Paleontology at Ghost Ranch

What do Indiana Jones, Canadian TV crews, dinosaurs, graduate students, geologists, paleontologists, documentary film makers, bug spray, rattlesnakes, and sunny days all have in common?

They all converge at Ghost Ranch in Abiquiu, New Mexico. As we were arriving for our seminar, we learned that a film crew for the 4th Indiana Jones movie had just wrapped up. Darn! I would love to have seen Harrison Ford!


This week, Shannon (above) and I joined a small group of other like-minded individuals to experience Paleontology at Ghost Ranch, a week long seminar that involves excavating Triassic era dinosaur bones from the Chinle formation at Hayden Quarry.


And here's the rest of our group, carefully taking off thin layers of sediment to reveal black gold; which in this case would be bone, tooth, armor plate, or coprolite (petrified poo).


Nate (above) is one of the resident grad students. Here he sits above one of his finds, which he's just about to jacket before transporting it back to the lab. Next to Nate is Christy, who took a week off from her work at the Petrified Forest to assist in the dig.


At lunch time, Shannon and I took a hike to the stream to pick up one of the canopies. We brought it back and, with the help of fellow seminar attendee Barb, set it up for some much-needed shade.


When one of us finds something "good," we call the grad students over for a consultation. Randy (from UC Berkley) and Nate (from the Univ. of Chicago) explain to Anita (striped shirt) what she's found.


And in the midst of this, a film crew from Canada showed up to take some footage of our work, interview Alex (our fearless leader, and curator of the Paleontology Museum at Ghost Ranch), and talk with the grad students. Canadians are so cool. They have a DAILY science program on their public television network! I'm so envious.


Shortly after the Canadians left, my friends Pat and Melinda from Convivial Design Studio arrived to take some documentary footage of the site, and to interview everyone. Melinda warned us of a rattlesnake down by the stream, so we were hypervigilant on the way back to the lab. I don't have any photos of Pat & Melinda (a.k.a. the Design Divas), because I was too busy catching up with them to grab my camera.


Anita (above) sits proudly next to her jacketed dino bone. She's found some great stuff this week. Barb has also found several REALLY COOL pieces. I'll try to get some photos of her with her finds before the seminar ends . . .


And when we're not bent over the dig with our tails in the air, we can turn around to see this gorgeous view. If you were to put these three photos together, left to right, you'd see the panoramic view. It's absolutely breathtaking!


Each day, we work from about 8:30 a.m. to about 1:00 p.m. Then we take a lunch break (and rest break!) and meet back up in the evening. Once our bellies are full, and we're rested, we work in the lab until quite late--cleaning and cataloging everything that we found in the field earlier in the day.


Shannon (below) is cleaning the sediment away from some bones that she found. Once everything is cleaned (very time consuming), we often need to glue pieces back together. They're very fragile and break easily. Also, most of the bones are in pieces when we find them.


Below you can see some of what Shannon has ben working on . . .


And then some of the things that I uncovered out in the field: a scute, bone fragments, a vertebra, coprolite, tooth, and a partial metatarsal . . .


He's a close up of the scute I found. I'm not sure where the term "scute" comes from. It's not the official name of this fossil. Perhaps they call it a scute because it's scute :)


And finally, a photo of a couple of yet-unknown things--still in situ. Once I've had a chance to fully uncover them, take them back to the lab, clean them up, and identify them, I'll post more photos!

Calling All Visitors: Your Room is Ready!

Well, I finally finished the guest room bed project, and following are some photos of the work in progress. With the help of my assistant, Miss Frida, I made a frame for the bed and built in a side table, which my assistant quickly checked for strength and level:


Once that was done, I gave it a couple of coats of glossy black paint before filling the underneath storage space with linens, sleeping bags, etc . . .


Two twin-sized platforms then sit one on top of the other, forming the base for the guest bed when it's not being used; or when it's being used as a daybed . . .


The addition of a mattress, pillows, and comforter turn the structure into a daybed. This is how we'll keep things when we don't have company. Since this is the smallest bedroom, we're lucky to have this recessed area. Keeping the guest bed in this compact arrangement will give the room more functionality when we don't have visitors . . .


However, Shannon arrives this Saturday (yippee!!!), so the frames need to be joined together, and legs attached . . .


And then made into a king size bed. We'll keep it in this configuration until mid-August, when the last of our Summer guests leave.


This project took only about a week, from start to finish (not counting long breaks). I used a combination of scrap and purchased lumber, and paint that I already had on hand. All that's left to do now is to add a reading light to the bedside table, and some mints on top of the pillows :)

Food, Friends, Fun, and conFabulation

This is our last week of relative quiet before the Summer season officially begins. I don't think I'll be doing much art making this week, but that doesn't mean I won't be creative. There's still the matter of a bed for the guest room which needs to be built, so that's on the top of my agenda. It's been started, it just needs to be finished. I'll post photos of that later.

Dave gestures wildly while Janice (aka Janita) gazes at the cake

Last night we went over to Sue & Darwin's for "fat burgers" and fun. Sue & "D" whipped up the burgers and chips, Janice made her famous pasta salad, and I provided the cold cucumber soup. Brewskies & wine flowed, tea steeped, coffee brewed, and we had a roaring good time. Andres made a HUGE pistachio cake, and we celebrated Dave's birthday (somewhat belatedly, since he was in CA for the last gathering down at "Casa Jandres"). Dave expounded on the virtues of cake height & density, while we all looked on; our mouths watering in anticipation . . .

Andy, aka "The Cake Man" waits patiently for a taste of his new recipe, while Darwin and Sue appreciate Dave's cake-cutting expertise

Dave carefully measured the cake and began cutting identically-sized pieces, and still we all looked on in anticipation . . . and growing hunger . . .

Spirits lift as Dave finishes cutting his cake: Darwin smiles for the camera

After dessert, we sat around talking about tofu, tofurkey, the bubonic plague, the best museums in Albuquerque and Santa Fe, free museums in America v. free museums in developing countries, why the Smithsonian museums should be spread out across the U.S., building cabins in remote areas, possible dinosaur fossils in a nearby arroyo, paleontology, geology . . .

A gorgeous piece of curved juniper wood that Darwin found on one of his hikes. I'm coveting this!

. . . potty training dogs, dogs who like stinky stuff, knocking on the front door v. knocking on the back door, uses for gravel, sealing hornos, thieves with broken toes, the best Indian restaurants in Abluquerque/Santa Fe/Boulder/London/and various parts of Africa, cow skulls and bones: where they are and what to do with them, heart rate monitors, book recommendations, foriegn films, depressing films that are worth watching, bad films . . .

Frida and Romy say "good night"

. . . pregnant domestic rabbits who show up on your doorstep, jackrabbits as big as big dogs, hummingbirds, hummingbirds who get their beaks stuck in screen doors, how we get shorter as we get older, how womens' hair thins as they age, why young women don't have thin hair (their babies need something to hang onto), "Lucy's" remains in Africa, evolution, picking up hitchhikers, animal rescue, lights on timers, how dog pee kills grass, training dogs to pee on trees, turning a full deer skeleton into a coat rack, where to get 3 identical (and good looking) trellises, what's growing in everyone's garden, making masks, and the need for hybrid cars that are made for tall people.

A symmetrical cloud at sunset

We had a good time; arrived home feeling tired and "full as tics." I read that new (well, new to me) Amy Tan novel for a while before turning out the lights. It's really good!!! And one of the main characters, Kwan, reminds me so much of a woman, Julia Lo, that I used to work with (aside from seeing the "Yin people," that is). Julia, if you're out there, please know that I've been thinking about you! :)

Shannon arrives in just 7 days! Woo-hoo! She'll be here for 2 weeks. I can't wait! Guess I'd better go finish that bed so she'll have a place to sleep!

Out of the Mouths of Pots

Once upon a time, when I was learning about ceramics and making vessels, I heard someone talk about the "mouth of the pot." Instantly, I had a mental image of a pot with a pair of lips. As is often the case, I wasn't able to banish that image from my mind until after I'd manifested it into real life. The result is the "mouth of the pot" series:

Talking Pot, 2002 ceramic and wax 6" x 6" x 6"

Talking Pot is one of the first pots I created for the "mouth of the pot" series. It wasn't until I finished the pot that I realized that it appeared to be talking, or at least frozen in mid-sentence. I burnished the surface of this pot with a smooth stone. It took many, many hours and left the pot with a smooth, glassy finish. Not wanting to hide the beautiful color of the clay, I applied wax to the surface once it had been fired. Clay comes in many colors. Humans come in many colors. Both are so beautiful in their natural state.

Pomegranate Pot, 2002 ceramic and wax 7" x 6" x 6"

Initially, this pot was going to be called Bette Davis Eyes, after the popular song. But as it evolved, it took on a mind of its own, and became the Pomegranate Pot, instead. That happens sometimes. Actually, that happens a lot. I'll start out with an idea of what something will look like, but art sometimes does what it wants to do, and there's no use arguing. It's best just to go along with it. This pot was burnished with a smooth stone (agate is my personal favorite), and then I finished it with a progression of waxes.

Say "Ah" Pot, 2002 ceramic and wax 3.5" x 5" x 5"

After my initial mouth pots, I started considering the different things we do--different expressions, etc--with our mouths. At least once in each of our lifetimes, we've gone to the doctor and he/she's told us to "say ah." So, I stood in front of the mirror, saying ah, while forming the mouth of this pot. As with the other pots in the series, Say "Ah" was burnished and then waxed, to allow the natural beauty of the clay to come through.

Kissing Pot, 2002 ceramic and wax 6" x 6" x 6"

Kissing Pot is purely sculptural, but I could hardly do a series of mouth pots without making at least one into a kissing pot. It was burnished, and then finished with wax.

Mona Lisa Pot, 2002 ceramic and wax 6" x 6" x 6"

Clearly, Leonardo da Vinci's La Gioconda (Mona Lisa) has one of the most famous smiles in Art History. This was another mouth expression that I couldn't ignore. Because she is slightly turning to the side in the original painting, I had to capture the mouth the way that I saw it, hence the slight asymmetry. Mona Lisa Pot was burnished prior to firing, and is finished with wax.

Whistling Pot, 2000 ceramic and wax 4.5" x 5" x 5"

The smallest of the mouth pots, Whistling Pot, is also my favorite. I wanted to show some diversity in the pots, so I used a wax that contained dark pigment. It doesn't completely hide the color of the clay, though, which is good.

Sometimes a tea pot will whistle, so that adds another meaning to this particular work.

A few of these pots, and others that are in the works, will be available during the Abiquiu Studio Tour. Mark your calendars for the first weekend in October!

The Kahlo Tree

The Kahlo Tree, 2001 Monoprint & Linocut (limited edition) 12" x 12"

Like many artists, I will often revisit an idea. The Kahlo Tree (linocut) is a re-interpretation of a painting that I had done about 5 years prior, and is a tribute to one of my favorite artists, Frida Kahlo. By depicting Kahlo as a tree, I was illustrating my feelings of connection to her (she's the only person, other than myself, that I've depicted as a tree or flower). Her life was filled with pain and heartache, and yet she was a highly prolific artist.

Flora and Fauna

While working out in the yard this past week, I couldn't help but snap some photos of the flowers that are in bloom right now. It seems that everything is blooming at the moment . . .

The red hot poker is one of my sister, Kim's, favorite flowers . . .

And Tarryn loves daisies, so she'd likely enjoy this photo . . .



This next one, aside from the white color, reminds me of the wallflowers that grow so prolifically back east . . .
The koi seemed especially happy . . .

And I think that this is the reason why . . .

When the Cat's Away, the Mice Will Work

Dave just returned from sunny southern California--a vacation week of hanging out with the boys prior to starting Summer classes. While he was gone, I spent the week working on my art and catching up on some yard work.

And the occasional trek down to the Post Office/Recycling Center, where I found these books, some of which are books on tape. Yes, even though it's 2007, we do still have a tape deck! I'm going to thoroughly enjoy listening to these while working on my art this Summer. When I'm done, I'll pass them along. I was especially thrilled to find Amy Tan's The Hundred Secret Senses, which I haven't read yet. I love her work!

And, as proof that I really did work on my art, above are the moulds that I poured at the end of the week. Okay, for all you know those are just two boxes filled with plaster, but there really is some art underneath: four, original plasteline labyrinths. You'll see the fruits of my labor later on this Summer.

While working out in the yard, I got completely distracted by some of the skulls and bones that I've picked up during my hikes. I think it's actually illegal here in New Mexico NOT to display a cow skull somewhere on your property. Hey, I'm not one to take chances! I attached the above skull and jaw bones (which look either like wings or horns, depending on who you ask) to the gate that leads out to the driveway.

And the above set to the same gate, but on the other side. And then, finally, I attached the set (below) to the gate which leads out to the very back of the house. I have to tell you something about old, dried out bones. They have splinters! Later that evening, I spent the night with a magnifying glass and tweesers, pulling bone splinters out of my hands. Note to self: use gloves in the future!

And when I wasn't busy making art and "legalizing" our property with skulls and bones, I was removing cacti from the fenced in area of the yard. Poor Miss Frida often comes limping up to me, usually on 3 legs instead of 4, to have me remove cactus needles from her little paws. She was very happy to see me haul three wheelbarrel loads of cacti down to the arroyo.

A close-up shot of one of the cactus flowers. Gorgeous, huh? Don't worry--there are still plenty of these beautiful plants outside of the fence!


When I was done, as if a gift from above was being bestowed upon me, a flock of rare Northern New Mexico Desert Flamingos landed and set up house under some junipers. I hear that they have an aversion to cactus, so I'm glad that I did all of that work!
And, finally, in the spirit of my blogger friend, Mary Ann, I snapped this photo of my typical lunch: sliced tomatoes & mozarella with fresh herbs from our garden.
Yum, yum!!!