Category Archives: free time

prescott

Last week, David and I drove to Prescott.

Ahhh…out of town…it was so nice to get out of the heat, and even better that David went too.Â We had a wonderful time.Â We stopped at the Rock Springs Cafe both on the way up and back.Â In Prescott we stayed in a little B&B called the Gurley Street Lodge.Â The owner’s wife was an artist, and I was able to spend quite a bit of time talking to her about art.Â That was encouraging.Â We walked around town, shopped, drank beer, watched the clog dancers, and hung out in The Raven.

This is the cabin in which we stayed. Full kitchen, two bedroom, nice and clean.Â The weather was amazing; on our drive up, it was pouring rain.

You know you want some world famous whisky pecan pie.Â You do.

David wanted a red cream soda, but we didn’t have any cash.Â The minimum for debit was ten dollars, so I bought some local orange blossom honey.Â Mmmmm…

The Raven serves local and organic food whenever possible.Â I had a salad and soup as well as an iced americano here.Â They have lots of art on the walls and support the music scene as well.Â David and I hung out here for a few hours.Â I read a book about photography, and he read one about a journalist traveling to China.

And how many coffee shops in your neighborhood have the awesomeness that is this?

roadtrip to tucson

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Earlier this summer, Aimee, Stephanie, Ryan and I traveled down to Tucson to get out of town.Â The heat was inescapable as Tucson has relatively the same temperature as Phoenix, but it does have an interesting artsy, indie, hippie culture which is an oasis in itself.Â In the downtown fourth avenue area, we ate at a vegetarian restaurant with a morroccan theme for lunch, purused the books at a liberal bookstore, and drank coffee at a stand with a back patio.Â I watched the three others pick up mesquite pods from the dirty sidewalk in front of where we parked; they intended to make flour from the pods, but Stephanie said they went bad after a couple of forgotten weeks in the car. We also picked up native Arizonan seeds from the Native Seed Search store.Â We finished the day trip with a visit to a local coffee roaster where Aimee managed to talk the owner into buying all of our drinks, and we ate dinner at the Korean restaurant next door.Â And we played “Hinky-Pinky” for about a full dirty hour on the return drive.

update much

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So, Steph gave me a hear time because I hadn’t updated in awhile. Meanwhile, her blog hasn’t gotten any action in over a month. Not that I’m saying…okay, I’m saying it. Pot…kettle.

I have been doing my best to survive the summer. In case anyone was wondering, it’s still really hot here. Somedays, it’s a bit humid. Not Tennessee humid, but humid. Supposedly, the monsoons are around. Somewhere. I think it rained once.

I realized the other day that I live in a pretty diverse area. Within a mile of my home is a Jewish Community Center, a Seventh Day Adventist Church, a Korean Church (Presbyterian I believe), a Jehovah’s Witness building (not sure what they call those), a Lutheran church, an Episcopalian church, and the Mosque is nearly ready to open. They said it would be ready in time for Ramadan. I am really excited because I can see the dome in the view from my bedroom, and they are going to paint it gold.

It’s about time somebody around here decorated something. Thanks local Muslim congregation! Perhaps it’s the artist in me, but I love love love religious buildings. We need more creative spiritual beautiful inspirational spaces to be in.

In other news, I am working on two projects for hire. One is a wooden dragon set from China. Another patient at the chiropractor’s overheard me talking about art, and said he had bought the set for over his door, but it was unfinished wood. So…it rode home on my vespa on day to be painted. Not sure if I want to paint the two dragons identically (I like mirror images) or just have them “go”.

The other project is a large painting to go over someone’s couch. She gave me a swatch of fabric with colors that she likes, and a picture of another painting she liked and asked me to use it as a jumping off point. So we shall see what comes to pass.

I’m also giving a temporary home to my friend Alyssa’s shiba inu dog. His name is Kishu, and he lives downstairs. Peter bossed Kishu around when he first arrived, but the other two cats have been chased upstairs.

I am also planning on going to the scooter rally in Flagstaff next month. Yay for scooter rallys. Rallies? I have no idea what people do at these things, but I plan on going with a group of other scooter enthusiasts. And hopefully some of my friends. And hopefully, I won’t be a big dork with my helmet and jacket. Safety first though, right?

Below is a picture of just how awesome trampoline are because of how they make us feel. Hooray for trampolines! And hooray for MacIntyre’s and Schroeders!

neil gillingham

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On Friday, a college alumni of mine is having an art opening at five15arts.

Reception: 5p.m.-9p.m. Downtown Phoenix.

I’m going. Anyone else?

shout out!

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Congrats to Sean and Bekah. Sean just recently graduated with his Master’s in Clinical Psychology, and Bekah is soon going to be a Rabbi! Woot!

Both have worked very hard for many years, and I am proud to call both friends. They recently visited Phoenix to celebrate with their friends and family barbeque style. Later in the week, we had dinner at Pita Jungle and visted the almighty Golden Spoon.

thoughts

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I have a lot of thoughts running through my mind from the past week in Austin. I am still processing through them. I need to reread my notes and explore what I wrote during the week. The speakers were fascinating: the pastor and writer Eugene Peterson, the musician and writer Jeremy Begbie, the poet Luci Shaw, the writer and ex-nun Barbara Nicolosi among others–I actually was able to get Peterson and Begbie to sign my books.

I met so many interesting people, I went to interesting places…I got to know Stephanie better…

I was surprised to have my ideas and notions regarding church challenged, especially since that isn’t really what anyone was talking about–I’ll say it was like smurfs never really talking about the fact that they are smurfs. (Credit to the pastor of Mosaic in Austin.)

And to change the subject, here is one of my latest portraits. This man’s name is Craig, and he tells stories that always make me wonder:

austin

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Tonight Stephanie and I leave for a week for Austin, Texas. I am thrilled to go to a place that I’ve wanted to visit for years. The art culture, the food, the music…the river…Iwould wag my tail if I had one.

Tuesday through Thursday we will attend an arts symposium. The questions of the conference will center around the role of an artist within the context of faith–in what way is art a gift, a calling, an obedience? What are the dangers of artistic activity? I myself see an artist as a prophet of sorts–one who challenges a sleeping populace.

I am looking for answers, more questions, inspiration, and challenges.

The rest of the trip will be spent in a combination of exploring Austin and hanging out with Stephanie’s best friend Melanie who is also kind enough to put us up for a week.

knitting class

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I was lucky enough to be invited on a vacation with my mother-in-law and her friends. (Okay, I invited myself along.) I never would have been able to make it had I been working at my old job. It feels great to have that freedom for the first time in years.

I taught all three of my fellow vactioners how to knit. I must tell you, they were very competitive. They kept holding their knitting up to one another’s knitting just to see who was the fastest knitter. Lynn kept ripping out her entire piece everytime she made a mistake.

I had a wonderful time. It was so beautiful near the beach.

the calgary herald

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David’s brother’s family was featured in The Calgary Herald regarding their Compact year-long commitment. The full article is online here. They’ve really been able to spread their message about the experiment they are doing through different venues none of which they’ve set out to pursue. You’d think that they wouldn’t be exposed to that many people, but they’ve been an example at Thomas’s work, another large church in Calgary, and now the city paper. I’m really excited to hear about how the year continues to play out.

They both have been blogging at a specific site in order to share their story, and Malora recently posted about some cute zipper bags she sewed in order to pack snacks for Noah instead of plastic bags. They are really clever.