Desert Delights

It has been said that a picture is worth a thousand words.  So there are three thousand. 

I do want to mention that the first image is of the Desert Mistletoe.  (Phoradendron Californicum)  It is a partial parasite.  What this means is that it does photosynthesize, but gets food and water from the host plant.  You can read more about it here.  It has the most wonderfully fragrant flowers. 

Perhaps soon I will feel like writing again.

The Giveaway!!!

In my last post I mentioned that I had just reached over 10,000 visitors to my blog. In honor of that benchmark, and of the new year, I am giving away one of my monotypes. It measures 7 x 5 inches, and I called it "Royal Reptile". It will be UNFRAMED. It will come mounted to foamcore so that it doesn't get bent in the shipping process. All you have to do to enter the drawing is leave a comment on this post. I will draw names next week on Wednesday, January 14th! Good luck, and thank you all for reading my blog!

Today was a beautiful sunny day, around 70 degrees Fahrenheit. I do love warm weather! The hike with Mr. Pono this morning was a splendid one. I took some photos, but haven't loaded them on the computer yet. You will see them soon. The one I am posting is from last week.

Morning light

One thing about having a dog to get you out every morning is that you have the opportunity to enjoy the morning light. It is so beautiful! I have never been a morning person, really. Not until I got this dog was I ever up before 8 am. I used to stay up late at night and sleep most of the day. Pono has reformed me. If I stay in bed too long, the paw comes after me. He bats at the edge of the bed, and whines. If my head is too close to the edge of the bed, the paw may contact my head, which is not a pleasant way to be awakened. So, I drag my lethargic self out of bed, put on the workout clothes, and put shoes on. Pono doesn't get excited until he sees the shoes. That is how he knows it is almost time to go outside. He has even been known to lay down right next to my foot, and put his paw on my foot, or lick the foot, until the shoe is on. It is really cute. Pono loves shoes.

So here are a couple of photos of the desert where we run, with that divine morning light. It still looks somewhat green (for the desert, I mean) since we have gotten a bit of rain recently.

Today will be a day of running errands, but hopefully I can spend a little time, in my constant preparation for Studio Tours!!! I leave you with one of the new monotypes. This one was also inspired by those cactus wrens, since I love them so much.

A visit to the Salton Sea

Here it is, the last day of July. Only 10 more days until we close on our house! I can't wait to finally have a chance to settle in for good somewhere. In the meantime, my desire to create art - and as you may have noticed - write in my blog have dwindled down to almost nothing. I apologize! It will get better very soon.

For the first topic today, I wanted to mention Cy Twombly, one of my favorite living painters. For those of you who haven't heard about the recent incident, a woman in France KISSED one of his paintings (valued at $2 million!) and left red lipstick marks on the white part of the canvas. After seeing these gorgeous paintings of Mr. Twombly's, here, I can sympathize her plight. However, I doubt that I would have the audacity to perform such an ignorant stunt. As an artist seeking a "break" in the art world myself, I have to wonder, was her stunt merely a way to launch herself into the eyes of the public? (She is herself an artist) There is that saying "there's no such thing as bad press". Hmmm... Even still, if that were in fact the case, it can only be viewed as an act of desperation in the long run. It did make me wonder!

Matthias had a birthday yesterday, and we decided to take a little road trip to the Salton Sea. Neither one of us had ever been there before, and we thought we could take the dog, and let him enjoy some of his favorite "chase the ball into water" pasttime. It was another scorching day in the desert - topping off at a toasty 110 F - and it seemed like a good plan. It looked pretty good when we first got there. However, Matthias opened up the car door, and the first thing I noticed was the 50 flies that entered the car. I got out (more flies) and was assaulted by a powerful, eggy, fishy kind of stench. There was trash along the edge of the lake, and the beach was a deep bed of what looked like tiny barnacle shells. It smelled BAD. Pono's first reaction was to ROLL in the stinky beach. He would not go in the water. We drove around the Sea (lake, whatever you call it) and thought another spot might be more inviting. This time, the shoreline was a little more appealing at first glance (no trash or barnacle shells) but the edges of the shore were lined with two layers of dead and rotting fish carcasses. YUCK!!! We didn't know anything about the Salton Sea, but of course our adventure lead us to do some googling.

Apparently, it was formed in 1907 when the Colorado River flooded, bursting through some irrigation channels. It filled up the basin and became the Salton Sea. Since the main outlet for the Sea is evaporation, it is saltier than the ocean. It is plagued with massive die-offs of fish and birds, despite being a major wildlife refuge. You can read more about it on the link above. Let's just say, I won't be bringing visitors there. It's too bad, because it LOOKS like it would be really nice. I can see why most of the attempts at business ended up resembling these lonely places. The stench alone would drive me insane. Never mind the infestation of flies...

I am going to extend my notecard giveaway for one more week. If any of you are just reading about this, I have 7 notecards listed for sale on my etsy site. If you would like to have one all of your very own (for FREE!), all you have to do is visit my etsy site, choose the card you'd most like to have, and send me a "conversation" (click "contact karine swenson") with the card you want and your address. I will happily send a card off to you. Happy Christmas in July (soon August)! This free giveaway will end on August 7th. Thanks for visiting my blog!

The house hunting continues

Matthias and I have been busy looking for our new home. I must admit, it is a frustrating, exhausting search so far. We are a little discouraged, but not completely disheartened. We even broke down on Friday, and went to look at some model homes. That is the ultimate point of fear and loathing for both of us, since we have successfully avoided suburbia for our entire marriage. The best part about the model home tour was the real estate agent at one of the higher end places. I am not kidding when I tell you that he was like a character out of Goodfellas or something. His name was Frank. (Frankie, right?) He was talking to us and asked, "so where are youse guys from?" Then, he was telling us about his pool, and he said, "they wanted me to get pebble tech in my pool, instead of plaster, for $5000.00 - Forget about it!!" I am sure my mouth was hanging open as I imagined a mob guy, retired from the mob, selling model homes. I love my imagination sometimes. I wanted to take this man out for dinner, just so I could listen to him talk! FUN!

I have to tell you about another beloved feature of our rental house. It is a giant cactus out front, and it is blooming!!! I am not sure what kind of cactus it is. After reading my wildflower book description of the night blooming cereus, I am pretty sure that is NOT what this cactus is. Even though each bloom only lasts one night, this cactus does not have "few, angular, gray, thin, barely spiny, twiggy stems." I cannot find another description that even comes close. Here are the photos anyway!! I love it! By now, you should know how much I love flowers, and to see one of these early in the morning is a great way to start the day. There are still a couple of buds, but I am not sure how much longer it will bloom. So I have taken many photos.


I did find out that the purple headed hummingbirds here are the "costa's hummingbird". Awesome!

I haven't done any more art yet, with the business of the house hunt, but I have been thinking about those watercolors from earlier this week a lot, and I want to try them on a larger scale. I will be sure to keep you posted!

I am also starting on another fond hobby of mine, taking photographs of animal tracks. Now that we are in the desert, they are tracks in the sand, instead of snow or mud. I am pretty sure this first one is a snake track. What do you think?