Practice Making Progress

Continuing to share my journey of discovery with watercolor, today’s post is meant to encourage you to find ways to advance your creative practice and for me to appreciate what I’ve accomplished.

As a creative, I know about the traps, obstacles or blocks from both inside and out that can make it challenging to follow through. They still litter my path. I’ve talked before about how it’s been difficult to get motivated and stick with finishing a piece of art. I haven’t encountered that often with my textile creations or when under contract to get a job done; but when it comes to putting something to paper via drawing or painting to feed my soul, everything else seems to take priority. The first thing I needed to do was to dedicate time to allow myself to paint.

As dr. e says, “Protect your time; . . . I know a fierce painter here in the Rockies who hangs this sign on the chain that closes off the road to her house when she is in a painting or thinking mode: ‘I am working today and am not receiving visitors. I know you think this doesn’t mean you because you are my banker, agent or best friend. But it does.’

“Another sculptor I know hangs this sign on her gate: ‘Do not disturb unless I’ve won the lottery or Jesus has been sighted on the Old Taos Highway.'”

Since I’ve worked from home for over a decade, the distractions here aren’t as hard to ignore as the obligation I feel towards my clients to make myself available. This required establishing a mental boundary. A few years ago, I turned off the alerts on my phone and continue to generously use the do not disturb feature. The true test is not checking it during or before painting, remaining present to the process.

When the pandemic cancelled the class I intended to take this month, I set aside the time that would have been spent there. During the first session, I nearly completed the Flagstaff Beetle. After the initial sequestered 3 hours, I checked the phone and learned no one had any urgent requests for my time, gifting me with the luxury of painting the rest of the day.

Finishing that painting over the following weekend, I added a quickie California poppy on a Zentangle® tile. And then I was stuck. What to paint next? Should I move onto the larger sized paper? I’d been working on 5″ x 7″ canvases and the 12″ x 17″ block of Arches paper bought for the class was intimidating. Gently pushing myself through the block by doing google image searches, I ended up with more ideas than hours in the day. With more demands on my time, most of the second class session was spent sketching and setting up for painting the next week.

Spending a little time one afternoon with my camera, trying to capture a suitable image of one of the hummingbirds that frequent our feeder this time of year, rewarded me with my next muse.

Until recently, I didn’t understand the desire to record a time lapse of one’s drawing as can be done in Adobe Sketch unless you were trying to create a tutorial. I’ve taken several pictures of this one in progress and there are a number of things I love about it. Obviously, I can turn those images into these fun animated gifs, but it also helps me see values or other details from a different perspective. Like recording myself playing the mandolin, I like to look back and see how I decided to approach a section of the canvas.

The last observation I’d like to share is that despite having limited workspace, I’ve been able to keep my painting supplies set up as I’ve worked on Large and In Charge and that has helped to motivate. This reminds me of another parallel to playing the mandolin. My good friend and musician, Mark Dudrow suggested if I wanted to get serious about practicing, I needed to keep my mandolin out of the case. “Put it in your way, where you’ll see it every day,” he said. Make it easy to pick up.

That’s the real beauty with watercolor. The paints can dry out, and be reconstituted with just a drop or spray of water. I find myself eyeing the composition throughout the day; or even picking up the brush for a quick stroke, while I wait for something to heat up in the kitchen. It also reminds me of something I learned from Zentangle’s creators, “Anything is possible, one stroke at a time.”

February 26, 2020April 22, 2020

Bus Knits

It’s time for another fiber arts roundup. Today’s theme is pieces inspired by life with our Volkswagen.

These first two projects are some of the first items I ever crocheted, three or four years ago.

This one was a jacket to keep our percolator warm. I didn’t follow a pattern. I’d made enough hats and things at this point that I felt pretty confident creating it as I went along, using whatever scrap yarn I had at hand. I believe it’s various shades of Lion Brand Wool-Ease held with two strands together for extra bulk and the marled effect. When I started to run out of a color, I dropped it and picked something else up. I may have found the craft buttons at a local thrift store. The top is attached on one side and hinges open when unbuttoned.

I keep using the past tense with this warmer because we no longer own it. We’ve brewed coffee while traveling or camping with a percolator for years. In 2016, I went through a phase where I wasn’t drinking coffee. I changed my morning routine to chai. The problem here is we can pour a full percolator pot into two good sized thermal mugs, but we didn’t have a way to keep the pot warm if you were just pouring up one cup. And what’s the point of brewing a half pot of coffee?! We used it for about a year before I got back into my old routine and there wasn’t any coffee left to keep warm, so we gifted it to a family of fellow v-dubbers. It made me smile to see it in their kitchen at ROTR last August, looking none the worse for wear.

I think I created these after our 2016 Parks Trip b/c hubby was complaining about cold hands. I can’t find a valid link to the patterns anymore. They were free and very simple. Great for a beginner. The links I do have, currently redirect to thesprucecrafts.com I added the flap on the back of the hat per hub’s specs. This was more Lion Brand Wool-Ease. The hat has turned out to be great for covering long hair while working in the garage, a must while our beloved VW has been going through her restorative process.

Unfortunately, the wristers haven’t really been put to use. I think I’ve worn ’em more than he has and that was just once. They’re a little big for me. His hands are usually warm. He isn’t the hand-wear kind of guy, and we haven’t been on the road in those kinds of temps since. I still think they’d be great to keep the breeze from the vent window / defrost balancer off your knuckles when driving below freezing. For now, I’d look for them either in the Casita as backup or in our catchall basket of accessories by the front door, waiting for the bus to get back on the road.

All that nostalgia, to be on the road again in our bus… Which brings me to the latest projects. These were part of my holiday knitting frenzy, and since they’ve been gifted, I can talk about them now.

This one I made for hubs, it’s our bus on two sides alternating with the Wolfsburg crest on the other two sides. Running around the bottom it says Westfalia. It’s the same pattern from Andra Rangel’s book that I used to make his Bee Hat with my own custom color-work chart. The ribbing is a modified pattern from the Japanese stitch bible that reminded me of the V on the nose of a splitty. I started out doing it in two tones that I thought was gonna be really cool, ‘deluxe;’ but I ended up re-doing it and dropping the extra color-work.

The navy yarn is malabrigo sock in Cote d’azure, and the grey is Sophie de luxe by Bremont that I picked up many years ago in Silver City. It’s a blend mostly of baby alpaca with a little mulberry silk and cashmere. They are so luscious together and I love how the Sophie yarn is getting fuzzier with wear. I get a big ole grin when I see him wearing this hat or even if it’s just sitting on the dashboard of one of our other vehicles.

The fraternal twin went to our very good friend, Big Bus Mike. It’s the hat hubby really wanted for himself, based off of the pattern found on NOS part boxes and old enamel dealership signs. Although the malabrigo was a fresh new skein purchased for this hat, they really do share some DNA as I used the rest of the ball of Sophie before starting a new one.

BTW Ever think about where things come from? Bremont’s a company in Germany—the fiber’s actually from Peru, and the color-work was done on German needles—addi Natura, inspired by a German vehicle, by an artist with German—and Shetland—roots. Not to leave out the malabrigo yarn, which is a company from Uruguay. They have opened a mill in Peru so maybe these two yarns are more similar than one may think. It’s a small world after all.

WIP update: Continuing off the beaten path—this one’s got nothing to do with Volkswagens. My last knit post mentioned the poncho I’m working on. Sometimes it’s tough to admit when you’re wrong. I bought some yarns I thought would compliment the yarn I started with. In some ways it did; but the overall shade and the way the new yarn striped or had more colors going on, didn’t appeal to me as I knitted it up for this. The fancy patterns from the stitching were getting lost. I spent a lot of time arranging the squares and staring at them, and continued swatching.

A couple of the MANY photos I snapped while trying to decide how this could be pieced together.

Finally, I decided. Shannon was right. I needed to look for more of the original yarn. I found it online all the way in Massachusetts at Another Yarn. It’s perfect. Now my questions are a lot more fun to address, figuring out which pattern to knit up next, if I should try a new pattern, or how I want to blend all the color changes together in the overall garment.

Don’t worry about the other, unused yarn. The squares I knitted up will be used for something else. I haven’t decided if I’ll take them apart and re-use them. Probably. I think they’d look good in a color-work project with some darker contrasting solid. Maybe some mitts or a sweater? They’ll go back to the stash pile till they tell me what they want to become.

December 3, 2018June 14, 2022

Looking Back as We Move Ahead

I’ll admit, I’ve been dragging my heels to make a post after my last one about fire season, lest I jinx us. We held our breath for an awful long time. Since I started writing this, the Camp Fire and other wildfires in California showed us that those fears can be well founded. Neighborhoods are not immune, and I know ours has a big forest, wild-land interface.

Seemed like we couldn’t go to town this Fall without coming home to a fire in the neighborhood (there were at least 3). From what we heard listening to the online radio traffic, seeing their response time, professionalism and talent, those fire crews and our local PFPD are amazing.

When the remnants of hurricane Rosa drifted our way in early October, we finally got a little relief, but the drought map still looked bad. I started to see the sprouts of weeds rejuvenate along the driveway, and the grasses I thought were goners began to emerge, just in time for frost. The Fall seemed somewhat mild and quick for the colors to peak. We stayed extremely busy with chores and projects in the transition between seasons this year.

Celebrating in the Gila

A lot of the work (not done by me) was to get the new engine in the bus, and get a few miles on it before we high-tailed it down to the Gila to celebrate hubby’s 40th. It was the slow-down, camping time we needed and exactly how he wanted to celebrate. We started the trip this time by meeting up with some friends at Snow Lake, where the best gift ever was the final custom fitting for some new bus awning accessories; and ended with working from the road for just one more week at our favorite cabins in Pinos Altos.

I don’t know why I haven’t written about the Gila yet? Maybe because I get bogged down in culling pictures from our trips, and then get distracted from writing the post to support them?

We were first introduced to the northern and easterly most parts of this National Forest during a series of winter-time, VW shenanigans in 2012 & 2013. Since then we’ve been drifting further and further south every year and have fallen in love with Silver City and the surrounding areas.

Since our first trip on our own in 2015, we’ve come back every year to camp, try new hot springs, and explore the forest and attractions like the WNMU museum’s collection of Mimbres pottery and the Gila Cliff Dwellings. There’s a lot of history, character and creativity here.

The bus and its new engine did great. There were a few hiccups but nothing that stopped us for very long or can’t be tuned/corrected. We barely made it home before snow covered the driveway. Now the bus is back in the garage and all of the camping interior and gear is removed and stowed. Hubby’s got her mostly torn down to the bare bones as he replaces some much needed rusted out body parts in preparation for next summer’s adventures.

2019 Alaska bound…

November 8, 2016November 8, 2016

National Parks Trip 2016

I find it ironic that as I post our latest trip to youtube, I pick up the National Geographic at the dentist’s office to read “Can the Selfie Generation Unplug and Get Into the National Parks?”

I’m not a millennial. I really don’t do much social media or take many selfies. I’ve grown up with the evolution of technology and use it daily for work, but I draw boundaries and seek balance. My escape and renewal comes from going out. Getting out and unplugging for a while. It fascinates and disheartens me that there’s a generation growing up without exposure to the outdoors.

While I appreciate our National Parks as ‘easy access’ for everyone to experience the outdoors, they remind me why I love to explore all of our other Public Land options: State Parks, National Forest, BLM, etc.—the usually less crowded options—the slightly wilder options. Our National Parks hold and protect some truly amazing landscapes, features and ecosystems. But look around you. There are some truly amazing places not too far from you. What’s there today could be gone tomorrow. Whether it’s from our impact, development, forest fires and natural disasters, or just the march of time; everything changes. Get out and go visit them before they change.

November 24, 2015February 13, 2023

Chaco NM trip

November 14-22, 2014

Now that it’s been a year since we visited, I’m finally getting around to writing about our Chaco vacation that I mentioned in my last post about my Chimney Rock Workshop. I thought about making this post a series like I did for our Utah trip, but I didn’t have nearly as many photos to share.

Google maps shows Chaco Culture National Historical Park about 3 hours from us. Between the speed of the bus and some of the back roads we took, I think it took us more like 4-5 hrs. We’d reserved our campsite online, so all we had to do was check-in, set-up to watch the sunset, and make dinner. The first big cold snap of the season was moving through, and it felt like we practically had the Park to ourselves.

Camping at Chaco Culture National Historical Park

Saturday, we set out with the intention to hike the Pueblo Alto Trail which overlooks much of the Park. What we didn’t count on was that the ‘entrance’ to the trail was a pretty steep, almost bouldering, stairway to the top that our dog, Pakak did not want to climb once she’d gotten a few feet up it. We climbed back down and altered our destination to one of the furthest outliers within the Park, the Peñasco Blanco Trail. We were rewarded with solitude, and able to wander and wonder through the Petroglyph Trail. Turning around at the Supernova Pictograph site, made for an almost 6 mile hike. After a rest, we walked around Pueblo del Arroyo and called it a day. Back at the campsite, we set to baking garlic knots and cinnamon rolls for dinner, and spent some quality time B.S.ing with the friendly, Park Ranger.

Sunday we awoke to 19 degrees and the bus blasted with snow. The winds were something we knew would be a factor, but they sure did blow through our bones during most of the day. Later in the day, once the bus thawed out, we took her for a drive to warm up. Some rodent, maybe a kangaroo rat, had crept into the bus and stowed a bunch of the dog food into the heater pipe. It sounded like one of those childhood push-popper toys that kinda looks like a vacuum. It spit out dog food into the floorboard for miles, and the heater still smells like it. We braved the wind to visit Chetro Ketl and the most important and studied site in the canyon, Pueblo Bonito. I was in awe just by it’s size. The dusting of snow was a real treat, too, as it added a new dimension to the landscape’s shadows and highlights.

Monday, we packed up and headed towards Abiquiu. Needing a break from the cold, we planned to hole up and thaw out at the Abiquiu Inn. This pet-friendly Inn is our favorite stop whenever we find ourselves in this neighborhood. Their restaurant is quite tasty, too. Along the way, we found a road with great views to stretch our legs and romp around in the snow for a little while.

Rested, warm and bathed, we spent the next two nights on the Chama river. I’ve written about this spot before. It seems to stay pretty warm, and we basked like lizards in the sun for a few days.

Thursday we drove towards Taos, camping near Pilar in the Orilla Verde Area of the Rio Grande Gorge, which is a newly designated National Monument. Again, we were welcomed with solitude. After picking a site, we ran into town for dinner. The next day was spent rambling around Taos and finally meeting up with some friends who live there to crash on their couch. Saturday was the haul home with another great adventure (and our coldest camping yet) concluded.