One for the Road...

 Mekko on rat rock

1988

We're getting ready to head out to Joshua Tree today; it's my b'day tomorrow and the only place I want to be is in that spiritual force field. If you've been there, you know what I mean. We've been going to JT since the kids were literally babies. Tom and I taught them how to climb the rocks, scramble up impossible crevices, jump across 3 ft wide and 20 ft straight down gaps, trek into no man's land where no man, or woman for that matter, could save us if we fell. We climbed until our fingers were stripped raw and our knees beat up and bloody, until we could barely walk back to the car. God those were the beautiful, good old days. 

 Maya at sunset

When we go there now, the kids leave us in the dust. We struggle to keep up to their jackrabbit ways, as they hop and leap and glide over the boulders, looking back at us as we limp along. It's a whole change of guard: they lead us now. 
I don't know why I'm getting so nostalgic just because it's my birthday, but I am. I wish those kids were here right now to climb with us tomorrow.

 On the rocks with Maya and Mekko 
Wonderland of Rocks

(photo credit: Tom Harjo)

•••

A friend— I call her that although we met online and I've never met her in person— posed a question on her blog, asking: what is it you do, what is your project, that allows you to possess your past? I realize I have an answer, but I've been too embarrassed to put it on her blog, so here's my response: Project Fun, Project Happiness. That's what makes it possible to posses my rotten past. I've given up being serious, political, consequential. Maybe that's a product of getting older; I'm giving up on making a mark. As impractical as it may be, I want to be happy.

Okay enough already! Some announcements: 

Please check out the Occidental and NELA Bicycle Art Show at Occidental College, opening this Thursday, Feb 28, and running through March 15, at the Weingart Center gallery. Margaret Gallagher, whose concept it was, told me the gallery hasn't been used since the last curator left. I think this show will be lots of fun (oh dear, there's that word again) and if you come, you'll see a piece by Smiley Barnacle, the name alone is worth the free price of admission. I also have 2 photos in the show.

And a new comic!

This one is about my hairdresser, an ex-drug addict, a sweetheart and someone who drives me crazy with her stories. Here's one of them:

 http://ratsnestcomics.blogspot.com/2013/02/my-hairdressermy-sniper.html

Now to get on the road....




 

Frogtown Rider

Last year, not so long ago, my teacher at Art Center said to go big, so I did: after trying a wall outside, I drew on my built-in cabinets. 

Then, one day, after my class had ended, biking along the LA River into Frogtown, I saw this decaying Mayan mural, with holes in the wall, along Blake Street:

Ah! Doesn't that Mayan Princess need a rat? Yes, I think she does! 

Let me see what I can do...

 

Melding rat and rider with mural. My first wheat paste, done under the protection of night.

Frogtown Rat Rider

The Mayan warrior was much bigger than I thought! But come to think of it, doesn't that man need a ...? More to come.

•••

Thanks goes out to Ivonne Adel-Bureos, artist-in-residence at Nomad Studios;  Ivonne is a prolific printmaker and street artist, working in Mexico City, and so much fun! She's having a show at Nomad, with founder Damon Robinson, on Feb. 22, running through the weekend. Check it out!