Thursday, January 28, 2010

Venice Beach

On Jan 2nd, I told my friend Dorje that I would drive his van full of merchandise to Venice in exchange for a ticket back to the Fe. I was supposed to leave with Angie on Friday morning, but instead I said to her, "let's just go now and drive through the night." It was 7pm. The drive was boring until we passed this nocturnal factory. Modeselektor was bumpin' in the background.

Thank the Mountain Gods that Flagstaff was not a treacherous route. I-40 can be gnar-gnar at those altitudes near Flagstaff. I took this picture of the mountain as we zipped by at about 1am.

By 4am we were somewhere in the Mojave and Angie started shooting freakin' lazer beams from her eyes.

I took what was supposed to be the last leg into L.A., but unfortunately I passed out and woke up at this rest area a little past Barstow at about 6am. I don't remember pulling over.

Angie took over with awesome intensity and continued the journey into Los Angeles. I never knew that there were snow-capped mountains on the way. I think they are the San Bernardino Mountains.

Finally, L.A. The time was 9:30am.

After a power-nap, and a refreshing shower, it was time to put our toes in the sand. On the strip this bad-ass truck was chillin'.

Hello Pacific Ocean, I love you and ohhh how I've missed you.

Had to take the kicks off.

After a quick walk along the water, Dorje, Bailey, Angie and I, decided it was time for some Thai fare. I was excited as we walked passed this Fairey wall.

Thai Iced-Tea will put a smile on anyone's face.

We ordered a ton of ish. I got the Massaman Curry with a side of Shrimp Fried Rice. Dorje got some Duck, Bailey got some Pad-Thai, and Angie got some Yellow Curry. They don't do Thai food in the Fe like they do in L.A.

After everyone rolled me out of the restaurant, it was back to the beach.

When do we go to the bar?

After the sunset.

We hit up the Other Room in Venice for some beers and afterward I begged Dorje to accompany me to In-N-Out. I had been waiting for this all day. I love menus like this.

Got that Animal-style.

Ohhh lordy..

The next day I helped Dorje get his warehouse set up while Bailey and Angie took the cruisers out for a stroll. We met up after some Mediterranean food at about sunset. This reminded me of White Men Can't Jump.

Pretty clouds.

Legal walls. I realized that in Venice, or in most big cities, you can express yourself in any form. There was a huge skate park on the beach, legal walls, rollerskating jams, head shops, art shops, surfers, I mean everything.

Even the palm trees expressed themselves.

I love the old Art-Deco buildings that stand in front of the beach.

And then, an enormous drum circle. Dancing to organic sounds.

Time for sushi. More excitement for me since I refuse to eat sushi in the Fe.

Later that night Dorje busted out the Burning Man shades.

The next morning, Angie and I felt Kushy and got some coffee on our way to the beach.

This is how we are supposed to spend our mornings as human beings.

We took the cruisers across the highway into Santa Monica and explored. This was a cool rest stop.

It was all down-hill back to Venice. Fun.

An-G.

Really tall guy.

The canals.

And then, my final request, Ethiopian food. There is none in the Fe, specially vegan deliciousness.

Topped-off with a coffee "celebration." I couldn't of felt any happier. Dorje and Bailey gave us a tour of Hollywood, and Beverly Hills on our way to LAX. We had so much fun and it was hard to say good-bye.

Airport beer.

Disssss.

Ready for Albuquerque. It was a surreal weekend. Thank you Dorje and Bailey for an unforgettable time. See you soon!

Sunday, December 20, 2009

Holiday Show & Taos

I haven't blogged in almost two months. Damn. The past couple of months have been busy, I guess. My neighbors and I put together a little show on December 4th and here are some pictures from the reception. This is the entrance to the Guán with some exterior illumination.

A couple of Brenda's pieces.

Linda's "I am a Fox."

Greg's landscape studies are beautiful.

Angie's wall of super cool drawings and etchings.

Close-up. My camera sucks.

My wall.

Ricky Turbo 3-D.

Suzie looking at one of my pieces with the Ricky Turbo 3-D effect.

I'm gonna plug myself now...This is "Identity Crisis" Woodcut.

"My First Kiss" Mixed Media.

"Woman in the Aspens" Woodcut.

"Somewhere Between Roswell and Carlsbad" Mixed Media.

Gold 9ers jacket and PBR. The show was a lot of fun. Thanks to everyone who stopped by. Suzie, thanks for the Pizza.

Later on that night, my friends Kristian and Carrie arrived from L.A., just in time for the show. We partied pretty hard (that's what she said) (wait, that doesn't make sense), and the Hand-Hug was introduced to me. Lot's of man-love happened that night, I can't explain it.

The next day I woke everyone up early for a day trip to Taos. Surprised by my combination of enthusiasm and hangover-d-ness, everyone actually took me seriously. I couldn't let my friends K & C leave the Fe without seeing my favorite place. Here's Kristian just after parking the car with the mountains at his back.

Cool wall of the St. Francis de Asis Church.

Front of church. It's so marshmellowy.

A short walk from the church, Angie took us to Dennis Hopper's former residence, the Mabel Dodge Luhan House. It was a very scenic stroll through Taos' back-roads. Kristian and Carrie were lovin' it.

There's the crib. It was my first time there, too. Pretty much the coolest place to live in the world.

Step in to the dining area...

Or perhaps the study with the spear-head like door, darling.

Outside, there were the largest birdhouses I've ever seen. Kinda creepy, but very cool.

After learning that Desserts is Stressed spelled backwards from Dennis Hopper's kitchen, We walked over to the Eske's Brew Pub for some local fare. Here is what was on tap. I got the Mr. Personality.

Yummy. Strong. We went ahead and got the sampler, too.

That lunch was incredibly fun. We were all delirious and hungover, laughing at everything and nothing, you know, that kind of day. At one point, I think both Angie and Carrie cried from the laughter. Anywho, we ordered lunch, Kristian got "the Fatty" (that's what she said)....

....and guess what I got? Green Chile Buffalo Burger, shocker. The girls got regular burgers so I didn't photograph their food. Sorry.

After lunch we hit the road for the Rio Grande Gorge. Kristian was driving.

Never seen this rest area interactive survey before.

The Gorge. Beautiful. I swear, man, Taos is magical. I arrive feeling like a rock (that's what she said, but seriously though) and I leave feeling like a heavy sponge soaked with Taos love. Maybe I was still drunk. No, I've felt like that before in Taos.

It's just too pretty.

El Rio Grande.

Graffiti on the Gorge rails.

The Ricky Turbo 3-D Sponge pose at sunset.

The happy gang.

It was cold and windy, but it doesn't matter when you are within that kind of landscape.

bye bye sun...

And with the sun went the weekend. It was an epic one. I heard through the grapevine that K & C are coming back real soon, the Fe must have left and impression on 'em. Oh, and if you are interested in any prints, just holler. Gotta go, my Bro is here! Everyone have a nice holiday weekend and I'm sending love to all the people that love me back via the roots on the trees in Pandora...

Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Top of the World, Lake Peak

Two days ago I woke up at 9am and prepared my lunch for my big expedition. For the past month I've been running my mouth about climbing to the top of the mountains that I see everyday. My buddy, Vajra, decided to take me up there once and for all.

We drove up the Sangre de Cristo mountains which are surrounded by beautiful National Forest, and stopped just before the Santa Fe Ski Basin. Vajra borrowed this diesel truck that sounded like a chopper.

Here are the players. First, Vajra, doing his Toyota jumps. He is an experienced hiker, you can tell by the outfit.

And Ira. This guy was more my speed.

And off we were. Vajra didn't start telling me the details until we began the hike. Details I would have loved to know before I agree to all of this. Details like, there's an elevation gain of 2,100 feet in 3.5 miles. Or details like, some rock scrambling may need to be done. Or details like, after 3 hours up we will be at 12,404 feet.

It didn't help that there was 6 inches of snow on the ground and I was wearing Sambas. Here I am, the weak link, "c'mon Enrique, you can do it." Sorry, Im not used to hopping over 25 fallen tree trunks in 15 minutes.

I forgot about my wooziness, heavy breathing, and morris code beating heart when I entered this Aspen maze. Looks like they have eyes.

After breaking out of the aspens we got to see some landscapes.

My feet were frozen.

And I was still behind the pack.

To my credit, I did pause a lot to take pictures.

Of lonely rolled up fences.

And ski lifts itching to circulate.

Getting higher.

More frozen lifts.

I could hear Vajra yelling down to me, "Enrique, you're doing great, this is Deception peak." "Do you know why they call it Deception Peak?"

My guess was that once you get to the top of this so called Deception Peak, you are are deceived. Great. I busted my ass to catch up. I could finally make out their silhouettes. By this time my calves had combusted and disappeared into the thin air with my sanity.

Ira was to my left, slowing down as we conquered Deception.

I turned around to see myself looking down at the Radio Towers that seemed impossible to reach when we began the hike. I couldn't believe we had passed them already.

Deception Peak.

"Ok, Enrique, now we just have to shimmy along this ridge to get to the Peak."

Uhhhhh...ok...(delirious smile).

A bit of rock scrambling and vertigo in cahoots to give me a heart attack.

"C'mon!"

The last test. The slip and fall and you're dead test. The so called "Stairway to Heaven." I went for it.

Vajra led the way. I mimicked his every step. Mental. Physical. Metaphysical?

I layed down on the rock with my left arm and legs clinched with all my might to take a picture of Nambe Lake below me and the barren desert and its canyons in the distance.

Since my face was only inches from the rock as I crawled to the top, I was able to spot this Geological Survey metal thing on the rock. I found this fascinating.

And there they were, waiting for me at the top. Even though I had stopped moving, I felt like I was still moving. I closed my eyes, took some deep breaths and recited some quotes from Thich Nhat Hanh, and I was able to calm down and open my eyes. I mumbled something out of my mouth to the guys, "I imagine this hike would be easier if there wasn't snow on the ground and I wasn't wearing soccer shoes, right?" They were hysterical.

I was speechless up there. To the north you see Taos and the Truchas Mountains.

And to the West you see Nambe Lake and the vast desert.

Here I am thinking about all the shit that I have to do, didn't do, and shit that fucked me up over the past year.

And here I am letting it all go.

And here is the Tuna with Peruvian Yellow pepper, provolone, and spinach on sourdough sandwhich that I am about to slam into my grill.

They are too. But I think they got their goods from Whole Foods.

Some super food trail mix for the hike back down.

Then, thunder. It's almost as if the mountain waited for me to get up there, think, breathe, let go, and eat before it decided to kick me off. The clouds came in quickly, and Vajra, Mr. Nepal Himalayan hike-master, suggested we get down ASAP.

Look at that dark gray brush stroke.

I didn't want to get down so quick but we headed towards deception.

The clouds and thunder were amazing.

The last bit of sun.

Some hikers appeared when we got to Deception. They took a look at my gear and said, "Dude, thats hard-core." Ha!

They had a cool dog.

I walked under the lonely lifts again.

My feet were frozen. I believe that was a good thing because I had rolled my ankle at least 5 times by this point and I couldn't feel a thing.

It started raining in the desert.

The sun appeared again for a second and made me smile.

And then the mountain took over.

Until it turned black and started snowing. The mountain was kickin' my ass, I felt like a puppet on a thousand strings, moving every joint in awful, painful directions. Thank baby Jesus I was almost down.

Back in the car and on the way down to the Fe we battled the snow storm. It was rad. I was sitting in the back seat feeling like I had just received a deep tissue massage.

I got dropped off a block away due to the size of the truck and stumbled to the Zaguán. The sun was setting and the storm was approaching. I woke up the next morning unable to move, Santa Fe had a blanket of snow on it, but I felt the best I have in years. Thanks Vajra and Ira for such a spiritual trip.

Sunday, October 18, 2009

Santa Fe Gallery Hop

My Brother and his wife, Liz, sent this orange and black collar for Osiris. Frisco colors. Thanks guys. After I fitted him with his gear, I took a little stroll around town to see what was new with the art scene.

I read about a woodcut show in the paper and decided that it would be my first stop. Some legit black and white traditional ish. Diggin' it.

The artist's name is Lily Schlien. I got to meet her later that week, very nice lady, turns out I might be doing a show with her and some other printmakers in the future.

Next I headed over to the railyard galleries. I spotted these large woodcuts in the cut. Even though it's competition, gotta give props. Great work.

There were only two pieces by this artist in the gallery. Mimmo Paladino, Italian. Shame, I would like to see more.

These f'ers were huge, at least six feet tall. One day printmaking will move to the front of the gallery, and painting to the back. Yeah, right.

Speaking of huge, this is the biggest mirror I've ever seen.

Followed by a tiny painting of shaving cream brush, or whatever they are called. There was an entire series of these. I love detail.

This guy, Il Lee, was the show-stopper. He covered enormous canvases using just a ball-point pen. I'm talking 60"x 72" peices here. Hand, pen, hours, days, beautiful.

Great photograph of a dude and his bus.

This piece makes me so happy, "Tourists." I forgot the artist's name, but for some reason it makes me happy. I think because they might fall off the cliff or something. Or because they are naive. Or because we are all tourists. I don't know.

The old-school Santa Fe train was crossing the street as I walked out the gallery.

This piece put me in check. I soiled my pants. I am terrified of spiders. I would of bought this piece if I had the cheddar. I don't think I've ever been terrified by a painting. I would wake up every morning and stare at this knowing that nature is king. The artist is Darwin Nix, great show in the railyard.

Creepy. Drawing skills, impeccable.

I stopped to visit my buddy who works at Peaceful Wind Gallery, and he showed me this Mongolian piece that was extremely detailed for it's size. Supposedly Steven Segal was coming to pick it up. I'm not kidding.

I stopped hopping when I realized I was hungry. I went home and made arepas.

Food or Art? Both?

Nice ending to a Saturday afternoon. I got everything accomplished, exercise, art education, arepas with eggs over medium, turkey and cheese, organic mango peach juice, and The Wire.

Saturday, October 3, 2009

A Nice Little Saturday

The Santa Fe tourist season is over and things have really slowed down here, thankfully. The streets are quiet and it's time for the locals to take back their town. Last Saturday I took a little walk down to the Railyard to shop at the Farmer's Market. It was a beautiful day.

I like this asterisk. I specially enjoy the cow sign on the bottom left. Never seen it before.

Some Farmer's Market signage. I've bought plants from this guy before. The cactus I purchased from him last year is just starting to grow another stump.

More signage. I didn't get one of these, but I'm sure they are delicious.

Local cheese. The best thing about this market is that you can sample almost everything. This cheese was fantastic.

Pan fried green chile anyone? People were stocking up on these since they won't be available soon. I ate a couple.

A giant sunflower.

First time I've ever picked off the seeds and ate them straight from the source. Yum. Not salty though. I like the salt.

Roasted chiles. I got some of these and have them frozen for use throughout the winter.

I don't like pretzels, but this local mustard was no joke.

The RailRunner rolled past the market and unloaded some shoppers from Albuquerque.

Mmmmmmm, Taos mountain yak.

This is the best goat cheese ever, and I don't even like goat cheese. It's fused with green chiles. I had to bag this up.

Winner of the best Farmer's Market outfit.

Eat local chicken!

Colorful corn. I love it. Shoulda bought the pink one, now that I think about it.

Yes, I tied my sweater to my waist. It was warm, should I of tied it around my neck? I brought my own Farmer's Market bag, what a hippie.

R2D2 Mailbox.

Local propaganda. Whoever this artist is, he/she is my new hero. I love this.

Nice hat/fro. Viva La Revolución!

Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Camping Adventure at Heron Lake

A couple of weeks ago, my friends Dorje and Bailey, and Dorje's brother, Dylan, who was visiting from München, made plans with us to go to Heron Lake and camp for the night. I was a bit skeptical about a lake in New Mexico, but Dorje and Baley assured me that it was beautiful. Josie and I took care of the salads and Chorizo, while Dorje and Bailey got the booze and Kosher steaks. We were all really excited, all summer we had talked about going camping and we finally were doing it. We met them at a parking lot and hit the road. Dorje was ahead of me driving like he was on the Autobahn with an enormous cooler and kayaks strapped to the bed of his truck.

I was trying to keep up, but I wanted to take pictures of the landscape. At one point Joise tried to snatch the camera from me because I was getting dangerous behind the wheel.

I swerved big time and his was the last picture I took before Josie actually did snatch the camera. I got a nice shot of these red rocks though. I loved how the colors changed from layer to layer.

Josie told me how the scenery out here reminded her of Utah. It made me want to visit. I was thankful she was handling the camera.

This collection of red rocks is known as Ghost Ranch. It's trippy. There is a natural amphitheater in one of the rock formations. We didn't get to stop, however, because I was trying to keep up with Dorje who was doing 85.

Now that I'm looking at these pictures, I remember that the red rocks came out of nowhere. Everything was brown and typical northern NM scenery, we went up a mountain and on the descend these rocks were in the distance.

Little by little we left them behind.

This was one of the last ones before we hit yet another landscape, forest-y Colorado like.

There were a lot of pine trees in the distance along with the lake. It was an oasis.

When we got to the lake it was time to find and agree on a campsite. I parked Bella while Dorje and I surveyed our options.

We found the perfect site. It was the only one with a built in roof and bench for eating. We also had a great view of the Lake and were only 20 steps from the shore. Josie and Bailey were so happy to be outside amongst the trees. So was I, it was so peaceful and the phrase of the day was "I'm recharging my batteries." It truly felt like that.

Dorje pondering when would be the perfect time for a Tequila shot.

I forgot how much I love to camp. We sat down, cracked beers and watched as 15 or so eagles (or hawks, I'm not really sure) glided and circled above us. They put on a show for about half an hour.

This was our view.

Happy Josie.

Dorje and Bailey on the haystack.

I'm starting to get loose.

Perfect timing for shooting the pellet gun. I couldn't hit the can for the life of me.

Bailey could. So could Dorje and Dylan. Josie and I were just a bit outside.

After 4 shots of Tequila, Dorje and Dylan unloaded the Kayaks. I was nervous, this was my first time. I wish the iPhone was waterproof because I rolled over twice on the damned thing and would of made good footage.

We all hung out in the water for a while, and then we started to get the tents ready. Josie is a pro.

Dorje and I fetched some wood to burn. We didn't know how much to buy. We asked the lady who was selling it if we should buy one or two bundles. She said, "one will do just fine, but if you're planning on partying all night, get two." We got two, loaded Bella and headed back.

We were set. We had a cooler full of booze and mammal flesh, wood to burn, cigs, and our tents ready. The sun was setting and I caught this great flick of the girls and their Tecate.

Dorje chillin'.

sigh.

Anyway, I thought it would be a good idea to start the grill before the sun went down. A little excessive, but when you are camping there's no such thing as excessive. We had Chorizo, regular steak, and Kosher steaks going. I was designated grill duty, a duty I did not mind at all.

see.

Josie and Bailey got the salads going. We had so much food. We had Dorje's famous potato salad, Bialey's famous cabbage salad, Whole Foods potato salad, and some collard green salad we also picked up at the Foods. I felt like a jester in the courtyard of a king.

Sunset.

more sunset.

I had to stop the tree hugger sunset nature appreciation fest and get back to my grill duty. Medium rare everyone?

We ate with the car lights on.

Post dinner we rolled ourselves to the fire pit, Dylan got the fire going. We sat there in our food comas, drank, smoked, and told stories. It was the most relaxing thing I've done in a long long time. Fun too. I wussed out and went to bed early because I had an interview the next morning back in Santa Fe. Dorje made fun of me because we didn't finish the bottle, so did Dylan.

Sunrise from the tent.

All of us got up and headed straight for the lake one last time before we hit the road. Bailey is in the distance on the Kayak. It felt so good to sit there in silence for a while. Shortly after, we packed up and left promising to be back in September. Thanks to Dorje, Bailey and Dylan for a great time. Heron Lake was exactly what I needed.

Thursday, August 20, 2009

Road Trip, Pt. 4: Back to the Fe

We were supposed to leave Ann Arbor early, but due to another 5am night, we didn't hit the road until 3pm. We hit Blimpy Burger on the way out and picked up our new co-pilot, Osiris, who freaked out for the first hour of the trip. He started to calm down until we rolled the window down to smoke going 85 and the noise terrified him so much that he pissed on my legs.

After stopping at a gas station to change clothes, Josie & Osiris passed out and I drove lead-footed through MI, IN, IL, and into Iowa in record time while smelling the cat piss emanating from my clothes in the back. I got a call from my friend Andy who coincidentally was driving from L.A. to Ann Arbor. We planned to meet somewhere in Nebraska the next day when we crossed paths on I-80. The sun was going down in Des Moines and we decided to crash, the only problem was that the Jr. Olympics were in town and we couldn't find a room. What are the chances?

As fate would have it, we crossed paths at exactly Paxton, Nebraska. We tracked our progress through the mile markers, it was really fun and spiced up the monotony of the drive. We got off the exit ramp and looked for a place to eat and catch up. This was the strip.

The "Pit Stop."

We decided to chill at the "Windy Gap" because we found the name interesting.

The menu at the gap.

Josie and I.

Andy and his friend Jael, who was visiting from Switzerland, wanted to see America and Andy's hometown, Ann Arbor. So far on their road trip she found Big Sur the most beautiful sight. It's good to get an outside perspective and the four of us talked about America vs. Europe for a bit until we decided on food. Andy and I ordered the "Juicy Lucy," which was a half-pound burger stuffed with onions and cheese. How could I pass that up? I am a burger connoisseur after all, and this would prove to be essential field data. The ladies didn't order anything, shocker, and went outside to smoke.

Here she is, Juicy Lucy. Looks basic right?

It's not. This was one of the most delicious burgers I've ever had. "If this is wrong, I don't want to be right," mumbled Andy with his mouth full of juice. I asked Andy if he thought being in Paxton was unbelievable and how this will be a great bar story, and he replied, "I live for this shit." Couldn't of said it any better.

Hollow-Paxton.

High Five!

Hollow-Stain.

Back on the road I could'nt stop talking about Hollow-Paxton. Josie and I changed the subject and talked about the pro's and con's of living in Ann Arbor, living in Santa Fe, and pretty much the pro's and con's of living in every cool city in the U-S-of-A. We were already missing our friends and we both want to be close to fam. We didn't come to any conclusion and the conversation stopped when we hit this storm near Denver head-on.

The clouds were creepin' from the left. At one point we slowed down to about 40mph because of the fierce drops.

We thought it was over at this point.

And then it came back.

I love the contrast of the dark clouds and white clouds.

The sun peeked in for a second. This was an amazing site. Good thing Josie was driving or else we would have been a ditch. I was firing the shutter left and right. It's so inspiring to be next to the continental divide in the middle of a storm.

Rainbow.

The storm sent at least 25 tumbleweeds crashing into the Element.

Sundown in Colorado Springs. Again, beautiful.

I know planes are fast, and after the outrageous gas prices the cost of driving is almost the same, but the sights you miss out on when flying are spectacular.

We drove into New Mexico at 10pm and had another 2 hours to go. The full moon was bright and wanted me to stay awake. Josie was exhausted and I asked her to talk to me for the last leg of the trip. She asked me questions like, "whats your favorite color?" "whats your favorite song?" We started laughing at our madness instead. Osiris is the best cat ever, chillin throughout the entire trip after the piss incident. We got to the Fe a little after midnight. It was a nice trip.

Name: Enrique

Location: Santa Fe, New Mexico, United States

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