I love the desert at night. I think of it coming alive on summer nights under the stars. The doors open, the oppressing heat of the day is swept out and the night life sidles up for another tour of duty in the desert dance hall. The cool air and clear skies making the perfect playground for the soaring night hawks, gliding through a sea of western stars. This area of the Sonoran desert is deeply romantic and beautiful to me. There always seems to be music drifting in on the night wind, the Palo Verde trees swaying in the rhythmic breeze. The shapes of the mountains like a natural adobe home sheltering her animals, decorated with stark sculptures of waving saguaros, and the teasing voluptuous bodies of fish hook and beaver tail cactus. Then suddenly color like silk scarves in a Paris boutique, colorful wild vibrant cactus flowers in every shade of outrageous calling for love. The night bloomers tarting up with perfume to attract a dance partner, lingering until the first light and heat of the day and then fainting away with exhaustion.

The Javelina are my favorite desert dweller. They seem so well suited to the peaceful easy environment, with their lazy stubble and bristly durability as they go about their feed on the succulent feast. Well served travelers through the desert scrub.

Winding trails and paths are symbolic of the journey through life we are taking. Representing the transformation that occurs between getting from place A to place B. These roads also denote the passage of time, places and people you have been that are shaping who you will become. Not quite there yet. Still a traveler on a desert highway under western stars.

The Dreamer 36" x 48" Oil SOLD		Dream of Love 36" x 48" Oil
Dream of Rain 36" x 48" Oil		Dream of Flight 36" x 48" Oil

I got the idea for this series at the Heard Museum in Arizona. In the courtyard there is a stature that appears to be floating. In the instant when I saw it, I saw a meditating or dreaming person who had floated out of the window, and the courtyard was in fact the dream. My first painting is of "The Dreamer". The courtyard represents the dream state, and the building is the waking self, the window is the permeable border between. In the second painting, "The Dream of Flight" I envisioned a fantastic dreamlike bird, spreading out and flying in the courtyard, ready to break out of the small area and fly beyond. The next painting, "The Dream of Rain" is of very large potent flowers expanded and lush from a quenching rain, although the flowers depicted are all drought tolerant. This one represents nourishing the spirit after a long drought, the expansion of consciousness and growth of personal expression and power. The final piece in this series is called "The Dream of Love". This painting was about the acceptance of self, and being nourished by your abundant inner world.

We stayed in Scottsdale, AZ for a few days where I took pictures at The Phoenician resort, with beautiful huge grounds covered with lush vegetation and plantings, but in a dessert way. Such different succulent plants and tall cactus, complemented with the adobe style building and Spanish tile roofs. In one area fascinating statues were set around an adobe dwelling. When I got home and began painting from my pictures, I liked the way the statues looked like spirits. At first I painted them solid and then I began to paint them transparent as in "Passing Through". The soft muted sages, lavender and pink colors against the brilliant sky and exotic colors of the blooming cactus. Were beautiful. I especially liked the complementary color set up of orange earth and blue sky in the blazing dessert daylight and at night the purple shadows and golden yellow moonshine. One night the moon actually looked pale green against a glowing purple sky! In these paintings I was trying to capture the colors of the dessert and the feeling evoked by the statues as Indian spirits, still lingering at this resort.