June is always a time of celebration for me. It’s my birthday month, and I typically try to celebrate to the fullest… eat lots of good food, take a trip or two, see some friends, and enjoy being on this Earth. Of course, everything looks a little different this year, but I did manage to still do a little celebrating turning the big 4-4.

My wanderlust got the best of me, and I took a little road trip to Bryce Canyon National Park in southern Utah. Bryce Canyon is located at around 8,000 feet above sea level, so the temperatures there are much cooler than Phoenix. The drive was about seven hours, and you’ll be happy to know that over the course of five days, I didn’t eat at a restaurant once and managed to only use a public restroom three times. I never thought I would be reporting on such things, but such is life in the time of coronavirus.

I enjoyed some wonderful weather (60’s and 70’s) and gorgeous hiking. The park was definitely less crowded than it would typically be, which made it all the more enjoyable for me. I also visited Kodachrome Basin State Park and Escalante Petrified Forest State Park while in the area. Kodachrome was a unique landscape featuring an abundance of rock spires and even a slot canyon cave. Escalante was irresistible to me because I have a slight obsession with petrified wood. The landscape there was very different from Petrified Forest National Park and the Bisti Badlands in New Mexico. I visited Bisti for my 43rd birthday, and it also contains petrified wood.

Those creative Bryce hoodoos inspired me to make a little hotel room art, and I created a couple of small paintings while I was there in a brief reprieve from the painting that was my focus for most of June (and part of May), Home Sweet Homestead. This piece was the largest I’ve created in years, measuring 30x18”. I was happy/sad to finish it in time to create one more painting this month, this time on black watercolor paper. The black paper really gives a completely different look and approach, and I’m finding it to be very enjoyable as a change of pace.

The only other excitement I encountered during June was at home. We had new windows and a sliding door installed, a major improvement from 74-year-old casement windows. I also finally got the new studio/office setup I had wanted for months and I absolutely love it. My desk converts from sitting to standing, which really helps the neck strain I experience when painting for long periods of time. I honestly think it makes me want to work more - I call that a big success!

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