A brief pause

Rejoice with your family in the beautiful land of life.

Albert Einstein

This picture was taken at the Secret Garden at Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island.

I visited the island with my sisters and our mom this week, as a celebration of my mom’s 80th birthday. It has been so much fun being together, laughing, playing games and talking for so much more time than we usually have with just the four of us. It didn’t leave a lot of time for writing, however, so I will keep this post short.

I hope you have a wonderful week! Thank you for being here!

Mackinac Bridge, a five mile long suspension bridge that connects Michigan’s Upper and Lower Peninsulas.

Going Home again

Coming back to where you started is not the same as never leaving.

Terry Pratchett

an unexplained ruin in Joshua Tree

my last desert hike

I stumbled on a ruin

crumbling into dust

and realized I was ready to go home

home again - water everywhere

home where water flows freely

pussy willow blossoming

where spring blossoms riot - bursting through their skins

Allium breaking through

Narcissus looking down

where narcissus is already in full bloom

Ferns unfurling

where the forest floor fills with ferns

single-minded squirrel

where squirrels sneak up to steal suet

living in the land of tulips

where the silky tulips glisten

swimming silently by

and silent mallards swim

lily of the valley

where lily of the valley is wet with dew

solitary tree on the edge of the dunes, overlooking the channel

and a single tree keeps vigil over the grassy dune.

Where we love is home - home that our feet may leave, but not our hearts.

Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.

I loved the magic of Joshua Tree, but I am so happy to be back home. I am grateful that you are here with me.

Rambling from Azle to Marfa, Texas

How lucky I am to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard.

A. A. Milne

As excited as I was to see west Texas, it was hard to leave my mom’s house in Azle. There are so many people I love here, and so many memories.

The neighbor’s horse, eating grass and looking how I felt.

San Angelo State Park. Texas trees twisting in twilight.

First morning of my trip, I am at the beginning of the desert.

Prickly Pear Mickey Mouse. As I do with clouds, I look for creatures in the cactus.

San Angelo State Park. A remnant left behind when the reservoir waters receded.

Today I move on to Marfa.

Marfa, Texas. Questions.

Faith includes noticing the mess, the emptiness and discomfort, and letting it be there until some light returns.

Anne Lamott

Marfa unsettles me. So many contradictions. So much beauty, so much poverty. There is something writhing under the surface here. After my first full day, I thought about ditching my reservation at the Tumble In and finding a park somewhere.

These metal cylinders, which I was calling the Marfa Stonehenge, were right next to my campsite. I took this picture and then went to bed, deciding I’d figure out what to do in the morning.

Marfa. Sunrise view from my spot at the Tumble In. I walked to town, got some coffee, and thought I’d figure out another plan.

I saw a kiosk outside the post office with a sign about a free watercolor class, starting the next day, at the Chinati Foundation, where everyone told me I should go if I was in Marfa. I figured it was probably full (and secretly almost hoped it was), but I contacted them anyway. Michael, who responded to my message, said there were no openings. Then later - much later - I checked my email messages. Someone cancelled and I was the only person on the waiting list. I decided to do it.

Donald Judd’s Concrete Boxes at the Chinati Foundation.

This was the view I chose to (try to!) paint. K B Jones was our instructor (@kb_jones on Instagram). I learned so much in these two days and got a such an intimate view of some of the artwork at the Chinati Foundation that I’m still in a little bit of disbelief.

A tree I decided to paint on the second day.

Here is what I finished. Something I loved about painting vs photography is that you can just leave out what you don’t want to include. You can do a little of that in photography, by changing your point of view or zooming in closer or editing afterwards, but when you paint - it’s all up to you right from the start. Developing the skill to convey what you feel is probably the work of a lifetime.

This experience made me love Marfa in all its imperfect glory. I realized that everywhere I go, the same conflicts exist. It’s just much clearer in a place where the population is so small and because of that, the economic and cultural conflicts so much more visible.

Marfa Stonehenge at night with the lights of the highway in the background.

My last morning in Marfa before driving into Big Bend. The sky looked like a watercolor better than anything I could ever paint.

Thank you for being here!