I turned 50 y’all and my sweet little family and I celebrated in the desert. We visited the small Texas towns of Sanderson, Marathon, and Alpine and had our socks knocked off at Big Bend National Park but the highlight was staying in a rammed earth, off-grid home located on 100 acres smack-dab in the middle of Terlingua, TX.

Sitting in the darkest of dark night skies surrounded by the rainy-earth smell of creosote bushes activated a primeval connection to my cavewoman/Universe-baby spirit. It was like a homecoming.

The big important things become obvious while spending a stretch of time in the desert. You remember that living with less gives you the ability to focus on the kind of more that matters. It’s a great place to practice shedding luxuries and it didn’t take long after we had returned to civilization that I wanted to run back to the dusty ole desert and live in a mud hut. Luckily my husband likes mud huts too and we’re already raising a feral animal-child so living in remote West Texas wouldn’t be too far out of our wheelhouse.

West Texas provided an incredible amount of inspiration that will take awhile to absorb. In the meantime, I’m happy to get back in the studio and work on the enormo bird painting. Preliminary sketches of twenty of the twenty-five species of birds seen at our house in the past three years have made it on the panel - just need to squeeze in a Crow, Inca Dove, Downy Woodpecker, House Finch, and a Bewick’s Wren.

Here’s the list of represented birds from largest to smallest (and yeah I totally geek out on this stuff): Turkey Vulture (2 depicted cuz I love them so much), Black Vulture, Barred Owl, Mississippi Kite, Great-tailed Grackle, Mourning Dove, Blue Jay, Mockingbird, Robin, Red-bellied Woodpecker, Cardinal, Tufted Titmouse, Dark-eyed Junco, Sparrow (2 depicted because they rule), Carolina Wren, Goldfinch, Red-breasted Nuthatch, Carolina Chickadee, Ruby-throated Hummingbird, and Black-chinned Hummingbird.

ALTARS | GUIDES | AMULETS

Two new amulet necklaces!

Here are goodies to gift for the holidays. Use code FREESHIPPING at check out for (you guessed it) free shipping!

Documenting my landscape through paintings and storytelling.

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