The shortest AIR ever

Back from my 4-hour artist residency! But first, a recap of the last few days. My sister came to take a long-weekend vacation here with me. We started at Ojo Caliente, which was a wonderful way to spend her first evening. We slept until checkout the next day and then headed to El Rito. At El Farolito, we had some Northern NM food.

Then we promptly got lost and did ridiculous turning around over and over and over until I finally called to get proper directions to Julie Wagner's studio. This was one delight from the being lost part.

Julie went to Oberlin a while before me, but we had fun catching up about our respective experiences regardless. Her work was incredible and I was so glad that I got to visit her studio and meet her before I left town. She showed me this flexagon that she taught herself how to make after seeing a discarded Viagra ad in the post office. CAN YOU BELIEVE?! I had only seen Emily Martin's version of this structure before. I mean, we all know that Viagra is where the money is, but that their designers and marketers even get to play with things like this!

I wanted very badly to buy a book but I couldn't afford her work. I'm so glad we were able to connect, though, given our respective schedules these days.

Then we were off to Ghost Ranch. Yay. The drive there is my favorite, mostly the RED rocks. When we left, we saw a storm moving and moving.

The next day, I took my sister to the folk art museum. I still love these Sri Lankan amulets.

I wanted her to see the remarkable exhibit of art made by the Japanese Americans forced to live in internment camps. I wanted to see it again, too. This is twisted paper, a tiny basket. The show makes you want to cry over and over again, for a million different reasons. We then visited Alison Keogh's studio, which was another treasure. She started working with handmade paper maybe a year or more ago, and it makes sense if you take a look at all of her other work. Beautiful. She loaned me a book on Japanese textile artists, and then we left the damp smells of rain and apricot trees to visit the Plaza. Gross. It was high tourist time, and my fave place to eat was closed, so we grabbed a quick meal and then drove up to Hyde Park. The view was not as nice as when Marci and I went in May, but it was okay since we knew it would end in another spa visit, this time to Ten Thousand Waves. We splurged on a private tub, totally worth it, and then a head/neck treatment, which was a complete scam. The end of the night was at Backroad Pizza.

Once I rushed back through storms to pack up my studio and bring it to the hotel to set up and sit down, my concern was mostly with catching up with friends instead of weaving my shoe. It was a slow night (no surprise, Monday night!) but I did meet two lovely women from Chicago. As soon as I got back and unloaded the car, I got Cobi to come over for a beer and catch-up time. It felt like I hadn't seen him in so long, even though it was just Friday. Time continues to travel in strange warp speeds, and now I only have three days left.