Buck Moon July 2019
July 2019 Buck Moon
**The Nature of Healing**
You see it all the time, especially out west. Some abandoned ruin of a house or a trailer or business. A rusted truck next to a building, hood up, no tires. A history of appliance purchases in the back yard.
The previous manager of the Gage Hotel, Brock Walden and I, on a road trip back from California, would call them “VISIONS.” Referring to the person that left it as having one, that in the end was, maybe a bad idea. Truthfully there’s probably some amazing, or not, life story behind each "vision", and so here is one.
Jeffrey was headed for a divorce after 12 years marriage. In hindsight he knew the relationship had shifted into a downhill trajectory in half that time. They used to be able to talk things out to some compromising solution and be laughing again by dinner, but it got harder to talk and sometimes seemed easier to go to his workshop and sand and polish his way through the issue at hand, not resolving it, but hitting the spike into the wood of their marriage and making the split a tiny bit bigger. It wasn’t a surprise when she asked for it, but there is an emptiness in the reality and fear of the void that follows.
Jeff was familiar with alcohol and pot and he knew he could soak and smoke his feelings into a dead end street or he could physically and mentally work his way through it. He was still in his 30’s, strong, healthy and not bad looking.
He signed two papers that week, Monday for the divorce and Thursday for this sweet piece of property in the desert. On Saturday he visited it for the first time as the owner and started making plans. He’d buy materials during the week and leave Friday after work with a trailer. It took three years of weekends to build his little get away place. No water. No electric. Just protection from the elements and 360 degrees of healing views. Every rock, every piece of wood and every nail, a therapy session.
That was a long time ago. I don’t see him any more. There’s still a few piles of rock around that were going to build additions. He remarried and has a son.
We all have to choose how we get through the lessons that life forces us to learn. You can become bitter. You can anesthetize yourself. Or you can put a rock on top of a rock, and a rock on top of that rock, and a rock on top of that rock, and keep doing that till you find what you need to get through this day.
Happy Full Moon. Get Outside.
**Coachwhip**
It is rare that you get a second chance photographing animals in nature. Last Sunday I was walking to my house from the studio and a coachwhip was on my front porch with a baby roadrunner in it’s mouth. I dropped what was in my hand, quickly snapped an I phone photo and ran back for a real camera. He was still there, but on the concrete sidewalk. I took a few images before he slithered off into brush and I couldn’t find him. I totally blew it. Then the next day, here he is again, and what looked like the same roadrunner in his mouth, like he couldn’t swallow it. But this time I had my assistant Ali with me and she ran and got my herp tongs and we took it out of his mouth while the snake escaped into a wood pile = great backdrop! Ali had the bird in the tongs and was "snakefishing". It took about 10 or 15 minutes, but here he comes, back to get his dinner. I made some excellent images and we left him alone to have his meal. Now, how lucky am I?
**Sarah Foltz Fine Art**
I was invited to show some work in a group show called Texas Aesthetic at Sarah Foltz Fine Art in Houston. Please stop in and buy everything. The gallery is located at 2143 Westheimer. The gallery phone number is 713-521-75 hundred.