Get away!

No I don't mean get away from me or anything like that, I mean at times we need to get away from our daily routine and re freshen up.  That is what I did this past week.  Just my family and I went to enjoy Pinetop, AZ for a bit.  Loved the cooler weather and the pine trees everywhere remind me of my home town, but smaller.  We enjoyed bike riding, horseback riding at Snowy Mountain Stables, and hiking trails.  I completely forgot about my normal life for a while.  That is how it should be.  Forget and refresh.  Here are are a few images of my time there.  I can't wait to do it again.  The worst part of leaving reality is coming back.  lol. 

Horseback riding at Snowy Mountain Stables

Red Barn

Portraits

I love taking portraits.  They are fun and can give a good story about a person along with some personal character.   I was just having some fun with my daughter as she was posing for the camera.  She always has a great smile and does great with pictures.  That's the best way to be able to capture someone in their comfortable natural state.  Whey posed too much it can be awkward or unnatural in some cases.  I'm glad I was able to capture this moment in time.  That's what photography is all about.  Those little moments caught in time to help us remember.  That's another reason I love photography so much.  Moments in time...

Solar Eclipse 2017

Solar Eclipse 2017.  I was not fortunate enough to be able to be in the spot of totality.  I was at work and did not even have my good camera.  So I used what I had, an iphone 6.  This is what I got.  It was still exciting, but I really need to make the effort to see it in totality on April 8, 2024.  Either way these are a few shots I got. the lower one the camera didn't capture it, but the lens flare did.  Kinda cool.  Anyway, I hope anyone watching had a great time.  I know I did.  :)  Nature is just exciting. 

Breathtaking!

Kinda raining with clouds around yet letting the sun shine through.  I had to stop the car.  I got out and took this panorama of a double rainbow on my way home from work yesterday.  Magical and breathtaking.  It's like the road leads right under it or to the pot of gold at one end.  To me just seeing it was my pot of gold.   

Taken on the street curve of Higly and Hunt Hwy in Arizona

Old to inspire

I've been going through all my old packed up belongings and I have come across some of my old pottery and gourd canteens.  Sometimes I forget what I've done in the past and move one.  Well sometimes, like this time, I can look back and get inspired by my own work.  lol.  It gives me new ideas and ways to make new things.  I love it.  It's like a whole cycle.  Maybe forgetting sometimes is a good way to be inspired by the old.  The old becomes new.  :)

Old Gourd Canteen

Artist shove down

I love being an artist.  Coming up with new ideas and seeing how they turn out.  Sometimes they are cool and other times they should be thrown away.  Either way it's just fun developing ideas.  Well a job can kinda ruin that.  Maybe not all jobs, but some can.  For example you actually can't design anything because the customer is the one designing it (or a sales person).  In the end you have to make it they way they like it and it's still art, but for me sometimes that kills creativeness.  Yes it can also bring about better ideas and development so don't get me wrong.  Lately I just feel that at my day job I can't be an artist.  I do as they say like a robot.  Yes I get to build jewelry, but not how I want to or how I think it should be.  It's always how everyone else wants it to be.  So would I be considered a designer?  Not in my opinion.  I feel I can only truly be a designer when I have the freedom to put my thoughts into a new design.  Otherwise it's like an assembly line to me.  This is why I love DanaArts.  I am able to freely create anything I want without someone telling me what I need to do or how to do it.  That is what it's all about for me.  That's why I keep on going and keep on pushing forward even when no one knows who or what DanaArts does.  I will continue on forever creating what I enjoy doing.  It's what keeps me going and pushing on in new ways.  If you are feeling the Artist Shove Down then take a break and do something creative.  It will inspire you to create beautiful things.  

The feeling when being shoved down and you have to shine to overcome it. 

Coil Pots

I miss working with clay.  I've mainly only mixed my natural clay and built coil pots and fired them in an open fire.  I really don't have access to natural clay anymore so I have tried buying some pre mixed clay that seamed to be similar to what I would mix.  I have not had time to test fire it yet, but I miss mixing and working with clay.  I think I have too many hobbies that I just can't get enough time for.  I bounce around between them and never get to fully fulfill my intentions.   I don't have time at the moment to build any coil cooking pots, but I hope to very soon (just like everything else,  lol).  This image shows a pot I've done in the past.  It has a red ocher slip on the outside.  It came out great.  I truly wish I could continue to gather my own clay and do it all from scratch.  There's nothing like finding a clay source and testing it to see how good it is.  Or to try and make not so pure clay still work.   To make it easier for now I'll have to use the premixed clay.  Well, here's to hoping for more time.  :)

Red slip coil pot.  Fired in an open fire pit. 

Father and Son's camping

I like to try and go camping with my son and daughter a few times a year.  This year I have not been able to do anything till this past weekend.  Mainly it's that I don't trust my jeep anymore now that it's getting old.  I prefer going with someone just in case.  So we (my son and I and Red our dog) went on a Father and Son's camp out.  We really enjoyed our time together.  We hiked down a creek bed that was not too easy and had lots of areas that we had to climb around to keep going.  We would even pass the dog over to each other through some of the boulder climbing or tough areas.  It was a good experience for all of us.  For me just being out there with my son is important.  It gives us time to be with each other in a different way than in regular everyday life.  We make decisions together and are more united.  After our fun hike on a nice cool day, we shot a hand made bow made from tamarisk .  It was not very powerful, but we had fun just playing around with it.  These were good times and I hope we all can create them with the ones we love.  Here are some images of our time together. 

Father and son's outing

Leatherworking

This is something I enjoy very much.  I've never fully done or made all that I've wanted to or I haven't learned everything I want to learn about it.  I've usually only made things out of soft leather, but would love to start learning how to work hard and thick leather along with tooling it. I might also try and mix leather with material.   Maybe this year I can get back into leather work because I miss it.  If you read this and don't see any postings of images with leather in them, then please reach out and tell me to get on it.  Thanks,  :)

Ideas

Ideas are always around, but sometimes it's hard to get inspired.  I shot this in my backyard of a sunflower that has not yet bloomed.  Well it has now, but not in this image.  So Sometimes when I don't have any inspiration or ideas coming for designing something or for photography I have to just do something.  By doing something and not standing still, eventually I'll get inspired to move in a certain direction.  Then it grows and I start getting a little passionate or obsessive about it.  Then I exhaust that idea and move on to the next and let my old thoughts and ideas sit on the back burner.  Ideas come, but you have to open up and let your surroundings inspire you.  Be grateful for what you have and be humble enough to see the most basic of ideas that can come to light if you just experiment a little.  Don't just sit waiting, be active and creative. 

Sunflower reaching for the sun