A Sonoran Sojourn

On September 1st, 2010 Smokey Joe and I moved to the Curley School in Ajo, Arizona. The Curley School had been built in the early 1900's for the children of the miner's that were living in Ajo and mining Copper. After the mines closed down in the 1980's the beautiful school was abandoned and fell into disrepair. An organization was formed by a multi-racial group of people wanting to help the small community of Ajo once again flourish. This group, the International Sonoran Desert Alliance, bought the Curley School with the intention of converting the old buildings into apartments for low income Artists, and that's how I came to be at the Curley School. I'm a fine art photographer and encaustic artist. I wasn't sure how long I would remain at the Curley School but I was very excited to be there.

It wasn't long before I found my creative inspiration. I was fascinated by the cemeteries and the roadside shrines, they seemed like more of a celebration of someone's life than their death. I found the offerings left at these holy places very personal and beautiful. So I started to photograph these sites with the hope that I could show their beauty and the homage that loved ones had paid to their dearly departed.

The iconography wasn't the only thing that fascinated me, the Sonoran Desert was also a magical environment that I was eager to explore and photograph. But I had already seen hundreds of photos of the desert flora, thousands of Saguaro's in myriads of shapes, and many species of cactus I couldn't even name. I wanted to photograph this dry barren place but I wanted to do it with a surreal beauty in a way I had not seen before. I was often in the desert early in the morning to avoid the heat of the day. The sunrises were lovely and contributed to the gorgeous colors of the images I was recording. I decided to experiment by moving my camera as I made an exposure to record the stationary Saguaro's in hopes of giving them life and motion. I did the same at Darby Wells cemetery You can find a small book I self-published at Blurb.com, the title is "A Sonoran Sojourn". So come along on "A Sonoran Sojourn" with Smokey Joe and I.

The Beginning. June 2011

Welcome to my blog, this is all new to me so you'll just have to be patient and come along for the ride while I learn the whole process.
First off I'd like to introduce you to my constant companion and side-kick, Smokey Joe. He's an old dog now, but for most of his life he and I worked on Cattle and Sheep Ranches in Eastern Montana, he truly was a cowdog extraordinarie, but now at the ripe (read odoriferous) old age of 13 he's pretty much just my best buddie and lizard chaser.
I'm currently living in the Southwest and exploring the beautiful red rock canyon country and "doin" my Art, which is my lifelong pursuit of photography and the fascinating medium of Encaustic Art. But come August I'm going to "pull my picket pin" and return to my home in Wyoming.
While here in the Southwest I became enamored with the Iconography of this tri-cultural area, and the traditional images and symbols associated with the multiple religions and cultures became themes for my photography and Encaustic art. I will be posting some of these images for your viewing pleasure.
I currently have some of my photography and Encaustic art on display at the Juniper Fine Arts Gallery in Kanab, Utah, and a few pieces of my Encaustic art are hanging on the walls of the beautiful Encaustic Art Institute in Cerrillos, New Mexico.
Aside from sitting at this computin' machine, feeding the dog, and doin' my Art, I love to go camping and hiking. And of course I always lug the camera gear along. This month Smokey Joe and I made a trip to the Cathedral Valley area in the upper part of Capitol Reef National Monument and spread our bedroll at a remote campsite for several days. Wow, is that ever pretty country! The "mule ears" were in bloom at Temple of the Sun and I tried to "capture" some interesting shots of them. As soon as I quit procastinating and get some of the images from that trip edited I'll post a few.

Happy Trails, Susan and Smokey Joe