Verdant

It can often be quite warm in May, and I know that we've recorded more than a few days in the 80s.  But, for the last two years (2015 and 2016), May has been a cool, wet month.  Last week we had a number of days in the 40s and 50s, and ended up burning the stove a couple of times to warm the house.  One feature of this kind of weather is that it turns our normally brown and red landscapes to green.

Times Change

The picture, above, at left, was made nearly 75 years ago.  The other one was made a few minutes ago.  The older picture was made at a later hour in the day:  Say, five to seven pm?  The newer one was made during the early afternoon.  A few other things are different too.  The white fir on the left edge of the current picture (blue arrow) was present 75 years ago, but it was much smaller.  The Rocky Mountain juniper in the right foreground of the current picture (other blue arrow) was not visible 75 years ago.  As for the formations, there are two small standing rocks atop the hoodoos in the older picture that are no longer there (at black arrows).  Instead, there is a small rock laying on a lower ledge in today's picture that was not there 75 years ago (gray arrow).  Could the upper rock in the middle of the old picture have rolled down to where the gray arrow is today?  It is just about the right size.

Wildflower Season

The indian paintbrush, in all its colors, from pale yellow to bright red, has been going off this week.  The interesting thing about this forb is that you can't see the flower and it is the leaves that are brightly colored.  Which is to say that the flower is inconspicuous and it is the leaves (or bracts) that provide the show.

From Strength to Strength

I know that my reader does not come here for updates on VSO's progress as a famous painter.  (Or, maybe he does.)  So, this will be my last post about it for a while.  (Or, unless something big happens next week.)  Anyway, we just learned that one of VSO's paintings will be featured in the Southern Utah Museum of Art's "First Peak Gala."  Their first show, ever.  This is from their blurb:

This juried show of 35 pieces will be on exhibit and for sale from June 25 until July 16.  This is your opportunity to view and purchase art from the best of our regional artists.

Did you read that?  VSO is one of the best.  It is something I've been saying for a long time.  I guess I wasn't wrong.  And, my reader surely knows by now that being a painter is a hard slog.  You go for months, years even, doubting yourself and winning nothing.  Showing up at art festivals in a booth next to a guy selling farting pig sculptures—he finally feels so sorry for you that he walks over to buy a $3 greeting card from the $2000 wad he pulled in that afternoon—and going home flat broke.

After all that, when you get on a roll, like VSO has this month, it is something to celebrate.  And, I'm damned proud of her.  I may have said that already.  So, I'm going to put in one final plug.  She recently took a little mental break from painting red rocks, and blazed through a bunch of floral compositions.  This is something new and different for her, and is a little outside of the genre that has made her famous.  But, it is really cool, in my opinion, and the pieces are bright and vigorous.  She has started selling them at Daily Paint Works.  So, check it out.

Speaks for Itself

Got up on this little ridge in the rain.  Ground crumbly and muddy all around.  Saw a head-sized rock perched out on a hoodoo.  Made a picture.  Good.  Slithered down.

Fifteen Minutes

Living with a celebrity can be disruptive.  Photographers stormed The Homestead yesterday, and, by this morning, VSO was front page news:  The Cedar City edition of The Spectrum (full disclosure:  both sheets are owned by USA Today) started its front page with a picture of VSO's five fingers, and went on to spill a lot of ink covering local artists.  Possessed of a Trump-like self-regard, VSO is reveling in the attention.  Just kidding.  She is, in fact, hoping that people don't get tired of seeing her in the news.  You know . . . media fatigue.  (Although, speaking of Mr. Trump, it must be said that Warhol's famous dictum has been sorely tested, . . . and found wanting.)

VSO on TV

I've been remiss in not re-posting this sooner, but VSO was on TV last week.  The link is below.  Scroll down to the middle of the page and look at the section on Cedar Breaks.  She is one of "the guides."

http://www.kued.org/whatson/year-the-parks/national-parks-beyond-the-crowds

Sundance

I went to Sundance for a party.  VSO came with me.  Up Provo Canyon in the afternoon.  It was a birthday party.  A big deal.  Guy's 50th, or 80th, or something.  Sundance is very nice.  The party was out of my league.  Shouldn't, probably, have been invited.  The food, the wine.  Shew.  The service.  People calling me "Sir."  We left a little early and snuck back to our suite, hoped nobody would see our crappy car out front and our dirty boots on the stoop.  Gone in the morning like a couple of mice.  Grabbed a picture of Timp on the way out—it was flying a flag made of cloud.