The Trip That Almost Wasn't-Day One, St. Joseph's Shrine

 

 

This is the first thing we saw when we arrived at The Shrine of St. Joseph in Yarnell, Arizona.

 

If you know me at all, you know I am not a religious person.  But this place touches my heart in the sweetest way and I was very concerned about it during the time of the wildfire.

 

 

To read about the shrine, go to:

http://www.stjoseph-shrine.org/

 

 

 

 

These steps...and many more which are as steep but lots rougher...are the reason my calf muscles have been screaming at me for several days now.  But it was worth it.

 

 

 

 

You can see just how close the fire came.  That bush is dead looking because of the fire which came right up to the statuary.  

 

 

 

 

 

So close....all those trees are dead from the fire....

 

 

 

 

Looking down on one of the buildings at the shrine which was destroyed.  Just beyond this point is a little canyon chock full of houses.  I counted only three burned buildings.  They were fortunate not to have the entire area lost.

 

 

 

 

I zoomed way in to get this photo of the little Yarnell church nestled in amongst all the green after all the rain we've had in Arizona. 

 

 

I am so grateful this little town was saved. 

 

 I am so grateful to all the firefighters who worked so hard to protect it.

 

I am so grateful to The Granite Mountain Hotshots who died so that this little town, the people in it, their homes, their businesses and this special small place could survive.

 

May they rest in eternal peace!

 

 

 

 



 

 

 

The Trip That Almost Wasn't-Part One

 

For months, we had been looking forward to a vacation.  We haven’t had a real one in years and it was way past time for some R & R!

September weather in Arizona is always spectacular especially in the higher elevations where it is getting cooler. We were sick of the summer heat down here in Tucson.

I had heard of a place in the mountains where there were comfy little cabins situated right on a lake.  My plan was to roll out of bed in the morning and walk out the door and do some plein aire painting…all day…for several days. My husband’s plan was to roll out of bed in the morning and walk out the door and fish….all day…for several days.

That was the plan.

“Life is what happens while you are making other plans.”

I don’t know who first said that but it’s absolutely true.

Our ‘spectacular’ Arizona turned spectacular, all right.  It was spectacularly rainy…all day…all night and all over the state.  We checked the long term forecasts daily…it never improved.  Where we had planned to go, the temperatures were looking decidedly cold.  Cold and wet.  Not appealing.  Not at all!

We decided we probably should just stay home.  And then, we decided we should just go anyway but maybe someplace with temperatures at least a tad warmer than our lakeside destination. 

I thought I was simply dying to spend my days in one spot painting.  My husband thought he wanted to fish and fish and fish.  The UNIVERSE stepped in, took over and gave us exactly what we needed instead of what we thought we wanted.

I am grateful!

We laughed as we left Tucson because this is what the weather looked like.  I had already taken a gazillion photos with my little Canon camera before we got 10 miles away from our house.

 

Don’t my mountains look beautiful all dressed in their white gossamer gowns?

We were determined to make the best of things and headed in a northward direction which took us through parts of the Phoenix area which looked like this.

 

I about went into panic mode wondering if we’d be killed in a massive interstate pile up before we even got a good start on our vacation.

But we made it through a rain like Phoenix hasn’t probably seen in decades, thanks to my husband’s great driving skills.  A long time, cross country truck driver has some awesome skills for such conditions!

I realize that those of you who live where it actually rains are thinking I'm a tad nuts getting so excited about such rain.  Remember, I am a desert rat who lives in a place which gets very little rain every year. 

Absolutely every direction we looked, there were menacing clouds.  Absolutely nothing looked inviting. 

 

Also, all those clouds created a special sort of beauty that we are not used to seeing around here.  And it was cool-blessedly, deliciously cool!

I will not give a mile-by-mile account of the trip, I promise, but I ask you to accept that every mile of it was something different and somehow, the exact right thing for two people who were weary of the same old-same old.

Before we left the house, I had felt a desire to head toward the Yarnell area.  That is the place where those 19 Hot Shot firefighters died last summer.  There is a little place there, The Shrine of St. Joseph, and I wanted to see if it had escaped the ravages of the fire.  And also, there was something else drawing me that way…toward Yarnell and on to Prescott….where those heroes were from.

I need to back track a little.  After a McDonald’s breakfast, we had to go back home to get something important which had been forgotten…MY DOGGONE CAMERA!!!!  The clouds were so pretty I wanted to take their picture but when I reached for my camera, it wasn’t there!  After a quick look inside the house…no camera….I found it in the car, right where I’d put it but not where I’d ‘thought’ I’d put it.

I only mention this because it turned out the timing was truly everything on this trip…especially this first day….

I knew, when I laid eyes on this roadside attraction, that all would be well...no, wonderful....on our trip.

 

 

If you know me and my history, you KNOW what this frog meant to me!

It was truly a good thing to have that special 'froggie' blessing 'cause this is what we were driving into.

 

 I think this is what they call 'visibility zero.'

 

 

 

 

 

I should have been terrified.  But I wasn't.  I felt as if I were being embraced by that big, soft cloud and I almost felt like I could have jumped right off that ledge and fallen into Heaven's own big, white, down comforter!  Of course, the reality is that I would have had a fall of many hundreds of feet because just beyond those grasses and wild flowers, it is STRAIGHT down! 

 

We had to literally creep around all the hairpin curves on that long, winding road over that mountain top but as I said, timing is everything and when we got off the mountain, down in the valley, we were in the clear and very near Yarnell.

 

And we saw this:

 

 

I yelled ‘Stop’ to my dear hubby who immediately found a safe place to pull off the highway.

We learned that a Hot Shot crew from Tennessee were being shown the area where The Nineteen had perished.

 I learned that ‘no, it would not be inappropriate for me to give the Prescott Fire House my painting ‘Going Home’ and yes, they would find a place for it, no doubt.

 

I asked the Prescott fireman if I could hug him. We hugged.  I cried. 

I could have come right back home after that and been perfectly satisfied.

I am so very grateful for that experience given us by a loving Universe.  The Frog.  The Heavenly Mountaintop Cloud.  The Firefighters.

 

And we have just begun.

To be continued tomorrow.

On Talent

A few times lately, I’ve been told how talented I am.  It is meant-and I’ve taken it-as a compliment.

It does, however, indicate that it is because of some innate ‘talent’ that I can paint a decent painting-sometimes.

Here’s what bothers me about that.

If you can’t paint a decent painting, does that mean you don’t have a talent for painting? 

I think many people truly believe that their first bad attempts mean they don’t. So they give up. 

You should have seen my first paintings.  On second thought, no, you really shouldn’t have!

I like what Stephen King has to say about it.

“Talent is cheaper than table salt. What separates the talented individual from the successful one is a lot of hard work.”

I don’t really think I’m all that gifted with a talent for painting.  I believe that if I were, after all the years of painting I would be really top-notch-and I am not.  I am merely adequate and sometimes not even that.  Occasionally, all things come together and I create a pretty darn good painting, but that happens only rarely.

What I do think is that I’ve been determined…perhaps even stubborn.  I’ve been dedicated to learning all that I can learn about it before my time is up.  I’ve been committed to my desire!

My whole reason for writing this is to encourage anyone who has a desire to paint… or sculpt…or sing...or bake….or write….or raise chickens…to give themselves the opportunity to push through the bad beginnings, the mistakes and the failures.

Don’t assume that you have no talent.  Please.  You are robbing yourself-and maybe the world-if you do that!

However, also don’t assume that if you do have ‘talent’, it is enough to make you good at what you do.  There is no substitute for the hours of practice and hard work necessary to achieve a degree of expertise….or even adequacy.

“Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful people with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated failures. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.”
Calvin Coolidge

If you have a talent, use it in every which way possible. Don't hoard it. Don't dole it out like a miser. Spend it lavishly like a millionaire intent on going broke. (Brendan Francis Behan)

We're all filled with naturally recurring patterns that make us unique – they're called talents. And our charge is to bloody well use them. (Marcus Buckingham)

Don't be vain because you happen to have talent. You are not responsible for that; it was not of your doing. What you do with your talent is what matters. (Pablo Casals)

 

Now.....go  paint… or sculpt…or sing...or bake….or write….or raise chickens…or take photos....or make balloon animals....or quilts.....or a garden...Go wherever 'desire' leads you!

ONE LITTLE CORNER

 

I live most of my life, quite happily, in one small corner of the world ….just a few square feet of space right in front of my easel.

It works for me!

I found another little corner this morning which also worked for me.  One of the photos, sent to me by my traveling hubby wasn't terribly interesting but something drew me to the tiny right hand, upper corner of the larger picture.  I cropped it and knew I’d found the inspiration for today’s ‘before breakfast’ painting.

So, when you are looking through your reference photos, don’t forget to peek into the corners, so to speak.  Remember that you can take bits and pieces of a picture for your use. You don’t have to use the whole thing.

 

Here’s the big picture including the rear view mirror on his big rig.  Lots of his photos have that particular feature. 

 

 

 

Here’s the little bit I cropped out from waaaay up in the right hand corner.

 

 

 

Here’s the resulting painting with some artistic license taken.

 

It is, after all, my world and I can create it however I see fit.

INSPIRATION

"The advice I like to give young artists, or really anybody who'll listen to me, is not to wait around for inspiration. Inspiration is for amateurs; the rest of us just show up and get to work. If you wait around for the clouds to part and a bolt of lightning to strike you in the brain, you are not going to make an awful lot of work. All the best ideas come out of the process; they come out of the work itself. Things occur to you. If you're sitting around trying to dream up a great art idea, you can sit there a long time before anything happens. But if you just get to work, something will occur to you and something else will occur to you and something else that you reject will push you in another direction. Inspiration is absolutely unnecessary and somehow deceptive. You feel like you need this great idea before you can get down to work, and I find that's almost never the case." -Chuck Close

 

I read this quote the other day and I do believe Mr. Close hit the nail squarely on the head

 

I guess if you have no need or desire to learn to be a better painter, you can wait for inspiration to hit but if you want to be a good painter you paint!  You paint when you’re excited about a new idea.  You paint when you haven’t a clue what you want to paint.  You paint when you are feeling full of piss and vinegar and you paint when you feel like crap!

A couple of days ago, I woke up after a really lousy night’s sleep and the very thought of standing at the easel with a paintbrush in my hand was, in a word, unappealing.  Still, I looked through all my photos…and my facebook friends’ photos, too…. in a vain search for ‘inspiration.’ 

It never showed up.

So, like I do every other morning, I opened my paint box, put a new canvas on my easel and picked up a brush.  Using the leftover paint on my palette, I began. 

It wasn’t complicated.

I put paint on the brush and put that paint on the canvas.  I smeared it around some.  Next, I picked up another leftover color and repeated the process.

This is the result.

 

CACTUS CANYON

16 x 20

It is one of my favorite paintings I’ve done lately….begun with no inspiration and no real desire to even paint. 

I have learned to trust the process.  I have learned that I will make a good painting or a bad one but in either case, I will have learned something.  I will have grown in skill.

And that is inspiring.

 

My paintings are available at:

http://www.etsy.com/shop/SKayArt

 

STACKING UP

My studio is getting filled up with paintings...LOTS of paintings!   Most are actually finished.  Many still need work and are just waiting for me to either get in the mood to go back to them or to attain a certain skill that I didn't have when I began them.

I have GOT to do something with them or we'll have to build on a storage room to hold them all.

So, I opened an Etsy shop, which you can find  here:

http://www.etsy.com/shop/SKayArt?ref=search_shop_redirect

You'll find desert landscapes, mountain landscapes and prarie landscapes.
You'll find still lifes and florals.
You'll find rivers and ponds and seascapes.
You'll find paintings of country homes and city streets.

If you don't find them now, they'll be there eventually.  Like I said, I have LOTS of paintings stacked up and waiting to be photographed and put on-line.

I think my paintings are priced very reasonably and I hope lots of them can find a new home.

Here's one that you won't find there.  It's my favorite place to eat my favorite fast food in Tucson, Arizona.  If you've never had a Mexican Hot Dog, you have no idea what you are missing...and these, made by Noe, are the best!

 



I gave this to Noe in appreciation for the many delectible hot dogs I've enjoyed at his fine establishment. 

If you're in Tucson, you can find him on the NW corner of 6th Ave. and 22nd St....right across from Santa Cruz Cathedral.

If you check out my Etsy shop...and you like what you see...please share the link with your friends.  I'd appreciate it so very much.  So would my hubby, as he has NO desire to build another room just to house this ever-growing stack of paintings!

March 24, 2013  approximately  2 a.m.

 

Something disturbs me and I begin to wake up.  I wonder why because I don’t really have to use the bathroom all that badly and that’s what usually wakes me in the middle of the night.  I roll around a bit, trying to get comfortable and go back to sleep but finally, I decide to just get up and get the bathroom visit over with.

My sleep is very important to me and not always an easy thing to achieve.  One of the things I do faithfully, so that my sleep is undisturbed is to shut my bedroom door to keep the cats out of my room.

When I sit up and open my eyes, I notice two odd things.  One is that my bedroom door is open a few inches and the other is that there is bright light coming in through that opening.

I get up, open the door and find the following:

My over- the- road truck driving husband’s bedroom light is on.  He is away, of course.  The bathroom light is on.  A large hall closet door is open and the light is on.  Things in my husband’s bedroom have been disturbed.  Things in the living room have been disturbed. 

I have to traverse the very short, but interminably long, distance to reach the phone because it is apparent that someone was…and might still be…in my  house.  I am completely and utterly helpless to defend myself.

When I get to the phone, I can see that the back door is ajar.

I press 911 and nothing happens.  Horrendous fear turns to abject terror because I think my phone lines have been cut.  I try again and thankfully, the call goes through.

While on the phone with the dispatcher, I discover that my purse is gone.  In it, in addition to the debit and credit cards and some cash were my cell phone and every key to every lock in my house and for our two vehicles.

The dispatcher and I wait the twenty minutes or so for the police to arrive.  It seemed an eternity.

The young cops-obviously quite bored- check everything inside and outside the house.  They take a very few notes.  They leave.  It is about 2:30 and I am alone and I am scared.

I want you to re-read the above.  I want you to imagine yourself in that situation.  I want you to do everything you can possibly do to make sure you are NEVER in a similar situation and if you allow yourself to try to really feel what I was feeling you might be more inclined to take some action.

At a decent hour I begin making calls to set wheels in motion to achieve some sense of peace.  Every lock has to be re-keyed.  Until that is done, my ‘visitors’ have free access into my house.

That is the beginning of a week chock full of calls and appointments and more activity in and around my house than I usually have in six months.  None of it is fun.  All of it is very stressful.  All of it is extremely expensive.

Here are some things I did which were almost a hand written invitation for burglars to come into my house.  I am telling this long story in hopes that you will learn from me what NOT to do.

The previous night, I did NOT, as I usually do, check to see if my back door was locked except to look and see the position of the locking apparatus.  Apparently, as there was no ‘breaking’, only ‘entering’,   I did NOT have the door fully closed so of course, it was not truly locked.  I have been told, however, that people who know how can easily open that type of lock.  So maybe I did lock it but I know I did not test it.

I left my purse sitting on my dining area table.

The dining area window was uncovered giving anyone a clear view of my purse and many other things inside my house.

My cell phone was in my purse.

My keys were in my purse.

Here are my strong suggestions to you and I do hope you will pass them along to others.

·         I have learned that a burglary call is very low priority to the police.  Technically, that’s what my incident was called instead of a ‘home invasion.’  I am NOT suggesting you lie to the police but a much faster response time might happen if you report that someone is or might be still in or at your residence.  So, if you’re not 100% positive your ‘visitors’ are gone, leave that as a possibility.  Don’t tell them you’re certain they are gone.

 

·         Never trust your eyes to determine whether or not a door is closed and locked.  Test it with your hand!

 

 

·         Always take your cell phone with you when you go to bed.

 

·         Always take your purse with you when you go to bed.

 

 

·         Always take your keys with you when you go to bed.

 

·         Do NOT leave spare keys or your primary set hanging on hooks, lying on hall tables or inside drawers any place in your house EXCEPT YOUR BEDROOM!  Even then, choose carefully where and how you hide them and believe me, they need to be difficult to find, NOT out in plain sight.

·         Make sure all exterior doors have deadbolt locks.  Then lock them and make sure you have locked them!

 

·         Put some kind of good lock on your bedroom door to buy you some time to get to your cell phone or your taser or your gun or out your bedroom window in case someone makes it into your house.  I realize that probably won’t be a choice if you have small kids in the house but otherwise…and especially if you are alone a lot…it is a really good idea!

We had a security door on our front door but not our back door.  That has been rectified.  There is no exterior door to my house which does not now have a deadbolt lock!  I have been told by people who should know, that most opportunistic thieves won’t even bother with a house which has security doors.  Also, that stickers which say you have home security are also a good deterrant-whether or not you actually do have a security system.

 We also have obtained an alarmed security system service.  Nice blinds have been installed on that bare window.  ‘Nice’ blinds are not a requirement.  Just cover the window…with a sheet…with anything!

And I now have a weapon.  I chose a Taser for several reasons.  I never intend to be helpless to protect myself again.

Write down and keep in a safe place your credit and debit card numbers.  Some of them cannot be cancelled at 3 a.m. because you will have to talk to a human to cancel them and sometimes, with some banks, those humans are not available 24/7.  Somebody could do a lot of shopping on your card before business hours on a week day.

I found a locksmith who will, on occasion, re-key a vehicle but if you can’t find one and have to go to a dealer be warned that you will experience sticker shock.  I was quoted $225 to re-key my car!  The locksmith who had already done all my doors only charged me $125 for both vehicles.

 

We have layers of protection around our house and around me now.  But I am wondering if I will ever be able to sleep peacefully again in spite of it all.

I am hyper-sensitive and hyper-vigilant.  I’m sure some of that will fade with time.  I hope I never again am complacent about my safety and I hope I do not become a fear-based human being. I do not want to live in fear. I refuse to live in fear.

It’s not being fear-based to wear a seat belt in my car.  It’s a common sense method of self-protection.  That’s how I am trying to see all these things we’ve done…not as a fearful, knee-jerk reaction to one event but as a logical, proactive means of ensuring my safety.

I am filled with gratitude that my unwelcome visitors were only after things and did me no physical harm.  Things might have been very different.

I do hope you will take this little story to heart and take similar actions to protect yourself.  Also, I do hope you share it with many, many others.

A word to the wise….hopefully, will be sufficient.