two kitties

Pitamakan Pass: The Scariest Hike Ever.

My sister visited last week and we decided to camp for a couple of nights in Glacier National Park. She wanted to do a major hike, so the three of us decided to try a nineteen mile loop that we'd read about in one of my day hike books. The hike leaves from Two Medicine Campground, one of the most beautiful spots in the park if you ask me.

Here we are at Dawson Pass. That's me on the left, and my sister, Kari on the right. We're feeling happy. The altitude here is about 7800 feet and the view is beautiful.

We're happy because we don't yet know that we have to scramble along that loose rock for the next three miles, climbing another 500 feet along the way. In freezing temperatures and 30 mph winds. With not even 12 inches of shoulder on the trail to catch you if you stumble. And you do, because the shale easily breaks under the weight of your feet. That's the left, top side of this mountain, which not one of us took a picture of, not even me.

It seemed to go on forever. Just when we thought we were approaching that pass, the trail would switch and we'd have to go another mile. By the time we reached Pitamakan, we'd rounded three peaks on that crappy trail. I prayed to Jesus the entire time, and I'm not kidding about that.

The beautiful vistas on our descent didn't make an impression at all. The three of us had one thought: DOWN.

And to make it back to Two Medicine by dusk, we had to hustle it. Ten miles at a killer pace with very little emotional energy left in the group. 

But we did it.  Mike says he checked it out on Google Earth and that "I'll be impressed with what I've done when I see the height of that mountain" as much as I want to feel like a bad ass for doing 19 miles up and down five months after major surgery...the victory feeling just ain't there.

Hiking that rock face was the scariest thing I've ever done. It was scarier than the black bear that we didn't see until we were ON HIM at mile 18. We were so focused on getting back to the truck that we never saw him until  [could have been] too late. We're just lucky there are still plenty of berries out there.

Ann Welles: Bed of Nails

What does Ann Welles' Bed of Nails, 2004 make you think of? 

It reminds me of those rare, vivid dreams that wake up some memory or idea stuffed down into my subconscious.

Like one about a party I went to at Georgetown in 1993 - my brain replayed it like a tape, excavating down to the deepest detail. I rolled on those memories like nails all night long.

There was a praying mantis on the wall, beer in a plastic cup and we stood in the front garden. I brought my roommate Rachel and we spent part of the evening talking with a guy from Arkansas in the chicken business, Father Pat from campus ministry came later.

What bothered me on waking was that I couldn't remember when I left the party. It wound up being one of the most important decisions I ever made. And I made it with a foot.

The details don't matter in this space. What's important is the emotional reaction I had simply from viewing this piece of art.

What is the first thing that comes into your mind when you see these images?

Summer BBQ and Tie-Dye: Crenfest '08

 

Yesterday was "Crenfest: 2008."  A regular, old, lake front barbecue with a fancy name. We tie-dyed until the sun went down. Good times.

Pictures: Tim Walker and The Dress Lamp Tree

Can you fall in love with a coffee table book?  This is "The Dress Lamp Tree" by photographer Tim Walker, best known for his shoots for British Vogue. His new coffee table book, Pictures, is for sale on Amazon for $164.00. Hard to find. The calendar is cheaper.

Other coffee table books I'd love to have? Deborah Butterfield, Mark Rothko, and anything Andy Goldsworthy.

It's for Ewe: 'Telephone Sheep' by Jean-Luc Cornec

'Telephone Sheep', Jean Luc Cornec, Museum für Kommunikation, Frankfurt am Main, originally uploaded by hanneorla.

These sheep were made by the artist Jean Luc Cornec for an exhibition at the Museum für Kommunikation in Frankfurt.

Head to Flickr to see more photos of this great installation. Special thanks to my friend ao who sent this along!

The Dark Knight and Richard Prince: Registered Nurse, 2002

Love means compromise. Translated? That means I don't always get to pick the movie. When that happens, I pass time by picking apart the layers of the film - if you go deeper than the surface-story, there's interesting stuff down there.

For example:

• I could love the house in Iron Man, the way it was constructed (digitally) in a park in Malibu where no one, no matter how rich, is ever allowed to build. It was "made" entirely of poured concrete, but decorated with natural materials. Sheepskin rugs, burl wood coffee tables, grass, water. 
• Ten Things I Hate About You is a contemporary, teenage adaptation of Shakespeare's Taming of the Shrew.
• Costumes in the Fifth Element were designed by Jean-Paul Gaultier, and like everything Gaultier, it's all about structure.

Last night we went to see The Dark Knight. I loved Heath Ledger's Joker. And I found Ledger costumed in this nurse scene (be patient - or drag the red button forward to 1:45) just like Registered Nurse, 2002, a mixed media work by the artist Richard Prince.

in the arms of a nebula: the birth and death of stars

in the arms of a nebula: the birth and death of stars.

Heidi K. Rettig (2008) Mixed-media/encaustic on reclaimed pine.  4” x  5” x 1” .

This mixed-media work is a cyanotype print of an original digital photograph on kozo paper. The print is layered over a vintage photo of radio telescopes at Mullard Observatory in Cambridge, England.

The piece is finished encaustic wax, making the kozo paper transparent and collapsing the distance between the two images to make them one.

In 1967, Jocelyn Bell, a PhD student in astrophysics was the first to pick up "noise" from space using radio telescopes. In spite of her discovery, Bell was passed over for the Nobel Prize, which was ultimately awarded to her two male professors.

Jocelyn went on to have a very successful career in astrophysics, and has always been recognized in the field as the first to “hear” the birth and death of stars.

This piece is a last-minute submission to "Night Visions III", organized by Flagstaff Cultural Partners. The show opens September 27 and will coincide with the 50th anniversary of the International Dark Skies movement, which began in Flagstaff in 1958. A noble cause.

New Heather Ross at Pink Chalk Fabrics

"No new projects. No new projects." I keep chanting this to myself as a reminder not to buy anything or start anything until I've completed a few of the projects on my work table. Trust me - they're all still works-in-progress.

But I might break that resolution, because Kathy at Pink Chalk Fabrics has the new Heather Ross prints in her online store. Finding Heather Ross fabric is hard to do - it sells out quickly! And I would love to have these fish swim across a new pillowcase or two.

The Creation of the World and Other Business

I've been working with The PlayGround Theatre this summer. Getting to know their productions has been a slowly unfolding love story.

This costume sketch caught my eye - a work of art by itself. It was for 'Eve' in PlayGround Theatre's production of Arthur Miller's The Creation of the World and Other Business. Contemporary artist Simon Pastukh did the set and costume design.

I'm so rarely impressed by work samples that it seemed worth mentioning. I actually printed it and placed it on the wall over my computer monitor.

All too often, artists tack on the documentation process as an afterthought, on a shoestring budget. Which is too bad, considering it's the only way that grant makers have the opportunity to see your work.

An Extremely Important [Un-Named] Grant Maker At The National Level told me he spends less than a minute looking at work samples. Consultants like me? I'll sit there for five minutes and give you a chance, but I've always been a sucker for artistic passions. And I can make a fire in the fireplace and watch said bad video with the two kitties.

Re-entry Plan for Tinley

Debra wrote on Sunday, and enclosed a copy of what she called the "ultimate street find." She had been walking along a Pittsburgh side street, and found an envelope on the pavement. It had been sent from the Airmen's Service Club in Roswell, New Mexico - and postmarked 1952.

I told her to send it in to Found Magazine. That's where I came up with this re-entry plan for Tinley - found on the streets of San Francisco and emailed to the site. Unlike most found objects, somehow, folks managed to find Tinley and get an update. She said she had never moved back into her parents house, and life is just fine.

Woman With A Cigarette: Fernando Botero

Colombian-born artist Fernando Botero is famous for his paintings and sculpture of, well....fat people. This is "Woman With A Cigarette". I'm about to go get a massage, which made me think of this one.

The photo was taken in Singapore, but the piece is now installed, along with eight other large-scale Botero bronze, at the Grand Wailea hotel in Hawaii.

Flathead Lake Cherries

Orchard manager Rod (left) said it's time to take the fruit. Just like that.  We hitched a ride down to the cherry processing facility on Finley Point. There, the bins are off-loaded, graded for size, and then washed in ice cold water.

Temperatures matter. The crew picks first thing in the morning because the fruit gets juicy and soft in the sun. The ice water wash cools them down and then they're stored in a reefer truck until they go to the  grocery store.

It happens fast. Our crew arrived at 5:00 this morning, and all of our 8000-odd pounds of fruit will be washed, sorted, and refrigerated before lunch.

Marcel Wanders: Crochet Chair

Marcel Wanders' "Crochet Chair" was the hot thing at Design Miami 2006. Wanders created sheets of traditional crochet, then molded them using in epoxy resin cast over a chair form. Twenty were manufactured, and twenty were sold.