December 20, 2011 – Valley of Fire

When it comes to national parks and spectacular desert spots, Nevada has got tough competition. Squeezed between California and Utah with the Grand Canyon just out of reach, the average traveler doesn’t think Nevada and scenic go together. And I have to admit that some of those dry and dull roads across Nevada can be a challenge. But I decided to treat the Silver State as a treasure hunt. There are some real gems hidden among the sagebrush. Years ago I discovered one of the best desert places in the west.

Valley of Fire State Park is about 90 minutes north of Las Vegas, yet most of the thousands who flock to Las Vegas will never bother to see the park. I am not complaining about that. It’s always quiet and so many other travelers assume that as a “state park” it can’t be as good as “national park.” Okay, you just keep driving. Valley of Fire is all about the canyons, the rock formations, the petroglyphs all in oranges and reds against an intense blue sky. I saw the place in a dream over and over for about six months before I first visited the Valley of Fire. That was over ten years ago. I have been back many times since then.

October 3, 2011 – Travel Rules - Wupatki

If you like to travel, you might have your own a set of rules. The rules are yours and yours alone. It’s not about rules for everyone to follow but rather, you figure out what works best for you when you travel. One of my travel rules is always to look for places near popular destinations that often get overlooked. Some of my favorite places are often missed. Many people are looking to get somewhere else, somewhere more famous, etc.

One of those places is Wupatki National Monument. It’s just north of Flagstaff and most travelers drive right by on their way to the Grand Canyon. I am not complaining, I kind of like having the place to myself. I’ve photographed it, I’ve painted it, and I’ve visited the magic breathing hole. Yes, did I tell you about that? Over to the side of the pueblo ruins, there is a reconstructed Aztec-style ball court. Next to it is a small opening in the earth. When the temperature is warm, air comes rushing out of mysterious caverns somewhere below the earth. There is a sign explaining in National Park Service-speak that it is believed this site was held as sacred. Duh! The earth is breathing. Wupatki is one of the reasons I love road trips.

September 13, 2011 – Yma Sumac

“Do you actually listen to her?” I still remember when I heard that question for the first time. Of course I do. I love Yma Sumac. It all started one afternoon at the Rancho de la Luna in Joshua Tree about 20 years ago. It was getting close to the Yma Hour. Cocktails, Yma, and dancing — don’t forget to play her loud. 

I had the good fortune to see her live a few years later. At that stage in Yma Sumac’s career it was more of a happening than a concert. At first she was a bit timid until she remembered she was in San Francisco. Yma came to life as the audience screamed and cheered for her like the megastar she truly was.

So yes, I listen to Yma Sumac. At times, there is nothing better than a bit of Yma. Like when driving on those empty roads between Twentynine Palms and Death Valley. Racing along, windows down, sun roof open, hot desert air blasting into the car and the coyotes turning their heads up to listen to that magical voice.

June 10, 2011 – Land of Georgia

There is a Georgia as in the former Soviet Republic and there is Georgia in the South, but then there is the Land of Georgia as in Georgia O’Keeffe. New Mexico is the Land of Georgia, or as I prefer to call it, The Holy Land.

This week I bought a kid’s Georgia O’Keeffe art book at the dollar sale on the library steps. All but discarded, I could use it for collage without any guilt. Dissecting and repositioning pieces of her paintings is an interesting exercise in Art History. I quickly realized that in some ways, everything she painted was a landscape. You see it in the flowers you see it in the skulls.

Unfortunately I hear too many people dismiss Georgia O’Keeffe. Yes, her work is very popular. It’s also been over reproduced in the world of calendars and greeting cards. But you know why people love the work? It’s really good. It is a silly type of snobbery just to dismiss an artist solely because her work is popular. And if you know New Mexico, and you can’t be there at the moment, one of Georgia O’Keeffe’s paintings has the power to take you right back. You can feel the summer heat, sense the stillness and you and maybe you can even smell the smoke drifting across the state right now.

April 28, 2011 — Petroglyphs

When I travel I make a habit of seeking out art. In California and the desert Southwest some of the best art I find is not in any gallery or museum. There is an abundance of fine art to be found on rocks and cliffs. Much of the work is over 1,000 years old. Sometimes it’s a long hike back into a canyon or a drive down a dirt road. Sometimes the art is right there, very accessible near a road. A favorite spot is along the Fremont River in Capitol Reef National Park in Utah. There are times you find the art in a remote setting and yet one of the best spots is in sight of subdivisions on the edge of Albuquerque.

There are plenty more petroglyphs for me to see out there. They are in “museums” where you need plenty of sunscreen. The desert is not Chelsea. You will never encounter a hostile, malnourished, gallery gal in a little black dress. But you might see a rattlesnake. I think I prefer the rattlesnake.

April 27, 2011 – Ocotillo

I can still remember the first time I saw an Ocotillo. I was visiting Joshua Tree National Park and making my first foray into the lower, southern section of the park. It is where the national park drops from the Mojave into the Sonoran Desert. That trip was during the first spring in the El Niño year after the drought broke back in the 1990’s. It was the sort of desert bloom that usually only happens every 10-15 years. Driving south I left the Joshua Trees behind and suddenly encountered these tall, spindly cacti.

I had never seen anything like this cactus. They are tall, 10-15 feet high with branches stretching out towards the sky. At the tips of the branches were these flaming red flowers. There is no mistaking it, this is the Ocotillo (Fouquieria splendens). The best word to describe Ocotillo is flamboyant. They are the drag queens of desert flora — tall, spiky, flashy and demanding attention.

Ocotillo grow in the desert from Southern California to Texas and south into Mexico. The best place I have found to see them is Anza Borrego State Park south of Palm Springs. In March and April they are in full bloom. Where they bloom the flowers are often the only vibrant color. The effect is that in a few places Ocotillo are so thick the desert appears to have a red haze hanging over it as you look in the distance.

This piece is also featured on a print/poster available from Society6.

April 9, 2011 – Joshua Tree

I have been visiting Joshua Tree, California and loving Joshua Trees (Yucca brevifolia) for nearly 20 years.

There is the park. Joshua Tree National Park is one of my favorite places on the planet. For me it is centering, it is healing and inspiring. My head clears during every visit and I am always re-charged. I leave ready to make more art and full of new ideas. The national park is the obvious place to see the trees, but they turn up all over the Mojave when the conditions are right in an altitude between 1,300 and 5,900 feet. Further north, the Mojave National Preserve has ‘forests’ of Joshua Trees.

There is the town. When I tell people I go to the desert either two questions seem to come up. They assume I go to Burning Man. That’s not my scene. I go to the desert for quiet. They also assume Palm Springs. But that too is a place that just isn’t for me. I prefer the funkier, less fancy desert towns up in the High Desert. Towns like Joshua Tree and Twentynine Palms. The Country Kitchen in “downtown” Joshua Tree is a perennial favorite hang out.

And finally, there are the trees themselves — When you are in tune with nature, there can be certain places, plants and animals that you personally connect with. No two people are alike. For me, personally, the Joshua Tree is a very special tree. Technically speaking it is a plant, but that is a mere technicality. They are not the tallest and most majestic of trees, but Joshua Trees can still be hundreds of years old and possess a certain elegance. Each tree has its own personality. And yes, don’t tell the others, I have favorites.

Today’s piece is “framed” with some leaves from the Josephine Baker Joshua Tree. She stood for many years welcoming folks to the Rancho de la Luna in the town of Joshua Tree. The tree was so named due to its pose like the great dancer herself. Sadly, that particular tree was not meant to last for centuries. She went down in a windstorm over 10 years ago. The tree’s next stage was to become a source of life and habitat for many desert creatures that depend on fallen trees. And also, to end up in a little bit of art…

April 3, 2011 – Sagebrush

The West smells good. In particular the arid parts from the deserts to the Great Basin, from Arizona to all the way up to Eastern Washington. The secret is the sage. When the air heats up and those oil molecules make their way into the air, it’s heavenly. And after it rains in the desert, the smell is like nothing else. Of course you can burn sage. It’s pleasant and for some a way to purification. I was using a hairdryer to finish off today’s piece, the dried leaves heated up and the smell filled the room. The world is still waiting for internet odorama.

February 25, 2011 – Bottle House

I can’t be within 100 miles of Rhyolite without making a visit to one of my favorite ghost towns. One of the highlights is Tom Kelly’s Bottle House. Built in 1906 with mortar and bottles, mostly beer bottles, instead of bricks. I am pleased that some effort is really being put in to preserving the structure. It really encompasses so many things I love in my own art – repurposing and recycling and loosely structured grid-like patterns with circles. And it sparkles out there in the desert.

Sadly, the old caretaker passed away about a year ago. He was right out of central casting as the gold miner with the big bushy beard. You’d barely be out of your car and he’d appear out of nowhere and begin to tell you the history of the house, etc.

This piece is more or less a study for some upcoming bottle house paintings.

February 23, 2011 - Mosaic Canyon

Mosaic Canyon is a calming place. The crowd was particularly small today. Mosaic Canyon is rarely what one would call "crowded." The canyon has been washed and scoured by millennia of flash floods. There are places where veins of marble along the canyon wall have been polished into smooth waves. As one hikes, you make a few turns up into the canyon and it becomes quiet and still. Today was a cool winter day and the rock walls were cold in the shadows until you reached a higher point where the sun was still warming the canyon late in the afternoon.

Over the years I have found some unique spots in the desert. The energy is different and special in these magical places. Mosaic Canyon is one of those places. Don't ask me to explain why, it's just one of those things you know.

February 22, 2011 - Below Sea Level

Today’s experiment - Can I make art below sea level? 

Yes, I did. At 282 feet below sea level, salt encrusted, at Badwater in Death Valley. On the road and it's time to enjoy the desert. I can write when I get home in San Francisco.

Update: August 2026

All my pieces are protected with a non-toxic, water-based, acrylic varnish.  After 15 years, I discovered this one was yellowing. I assume it is a long-term reaction caused by the minerals at the bottom of Death Valley.

February 21, 2011 -Joshua Tree in the cold

I have stopped counting the number of times I have visited Joshua Tree National Park. I often go back to the same places over in the park again and again. And as familiar as the park is to me, it can look different every time. All these factors play into the experience, including the time of year, weather and time of day. The light changes by the hour. The air was crisp, cold and very still today. Some higher peaks in the park even had snow. On one trail, in a sheltered spot we found a handful of snow hiding in the shadows. Only a few early flowers were peaking out. It was the quietest I had ever experienced the park. No flowers meant no insects, few birds and not the usual rustling sounds one hears at every turn. Very still air and no wind. Without the heat, the park didn't even have the usual warm smells. It was unlike other times I have visited the park but as beautiful as ever.

February 11, 2011 — Grand Palette

I have been to the Grand Canyon about 10 times. Nowadays, I manage to make a visit almost every year. Even if I am heading back from New Mexico, and short on time, I still make a side trip up to the South Rim. Spend a few hours and just look. In many ways, the only thing to do at the Grand Canyon is look. Yes you can hike, camp, even condor watch (I saw one once). The Grand Canyon is mostly just about looking. And true to most national parks. The majority of visitors never venture more than a few hundred feet from their car. It takes little effort to go a short way from one of the vista points and have a pretty quiet experience — even on the crowded South Rim. I have spent the night at the North Rim. The sole purpose was being there to look at the sunrise.

I fill up my digital camera every time I visit. The sky, the light, it literally changes by the minute. When I come home to paint, it’s another story. I have been painting the desert for years. But I find the Grand Canyon is a practically impossible. There are so many colors and so many plays of light and shadow that I never really satisfied with my results. The color palette is great to work with, but putting it all into a painting and making it work is no fun. And while I like a challenge, I should enjoy painting. Right?

You can get in a car and reach the Grand Canyon in two days. If you haven’t been, go. Go and just look.

January 11, 2011 – Ou est le pamplemousse?

On New Year’s Eve a friend brought over two grapefruits from his dad’s garden in Palm Springs.

This is what happens when you’re spoiled by the cut up and sweet grapefruit in the jar. You peel one. Find that it is surprisingly small inside. And oh was it bitter. You pulverize the grapefruit as part of your morning smoothie and have to add some extra honey. So, the middle of the month approaches. You sit there watching the other one in the fruit bowl. How long until you “forget” to eat it and it has to go to the compost bin. This one is hanging in there. Well, it’s a nice shade of yellow and made for a good model.