My Artwork - February 2017

March 9, 2017 Teressa Jackson

February 2017 took me to Fallbrook, California; Joshua Tree National Park; Las Vegas, Nevada; and Death Valley National Park. All that bouncing around didn't stop me from creating - I produced seven new pieces of original artwork inspired by my travels and informed by my original photography. Several are already sold (thank you, awesome people!), but a few are still available and ready to pack their bags and bring a bit of new life to your locale.

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Fallbrook, California: 1/31/17, 11:45:21

Fallbrook, California: 1/31/17, 11:40:17 #2

Fallbrook, California: 1/31/17, 11:49:21

Fallbrook, California: 1/31/17, 11:52:26

Joshua Tree National Park, California: 2/13/17, 14:13:15

Every $30 you buy in art helps keep me rolling on my adventure across the United States for approximately 1-2 days (gas is expensive!). I'm truly grateful to all the people in my life who keep me fueled up, both literally and figuratively!

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Life in Death Valley

March 8, 2017 Teressa Jackson

Salt Creek, home of the desert pupfish, is surrounded by salty badlands

Following a night of enthusiastic storms, I headed east from Twentynine Palms, California. I decided to take the shortest route to my destination, which sent me through Mojave National Preserve and Mojave Trails National Monument. While this was a beautiful and intriguing landscape, it was also quite soggy from the rains of the previous hours. There were a few close calls, but I luckily made it to my destination of Las Vegas without encountering any roads that were completely washed out and impassable.

I'd never been to Las Vegas before, and wasn't entirely sure what to expect. My first thought was that it was actually a lot smaller than I had envisioned. Other than that, it pretty much lived up to my expectations... gambling, over-the-top glitz, shows, weird people, and lots of intoxicated partiers who could barely walk - including one who had literally passed out on the sidewalk. His friends were pretty concerned. I don't think I have a lot in common with the people for whom this is a dream destination, but it was fun to experience it for a day. I do love people watching.

The streets were pretty empty when I rolled out of town around 7 a.m., wild and crazy party animal that I am. The clouds were beginning to drift away, making for a dramatic and beautiful scene as my car passed through Red Rock Canyon and headed west again.

In about an hour, I was in Pahrump, Nevada, my home for the next week. I hadn't researched much about Pahrump ahead of time, only that it was the closest locale of any size at all to Death Valley National Park. I came to learn that Michael Jackson had once owned an estate here, it is home to the Chicken Ranch and some other (yes, legal) brothels, you can do some hardcore firearms training at Front Sight Training Institute, and famed madam Heidi Fleiss was once proprietor of a laundromat in the town called "Dirty Laundry." I can't say that any of that got me really excited. :-)

Salt in Badwater Basin, which was underwater during my visit

I was pretty pumped up about seeing Death Valley, though. After itching to visit this expansive national park for years, I was finally going to experience it. I had also achieved my goal of visiting during the wintertime, as a summer visit to the hottest, driest, and lowest place in North America can be worse than inhospitable. Back in July of 1913, the temperature reached a whopping 134 degrees there.

Death Valley has apparently been growing slightly wetter over the past few years, and they had received nearly half their total average yearly precipitation a couple days before my visit. This meant that the landscape was different than it would likely look in warm and toasty July. The lowest lying areas of the park were home to shallow bodies of water, not dry, cracked salt flats. Salt Creek, home to the rare desert pupfish, was flowing instead of being reduced to a few life-filled puddles. And there was certainly plenty of salty mud to adorn my hiking shoes as a souvenir of my visit.

One my surprises at Death Valley was the variety of scenery that exists there - flat, salty, lifeless expanses; beautiful multicolored striped mountains; surreal, wrinkly, colorful badlands; canyons; sand dunes; creeks teeming with fish; the well-preserved ghost town of Rhyolite just outside the park's borders; and so much more than I could ever properly describe. It literally takes hours to drive from one end of the park to another, and it seems nearly impossible that anyone could ever truly see and experience its diverse wonders.

I have found that the desert has a way of teaching you about the persistence and creativity of life. Some might think that Death Valley would be an exception to this observation, but despite everything it's up against, life creeps through even this harshest of landscapes. In addition to amazing desert fish, I spotted a brave and curious coyote, many birds, lots of darting lizards, and some very hopeful vegetation. While the guy passed out on the sidewalk in Las Vegas probably woke up the next morning wishing he wasn't living and the gold prospectors cleared out of Rhyolite long ago, these life forms slowly and quietly adapt, adjust, and amaze those who take a moment to stop and spot them. I'm glad I am among them.

Badlands at Death Valley's Zabriskie Point

The Joshua Tree

March 2, 2017 Teressa Jackson

I've fallen behind on updates! When I left my readers over two weeks ago, I was preparing to leave Fallbrook, California. My route from there took me north on I-215 and then east on my old friend I-10. When I turned onto California State Hwy. 62, also known as the Twentynine Palms Highway, I knew I was getting close to Joshua Tree land. At the town of Yucca Valley, these sweet little twisted, fairy tale-like "trees" began to appear.

Joshua Trees are not actually considered to be a tree. They are a variety of yucca, but can develop a woody trunk covered in what looks like tree bark, and grow to nearly fifty feet tall in some instances. Their branches end in spiny green outgrowths that echo their yucca genus.

Continuing east, the town of Joshua Tree appeared next. Little shops and cafes dotted the side of the highway, targeting the throngs of people from Los Angeles and Southern California who escape east to the magical Mojave Desert landscape.

Cholla Garden at Joshua Tree National Park

The town of Twentynine Palms, where I would be staying for the next week, would be next along the highway, but I took a detour. I turned into the entrance for Joshua Tree National Park, my reason for visiting the area.

The park encompasses various elevations and different types of landscape. It straddles the Colorado and Mojave Deserts, the southern section of the park looking markedly different from the northern one. Much of it is dotted with weathered granite boulders, their edges worn smooth from countless years out in the elements. The result, combined with the Joshua Trees themselves, is an almost unbelievable, whimsical landscape.

Over the next six days, I took in the sights of the park at its various elevations - Joshua Trees, a prickly cholla garden, boulder scrambling, and a hike to the top of Ryan Mountain Peak. I saw climbers with their gear on top of giant rock outcroppings, and enjoyed the fact that the Mojave Desert's sparse vegetation means you can pretty much wander and make your own trail anywhere that speaks to you.

I also spent a day touring around the cities of Desert Hot Springs and Palm Springs. Cabot's Pueblo Museum in Desert Hot Springs was a unique highlight of that day. It had a fascinating story, having been constructed in the early to mid-20th century of entirely found and repurposed materials. I also soared to new heights to the top of San Jacinto Peak on the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway.

My Airbnb in Twentynine Palms was a sweet little spot above a garage in a residential neighborhood, the perfect cozy spot for working on a few new paintings and hiding out from the storm that whipped through on my last night there. As the palms (I didn't count them, but surely there were more than 29) swayed to and fro, I could have sworn they waved goodbye!

View of Twentynine Palms from the top of Chocolate Drop Mountain, which was located behind my Airbnb

Falling for Fallbrook

February 11, 2017 Teressa Jackson

Following a lovely sunny last Sunday in January day at Encinitas' Cardiff State Beach, I wound my way through the hills to Fallbrook, California, the place I would call "home" for the next two weeks. In more ways than one, my Airbnb at Equinox Farms was sure to be a different experience than my previous temporary residences.

First of all, I would be staying in a camper. Although I did a fair amount of tent camping as a kid, I haven't camped at all in years, and had never actually slept in a camper. When looking at Southern California Airbnb options, this was certainly one of the most reasonable arrangements, so I decided to see how I fared in one for a couple of weeks.

Roosevelt the alpaca gives me the stare-down

More interesting than staying in a camper, though, was the property on which it sits. My host Tricia and her husband reside in their home on the property, and have created a beautiful and peaceful oasis of a little farm here. The camper looks out on their menagerie of critters, which include an alpaca, a llama, two miniature horses, a full size horse, two goats, chickens, ducks, a pig, and a couple dogs.

The day after I arrived, I came down with either a tremendous migraine or a terrible 24-hour stomach bug. Being sick is pretty miserable, but being sick all alone is even worse. I'm not one to ask for help, but when Tricia learned I wasn't well, I eagerly accepted the Sprite, crackers, and rice she delivered to my door. It did, indeed, cure whatever it was that ailed me.

Fallbrook is a cute little town that is apparently known as the Avocado Capitol of the World, and I have definitely eaten my fair share of these delectable fruits over the course of the past two weeks. I also enjoyed some local flavor at area restaurants, chowing down on a hearty breakfast at Fallbrook's Main Street Cafe and devouring some seriously spicy Thai food at Thai Thai.

My day trips have included time to enjoy the rugged and beautiful coastline at La Jolla's Torrey Pines State Natural Reserve, the retro vibe at Oceanside's pier and downtown, strolling the streets of Temecula, foggy trips to Carlsbad's Ponto Beach and to the top of Palomar Mountain, and the artsy streets and breathtaking oceanfront of Laguna Beach.

After months in more rural locales, it took me a bit to get used to the way people drive here, but outside their cars, I've found them to be incredibly, surprisingly friendly. Aside from a brief trip to San Diego years ago, I have mostly experienced the culture in northern California. I don't care to delve into negativity, but I'll just say that the demeanor around here seems markedly different from my previous impression of Californians.

One of my favorite pieces I created in Fallbrook, inspired by a pelican I saw on the pier at Oceanside, CA

I have enjoyed the places I've visited, their lush green scenery in stark contrast to the ruggedly beautiful Arizona desert. The hills are covered with boulders that look like they were sprinkled there by a hand from the sky, and the roads in the countryside boast orchards of avocados, oranges, and grapefruit. In other parts of the country, we forget how much of our food comes from this gargantuan state.

However, I truly think what I will miss more than anything is this lovely place I have called home. The camper, while small, really has everything I need. I can gaze out my window and see bunnies, a pig, chickens, and a miniature horse frolicking - all in the same unbelievable scene. I have also been quite productive, cranking out paintings at a relatively quick pace.

Painting of Dolly Llama I created for Tricia in gratitude for her hospitality

But most of all, my host Tricia has been an absolute delight. I have had little interaction with most of my other Airbnb hosts, and really didn't want or need to. They have certainly been responsive if I needed them - this is just a much different arrangement. A successful photographer and businesswoman with a whole lot on her plate, Tricia always had time for a few moments of lovely chitchat. She made great recommendations. She made me feel at home. I'm delighted to have met her and shared her space for a bit.

I'm not ready to take up residence in southern California anytime soon, but this place has definitely carved out a little boulder-shaped niche in my heart. Hasta la vista, Fallbrook!

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