It’s finally starting to feel more like spring up here in the frozen northland, and I’m getting ready to go way far south again. Arizona, to be exact. Two shows coming up, one in Tempe, one in Tucson, and lots of road in between. While I’m not looking forward to the driver’s seat, I am looking forward to getting behind the lens in New Mexico.
Plans to do some shooting near Fort Sumner and Ruidoso are underway, as well as some side trips on the way home. I’ve heard that White Sands is breathtaking. And Bisbee, once home to my aunt and uncle, is now an artists colony. Or so I’ve heard. I want to chase down some of the 19th century cowboys and indians history — specifically following the Navajo Long Walk to Bosque Redondo and perhaps some ruins in Gila. What about Taos? Abiquiu, home of Georgia O’Keeffe? It all fascinates me, and fits perfectly into my goals as an artist.
So the butterflies are starting to flutter. I’ve got lots to do to get my art packed for the shows, and the kit packed for the shoots.
As a kid, we went to white sands to play in the sand dunes. It was raining, but being of the intrepid Schmidt clan, this did not effect us, and we ran around, jumping off of white sand dunes, weirdly looking like almost snow.
The reason white sands is white sand is because it’s gypsum sand, very different from the normal, infinitely busted up rocks of normal sand. When it’s wet, it sticks to you, like glue.
So my parents and all four of us kids are now covered in this stuff that will not come off. Normal sand brushes right off when it dries, not gypsum sand. Somewhere my dad has pictures of all this.