Art is Life is Art: Susan Reep Photo Art

The  Power of a Photo

First – here is something I think is amazing and attests to the power of a photo.  Background: as a teenager I was a baseball geek (although I don’t know that we used the word “geek” then).  I followed the Dodgers; I fell asleep at night with Vin Scully’s voice in my ear, and I took the public bus to Dodger Stadium on weekends to sit in the center field bleachers and watch the game, again listening to Vinny on the transistor radio.  In those days – no jumbotrons, just a hand-manipulated scoreboard – we all had our transistor radios on at the park so we could hear Vinny’s flawless play-by-play and color commentary.

SO – in April 1962, Dodger Stadium opening day in Chavez Ravine, someone, some blessed angel, gave my father two tickets.  Not just two tickets – but tickets a few rows above the Dodger dugout on the field level.  And my dad decided to take me.  I can scarcely convey the excitement I felt.

We got there early and I remember standing on the dugout getting autographs from the likes of Sandy Koufax, Don Drysdale, Duke Snider, Johnny Podres, John Roseboro, and the rest of the team.  But alas, I no longer have that autographed program nor do I have any pictures of the event.

But today, my husband found this:

That’s Peter O’Malley with his mom Kay, who is throwing out the first ball.  And that girl behind and between them – it’s me!  Wow.  Has to be me, or else I have a doppleganger who was there that day sitting where I was.

Photographs are powerful, not just for historic or emotional reasons, but for personal reasons.  This photo has been viewed thousands of times, but I’ll bet no one noticed the unremarkable girl.  But for me, it’s priceless.

Cats and Birds

I have found a reason for pond scum.  Took this picture yesterday on the lake where we live – a heron.  And the lake was icky – scummy.  But look!

By gum, that pond scum looks a little like marble!

Now the cat part, for no particular reason.  Lily follows me everywhere and at night, when I’m brushing my teeth, etc., she jumps up on the counter to keep track of everything.

Silly cat.  She’s a water Lily.

Via Arte – Sidewalk Art

And now the sidewalk art.  Here in Bakersfield, we have a sidewalk art contest every year, Via Arte.  It’s so cool – there are sections for students, professionals, and traveling professionals -folks who travel the country doing these contests.  So Via Arte was this weekend, and here’s some of what we saw.

This was a student piece, and I love it.  I am partial to the holiday Dia de los Muertos, which is soon upon us (Nov. 1 and 2), and skulls are traditional decorations.

No matter what you think of Alice, it’s hard to deny the appeal of this Cheshire Cat.

Of course, it takes a lot of chalk to do this work!

There’s something compelling about temporary art.  It takes days to create these pieces, they are left for another day for viewing, and then they’re gone.  We may have something rare for Bakersfield in the next day or two – rain.  And so the enjoyment is fleeting, which enhances it all the more.

Seriously, I thought the chalk was almost as compelling as the art.  Something about the symmetry, color gradations.  I like patterns.

Isn’t this one cool?  I like the way the drawing extends beyond the confines of the frame.

And lastly, here’s a street-eye view of just one of the areas of art.  So many people, so much fun, so much support for art!

So day before yesterday (my Red Rock Canyon road trip) I set out for Red Rock Canyon. However, I usually approach Red Rock from Hwy 58 in Kern County, CA. This time, I went via Hwy 178 East. And I turned left, just as I would have from Hwy 58. Except that Red Rock was to the right.

Again however, I passed through wonderful  high desert with scattered Joshua Trees on Hwy 178.

Something about the wide open spaces of the West make it easier to breathe.  When we lived in North Carolina it was gorgeous – green, trees everywhere, stunning.  But when we moved back to California, we realized we had felt confined in North Carolina.  So I enjoy driving through high desert like this.

I love the chollo cactus also.  No matter the time of day or direction of the sun, these cacti always have that filtered light look.  They are lethal, though – some are “jumping” chollo, especially around Joshua Tree, and the long stickers kind of jump out if you get too close.  We could barely pull them from the sole of my husband’s sneakers at Joshua Tree.

More late fall flowers also.

Sometimes I take pictures from the car window as I’m driving.  Hard to drive, watch the road, hold the wheel, and aim the camera, so it’s chancy, but sometimes I get lucky.  Look at this wonderful sky.

Also notice the lack of traffic.  It’s great out there.  As I turned onto Highway 14, I was in volcano country.  Lots of old, extinct volcanos out towards California City, Ridgecrest, Randsburg – the desert towns.

So I drove along, admiring the sky, scenery and wide open places.  I was a little distracted by personal matters, however, so it took me a long time to notice that I didn’t seem to be getting to Red Rock Canyon!  As Highway 14 turned into Highway 395 toward Lone Pine and Bishop, I began to wonder if I was in a hallucination.  Then I got to Pearsonville.  Never heard of it?  Not surprised.

It’s the Hubcap Capital of the World!  Maybe it was, once.  It has a park with this very odd statue.  No explanation as to what she is doing there.

Maybe she scared away the population and the hubcaps, because these bleachers in the park look deserted.

So even though I should have realized I was way, way in the wrong direction, instead I thought, Fossil Falls is around here somewhere.  I think I’ll stop.

And I did.  When a volcanic eruption dammed the Owens River, the water flowed over the basalt lava and sculpted and formed what is there today.  This happened about 440,000 years ago, and the resulting sculptured river bed is 40 feet deep.

It was hot and I walked about a mile to get to the basalt flow.  It was deserted and quiet and I was alone, but I was also determined.

I did run out of steam, however, and didn’t go far down the riverbed.

Cool stuff.

Back on the road.  Like an idiot, I continue north.  I know Red Rock is not north of Fossil Falls.  What was I thinking?

I guess I wasn’t thinking.  Also, I was hungry.  And as I came across the Ranch House Cafe, which I had never seen before, I realized I was in uncharted territory.  Actually, I was about 20 miles from Lone Pine.  Grrr.  But the Ranch House had a great cheeseburger.

Just to make sure I was as stupid as I thought, I asked the waitress which direction Red Rock Canyon was.  After all, she didn’t know which direction I’d come from.  And of course it was to the south.  Way south.  I enjoyed my cheeseburger and left.

I tried to smile.  But I was really quite tired of driving more than 60 miles out of my way by the time I was done.  And the road continued much the same.

The long and winding road.  Straight as an arrow.  There was a consolation, though.  By doing this all wrong, I arrived at a particular point on Highway 178 west (I gave up all hope of Red Rock) and I spotted an animal running.  I pulled over and looked – I knew that animal was out there somewhere.  I looked and looked and stared right at a wildcat, who was sitting and looking right at me.  How exciting!  It was beautiful.

As soon as it realized I had spotted it, it took off but I did manage to get two photos.  What a wonderful end to a very strange day.

Stay tuned for Friday’s adventures and wildlife sighting #3 – so far we have the bobcat and the coyote.  What will be next?  Until then, you can check out other nature photos here.

Long time, no blog.  I was so busy last week with my show opening and all, and then I had a little personal problem that left me flat and lifeless and not very creative, so I just didn’t blog.  But here I am again, feeling better after a few days R&R up in Alta Sierra.

I came up to the cabin on Tuesday and have spent my days doing one of the things I like best: driving and taking pictures. I can pretty much drive just to see what’s out there and find some adventures. And I had some – between my days up here and my husband’s and my trip to Los Angeles over the weekend. Over the next few days I’ll blog and share the Moon Festival in Chinatown, Los Angeles, and Burning Man Decompression; Downtown Los Angeles landmarks and art along with Olvera Street; and Fossil Falls in Eastern Kern County. In no particular order, I should add.  I’ll also throw in some photos from my show opening at Metro Gallery.

Today was Kern County road trip day:  I took Highway 178 from Isabella Lake out to Highway 14. This drive took me through the Kern River Valley to Red Rock Canyon State Park.

About half-way to Highway 14, the valley becomes high desert.  I love the desert – and I love Joshua Trees.  In fact, that’s me in front of Joshua Trees. (I had my tripod and put the camera on timer.)  I could stop at every trail and walk and walk – and with my 4WD Ford Escape Hybrid, which I bought a few years ago and love, I could drive up those trails.

I drove up one trail as far as I could and found this little forest of Joshua Trees.  It really was forest-like.

I was hoping to see some snakes and looked everywhere, but the only one I saw was dead in the road.  It’s rattlesnake country out here.

Joshuas are very particular as to where they will grow – the elevation has to be just right.  This road went from 3,000 to 5,000 feet in altitude, up and down, up and down.  Joshuas would be thick, disappear, reappear, denser and lush or more scraggly depending on altitude.

Here a lone Joshua appears – a rather young one I would say based on the branches, or lack thereof.  I finally had to stop pulling over and press on to my destination – Red Rock Canyon.

Once again, I manage to arrive at an extremely photogenic destination at midday – terrible conditions for photos with the strong, relentless, harsh light.  But sometimes we do what we can and make the best of it.  I was careful in how I lined up shots, so instead of regretting all the fabulous shots I could have had, I enjoyed what I could get.

It’s quite stunning.

Remember the movie Jurassic Park?  The opening scenes, where they are out fossil-hunting in Montana, were actually filmed in Red Rock Canyon.  The other side of beautiful formations is bleak, and bleak is where the filming occurred.

I concentrated on the formations, although I did eat lunch at that picnic table – in the hot sun.  And then, as I drove and got out and walked, then drove some more, I found a table in the shade!

Didn’t matter.  I ate my peanut butter sandwich pretty quickly anyhow, and managed to make my diet pepsi last all day.

If I were a geologist, I could tell you why these formations differ, how old the rock is and all that, but I’m not.  So I’ll just show you.

There are some great big dramatic formations at Arches National Park that are called Fins.  These are reminiscent so maybe these are baby fins – I don’t know.  But I like them.

This pinkish rock was astonishing.  And there were white, ghastly ghoulish rock formations also.

In the midst of these barren conditions, there are plants that find a toehold, like these flowers.

On the way home I found a turnoff into Black Canyon and Last Chance Canyon.  I drove in a little ways, but since no one knew I was there, I didn’t think I should continue on alone.  It gets pretty convoluted in there and the roads are iffy, even for 4WD.  My husband and I tried it once in my little Chevy Corsica, on a hot desert day with no water in the car, and at one point I was driving while he was tossing rocks out of the stream bed.  Even with a higher clearance vehicle, I didn’t want to go far.

So back up Hwy 14 to 178 West, and I stopped for flowers this time.  The color on this bush amazed me – this is it, folks, not color-enhanced or anything.

This was swarming with bees so I didn’t hang around long.  But the road was lined with these.  Higher up, I found some lovely rust-colored flowers.

And then I saw my wildlife sighting for the day – a coyote.

So today I blogged about today, and tomorrow I’ll blog about yesterday.  And yesterday’s wildlife sighting was really spectacular.