Hi all,

I'm back from another amazing road trip, this time to Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona. I did do some boxing, and planted some, too--you can take a peek at my logbook if you're interested in details--but I did a bunch of art trekking, which often preempted finding many boxes, and filled the well of inspiration for continuing work here.

Some trip highlights:

The little town of Palisade, CO & boxes there, especially several Napoleon Dynamite-themed plants

Glenwood Springs, CO: Doc Holliday's gravesite and the cave tour at Glenwood Caverns Adventure Park. http://www.glenwoodcaverns.com/gc_tour_cave.html

Taking the high road south through the state, passing all those 14,000+ foot peaks, seeing Leadville and Salida.

Stumbling on (through pure serendipity disguised as bad luck) one man's construction dream, see http://www.moosh.net/mark/castle/. These pictures are a few years old; I'll post a link if I get mine posted somewhere.

Taos and Santa Fe, as ever, art, art, and more art. Discovering a fun antique store called Pegasus (just when I thought there was no funk left in Santa Fe), where I picked up a bunch of new items for use in assemblage pieces. (A whole small bag of Monopoly pieces!) Watching a bronze pour at Shidoni Foundry, accompanied by my own personal tour guide of sorts, a sculptor friend who joined me for the second half of the week. She really helped me understand--along with watching the pouring part of the process, so primal--how labor-intensive, painstaking, and expensive casting bronze sculpture is. http://www.shidoni.com/ (aside to Lisascenic and other interested parties: did you see the Chronicle article on the Crucible? Check it out: http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/01/08/PKGN1GH9LR1.DTL&hw=foundry+theater&sn=005&sc=181)

Touring Acoma Pueblo, the oldest continually inhabited city in the U.S., with its nearly four hundred year old mission church: http://www.collectorsguide.com/ab/abfa22.html

Making a new friend in Flagstaff, an artist /gallery owner/musician. Making connections like this is one of the great joys of travel for me.

Spending a few days in Lake Havasu City with the sculptor friend and another artist friend, where we shared companionable communion and worked on our various creative projects, visited the London Bridge and marveled at the roadrunners and the desert in bloom.

Vicariously seeing doublesaj and Old Blue in their boxes at Red Rock Canyon, NV. (And Funhog in her NM boxes.)

Visiting the ghost town of Rhyolite, NV; finding boxes and a strange sculpture garden there. http://www.goldwellmuseum.org/

Driving home on 395 along the east side of the Sierra and being wowed once again by the varied and gorgeous landscapes that our state has to offer. It's always good to come home.

I don't know if I'll be able to join folks at the end of the month to see Bandaid; I'll have to play it spontaneously. Snow is melting at Tahoe--many boxes becoming available!

I hope you all are well: Robb getting around without pain, likewise Carole Kat, Old Blue maintaining a sense of humor (shouldn't we all?)

Happy Spring!

artTrekker


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