POTD: Desert Song
Desert Song
Ajo, Arizona
2020
June 2020
POTD: There Ain’t No Way to Hide Your Flyin’ Eyes
There Ain’t No Way to Hide Your Flyin’ Eyes
Ajo, Arizona
2020
With apologies to the Eagles and their fans.
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POTD: Dreaming of Revolution
Dreaming of Revolution
Ajo, Arizona
2020
Let’s hope it’s a peaceful one as suggested by the hearts.
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POTD: Three Nations Country
Three Nations Country
Ajo, Arizona
2020
Three nations own claim to parts of the Sonoran Desert, the U.S., Mexico, and the Tohono O’odham Nation.
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POTD: Nations Divided
Nations Divided
Ajo, Arizona
2020
This mural made me do a double take, and also made me realize how little I know about the Tohono O’Odham people and their reservation; this in spite of living in nearby Tucson for four years (back when they were known as the Papago). So I did a bit of research online to see what this divided nation issue was all about. The Tohono O’odham have lived for centuries in what is now Arizona as well as northern New Mexico. Since the Gadsden Purchase in 1853, their lands and people have been divided by the international border between the U.S. and Mexico causing a major disruption to their way of life. According to their website
Long before there was a border, tribal members traveled back
and forth to visit family, participate in cultural and religious
events, and many other practices. For these reasons and many
others, the Nation has opposed fortified walls on the border for
many years.
While they oppose barriers on the border, the Tohono O’odham have partnered with federal law enforcement agencies (e.g. ICE and DHS) on other strategies to increase border security. These efforts have produced an 84% reduction in undocumented migrant apprehensions on their lands in just over a decade. In spite of this success, Trump’s needless, ineffective, and disruptive border wall is currently under construction on reservation land.
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New Exhibition: Synthesizing Icons
The Night of the Steampunk Moon
from the Synthesizing Icons exhibition
2020
I received some nice press coverage from the Sidney Herald Leader newspaper in Sidney Montana for the opening of my exhibition Synthesizing Icons at the Mondak Heritage Center. (The photos were reproduced poorly but at least this way anyone going to see the exhibit should be pleasantly surprised!)
This is the first of four venues for this exhibit being circulated by the Montana Art Gallery Directors Association over the next two years. The other locations for the exhibit will be the Carle Gallery at the Butte Public Library, the Holter Museum of Art in Helena, and the Hockaday Museum of Art in Kalispell.
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POTD: Motivation
Motivation
Ajo, Arizona
2020
You may need to zoom in to be able to clearly read the message on this wall.
My personal feeling is that there are already way too many people in this country to be optimal for the kind of person that I am and the lifestyle I prefer to live. At the same time I am well aware of the chance privilege that I possess simply by virtue of being born in a place as spacious as this country with a political and economic system that, no matter how flawed (and it is very flawed), has provided me with the opportunity to live the life I want to live with just a bit of effort on my part. So what kind of person would I be if I supported punishing anybody whose situation is so hopeless and desperate that they risk their lives to try and gain access to the same opportunities I’ve enjoyed just by chance of birth?
