Happy Summer Soltice!

This was an early shot, given that it was the longest day of the year. Mother Nature gave us...the clearest sky imaginable! So, I've flexed some Photoshop muscles and dropped in a sky worthy of the first day of summer. Honestly, it was a beautiful morning. Chilly for summer (Monument Valley is at 7000 feet).
I was just hoping for something, well, spectacular for the occasion. Instead, I took it on as a personal assignment to do it justice. We'll be revisiting the spot and the concept again.

Iconic Arizona landscape

Knock something off the ol' bucket list!
A trip into the 'greater metropolis of Tuweep,' as the sign reads at the ranger's outpost, has been on the to-do list for a long while.
This is no easy task as it requires more than 60 miles of off-road driving before getting to the last and most exciting three miles of the journey. We attempted this drive last summer and were thwarted by the summer rains that turned the road to mush. The warnings from the National Park Service that the average visitor experiences "one or more flat tires" and a tow from the nearest service station can run up to $2000, were well heeded. Alas, the only thing we took away was about 50 pounds of clay dirt that glued itself to our car.
As the monsoon season is yet weeks away from rolling into the state, the road was distinctly different this year: dusty but passable. We knew we were 'out there' when we did not maintain cell service for the duration. THAT never happens, no matter how far afield we get!
Our little group of four doubled the population of the campground that night (not counting the two dogs that also took up residence out there for the evening).

This vantage point sits over 3,000 feet above the Colorado River, facing due-east. It is not as high as the North Rim and not blessed with the tall ponderosa pines there. This is slick rock desert terrain along the edge, warm in summer. Not surprisingly, we totally missed sunrise, somewhere around 4 A.M.
We hope to visit this area again, perhaps when it's a little cooler. A LOT cooler.
And, no, we didn't lose a tire nor require a visit from Jake's Service Center in Fredonia.

See us at the Gallery

For a limited engagement, we have installed some new works at the Easy Street Gallery in Carefree. We don't often get the opportunity to exhibit our framed artwork, so we're enjoying this chance to show off a little bit.
The gallery is an open-studio concept, so we're working there once or twice a week. The gallery is located behind the Carefree Post Office on Easy Street (natch!) and is open varied hours or by appointment. Check out the webiste, easystreetgallery.com for more information.

Jaguar Jungle

Our friend Pam has a special place in her heart (and her art) for kitty cats. Her latest watercolor is this jungle beauty that she completed for the Sonoran Arts League's Hidden in the Hills studio tour this fall. The colors are intense and obviously she put many hours into this work before we photographed it for her archives.

The studio tour is still many months off, Pam's work can be seen on her website, pamelamangelsdorf.com. The jaguar is for sale as an original study on paper, this large format work on board and as a giclee reproduction. While you're there, check our her other cats and critters!

Red

Artists can self-impose homework assignments to stretch their creative muscles or can latch onto a group or gallery project's focus to see where their abilities may take them. One such experiment by our friend, Corinne, led her to this abstract piece. A gallery in Tucson was curating a show simply entitled, "Red," and thus the inspiration for this piece was born.

Agent McAuley is a bead tapestry artist and her work can be viewed at corinnemcauleyfineart.com. Check her site out to see where you can see her and her work in person and for her to describe her process. The number of beads in any given project is in the tens of thousands and just astounds us! If there's something important that she has finished, she entrusts us to photograph it for her website, promotion and posterity. Thanks, Corinne!

Art and Vino!

We have installed our 'really BIG art' at the Tasting Room in Vistancia this past Sunday. Our favorite combination: art and wine! Nancy, the owner, invited us to hang our work for the month of June and to get things really rocking, we'll be on tap for a wine tasting event on Wednesday, May 30 starting at 6:30. SO...come join the party! For details on location and hours, visit tastingroomaz.com

Comb Ridge Hikes

We had a couple days after Gil finished a major project for The Sculpture Studio and chose to decompress in Bluff, Utah, one of our favorite destinations. On the recommendation of our new friends Gus and Sandra, we ventured along Comb Ridge and did some hiking into the canyons. The driving was simpler than expected--no four-wheel drive necessary, but the hiking at a mile-high for us flat-landers was more strenuous than anticipated. But our efforts were greatly rewarded.

The Procession Panel is so named as there is a line-up of 179 hunters and their quarry. No, we didn't count them, but someone had. The Wolfman Panel has some anthropomorphs and bird figures and two abstracts that remind us of toilet seats. Not thinking they had such things 900+ years ago, but it's just our interpretation.

We found some habitations in various states and there have been people making museum collections of pottery and such. Selections from our photographing this area, four or five times over, will be presented at the Desert Foothills Chapter of the Arizona Archeological Society's May 2012 meeting.  For information on the chapter, visit: azarchsoc.org/DesertFoothills