Joshua Tree

Joshua trees are a strange and wonderful plant.  The US National Park Service runs the Joshua Tree National Park, which is now closed because of the government shut down.

Joshua trees are amazing.  You see a flat desert, and then these odd plants, which are members of the yucca family, popping out in all sorts of strange and eerie shapes.  Driving through the southeastern part of California, along the Pear Blossom Highway, they are everywhere.  David Hockney immortalized them both.  Be sure to take time to visit the park and drive the highway when you are next in SoCal.

North of Here

This morning we are experiencing rain – a rare event in Southern California.  Strange as it may sound, it made me think about painting something without lines, wetting the paper first, and working wet-in-wet, just to see what would happen.  As a kid, I lived in upstate New York, out where pine woods and lakes were more common than people.  I miss that solitude – walking in a snowy woods, flakes falling, listening to the silence, all alone in a cold, lonely, and intensely beautiful environment.