Settling In

Check out an article in the local paper, Hi-Desert Star, describing the Joshua Tree Highlands Artist Residency Program, and listing the five of us artists who are arriving here for 6 weeks.

Here is my new Home Sweet Home:

Now I have a studio setup in my living room, along with my bed and sofa/lounging area. All the comforts of home! And there's an open patio with daybeds up the hill from the house for lounging as the sun sets. Now to create art... I'm thinking that my plan to bury canvas (to get mold and mineral deposits) sounds hot and tiresome in the gravel/rock ground and 90 degree days (cools down enough at night to be comfortable outside). So I will try boulder prints: draping canvas over the solid (but cracked and rough) boulder faces. If I put garbage bags filled with water (with holes punched in the bottoms) on the canvas to keep it wet, I'm hoping the moisture and heat will produce mold or other types of transfer from the rocks. We'll see! Meanwhile I will be visiting the park this afternoon to photograph, draw and otherwise collect visual sources of inspiration.