Grateful Journey

Me doing one of my favorite things in the world - playing around with my camera in the desert. Arches National Park

March was a very busy month for my photography, in yet more ways I didn’t expect. Along with my solo show at Blue Door Arts, three of my works are part of the CFD Old West Museum’s annual (43rd) Western Spirit Art Show and Sale. 

I love to attend the artist workshop as well as the show opening for the Western Spirit show. This is my second year. The artist workshop is an awesome way to meet other artists in the show, as well as hear from experienced artists and gallery owners regarding everything from marketing to framing. The networking opportunities continued at the show opening, where both last year and this year, I met and connected with some great people. Last year, I met an artist who has now become a close, important friend. She and I learned that we both had strokes on the same day (how weird is that?!), though hers was a couple of years after mine. Our similarities in character and personality drew us together like magnets. I treasure her friendship. This year, I met even more artists and hung out with others I’ve met previously. This is not a world where I feel out of place or apprehensive about participating. We are all lovers of art, creating in different ways, but joined together by a common bond of expressing ourselves through color, process, and imagination. As if all that artsy camaraderie weren’t enough, I was shocked to hear my name announced with the group of winners for the show at the opening! My photograph, “Miner’s Boots,” was named “Best Photograph” at the show. It was a real honor.

Mark in the slot canyon we visited near Kanab, Utah. Ancient Anasazi steps can be seen notched into the rock above and to the right of Mark.

I got my annual winter itch in March to get out of town for a while and head south to red rock country: Utah. I dearly love the desert, and my yearning to be in it grows stronger with time. Being in the midst of the red rocks fuels my soul and makes me feel whole and ready to face the rest of the winter when I return home. Poor Mark, he puts up with my wanderlust for the desert and tolerates me as I gather books and read more about this beautiful land. But hey! I got to visit a slot canyon for the first time and it was every bit as incredible as I imagined it would be. And we had a terrific guide who let us meander and didn’t hurry us. What a magical experience.

I’m ever so grateful to Mark for following along on my search for something in the desert I haven’t found yet, but for which I enjoy the hunt.

“Wilderness is not a luxury but a necessity of the human spirit, and as vital to our lives as water and good bread.”

-Edward Abbey, Desert Solitaire

As March passed and now April has begun, I’m starting to shift focus to the summer festival season. As of today, I’ve been accepted or invited to participate in five shows, with several others I’m waiting for notification about. Beginning on Memorial Day Weekend, I’ll be in Brigham City, Utah for the Art on Main Festival. In mid-July, I’ll have a display at the Wyoming International Film Festival. Late July will be a busy one with two consecutive weekends at the Pearl Street Arts Festival in Boulder, CO, and the Art Fair Jackson Hole in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Labor Day weekend will take us to Dillon, CO for the art festival there.

I’m also enjoying dabbling in some painting again. I haven’t painted oils since college, which was a minute ago! I purchased some water-based oils that I’m hoping to have time for very soon. But a super fun painting medium I’m currently learning is watercolor. I don’t recall ever learning watercolor in my college art classes, so my foray into them now is new and rewarding. I don’t know where the urge to paint again will lead me, but I am happy with whatever outcome that might be.

And so I write this today with gratefulness for my journey. I am working hard at this new “career” I find myself in, but not in a stressful, burning-the-candle-at-both-ends kind of way. It’s a steady pace. Looking for and responding to opportunities, being mindful about time for art every day if possible, and immersing myself daily in a positive, productive lifestyle, thought and learning, and social interaction are markers of my overall sense of place and purpose. None of this would be possible without faith and prayer, either. Mentioned last here, but first and foremost in my mind every day I wake. I am grateful for opportunities and failures, new experiences and familiar ones, the love and friendship present in my life, and the grounded roots my faith provides me to weather the cloudy days. 

Mark gazing out on the beautiful Needles District in Canyonlands National Park, Utah.