New Mexico

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Full-timing, Santa Rosa Lake State Park

I’m sitting under a cement canopy at a fine cement picnic table. Marty’s about the length of a football field–that’s 100 yards or so–away at the showers. Maze and Pip are here with me, trying to stay cool in the breezy heat of the high desert.

The air conditioner in the RV isn’t working! It’s hot in there, but I’ve posted a question in the Pleasureway forum about it, and hope to have an answer tonight. If not, we’ll drive on down to Las Cruces tomorrow, and hope that someone there can help us out. I made a new friend, Carol, this afternoon. She’s a camp host here at Santa Rosa Lake State Park. Carol travels throughout New Mexico in her Winnebago Aspect, taking care of campsites and campers in NM’s state park system. She’s been full-timing since 1997, and it suits her. Got a nice tour of her RV, which is SO much more spacious than ours, but of course, there are trade-offs. It’s not as easy to get in and out of places, especially parking, as with a smaller rig, and Carol’s considering trading hers for a van-based RV when she moves back into her sticks-and-bricks. She thinks she’d enjoy a smaller RV for visiting family and friends, as long as she’s not full-timing in it.

The famous NM skies are living up to their reputation here, regional fires notwithstanding. The sky is long and low, and accented by occasional bright white and purple cumulus clouds. One I saw today was shaped like a majestic anvil, pressing down through azure blue to meet orange hills beneath it.

I’m posting some photos of our site, as well as the view beyond.

At Meramec State Park!

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Driving, Missouri

For anyone checking in, a brief update. We left on Tuesday instead of Monday, and are this morning a few hours west of St. Louis at a wooded state park. The van can be tough to drive–lots of swaying, especially when really fast little cars and semis pass–and I have to grip the wheel as the RV wants to wander and sway within its lane. I understand this is a problem with Fords of this RV model. Past years driving from east to west have been easy in a rental car, our Element, and our Safari van, respectively. This is a whole different ball game, because handling many hours on the road is much more tiring. I’m figuring that I’ll have pretty well developed biceps by the time our trip is finished, though!

It’s pretty here at the campground, but very damp. Marty and I are remembering the rigors of muddy dog (and human!) feet, moving in and out of a camper. A few glitches–the refrigerator has a fault light on, and last night water was streaming from the AC. At least it was outside!

A quick note to the Yahoo Pleasureway forum put me at ease. I understand the AC “leaking” is the result of the completely normal process of condensation. Last night we cooked burgers with cheese (no bread) and peppers and onions on the propane grill for dinner. Snacks on the road were cheese and nuts. Today we’ll have some fruit! We’re leaving in a few minutes to head west. Tonight we hope to be in western Oklahoma. I hope to have some photos soon.

Traveling with the Crow

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Crow, Southwest, traveling, trip

In a few days we’re heading out to the great Southwest with the crow as our mascot. I’m looking forward to describing our adventures. In the meantime, here’s our guide. She’s stuck in a bowl of rocks now, but soon she’ll be flying!

Working From the Outside in with Art

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cat, closed eyes, earl, sleepy

Whenever I’m given the opportunity to do a new portrait of a dog or cat, I enjoy most the process of “getting inside” the character or personality of my animal subject.I’m always amazed at what comes through when I open myself to their spirits.

Gentle souls that they are, animal pals are most happy to share, even helping to work through the process with me when things are tough.

In my many years as a product and concept developer, I learned the technique of getting inside of a particular product or challenge. It’s working from the outside in, and the results are often magical. Even when the subject is inanimate, amazing things happen when you work to strip out its superficial aspects. Somehow, when you reach the “inside” of the challenge, it makes itself more clear, and yes, sometimes more animate, thus malleable. And therefore, more open to impression and input.

If this all seems a bit abstract, it’s because it is, in fact difficult to understand without a bit of practice. You’ll have to work at it for a while. But its worth it.

Featured here today is a recent commission, of a cat named Earl. Apparently Earl spent much of his life with his eyes half-open. Which made him a uniquely distinctive subject. I learned a lot from him as we worked together on his portrait.

The Joy of Books

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books, insipiration, notebooks

I haven’t posted for a while, but I aim to change that pronto! Since this blog is about Art and Inspiration, I wanted to share this video that I saw this morning on one of my favorite blogs, Notebook Stories. As the former owner of a used bookstore, I can relate to the anthropomorphic energy in books. Their stories come to life in my hands and mind…More about our little bookstore in future posts.

Books Come to Life!

Crow Magnets

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Blackbird, Corvid, Crow, Grackle, Raven

Not to be confused with Cro-Magnon! More product development experimentation resulted in this new set. I tried an archival glue glaze with these, and it dries faster than the diamond glaze I used for my set of Vintage Camera Magnets.

Still loving the logo on the front of the tin, too. It’s a portrait I did for my niece, Lilly, of her dog, Chloe. Both of them are wonderful girls, as is Lilly’s sister, Anna. Being their aunt is among my greatest privileges.

Vintage Camera Magnets

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Gift Tin, Vintage Cameras

I’m steadily adding items to my etsy store, and thought I might talk about my newest addition, Vintage Camera Magnets.

As with all new product development, there’s a definite learning curve. Lots of research to be done, including researching suppliers (I like to buy as much of my supplies as possible from etsy selllers). I finally settled on 1″ glass tiles from another etsy seller. I bought a few different kinds of glue and magnets, before settling on diamond glaze and rare earth neodymium magnets.

Found some great round tins, too, which I hope make a nice presentation for gift-giving, storing these magnets, or for anything else a buyer might like to keep in one.

After much experimentation with image sizing, cropping, cutting, and copying, I think I finally have a system down. It’s still extremely labor-intensive, and it remains to be seen whether this category will successful for the Jada Jazz Shop.

Happiness

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Carl Sandburg, Happiness, Poem

I ASKED the professors who teach the meaning of life to tell
me what is happiness.
And I went to famous executives who boss the work of
thousands of men.
They all shook their heads and gave me a smile as though
I was trying to fool with them
And then one Sunday afternoon I wandered out along
the Desplaines river
And I saw a crowd of Hungarians under the trees with
their women and children and a keg of beer and an
accordion.

Whiskey ATC Print from Jada Jazz Shop

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Bottle, Hudson Whiskey, Whiskey

This morning I added a new ATC (Artist Trading Card) print to my shop. I love this little size, because this is a scale I feel very comfortable working in. This mini format captures the sweetness, elegance and simplicity I love. It looks like little jewelry.

This piece was printed on Epson Velvet Fine Art Paper. Prints made on this 100% cotton rag, archival paper are difficult, if not impossible, to differentiate from the original art.

I’ve matted this artwork to an 8″ x 10″ size, which fits standard-sized frames that you can find in any big-box store. Thanks for having a look.

Greeting Cards at Jada Jazz Shop

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anthropomorphic, figurine, watercolor

I’ve been adding items to my etsy shop pretty much every day since the middle of April. Over the past week or so, I’ve begun to offer bookmarks and greeting cards. Making prototypes, researching and finding the right paper and envelopes, and test printing is reminding me of my many years in product development!

I already had some vinyl sleeves and colored tassels on hand from our years owning Steeplejack Books bookstore, and I made a decision not to use archival paper for the bookmarks. But the blank greeting cards were another matter, since I wanted them to be archival in case a buyer or gift recipient wanted to frame them.

I also decided to sign and date them on the front, for the same reason. More about the paper selection in a subsequent post–in the meantime, here’s one of my new cards.