Getting in the mode

 Finally the woodburner has been getting some action. I've changed my approach to incorporate less planning and more just drawing from my imagination intuitively. I'm really enjoying the different style.

For me, getting into creative artist mode involves a bit of dressing the part, I guess it's always been this way, I feel more free when I'm just dressed in silly clothes that make me laugh and are functional for making and adventuring at the same time. When I feel my most creative I tend to load up on chunky bracelets and found threads tied around my right arm. Something about it just taps right in to being a kid I guess. Right arm only though. Thrift store shopping always feels so serendipitous. I found a fresh pair of sequenced magic slippers recently. These used to be a staple in my wardrobe and it feels pretty good to have them back again. I love looking at the beaded details and the golden reflections. Yummy!

This post is for the cats

 Scout steals my seat at the drafting table every chance she gets.
The allusive Megasus comes out of her underground lair just for food during the day, I think she has given up on meowing, now-a-days hissing is more her style. Typical teenager.

 Scout gets in trouble a lot, but she's also always telling jokes and knows when to put her innocent face on.

At our Palace de Gato the cats enjoy a luxurious dining area with an original landscape painting signed by Aunt Maria Snoot. ( We found it in  a garbage pile, the cats requested the placement. very scenic.)

YACHT

This band has been getting major play at work these days.

June

I haven't been feeling the need to share very much lately and with this heat I'm too tired to even sit at my desk and draw which leaves me a little depressed with an over-analytical taste in my mouth. Lots of sitting outdoors with cats and books trying to suss out what comes next.

Despite the doldrums happening at home, today I had  Amalia Mesa-Bains sitting around my work table. We had an in depth discussion about her upcoming exhibit at the FAM. She is in her late 60's and is an amazing creative force. Her installations are immense, detailed and just extremely gorgeous. I'm so honored to be working with her this Summer. Some of the topics were how she gets mass quantities of lavender blossoms, how to keep people from touching everything, how to put together her glass blown cacti and a really funny story about her trying to dye one of her accordion books with tea in her hotel room only to discover that tea just made the pages all wilty. 
We had lunch at whole foods and she shared her perspective on the art/museum world and the difficulties of sending her installations around the world. It was totally a dose of something that never happens in Fresno parts and sparked a little bit of envy in me.

Sr. Forestiere

Springtime is one of the best seasons to take a tour of the Forestiere Underground Gardens. All the foliage is grown in just right and if you time it right the fragrance of the blossoms from all the citrus trees wafts through all the tunnels and it feels like the most magical fort ever.

 And since Z. made the official move to the Fresno territories, I felt that this was the best first Fresno adventure to go on. We took the last tour of the day and as an additional bonus my parents, brother and nephew joined us.
 The best part of our entire tour was when my dad asked our tourguide about animals that might come down there. We were thinking coyotes and foxes, her response was "mostly blue bellied lizards" and right at that very moment a baby garter snake slithered out of a tunnel and right to our feet. Of course pops had to grab it's tail which freaked the tour guide out and sent her into a repetitive 'let's move along folks.'

I love this underground place so much, and it's one of those elements of Fresno that makes me proud to have spent so much time here. I think my first visit was with my family at about age 7 and my 7 year old imaginative memory always takes over, I expect the tunnels to go on forever, I expect more fruit trees and more secret nooks. My absolute favorite space is the bed thats nestled into the rocks.