Desert Calling

I'm currently in Coachella Valley in southwestern California on family business.

It's an interesting place and I've been coming here for visits many years - my brother owns an air conditioning and heating business. One of my other brothers and my mother used to work for him and still live here, so it is a family gathering spot of sorts.

The desert in the raw is gorgeous - a painters paradise. The mountains, foothills, colors and climate can't be beat. In the past it was an escape for the adventurous from LA - the roads were sand, the cabins rough hewn and the entertainment pure rest and relaxation taking in the healing springs, hiking the foothills or horseback riding up into the snow-covered mountains that dominate the landscape at ten thousand feet.

Thankfully, parts of he desert are still in tact and treacherous and filled with scary biting things like poisonous snakes, scorpions, spiders, lizards and plants with a variety of pointy things that include everything from from foot-long needles to no-seeum burrs. It's also Reagan territory populated by people who drive fast and expensive cars, live in big over the top homes and golf on private gated courses. You could include them in scary things that bite too I guess.

On this trip I haven't found myself lost and wandering in the foothills. It happens every time I come out here and is scarier than hell. One minute you're following an obvious canyon thoroughfare, the next you just can't remember how you got there. It's brutally hot and there's no water.

I guess for now, this painting depicts the memory of being "out there" but the reality of having my feet stuck in the cement downtown. There's a bit of a mind body separation going on here.

Desert Calling • 8" x 8" acrylic on paper framed to 12" x 12" • $200