In OKC, we have this arts district called The Paseo. On the surface the Paseo looks like a great little artist community. Cute buildings on a crooked little street with galleries, shops and restaurants. But this local, successful, award-winning artist can see through the bullshit facade. If you go through the galleries, they are filled with mainly the works of retirees that look like they are showing off what they painted in class this week. There are a few gems amongst the poorly painted barns and flowers, but you have to really look for them. The galleries are all little co-ops with an assortment of crap from whomever is part of the in crowd and willing to pay there piece of the gallery fees. I understand that is how co-ops work, but these are mainly a bunch of retirees that don't want to see any change.

     I have thought about getting my own place within the Paseo and occasionally a space opens up. However, over half of the buildings and spaces are owned by one person and she controls all of Paseo. What this means is, if she says that you can't put a sandwich board out in front of your space, then you can't. I have seen galleries open and barely make it through a year because the restrictions are strangling and its hard for a new shop to get its word out to people walking down the street without a sign of some sort. Add to that, the OKC art market seems to buy on event nights only, like first Friday. The rest of the month can be like a ghost town, and that's ok for retirees just doing this to have something to do.

     OKC has basically has 2 big art festivals every year. One is the massive Festival of the Arts in downtown OKC. These are not local artists. They are professionals at the highest level of the festival market from all over the country. You have to be best of the best and I think someone has to die to give up their spot for someone new to get in. With that, I pretty much write off that festival. I'm not there yet. The 2nd one is the Paseo Art's Festival. This is much more local and approachable, if you are part of the in crowd. 

     I find it amazing that I can be accepted in festivals all over the state, have won multiple awards at these fests, and get denied into the Paseo Fest. This is not just a sore loser, poor me rant. The crap art that will be accepted is the thing that gets me riled up. There will be good and even great art showing, but there will be a lot of crap too. It's the same every year. What's frustrating is that this is a show that could make a lot of sales for me, something desperately needed to be able to keep doing art for a living. I will keep doing the other shows, but it's frustrating to be continually denied by the local art community. Paseo can shove off!

So I may have fallen off the band wagon this year. I started off writing, or when I didn't write, I at least shared something on Facebook or Instagram every week. Sometime around midyear, that seemed to have stopped. I will assume that the halt came with me losing my job, starting a new job, then finding even a different job. Well last week, I left that job too. It's been a roller coaster of a year. I will say I have been producing more artwork and participating in more art shows than I have in the past, 17 in all this year.

I want to recap the year and go back to see how my goals turned out for the year, but I will save that for the end of this month. I still have most of December to get through.

My wife and I went to Santa Fe a couple of months ago. I was spectacular! The leaves were turning gold up in the mountains. Ski Santa Fe had the ski lifts up and running so you could float by all the aspens at canopy level. It really was beautiful!

We stayed at the quiet and beautiful Santa Fe Motel and Inn. It was perfect. I highly recommend staying here and getting one of the casitas if possible. Here is a shot of our private patio entrance.

We stopped by the Cadillac Ranch near Amarillo, TX on the way back. I had driven by it several times in my life but had never stopped. It was pretty cool. Definitely worth the stop for some pics.

For those of you that follow or know me, you know that I love Colorado. My family has been going to Creede and Lake City for over 50 years. A few weeks ago, I had a chance to throw my tent in the Jeep and run out there for 4 days. I delivered some of my photos to a great new shop in Lake city called Cabin Fever Mercantile. Tracy, the owner of the shop is great! She really loves Lake City and the mountains of CO! I just heard that she's already sold a few of my prints too!


I finally got to meet one of my peers, photographer extraordinaire, Michael Underwood. I LOVE his work. He got an awesome opportunity to open a new gallery in Lake City and it is full of some incredible images and all priced to take home!

There were fires north of Durango, CO and around Cimarron, NM that made the trip a bit smoky and hazy. It didn't really effect my trip but it did make for some great sunset pics one evening. It also rained most of my Sunday there so I didn't get out with the camera as much as I had hoped for but it was still a great trip to one of my favorite places.

My annual trip to Creede comes 3 and half weeks from now. It will be a very different trip for we are going to spread my mother's ashes in the area that she loved so much. A large part of the family will be going this time. It's bittersweet for me as the area has always been such an incredible part of my life. I was a one year old the first time Mom and Dad took me. This year will be my 41st year. We went almost every summer, although there were a few that got missed but not many. My Mom and her siblings started going with my grandparents several years before I was born and My grandpa, whom we lost last year too, started going with his uncle (without the kids) sometime in the early 60's. Last year Mom and dad didn't get to go because Mom was in the hospital fighting for her life. This will be Dad's first trip back. It will be a lot of the family's first trip back. There will be a lot of emotions and memories on this trip. I really needed to be there before the weight of this upcoming trip. It is after all, my grounding space. For most of the rest of the family, I think it's just a place they used to go on vacation occasionally.

For this quick trip, I camped one night and stayed at our usual spot, The San Juan Ranch. It's located 22 miles west of Creede off of Hwy 149. Peggy and Kaye have always been such gracious hosts. I was so happy to see them. Peggy ran out and gave me a giant hug. She loved my Mom and our entire family. I gave them a canvas print of my "Curious Cows" photo and Kaye was just absolutely in love with it. The photo was shot on their ranch last summer.

Here are some pics I shot while I was there. The lake is Lake San Cristobal. The cabin with the Jeep is at San Juan Ranch. The old cabin is Uncle Charlies original cabin where it all began. The river is the mighty Rio Grande. And the pointy mountain is Uncompahgre Peak.

I have a few shows coming up. The show in Stillwater will be my first time with them. I'm looking forward to seeing some Cowboys and Cowgirls as they start school the following Monday! the Medicine Park festival was great last year. I'm looking forward to a better show this year! Live on the Plaza is always great! I'm also waiting to hear back on a couple of more applications for this fall.

July 13, 2018 - Live on the Plaza in the Plaza District OKC, OK
Aug 17-18, 2018 - Pop Up Art shops @ Prairie Arts Center Stillwater, OK
Oct 5-7, 2018 - Medicine Park Art Walk & Flute Fest, Medicine Park, OK
Oct 12, 2018 - Live on the Plaza in the Plaza District OKC, OK

Now showing in four new houses on the OKC Parade of Homes tour. These beautiful homes are built by Capital Homes in Yukon, OK. Each piece is printed as a very large 32" X 48" premium gallery canvas wrap. They, along with the beautiful new abodes they currently reside in are absolutely stunning in person. You can have your very own Special Edition Art Series Canvas print. Visit my shop and contact me for details.

You can now see more than 25 different Limited Edition Art Series images on my website. Each one is limited to just 50 16"X20" premium gallery canvas prints that come ready to hang and brighten up your day. These just pop right off the canvas and look better in person than on here. Actual artwork will not have text.