Love is wild; its whole beauty is in its wildness. It comes like a breeze with great fragrance, fills your heart, and suddenly where there was a desert there is a garden full of flowers
.~ Osho
Even though its only February, spring is in the air. Off to Arizona next week for a 3 weeks of art shows and motorcycle rides and camping. First stop Litchfield Park just west of Phoenix for the 7th annual Wigwam Fine Arts Festival. February 17 - 19.
I have lots of new jewelry made for these shows. Some of these pieces I'm showing will only be at the shows for now. Not enough time to post them on the website.
Second stop, Spring Festival of the Arts in Oro Valley. This is a community north of Tucson near the Catalina Mountains. The festival is held at The Marketplace February 25 & 26. I will have my new line of vintage hats as well as jewelry at this festival.
I've taken these old hats and cleaned them up, shaped them and then made custom hat bands to give them a new life.
Last stop 19th annual Litchfield Park Art & Wine Festival, held downtown March 4th & 5th. If you can't make it to Arizona be sure to check out the store on my website. There are lots of beautiful things to be purchased.
I've been working a lot with leather these past months. Its something I've wanted to do for awhile. Thanks to some friends in South Dakota its finally happening. They motivated me to get it going. Thanks Holly & Carole! It's kind of my practice work for bigger projects.
We always like to enjoy the areas we are staying in so one of our stops in between shows will be the Superstition Mountains. I have many fond memories of wild times in the Superstitions. The place seems to promote that kind of behavior, well for me anyways…… Ill share one story with you from a few years ago.
It was winter around this time of year, myself and a group of artist friends were camped out on the dirt road to the Peralta trailhead. We had been there for a couple of weeks waiting for some art shows. We had a nice fire pit and had built a sweat lodge. Life was good. Just as a side note, this road is now covered in houses and golf courses. Grrrr.
One afternoon these guys drove into camp. We all got to talking and they told us they had a mining claim up the road. We were planning on camping for another few weeks so they asked us if we were interested in staying on their land. It sounded pretty good so we all got in the truck to check it out.
As we were headed up to their camp they start telling us stories about the mountains. I’m a sucker for a good story. It seems that there is a secret passage way into the Superstitions. Not too many people know about it, but this guy did. It takes you deep into the mountains. If you go far enough there are roads paved in gold and giants living there. You gotta be careful though because if the giants catch you ,well you just don’t want to know!
By about that time we turned onto a smaller dirt road. I was kind of giving my partner the “what the hell “look. The camp was beautiful, lots of mesquite and Palo Verde trees, green grass, wild flowers. We get out and then he starts telling us about these guys that want them off the claim. They need someone there to chase off the guys with guns……. Oh yeah and we can’t use the well anymore because someone threw a dead dog down it…….and be careful of the rattlesnakes, cause there’s a lot of them here. Oh yeah and have you ever heard the stories about the bodies they find where the heads are missing?
Right about that time we said our goodbyes and headed back down the road. Luckily we never saw those guys again! Call me crazy but it was kind of fun, in a weird psycho killer sort of way…..Makes life interesting.
One more thing before I go. Nahko Bear & Medicine For The People have once again managed to create beauty. Here is a new song to make your heart happy. Take care & I hope to see you on the road.