choice- with families of 4-5 riding on one scooter-including the babies!

a shoe repair man

a country store

a snack cart

a gamelan player (the music of Bali)

a trash can made from an old tire-clever!!

a typical toilet- admit it- you were curious- they also have squat toilets but many are flush with a water bucket or hose for rinsing yourself & 2 buttons for the flusher- one for #1 & one for #2 to save on water- also clever!a

and last but not least- our typical daily view from our cabana on Sanur Beach-see the volcano? (it looks like it is across the water but the land curves around)- big sighs of good memories!!