This is me at a local lake in the white mountains here in Arizona.With the rain, I am garbed in my poncho and hat. It is always necessary to be prepared when one is at an altitude of 7,000 feet. What causes these trees to be so green? Yup: water.
Off in the distance are Canadian geese eating out at their delicious cafeteria. Native wildflowers surround me. The smell of the pine trees waft over the breeze that comes with force, and then dies down. This is my first time to explore this area, and I am enchanted.
I write in my artist Biography : " I draw my inspiration from the native landscapes, people and animals, to create my present and evolving works in clay". Here is nature painted in a broad brush stroke. I am in awe of all the different climate in my home state. I am filled with gratitude to be here.
I am surrounded by the White Mountain Apache tribal lands, which are left mostly natural, except for those black cattle you run into on the back trails. They have a casino and I did explore into their towns. A lot of change in the last 100 years, is all I can say.
I guess I wrote about this area because it is nature in a rather pure form and that is good for my head, my soul, and I hope my art.
Isn't this a cunning use of beads of many colors and dimensions? I've always made jewelry from my ceramic beads, but this past year I have added other sources to my new designs. Each set is a one of a kind.
There are the four bone pieces that add a touch of tribal look to this. Then come the brown beads made of tigers' eye stone. I find these a little dense in color, so adding the yellow glass beads gives them a nice contrast with the variations of the tigers' eye.The necklace is @ 16" in length, and the earrings have a nice ability to catch the sun and make one feel well dressed.
I like the immediacy of making this jewelry. With clay it takes a month to make it, then it has to be fired once, then again high fired to finish it. Here the time is in choosing, trying, rejecting, trying again until finally, the whole pattern pleases me. It is now for sale in a gallery, but I can tell you how to find it.
