Sunday, April 29, 2012

Flagstaff to LA


 Before leaving Flagstaff, I headed downtown to take a few pictures. It was still very early, so not many places were open. I walked to Heritage Square and saw a cool educational project called "The clothesline project". It is to talk about intimate violence aka physical abuse. Survivors of abuse design tshirts to be hung on these lines. Designing the tshirts is healing for the survivors and acts as a way to reach out to other victims. I found many of the tshirts to be extremely powerful.






-----------------------------------------------

Scenery along the way. Gas skyrocketed once I hit the Arizona/California border where it was $4.99 a gallon! yikes.







---------------------------------------------------


i arrived at Lisa's where she had beautiful fresh flowers from her garden picked and displayed in cool vintage vases all over the house. I was greeted by her enthusiastic daughter, Emelie, who took me on a tour and gave me a little scrapbook gift that Lisa and her made for me to use for my trip. I also met their 3 fur babies, Lilly, Dusty and Sophie, plus their newest bird, Koro.










 --------------------------------------------------------------

These are pics from Lisa's studio and of some of her art. Her house is very magical and so much cool art! find out more about Lisa on her blog. She's a very talented and cool lady!




---------------------------------------------------



When Lisa and I started planning my stop over with her, we decided we wanted to go to Caine's Arcade. So this morning, Lisa, Emilie and I headed to East LA for a visit. It was so cool to see his little arcade and to purchase our "fun passes". We were there for about an hour chatting with his dad, Caine and other like minded spirits who also wanted to show their support. We found out that last week his arcade was packed up and that a semi truck arrived to haul it to San Francisco, where Caine was invited to the Exploratorium to set up his arcade. pretty cool, huh?




 


Friday, April 27, 2012

Taos to Flagstaff

This morning I said goodbye to Tom and Leighanna (and my new best fur baby friend, Rocky) and hit the road for Flagstaff. I piddled around Albuquerque for a little bit and went to a couple of Leighanna's favorite haunts from when she use to live there. .

I have to confess that today wasn't a favorite day of mine for driving. It was almost immediate from leaving Albuquerque when the wind hit. It was a forceful wind and I spent most of the day with a death grip on my steering wheel. The roads were under construction  and often there was only one lane with those horrible cement dividers on one side and no shoulder on the other. I didn't stop and take any photos as the wind was just too fierce. At one time it started to rain as well and it was quite difficult to see; especially with the big trucks spraying their run off onto my car.

Finally after crossing into Arizona, the weather started to clear up and the wind began to die down. the skies were full of fluffy clouds and the sun began to shine. It was interesting to find out that there were terrible storms across the country today. 

I am here in Flagstaff all tucked in my hotel. Had a nice dinner and took a warm shower. Will hit the hay soon. Tomorrow I head into LA (coast to coast!) where I will stay with Lisa Loria.

Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Touring Taos





 Yesterday Leighanna and Tom took me around Taos and outer lying areas. It was really great to see the area. So much beauty and interest. We went to a really cool place called Earthships of Taos, where a little community of green homes that use natural and recycled materials. The homes are fascinating! check out the website and take some of the virtual tours.



 


------------------------------------------------


these are pictures from around town and a few other areas that we visited








 


---------------------------------------------------


Leighanna does the coolest art, working with found objects and sculpting her own cool faces. You can check out her art here.




---------------------------------------------

and this is a doll in Leighanna's house that I thought was so beautiful. Leighanna shared with me that her doll was a special purchase at a Paris flea market a few years ago. 


slide show!