Guest Post by Art Stand artist, Sally Delap-John

Truchas Tales:  Pilar

Sally Delap-John has been writing of her painting adventures in New Mexico, where she has bought a home to also serve as studio and gallery.

To paint the church at Pilar requires parking up a little, bitty non-road and then hiking with gear farther uphill. There was supposed to be a group going. The skies looked threatening, but I didn't want to be the light-weight, so off I went. When I arrived, I missed the little road/path to the sight. Took many tries backing up to get about ten feet. I took the even smaller, steeper track up the hill, backed in and parked.   I was just getting things out when Freckles stealthily got out and disappeared over a ridge.  I called and whistled, but no sign of her.  I carried stuff up to the spot, kept looking for her, set up and started painting. I had upset a nest of very large ants, ones that you could see all of the parts of their bodies while standing. Slight adjustment in location.  Later as I was into the painting I saw her on a road below, called and whistled and she kept going.  I saw other dogs, so was just waiting for the snarling sound of a meeting.  Later, she came quietly up and I took her to the van.  It was then I saw that I was parked in part of a rock wall and cactus.  The van sliding door would not close all the way.  I tried and tried, but it wouldn't budge either forward or backward. I went back up and completed my painting - three hours total. Packed up and got out of there. I stopped at the Rio Grande, just a little way on. Tried the door again - no luck. Where the road meets the road to Taos, I got out and gave it one last heave and finally, it moved so I could close it. Did I mention I was the only one there to paint?   That night at dinner I reached down to pet her and pulled out an inch and an half cactus thorn from her side. 

Guest Post by Art Stand artist, T.S. Wood

Sunday, 18 January 2009

Phew! What a winter break! Two trips to Arizona to visit my beloved sister and her family (11 hours each way, times 4!), an evening trip to the Phoenix Zoo http://www.phoenixzoo.org/ for the bright and glorious Zoo Lights experience (what I'd give for flirtatiously velvety caresses at Stingray Bay!), a visit to Phoenix's Desert Botanical Garden to see the fantastical Chihuly glass installation exhibit (like walking into a fairy tale... you turn a corner and lo! a forest of exquisite, hand-blown glass reeds writhing skyward amid the prickly pear cacti; then you come close to a bridge and notice on the riverbed the most fascinatingly large glass baubles/bubbles spilling out of a wooden boat!)  http://www.dbg.org/index.php/chihuly , and a delectable 3-fondue dinner on New Year's Eve (oy! oy! Such richness! A truly sumptuous feast!) What a grand Christmas season I had!

Last December I made a collection of luminarias for a special exhibit at the Williams Gallery West http://www.galwest.com/ in Oakhurst. And two days ago I happened to be in the area with a friend, and found out that only two of these luminarias were left. Ack! I have to get busy making new ones. I'd been too involved with my Christmas break and trips that I'd been neglecting clay work. So yesterday afternoon I cleaned out my studio, which for about a month had been a catch-all location with Christmas stuff and weird odds 'n ends I couldn't find any place for (read: junk I couldn't let go of) towards the end of last year. My word! Cleaning is exhausting work! Definitely not my favorite activity. But by the time I was done, or I should say, by the time the work table had a bit more than a square foot of work space and the potter's wheel was emptied of most of the old and dry clay bits, I only had enough gumption to throw two luminarias. My plan was to throw a couple three more today first, and then carve the two I made yesterday. We'll see how it goes today.

So to the studio I go! --t.s.wood

Update on Winter Workshop Classes

                                                                                               

The Winter Workshops are coming to a close this coming weekend. They have been well-attended and well-received and the levels of enthusiasm of the participants and the instructors have been high. This weekend is the dichroic glass class (both Saturday and Sunday) which should be very exciting.

Both Sally Delap-John and Tiwi S. Wood have volunteered to write a post for The Art Stand Gallery blog so those 2 articles will be appearing in the very near future. Other artists will be posting articles in upcoming posts as well.