You Know You’re A Dork When. . .
. . . you’re in love with a bridge.
We drove our bikes to the 3 mile marker on the Mineral King Road on Sunday afternoon and rode the 3.5 miles to the Oak Grove Bridge. It was up most of the way, but not horribly upical.
The light wasn’t great on the bridge, but it was quite fun to have it be our destination and to just hang out on foot.
It’s All Business
When one is an artist, EVERYTHING is business! Everywhere I go there are things to see, photo and draw or paint. Each person I meet is a potential customer. Each town I visit is a possible venue for making and selling art.
Looks as if this man is on vacation. Indeed, he is! His wife, however, is working as usual. If my camera is in my pocket, I am working!
Once we arrived at our destination, we did not use the car again until it was time to go home. Lots of beach walking (although my feet are still blisterical from the 1/2 marathon. . . sigh) and lots of biking. 
We saw many of these seals, although most of them were dead. Something icky is happening because in the 6 mile stretch from Morro Rock to Cayucos Pier there were about 12 of these poor guys.
Wouldn’t this make a nice painting? I have lots of plans for paintings and I also have a place in Cayucos to sell them! There isn’t enough time to paint as fast and as much as I want to paint right now, but I’ll make lists, figure out the order of “urgency” and keep on making art.
This is the last sunset of my 40s. I’m ready for my 50s now. Good thing – I am in them!
An Anniversary
Twenty three years ago today, Michael and I got married in Mineral King. Today we went there because a. it is our anniversary and b. we had to make sure the cabin and water system will not freeze in the coming cold front and possible storm.
What a difference 2 weeks make! The colored leaves are gone from the willows, and it is cold. The low was 21 degrees this a.m. and it was in the 30s this afternoon. 
Snow was accumulating in the creek that I waded through just 2 weeks ago.
Brrr. We ate lunch with our neighbor in his cabin because a. we like him and b. his wood stove was doing a great job! Thanks, Keith!
Lots of Walking
Perhaps you have puzzled over the reason why I walk so much (or perhaps not. . .) I was training to walk the Lake Tahoe 1/2 Marathon, which happened on Sunday, September 27. It was hot for Tahoe, and I was all jeezled up from finally arriving at the event after months and months of ground pounding. So, I made the mistake of running the first 2 miles. The second 2 miles were steep steep steep (they call it “Hell Hill”) so I just walked. Had great energy and strength, but couldn’t figure out why my feet hurt so much. By the time I reached the top, I knew I had major blisters, and it must have been the first 2 miles that caused them. I slowed my walk – they hurt. I sped up – they hurt. I jogged – they hurt. So, it seemed the best approach was to get it over with as fast as possible. 3 hours, 7 minutes after starting, I crossed the finish line. This was a great time for me. As I pounded out the miles on my sore feet, I kept repeating to myself, “Shoes off, feet in lake. Shoes off, feet in lake.” My dear husband showed up to cheer me on for the last 1/2 mile and was surprised when I greeted him with, “Hi Honey! My dogs are barking!” He said “Walk as if you don’t hurt”, and that thought (along with “Shoes off, feet in the water”) pushed me to the finish. I didn’t carry my camera with me because I knew it would slow me down AND I knew that the mid-day light wouldn’t be very nice for photos. So, here are a few photos from a previous visit to Tahoe.
The day was bright and sunny like this. Walking across the sand to the lake was very difficult because of the pine needles!
Within the last 2 miles I passed the beautiful Tallac estates (part of the National Forest Service). I said to myself, “Self, when I grow up, I want a house like one of these AND a car so I don’t have to walk 13.1 miles on blistered feet!”
Painting outside
My mobile easel is in a new place behind the cabin. See?
I was standing there painting and a chipmunk ran across my foot. “How rude”, was my first thought. He was awfully cute, but that was a total invasion of my personal space by a complete stranger. Then I bent down and looked: I was invading his space by standing in front of his front door! (Obviously I should have tried another photo – please excuse the blurriness) 
This is called Arriving In Mineral King. It is still wet and was painted in Mineral King, in case you were seeking a bit of authenticity. 8×10, $80, oil on wrapped canvas. Hard to believe I was standing in Farewell Gap one week and painting it the next!
Stuff I get and stuff I don’t get
The Art Co-op is now on Facebook. I don’t get that – what it is for, how it works and who has time to figure it out or go cruising around on it or enter little sentences about what one is doing when. If you are into Facebook, you can look up The Art Co-op (but I don’t know how to tell you to do that.) It has to do with increasing visibility, but how do we get found in a crowd of millions?
This I get. It is looking back toward Mineral King on the trail to Farewell Gap. It was a cloudy day with clear air and beautiful sunshine. In case you’ve never been to Farewell Gap, this is how it looks when you still have 2-3 miles left to walk.
Then you get to the top and almost get blown back to Mineral King. I wanted to photograph the sign at the top and compare the elevation to that on my Garmin Forerunner but my hat needed to be hung onto so I ran out of hands for all that silliness.
This is what the other side looks like. It is the way to the Kern, to Hockett Meadow if you are so inclined, and it is the way deer hunters go because it is National Forest over there. Harry O’Farrell came from there while hunting for a trail building party and was the first man of European descent to see Mineral King. (thanks, Harry!)
And this is what it looks like back toward Mineral King. Not too often that one gets a view over the top of Timber Gap. Empire is to the right of Timber; where the mountains get sort of reddish is the Franklin drainage. I love knowing where I am, don’t you? (I mean where you are when you are there, not where I am. . .)
I feel a painting or 2 or 6 coming. . .
In The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron, she suggests taking field trips for inspiration. This book is written primarily for “blocked” artists; I take a lot of field trips, and the ideas come much faster than the opportunities for painting.
It is the light, always the light. 
Sometimes it is the colors, textures, or sense of place. If I paint this, some of that heavy overhang will need to be pruned in some manner.
Finally figured out how to get close shots with my PHD but the color is no where near as intense as in reality!
It was The Other JB who fell in love with this pine cone. We took an extended hiking break to arrange and photograph this beautiful specimen of color, texture and shape.
We had what my husband refers to as “A Rainbow Day” in Mineral King. Unbelievable clarity with all the fires in California!
Go With It
I have been known to say people should feel less and think more. There is an exception to that – when one feels as if he MUST paint or draw a particular picture, just go with the feeling! That is often when the best work is done. It is true for my students, my artist friends and myself. Here is an example:
My plan was to work on some paintings on that endless list of Must Dos. However, this photo was from a walk in Three Rivers a few days ago. It was such a beautiful morning – actually stopped me in my tracks. I had my PhD with me (Press Here Dummy camera) and took multiple photos. 
It is close to being finished. The road needs to be messed with until it stops looking like a river. The closer trees will get painted after this first layer has dried. The entire painting happened very quickly and with great happiness. My husband was sitting outside reading while I painted and heard me singing. He said, “You’re a happy little person, aren’t you?” Yup, I am! 😎
Thinking like an artist
You know how you just cruise along, living your life, not giving any thought to how you measure up to anyone else? (Maybe you think about other people’s opinions, but I don’t very often.) So you’re just cruising along, doing what you do, doing what comes naturally, and BOOM! Someone tells you that you are weird! Weird? Nope, I’m just unique. Here is an example: I just finished knitting a pair of socks for a friend. She chose and bought the yarn; I turned it into socks. While the socks were in process, I noticed that the colors on the Mineral King Road were the same as the yarn. That’s not weird, is it? (not that I care if you all think I’m weird – I’m just sort of wondering)
