"Owl's Mouth" (c) 2007

"Owls' Mouth, Arizona" (c) 2007 Stu Jenks

        Need to be at Roller Derby in a bit. I can’t be late but I couldn’t put off the desert any longer. I figure I have an hour to play before I need to put it in four-wheel drive and make my way back to Tucson. I've never come out here under a time restriction, but I have to today. Been far too long since I’ve been to Owl’s Head.
        Really glad this is the last TRD bout of the year. The Saddletramps are going to Austin in a couple of weeks for the Nationals, but I’m not. Ain't got the time nor the money to go. There may be a bout in Phoenix that I'll shoot at some point. I’m just a little burnt on Tucson Roller Derby right now.
       Like the old Sienfeld joke, it’s not that there’s anything wrong with Tucson Roller Derby. The people are great, the action is hot, and the energy is high. It’s just not my ‘Sangha’, my group, my community. But do I really have a group? Not really. I’m part of the Recovery Community and part of the Downtown Arts Community, but if I’m honest, I really like to be alone, to do things by myself. Don’t get me wrong. I love and need people, and I always long for the touch of a kind, beautiful woman. But nothing feeds me like a solitary hike in the desert or a hard one-man pitch up a mountain or an easy stroll by a river, by myself.
        I’ve often complained, that visual artists are hard to build community with, for they are so solitary. Pot calling the kettle black. Ain’t no difference between spending ten hours alone in a studio sculpting in clay, or spending an afternoon moving rocks into a circle in the desert, or dancing for hours between trees, swinging Christmas lights under a Full Moon. Mr. Stu plays better by himself than he does with others. It's just the way it is.
        The circle looks good. Not a great piece but a nice re-commitment to my spiritual and artistic path (and my Art is an expression of my spiritual and emotional self, as well as a demonstration that they did teach me good design in Art School at Chapel Hill.) The Stone circle is more important than the Roller Derby rink, and I love being inside of the Roller Derby rink. The Circle and the Spiral have kept me reasonably sane for years. Why stop now.
       I take a couple images from a couple of angles of the new little Circle. I look toward Owl’s Head and smile. I close my eyes. I breathe deep. Storm’s coming from the North. I want to stay and watch it move through, but I have to get to Bladeworld. My smile fades but only a little. I’ll be back soon, or somewhere just as nice, in a week or so. And it is the championship tonight. Hope FTW wins. Hope I get a few killer shots.
       I step into the Circle and say my Four Direction prayer. To the sky and the earth and all there is. Ok, God, let’s do it.
        I gingerly step out of the circle, grab my camera bag, and begin to descend the hill that is Owl’s Mouth.