Meeeoooow

Wolf!

Recently I had a unique, fun, oh-so-cool, experience while visiting my family in New Mexico.  My two granddaughters and I drove up to Santa Fe.  Now, mostly I think, Santa Fe is known as an artist community and major tourist-end destination.  There are some beautiful shops filled with art of all sorts.  Including the place we went …….

We had bought our tickets on-line (something I strongly recommend) and got there just as they opened (yep – definitely I recommend because this is a hugely popular place).  So, I took about a zillion pictures and had to terrible time trying to decide what to post.  These are just a very few.  You should plan to go!!

In case you don’t know, Meow Wolf is a Santa Fe based arts and entertainment group.  It was established in 2008 as an art collective – “We are artists. We support artists. We make art… really big, immersive, and fun art for everyone… or something like that.”

The company is composed of nearly 200 artists across all disciplines including architecture, sculpture, painting, photography, video production, virtual reality, music, narrative writing, costuming, performance, and much more, I’m sure.

“We are a different type of company. We are legally registered as a public benefit corporation and certified as a Benefit Corporation or B Corp. We value more than just making money; to us that means bolstering our creative team, giving back to our community, and doing our part for the environment.”

It is a supremely marvelous place full of interactive weird other worldliness.  I had a great time!  Here we go ......

When we got there, we walked down a long, 

neon bright, crooked hallway …

 and found a farm house …..

We were warned upon entering

I neeeeed one of these!

  and from there it just got weirder ….

We crawled through a fireplace and
found another dimension.

In the other dimension, the
stars are on the floor

and the worms were in the sky.

This guy was swimming along 

through the neon water plants.

 A carpet room – floor, walls, furniture

pictures.

You can play a tune on 

the laser beams

meet up with very large critters

and small ones.

Find musical mushrooms.

an odd room or 10

like a room of eyeballs or pipes and valves or zigs and zags or 

an upside down bus or a small RV or 

the Mad Hatters Tea Room or .......

Ok, I have to quit now.  You just have to go and see for yourself!

Take care

Heart? or Hearts?

HOT and HUMID and …

I worked out in the yard yesterday morning for a couple of hours.  Yea me!  I know, this doesn’t sound like such a huge major thing.  However, I live in the Texas Gulf Plains where it is hot and humid a lot.  In fact, Hot and Humid are our descriptive words for most everything.  How’s things with you?  HOT, things are HOT and HUMID.  What have you been up to?  Are you kidding?  It’s HOT and HUMID here – nothing.

Now, in addition to it being HOT and HUMID, we have been invaded by mosquitoes.  And I’m not sure why they’re here – for the past many months, at least at my house, we’ve only had small amounts of rain with many-long-weeks-of-dry-no-rain-or-even-thoughts-of-rain in-between.  No standing water.  No ponds.  No water garden containers.  And, I’m not talking about the odd one or two annoying, terrible, attacking, blood-sucking things.  No, no, I’m talking about dozens of hundreds.  They have been beating on the windows for heaven sake.  Walking outside is taking your life in your hands. 

However, yesterday I had several things I needed to accomplish outside so I dressed for the situation.

No?  Well, I thought about this …………. but decided I’d be a little puddle of sweat before leaving the garage.

I did settle on long jeans and a heavy t-shirt and then covered my clothes and every bit of exposed skin with mosquito repellent.  And, not the “natural” stuff – I dipped myself in DEET.  And, I just hate that.  Honestly, something that makes my eyes, nose, and throat burn just breathing it can’t possibly be good for my skin.  I do know there are many plants that can help control mosquitoes – I have several in the back yard.  However, when it’s as bad as this – no other option is considered.

Then, I spent two and a half hours, repotting, moving, and fertilizing plants.  And, was back inside by 9:30am. 

 

Plants for my daughter.

Plants fertilized

How was your weekend?

Take care

Adventuring in Art

Saturday my sister and I went to the 49^th Annual Rockport Art Festival.  There were over 100 artists and craftsmen, live music, and food everything from BBQ to Vietnamese.  It’s only held over one week-end and if you didn’t go, you should mark your calendar for next year.  It’s very well done and the majority of the artists are amazing.

If you’re not familiar with Rockport – it’s a smallish town (population of about 9000) located south and west of Wharton along the gulf coast.  This past August, Rockport sustained massive damage from Hurricane Harvey (a Cat 4 storm) but it survived and has come back strong.  It’s a popular tourist destination during the summer months.  There are many things to do there from beach going, fishing and boating to various fairs (Art to Oyster to Wine) throughout the year. 

And, it’s not a bad drive from Wharton.

The Art Fest itself was very well set up and parking was only a little challenging.

We left Wharton early taking the coast road and got there shortly after it opened. 

So, first of all – I can’t possibly post all the pictures I took.  Because, I took a bunch and my sister took a bunch and we shared.  So, I’ll try to choose the ones I liked best, made me laugh, or scratched my head over.  And, while I tried to pick up cards and match pictures to artists, I wasn’t always successful.  I hope the artists will forgive me.

CERAMICS

  

Ross De La Garza

Al Hoeksema

Wood

  

Steven Garza

No, these are not functional reels.
These are pieces of art and just beautiful.

Seabirds from driftwood

Mark Millia

Glass

  

Larry Pile

Shawn Steichen

Painting, Pastel, Drawing

James Offeman

Yan Lee

  

These were unusual – you could
buy one square or several to get the look you want.

Metal

Shawn Corder

This little guy spoke to me and now
stands on my desk.

Different – many were made from wagons

or wheelbarrows

Kinetic Mermaids

Odd things

Fred Fisher

Fish Rubbings!  It’s a thing!  Who knew!

Different

Aly Winningham
I had to look close at these mosaics as they have
a few odd things mixed in.

There were many Jewelry artists

This is one of the most beautiful beads

I’ve seen.  Making plain beads is hard,
making one like this, amazing.

I’m pretty sure only in Texas

do you find jewelry for your boots!

This is the one that spoke to me

The Goddess of Jump for Joy

by Suzanne Juneau

And, this little goddess came home with me too.

There were so many others.  All types of artists.  You need to make sure you go next year.

Our drive home was nice except for a great big rain that came along around Tivoli (a tiny place, smaller than tiny – 1 sq mile with 400 people).  Actually, we hit the rain on the way to Rockport and again, hours later, on the way back – and at about the same place.

Take care

Yep – a hill of oyster shells.

You just never know what you’ll see!