Working in Mexico

Listening to Kutiman!







Scorpion on eggshells

chorizo and scorpions

Posting food pictures is irresistible! Today's lunch: Pico de gallo, really fresh avocado, two fried eggs, and a special chorizo mix. The chorizo is the soft spicy Mexican kind fried with sliced plantains and banana chili peppers. An amazing balance of salty savory, hot and sweet.



I am fickle about arachnids. I don't mind spiders around the house, and sometimes if necessary I will gently usher both poisonous and harmless spiders out of the house on a peice of paper. I am, however, not so tolerant and magnanimous with scorpions.

My friends Richard and Kristen just returned from a trip to the fjordlands of New Zealand. It's one of the few places on earth where there are no scorpions. That's why everyone there is so chill.

Phoenix Airport

This is the first time I am blogging from an airport and marks a move toward the proper tone of a blog; as an actual web-log, an account of what is happening now. I must belabor you again with my descriptions of the sunlight.

To me the variations in light through time and geography are as diverse as regional accents, and I delight in most of them - especially Long Island. The accent. The sunlight too I suppose. But Phoenix is absolutely golden. The skin of the locals is equally golden. Everything seems to glint as if it were gilded and covered in tanning oil.

I wonder if our eyes change in different sunlights like sometimes our voices adopt that reciprocal lilt or drawl of someone we are speaking with?

I am going to Mexico. Again. I like the way it smells.

I am reading Everything is Illuminated, by Jonathan Safran Foer, and listening to Pandora Radio. Everything IS illuminated.

Music Sketch - The Missing One
48"X48"
Acrylic on canvas

Music Sketch #22

Commissions

Last night I received the honor of creating a commissioned painting, and felt immense gratitude to include another person in my creative process. I've never had a bad experience with commissions, but sometimes I've felt like my freedom was being limited. It's an illusion, however; freedom is a state of mind. I don't think we (artists) ever create art solely for ourselves. It's impossible. Refuting this is like being suicidal.

Abel Tasman National Park, South Island, NZ

tree ferns


more tree ferns

Sketches, and such...

bird bones, sand castle



possums, fish, penguin, lobster, and resin



bird bones up close



pelvis, and assorted found objects

Experimentation

part of fish skull and large painting in background


found object assemblage


sea urchin (kina) with paper


kelp, wire, plaster, and painting in progress.

In The Studio, Owhiro Bay, NZ

close up of a painting using various material


bird bones


kelp and wire armature


bird sculpture

South Island, NZ near Nelson

Zucchini

I love zucchinis. For some reason they are the first thing that I learned to cook after I'd figured out how to use the toaster when I was 5 or 6 years old. When I publish my cookbook there will be a special recipe in there for the courgettes as our friends overseas call them. Better than any other squash. Black pepper, garlic, a dash of rosemary, chili powder, cayenne, and sautéed with butter. That's how I had them for lunch today - they made me think of Mexico as I peeled off the little sticker that indicated their origin.

Ah, Mexico. I leave in two weeks to go there. In honor of the next trip I had a papaya with lunch. One has to eat a dimpling squishing papaya before too long. I prepared it with fresh lime juice and salt - it smells of Mexico. Of course anything with lime juice and salt smells like Mexico to me. My cookbook will feature many dishes with lime juice and salt - and drinks!

Not much time for painting these days - too busy updating the mailing lists, preparing for 2008 taxes, writing drafts of the cookbook, and planning for the next online auction. I am also closely watching CaringBridge updates from a dear friend Larry who is lying in a hospital in Guadalajara, Mexico recovering from intestinal surgery - he's like my second father.

He was scheduled to come out of sedation today, but will remain so until a blood sepsis clears. I guess telepathy will have to serve until I get there to visit. Hang on Larry.