Presenting:

open house

Come on in and look around -

'IN THIS HOUSE'

to be released July 2007.

Flashback

Here's a flash from my past.
Late November, 1973. Colin, September Rose and me, at a park in Albuquerque.

Of course, some of the finest moments of my youth have no photo documentation.
For example, hearing Jimi Hendrix at the Civic Auditorium in Albuquerque on a hot June night in 1970. Check out the funky spelling on the "unofficial" flyers! We had to go to the 10 o'clock show; my parents were still together and were going out that evening and as usual, I had to babysit 3 brothers. I went to that concert with a guy who was much older than I was - I was 16 - he was the older brother of a friend. Back then, I was not especially interested in the long-term consequences of anything. I was an accomplished experimenter and risk-taker. It was a night
filled with both; a truly crazy and memorable occasion, even after the music ended, on into the early hours of the morning and long past the setting of the moon and stars. And we were only a few rows from the stage.

Rough Draft

unfinished journal pages dedicated to Angela, an art partner par excellence

Brief Interlude from On the Road - Announcing the Winners

Surprises to be given out for people who left comments in March will be late getting into the mail since I was gone so much at the end of March and the beginning of April.
Sebastian drew names from a bag, and yes, those who made the most comments were most likely to have their name drawn, as you received one ticket for each comment!
I was only going to draw 4, April being the 4th month, but Sebastian was really excited to be my helper; he got a little carried away.
Dana, you got lucky again, we'll see if you think so when you get whatever (?) I send you!
Debi, I always owe you mail anyway.
Erika, it will, as usual. take you a while to get yours!
Kristen, yours is going to have to be doubly good, since I already promised to mail you.
Leticia, hope you liked the small treats!
Sylvia, this is the universe's way to get me to send YOU a package!
On another note, soon I hope to have a BIG surprise cool format sneak peek of
In This House on my artsite to entice, delight and tide you all over until July.
In the meantime, this postcard is by an old fave artist of mine, Margaret Keane, more of which soon! If you happen to run across a swell source of her postcards or prints, please share it with me --- I'm not quite able to indulge my taste for the originals, though a round the corner neighbor of mine has a few, lending absolute authenticity to her 50's ranch house moderne.

On The Road

The past few weeks have included a bit of one of My Favorite Things: travel. Not a lot, just enough to satisfy my wanderlust until June.

Colin has been doing work for the Santa Fe Institute (yes, it’s actually in Santa Fe) and often he has to actually BE on site. SFI seems intriguing. Nestled in a lovely former home in the hills right down the arroyo from my ex-sis-in-law, Magi, I hear the place is literally teeming with Nobel Prize winners. And what a view!

So, a few weeks ago he was supposed to go down again; it was a 5 day excursion (2 days for driving, 3 to be there) as he and co-workers had realized it was much, much cheaper to rent cars than pay for plane tickets. So, there was tagalong room. We were to leave on Wednesday, return Sunday night. I couldn’t simply abandon my daycare grandmummy duties, so I helped September work out the details for the boys, arranged with her and our swell (and neighborly!) neighbors that our border collie and panther kitty would be let in and out, called my art friend Pat who lives in SF and made detailed plans. We would meet up early Thursday for coffee, go visit one of her “secret” sources, a woman who has the “best stuff ev-er”, but you DO need to make an appointment, then head over to Thirteen Moons Gallery on Canyon Road, where Pat’s currently exhibiting. I would have Friday on my own to go visit all my old haunts, then Friday through Sunday in Albuquerque hanging out with Colin’s sister Meghan and our fabulous artist (oil painter extraordinaire) brother-in-law, John, in their crazily 60’s/New Mexico style house.

I spent most of Tuesday doing all the things one does before any trip, short or long --- canceling the milk delivery, buying aspirin, watering the plants, gathering up gifts to bring. Oh, did I mention packing? Well, no, I never seem to get to that until exactly one hour before we are scheduled to depart. But EVERYTHING else was good to go.

Ever heard my great, great, great, great, great (and I’m not saying that just because I think he was SOOOO great) Uncle Robbie Burns’ saying, “the best laid plans. . .”?

Suddenly, late Tuesday afternoon, the phone rings. RRRRIIINNNGGG.
Colin: The SFI peeps “aren’t ready”. (‘Scuz me? They obviously didn’t know I was ready. I wasn’t just ready, in my mind, I was outta here (except for the packing).) He continues: So maybe we can leave on Friday, go to Albuquerque first, if they (SFI) can be ready for us to come on Monday?

Oh. I call up Pat immediately: Does Monday work for you?
Pat: No! I’m leaving Sunday to housesit for the week in Santa Barbara.
Me (very very sadly): I know you’ll have a swell time in sunny California,
I’ll mail you your present, and I guess I’ll see you next time.

I quickly recovered my equanimity. After all, it wasn’t like I’d actually PACKED.

We got headed south early Friday afternoon. Colin had never read On the Road. So I read it to him, while he drove. Reading makes the 8 hours to Albuquerque go very quickly. (We did have a few radio news and cd interludes.)

Now despite the title of this edition, I’m not going to give you an excerpt from On The Road. What I am going to give you is a page from the magazine 5280 Denver’s Mile-High Magazine, March 2007. Click on the page and you should be able to read it easily:We made it safely to Albuquerque, with enough time to hang out in Meghan and John's kitchen for a few hours, drinking red wine and eating chocolate before bed. Very, very beat of us.