the known and unknown

Artist Grayson Perry was given every museum nerds dream: full access to the British Museum collections. For The Tomb of the Unknown Craftsmen, he also had to pair his own creations to curate an exhibit. No need for me to write about it, his description is fantastic:

Pilgrimage to the British Museum. Ink and graphite, 2011 © Grayson Perry. Courtesy Victoria Miro Gallery, London

"I had been given permission to translate a vague fantasy into an increasingly daunting reality. I feared it was a fantasy that perhaps I had not thoroughly thought through, one that involved dozens if not hundreds of other people, many of them extremely knowledgeable...I feared I would be seen as an ignorant interloper by the people who spend their lives learning about and caring for the collection. I thought they might see me as a trendy Thor Heyerdahl, falling into easy but spurious cross-cultural comparisons, misinterpreting objects. These were people whose careers were forged from accurate knowledge collated on many arduous field trips or from years of painstaking research and in I would come for a few hours and say "Ooh I like that, what fun!" Did I see them flinch?... All I could do was choose the things that fascinated and delighted me."

Thor Heyerdahl-KON TIKI

Makes you want to go exploring in search of undiscovered beautiful works of art...jump on the KON TIKI and head for South America...or to France,  to view the Chauvet Cave ...breathtaking...the earliest unknown artist. 

deer dog

prematurely, desert dog considers preparing for the Yaqui ritual of his native Sonoran desert.

we are off to Oregon for the week...going to camp, visit hot springs, and get our city on in Portland...excited about getting some art and culture in...i am particularly taken with Nikki McClure right now...thanks to Shipwreck in Eureka...un abrazo.

creepin' around the compound

the moon was quite impressive last week, hanging around with it's big self until the late morning...conjuring warewolves and lost spirits...

tiny moon, big view

first sun hitting a tin roof

the last few misty mornings segue into sunny afternoons, ruining creepy moods necessary to invoke darkness in craft...i have been reading dracula and...uh..harry potter...and hung a couple of glitter skulls around the house...we don't need to hang fake cobwebs because we got the real thing...conjuring up some HALLOWEEN.

cobwebs (drop dead fred, anyone?)

I am a soul

I think a lot about homes...

and this quote in a yoga workshop: "You don't have a Soul. You are a Soul. You have a body." by C.S. Lewis... 

island or rock

made me think about my soul house...

misty morning trees

if your soul  didn't have a body,  would it be a tree or a rock or fluid like the wind and water?

fancy beach house

 ...if your soul were in a house, where would the house be?

...would it face out into the vastness of the sea watching the world fall off the edge? 

Casa Talia by Marco Giunta and Viviana Haddad

...would it be in a cave, looking out from the the core of the earth? 

earthship

...who would be your neighbors?

inside a black apple

my body is my home...the souls floating next to me are my neighbors...good neighbors make you feel at home.

anniversary

"The greatest gift is a portion of thyself." R. W. Emerson

 

I prefer to keep my blogging focused on THINGS, but my husband is the most giving and inspiring thing, to me...sending extra love into the world on this day, loving my love.

Somes Bar or some bar

Probably like many before me, when I heard people talking about "Somes Bar," I thought it was a booze depot of some sort. And because I like to let my husband plan our hiking trips, I had no idea that Somes Bar was a tiny town along the Salmon River. As an appreciator of DIY and handmade stuff, I was equally impressed with the Somes Bar General Store as I was with the mountains.

Before moving to California, this would have been my dream spot: hot summers, snowy winters, solitude, and a little organic shop for anything we couldn't make or grow ourselves. I still appreciate the idea, and if we had a few kids and were homesteading it would be nice place to settle, which is probably why the founders of the Black Bear Ranch (see the documentary Commune) chose the location. 

Alas, I have no desire to be part of a commune, and there is no need for modern Field Matrons to explore the country of the Klamath and Salmon Rivers on horse back (if the Federal Government were still hiring that position, I would be first in line! Read Land of the Grasshopper Song). Therefore, I guess I will just resign my heart to the desert.

Grand Canyon, Kibab

Double rainbow drive-by

Give me the Colorado Plateau...
some bar in the Chihuahuan Desert any day of the year.
 

Terlingua Ghost Town

FALL

fall is beginning. the weather here never really strays too far from what feels like fall to me, but, like the desert, changes in flora are the best hints...the redwood leaves litter the road

the cold rain and a need for fires almost transports me all the way to winter...

we bought pizzas for the cold and hungry protesting on the autumn wall street, admiring and wishing i could do more, struggle to get back into the swing of making things, i wish i could blame it on the weather but the protesters are sticking it out.

recently sent to Fancy Pony Land