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Autumn in the Eastern Sierra's
The following article is composed of brief excerpts from my journals. The days are just made up since I never have a clue what the actual day is.
Regardless of my desires, the choices have been made and here I am. I've been painting at this nice little grove of aspens next to this enormous meadow. The Sierra mountains tower above to the west, and
out to the east are the Bodie Hills. This time of year there's sheep grazing all around. It's pretty picturesque if you're into that whole sorta thing.
You have the yellow aspens, the fall clouds, the sheep grazing in the meadows, the snow capped peaks as a backdrop. Hawks would be flying low across the meadow all morning. Just a couple of feet above the
ground they'd cruise for their meal, while I cooked mine. To complete the scene there's even a painter guy sitting in the meadow hard at work.
Usually it's just me out and about with the occasionally hunter driving around looking for something to kill. This time was different since I had some company. I met a sheepherder who was orginally
from Peru named Antigua. I was walking back from one of my excursions and I saw this guy walking along. Since I hadn't seen anyone else in a few days I figured I'd go chat it up with him.
Wednesday - Today I cooked some vegetable stir fry with rice. Antigua brought me a melon in return. We eat and talk and hang out. Play the guitara a little bit. Then I head back to painting.
I'm not sure if all sheep herders are the same, but this one had a cell phone, but no electricity.
So after charging his phone in my car, he called his family in Peru and I ended up talking on the phone with them as well.
Keep in mind that being able to communicate in person about the world around you, is entirely different then trying to make idle conversation on the telephone.
I can say 'mucho frio', and 'tienes hombre?' all day long, but that doesn't really work for phone conversations. After about one minute of talking to two different people they hung up on me.
Monday -Today I went into the town of Bridgeport to stock up on some food and supplies.
I didn't have any olive oil and everything was sticking to my pan. So I run into town and get some veggies, some oil, and such.
Not wanting to waste a trip to town, I hit up the natural hot tubs on the outskirts. It was a good choice since I was greeted with
empty tubs and a ridiculously amazing sunset. As if that wasn't enough, after soaking in the tub for a bit, the moon rose above the cliffs and lit up the entire valley.
Thursday - Driving on the dirt roads is interesting. If you drive slow, all the rocks and pits in the road seem very daunting and sharp and dangerous.
The funny thing is that if you drive faster, they don't appear to become more dangerous, they actually become a blur and the car just bounces right over them.
Those who know me, know which route I choose. I try to be mellow, but there are times when I'm zipping down the road with a huge cloud of dust
trailling behind as I blaze past some hunter driving in the other direction. I'm sure their thoughts are probably somewhere along the lines
of "Hey Jerk!! Slow down, this ain't a race?! Why don't you just stop and enjoy nature!"
Then later they might see me painting in a field and think, "Oh, look a happy peaceful painter. How beautiful. I bet he's a nice man."
I guess it's all just a reminder that it doesn't matter what other people think because my behavior is too inconsistent to be labeled and stereotyped.
Saturday -Today I hung out at the Bristle Cone Pine forest again. Yesterday was a wash. I didn't get any painting done.
The wind was just ridiculously strong all day long. Today was perfect. Beautiful and mellow.
I worked on the large bristle cone piece again and did two black and white studies which weren't very good.
I'm having issues with the big tree painting, we'll see what happens tomorrow. There's something very profound about sitting and studying something that is older then the bible.
It gives me a different perspective. I think of all the things that humanity has been doing and all the while this tree has just been chilling up here on this desolate hillside.
We've been building cities, blowing each other up, breeding exponentially, manufacturing trinkets and manufacturing religions. And all the while this tree has just been sitting up here doing it's thing.
Although it's days are numbered since it requires a certain amount of light and rain and now that the world is all jacked up it probably won't live another hundred years since it'll be too hot. Oh well, the trees should
have been learning how to stop humans from breeding and building useless objects instead of doing nothing on a hillside.
Wednesday - So I'm back in the town of Bishop. I woke up this morning, took a walk and looked up to the mountains. Man, do I feel like a loser down here. I think I got to used
to feeling like the king of the world and looking down on all the little peons from high above.
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Monday -
In case you were wondering, October at seven thousand feet is cold. It's not cold like Mars or anything, but it's cold enough to make you wonder why you're outside
painting instead of being inside doing anything other then painting outside. My one saving grace is that there isn't really an 'inside' around, I'm camping,.
Of course the one guy I run into out in the woods doesn't speak any English. It worked out alright though, I remember enough from Spanish classes to keep the conversation going.
I can even visualize my cheat sheet from high school where I conjugated my verbs and slid them up my shirt sleeve.
So we became friends and shared some meals together. It was a nice break from eating alone.
Saturday - Today I found a butterlfy on the ground. The wings were black and orange and it's body was mostly black but covered in white dots. He (or she) reminded me of a clown.
It was obviously sick and was floundering around on the ground. I was able to pick it up in my hands and look at it closely. It just sat there on my fingers without moving.
After appreciating it's beauty for awhile, I dropped it back on the ground and left it to die in the cold as I went on my way.
Monday -Breakfast and sunrise this morning were out of this world. Dinner and sunset were just as amazing.
Here I am eating a delicious bowl of thai style broccoli and rice stir fry with a little wasabi soy sauce dip on the site.
I'm sitting on top of this ridge over looking the entire Owens Valley - the deepest valley in America. The town of Bishop is sitting right down there towards the bottom.
The Sierra Mountain Range on the other side of the valley is about 30 miles away. It's beautiful and spacious and quiet and lonely. The good kind of lonely though, not the
my dog just died, my wife left me and my friends deserted me lonely. It's the type of peaceful aloneness that's enjoyable because I know my friends are all doing there thing right down
there in that city which looks so far away.
