2001

12/29/01 Had Jamie here for Christmas and we made a huge lamb curry for 6 guests. Some new artists are here: Eddie Dominguez and Diane Marsh. I just updated the website with daily paintings up to #57. I have about 65 more to scan in and add still... Maria Rucker showed me how to do drypoint etching, so I've been doing a little of that. Mom sent a breadmaker for Christmas and I've been making lots of bread with Jamie's help.

12/9/01 Recently updated the website with more paintings. Still have to add more daily paintings. There are so many that it's getting to be a lot of scanning! Still doing ceramics here. For Thanksgiving, I had Mom, John and Jamie visit. All of us on the residency went to the Luis Jimenez house in Hondo for a big dinner. Maria Rucker is staying in one of the houses here til the next artist comes and then she goes back to Munich. She had a going away party and studio exhibit of her nose sculptures. I'm going to visit Phoenix in a couple days, and Jamie is going to spend Christmas here in Roswell. It snowed here! 3 inches a couple weeks ago. I have some shows forming: Seattle in early 2002 and River Forest Illinois near Chicago in fall 2002. My show at the Roswell Museum opens Friday May 3rd and goes thru the end of June.

10/2/01 Wow, I've done a lot since I last wrote. I was all set to go to my first ceramics class Tues. the 11th of September. I stayed home and watched tv instead. Aria, the teacher, is really great and let me come even though I missed the second class too (due to being in Phoenix). Well, I had to drive to Phoenix again (my flight was cancelled) and I went to the opening of the Nooks and Crannies show 9/14. The museum had a pizza party for the artists beforehand. I was inspired by Jeremy's christmas ornaments. He has them on display in the gift shop. But they are not for sale. He says he and Cyndi make eachother christmas ornaments as gifts for xmas every year. They are very crafty, made with pom poms and wire and beads. I was inspired to make some magnets. In Phoenix, Jamie couldn't work because all VFR flights were cancelled and he's a flight instructor. So he drove with me back to Roswell and spent a long weekend here. We kicked it at Dad's in Albuquerque and went to the New Mexico State Fair. While Jamie was here, there was a reception and dinner party for Stuart Arends. He makes paintings on small wood boxes. I like his work. I got to meet so many great artsy people that live here at the party. This town has got something very unique and special. A close knit art community. I've been making friends here. Last weekend I went to a poker party with some artists at the director's house. One game we played was called Motherwell after the famous artist who invented it. There was a bbq at another artist's house on Sunday. I have been more social here in Roswell, a town of 40,000, then I was in Eugene or San Francisco. It must be a result of the tight concentration of artists here. Also, there is a lack of anything else to do. I just love Aria's ceramics class. I love all the Roswellians of the potters guild who work in the ceramics studio. I like their talk and gossip. One lady brings homemade pie and cookies everytime I've been there. I'm meanwhile just working on my daily paintings. Boy am I behind. It's all that travelling! Today is day 62 and I only have completed 37 daily paintings. I've decided I don't have to put every single one up on the internet. So if you see a number missing, it's probably a private painting.

9/8/01 Drove to Phoenix August 24th and returned to Roswell Sept. 5th. Long trip! Glad I could stop over at my Dad's in Albuquerque. I was working on my 8 ft. x 8 ft. mural at the Arizona Art Museum for their Nooks and Crannies show. I got involved with this show when my Bentley Gallery co-worker Jeremy Briddell showed my art work to his friends in the Phoenix art world. Thanks Jeremy! He's in this show too. Here's the web site for the show. My boyfreind Jamie Ronnei passed his test to become a flight instructor! Congratulations Jamie! I got behind in my daily paintings. Here are the newest additions 19-21. I missed a big art reception here for Jenny Hankwitz' paintings :( They had dancing and beer and food and a big bonfire. I'm looking forward to the others. Here is Jenny's website: http://home.earthlink.net/~jhankwitz/. Baboon John (aka Pete) is another artist here and he is doing a performance on Friday the 14th at the Anderson Museum. I have to miss that too. :(

8/20/01 I saw the biggest bug I've ever seen tonight. It's a vinegaroon and he was right on my doorstep. I found some pictures of it on the internet. Ive been on safari in Africa and I thought I'd seen some big bugs, but this honkin thing was 4 inches long and that's not including his tail. Anyway, other things I've been up to: just finished reading a funny novel by Francine Prose called Hunters and Gatherers, it lovingly pokes fun at the Goddess worship movement. I would recommend it. I finished the first volume of The Lord of the Rings, but didn't get a thrill out it. I only read it cuz the preview for the movie looked so good. The problem with it is that it's so male centered. The only women are beautiful golden haired fairy maidens. And plus, I'm just not into monsters and wizards. I've also been painting Daily paintings 14-18 and baking bread and cookies.

8/18/01 A couple days ago, Jamie and I went to Truth or Consequences. It was a 3 hour drive and we spent the night at Riverbend Hostel and Hot Springs. This hostel is on the Rio Grande river and has 5 tubs ranging from 115 degrees to 70 degrees F. You can also jump in the river. T or C has natural mineral hotsprings near the river and it was really great. The tubs were the nicest part of the hostel. We had a private room, but it was really sketchy. The door didn't hardly shut and it was in a mobile home. But the people and the ambience (apart from our room) were so great that I would go back. Plus it was cheap. It's pretty much a hippy place. We met some artists from San Francisco who stay there all the time. They were picking up the art of a local painter to exhibit in San Fran. He did a series called Stations of the Cross that chronicles and pays homage to the S&M scene in 1970's NYC.

8/13/01 Went to visit the great ceramics studio here in town at the Roswell Art Museum. This is the city museum with the Georgia O'Keefes and the Marsden Hartleys. The ceramics studio is so great! All of the materials are also free for the residents! I'm so excited. There are a bunch of work tables and wheels and the space is really large. There are about 5 different kilns (I couldn't tell you which kinds but there is a raku and a soda kiln). Aria is the director there and she has been very forthright over the past 20 years and has made the place into one of the jewels of Roswell's arts communities. There is also a good arts library there with a bunch of contemporary art periodicals and books. I am constantly surprised at all this small town has to offer. They have a great exhibit right now of landscapes by Gregory Botts. He's one of the artists in residence here right now. I was so inspired I had to make some landscapes myself: Roswell Daily Paintings 12-13

8/12/01 Today I worked on the computer getting a change of address mailing ready. Also did a daily painting. It has been raining everyday here. Roswell Daily Paintings Days 8-11

8/11/01 Here are 4 small pictures of the house and studios. Yesterday Jamie and I went to Carlsbad Caverns and hiked around the inside of the earth for a few hours. The day before, we had almost everyone over for dinner. Tonight, Lint King and Pete had Jamie and I over for dinner. Lint King is the name of one of the artists here. He sees himself as a speck of dust. They made chili and tamales with Pete's grandma's recipe. Boy was that good. This is the Hatch chili season. All along Main Street, you can go out and buy the green hatch chili and have them roasted for you. People take them home and bag them in small quanities and freeze them. Then they are all ready when they want to make a pot of stew with the green chilis. Lint King and Pete's table had 20 melting and flickering candles. These candles were piled on a great mound of melted wax, right on the table top. Their studios are attached to their house.

What's New? Roswell Daily Paintings (Days 1-7)

8/9/01 I arrived in Roswell on August 2nd. It is a very small town of 40,000. There are 5 artists out here along with the program director. We live on a compound north of town. The residency was started in 1967 by Don Anderson. The residency gives artists a big house, a studio, and a $500 monthly stipend. This year, there is also a $1200 materials grant for each artist from the NEA thanks to the director, Stephen Fleming, for writing the grant proposal! I'm so happy with all of these gifts! There's a print studio with etching and lithography and a wood shop and a small electric kiln for everyone to use. It's strange to be encouraged to make art as much as I want! I don't have to "go to work" at some other job! My house is very nice, it's huge with 2 bedrooms and a big office with 2 desks. There's a big kitchen and living room, and front and back porches. It's has the feel of a vacation cabin. It's very modestly furnished, but everything I need seems to be here and it's very comfortable and homey. It's surrounded by trees and the studio is just a couple hundred feet away. The studio is 500 sq. ft. with 16 foot ceilings and tons of windows. It has work tables and a big easel. I would encourage every artist to apply for this residency.

Things I do for fun: Jamie is with me for the first 2 weeks, so I do have some company. I want to have lots of guests come to visit me here. We cook a lot and go for walks at the wetlands nearby, Bitter Lakes Wildlife Refuge. There are tons of cranes and herons there. Yesterday I even saw pelicans. I've been reading The Lord of the Rings. We've been going to the museums.There's the Anderson Museum, which mainly consists of works of the artists from this program, it also has a great collection of the work of Luis Jimenez.The Roswell Museum was started with WPA money and it's really got a great southwestern art collection. There are also some artworks there from the residency program including a Robert Colescott. There's also the Goddard Rocket Museum there and the Goddard Observatory. They also have art classes and a ceramics studio the residents can use.

Things I'd like to do while here: make a small painting for every day I'm here in addition to working on large paintings. I'd like to make 5 other paintings a month. (If possible). My goals are flexible. I want to also have a lot of 8 hour days in the studio, send letters and postcards to friends, have friends come for mini-retreats, go for walks, make tons of sketches on scratch paper, try to drum up shows in Portland, Seattle, Los Angeles, Phoenix, Albuquerque, and Minneapolis, make monotypes in the press and try my hand at ceramics, add to the website, enjoy my life, and have fun, and meditate and listen to my inner voice. I know that's a tremendous lot to try to accomplish, but I figure, hey, I've got a whole year here.

7/30/01 Been working for 3 months at very fancy Scottsdale art gallery, Bentley Gallery. That was fun! I lucked out cuz that was a gallery full of nice people. I leave for my one year Roswell artist residency on Wednesday! Hopefully more updates later.

3/25/1 Got a job as driver & crew for a Hot Air Expeditions a balloon company. Make a reservation and mention my name to get a discount. Also, here's a picture of me that ran in Sony Style Magazine, Winter 2000. Phographed by Robbie McLaran of Portland. Also, I got domain names for my friends and family. My brother Jeff the photographer/designer, my sister-in-law Kate the songwriter and musician, my mom Nancy, artist painter, and my friend Emily another artist painter.

3/16/1 I had a great time at the Fun Show reception in San Francisco. Moved to Phoenix Arizona Jan. 2001. Looking for a job. This website is my new endeavor. Trolls on my mind. Mom in artshow. Jamie, my partner, is going for his commercial pilots license