"And then I began to see...", A press check of a signature of "Hoop Dancing", at Arizona Lithography, Tucson, Arizona (c) Fall 2009 Stu Jenks.
["Hoop Dancing", the book, should be available for shipment upon my return from Chicago. Go to my website at www.stujenks.com to order the book. And may all of you have a Happy Thanksgiving.]
(Meditation for the day: "It is what it is, and it ain't what it ain't")
Goeff wrote a very nice piece about last weekend's Open Studio Tour. For me, it was the best experience I've had in the eight years I've been participating. Everyone (and I mean everyone) who visited my studio was smart, funny, interested and interesting, and downright great to be around, old friends and new visitors alike. Very different from the horrors of a couple years ago. It might just be me, but I don't think so. With Mary's dementia and all, I'm pretty stressed these days, so the joy (and cash in some cases) that the patrons brought was very welcome. Thank you all, and hope to see you all soon, either in person, online or through my books. Here's a link to Geoff's Article on the blog he writes for the Tucson Citizen.
[Photos of Elizabeth Frank's work and of me in my studio by Geoff Notkin. I didn't even know he took that shot of me. Very sneaky, Geoff]
The Global Spiral: a publication of the Metanexus Institute
[Their annual conference is next week in Tempe, Arizona, and I'm their featured artist. Go to the below link to read a Hoop Dancing story, and see more about the conference, and many thanks to Erica, for asking me to participate.]
The Transpersonal Papers: Chapter Twenty-Two:
"Teepee #6, The Wigwam Motel, Holbrook, Arizona"
© 2009 Stu Jenks
Holbrook on a Saturday night. Traffic's light. No surprise. Traffic's always light in Downtown Holbrook.
Coalmine Canyon was fun this afternoon. In spite of the damage done to its rim by tourists and drunks, its inner depths haven't changed that much in the twenty years I've been visiting it. I know nothing stays the same, but in some things I long for just that: A place unspoiled, something I can count on being Always Good. Luckily, the reason the floor of Coalmine Canyon has stayed so unchanged is because the makeshift trail that descends from the top begins with a long 45-degree talis slope of black coal. It takes a bit of courage to hike into Coalmine.
The Joseph City power plant was a spectacular sight tonight as well. A hard human creation during the day, it’s transformed into a wizard's playhouse at night. Funny how the night changes things.
I pop a few more shots of Teepee #6, even though I have good images in the can. Five minutes pass. Another pickup truck drives by. I finish my smoke. I take another image. Another car cruises by. Then long silence again.
I smile. It's almost as peaceful here as it is in Coalmine Canyon. Almost.
Yea, I know, I know. I railed against this a year ago, after having horrible experiences with the Entitled Rich. Well, in the words of my father: "Fuck Em!", or as a past mentor of mine, Levi Neill, once said: "If you want to sound spiritual, say 'Fuck Thou.'"
This Spring, I have very nice, reasonably priced things: $6 & $7 magnets, $35 small framed pieces, and $15 ceramic Christmas ornaments. And all the expensive stuff as well. So come by! I'll be there, but only on Saturday, from 11 to 5. (On Sunday, I'll be at the Festival of Books on campus). I'd love to see you. Yes. you! The art lovers! The wanderers! The seekers! The ones with the light in your eyes! Hope to see you all there. And remember, for me, it's just Saturday from 11 to 5. And the details are on the Tour's Website.
Stu's 2009 Economic Stimulus Package at CafePress.
My business model for 2008 didn't work very well. (The economy tanking didn't help much either.) Last year, I made large expensive framed images to sell to people of great means. But this year, along with the big prints, I'm producing inexpensive objects for the struggling middle class, like you and me. Ceramic ornaments and tiles. Coffee mugs. Magnets. T-shirts. Even an Owl's Head wall clock. All these can be purchased NOW at Cafe Press, at the Stu Store there.
So get your Christmas shopping done early, or buy your sweetheart an ornament for Valentine's Day.
Or you can be the first on your block to own a Stu Jenks coffee mug.
Happy shopping, and maybe your own personal ecomomy be stimulated this year.
Much love and prosperity,
Stu
"Cholla Power Plant, Joseph City, Arizona: for Michael" (c) 2009 Stu Jenks
"The Nicest Hotel Room, Hard Rock Hotel, Las Vegas, Nevada" (c) 2008, 2009 Stu Jenks
[I'm comfy sleeping in the back of my truck or in a Red Roof Inn, but I treated myself last Fall, after a day of walking among the Ancient Bristlecones. I was so blown away by how great this hotel room was, that I took a couple pics of it. The bathroom was astoundingly sleek. The tub was as deep as a pool. The bed was so soft it was like sleeping on clouds. And check out that huge flat screen TV on the left. And as I fell asleep that night, a warm desert breeze blew through the open french doors, that overlooked the pool ten stories below. And the final cherry on the sundae was a large photo of Jimi at Monterey Pop burning his guitar. Let me stand next to your fire.]
(Often a song or a picture says it better than prose. Mandy Patinkin and Tim O'Brien sing my favorite versions. Check 'em out on ITunes for a buck. And the image? A Post-Modern version of Monet's Water Lilies, perhaps.
1931, 2008. Same song, different times, same damn story.)
"It's Open Studio Tour Time, But He's Not Here"
Back in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, there was a bar I frequented called "He's Not Here." The bartender would answer the phone, saying 'He's not here.' Didn't matter if I was there or not: In many ways I was never really there. (I was a believer in the Stay-High Philosophy back then.) I was there, though, those nights when I was talking to Patti Fay. Oh, yea.
The Fall Open Studio Tour is this weekend. Crane, Dawn, Rubina, Mary Lou, Kathryn, Russ, Loren, Dana, and Maurice will all be at their studios at 549 N. 7th Avenue, Tucson, AZ., this Saturday and Sunday, from Noon to Five.
But I won't be there. I leaving at Dark:Thirty, tomorrow morning, for a week long photo shoot/hiking trip/vacation up north.
But I'll be there in spirit and my work will be there for display and for sale.
A good number of new large D'Vinci images are now up in the hallway outside my studio, and the above nine artists will have some great new work as well, so please come by and see them and see my newer stuff too, if you are in the neighborhood. Look for free postcards on the bookshelf by my door. And also look for 13 x 19 archival pigment prints for sale for $75 (two days only) in a basket by Crane Day's door. He will gladly answer your questions and take your money.
Also, in 2009, look for new tiny work from me. I'll be trying to market more work toward the middle class and working class, and less toward the upper class, in the coming years. I'm planning on making very small handmade (so to speak) individually-framed photographs at very reasonable prices. And also, look for perhaps a new CD of StuMusic near the end of the year.
So, come by BR-549 Studios, even though I'm not there, this Saturday and Sunday, from Noon to five.
I'll be either at Coalmine Canyon on Hopi land (Saturday), or on my way to The Great Sand Dunes in Colorado (Sunday) or maybe someplace completely unexpected, given which way the wind blows or the snow falls.
See you when I get back.
Love, Light and Luck,
Stu
[P.S. My mother, who is suffering from dementia and lives just up the hill, today said the oddest, yet most wonderful thing. "When you were conceived, it was with Love and with Passion," she said. Great stuff, Mary. That's her at the top of this post, by the way, on the move out to Arizona last Spring, and that is one of the new D'Vinci prints for sale at my studio.]
