Meet
Lyla. She is my cousin Barbara's grand daughter, age five. Lyla is a little artist and she and I had fun making art together while we spent
three days in Colorado. (to see art from the
Denver Art gallery there scroll back several posts before this one).
From Colorado we drove to
South Dakota. You may be seeing some of Wyoming along the way out the rear view mirror of our car. DH did ALL the driving. In all we covered eight states some of them twice.
We mostly stayed in motel sixes, but a couple of times we stayed in cabins in State Camp Grounds like this one called
Blue Bell. It was efficient, neat and clean. Just beds and a table. The bathroom (shower and toilet/sink) were a few walking feet from the cabin. The rabbits stayed outside as did the chipmunks. I sat on the wooden bench outside the cabin to draw it.
We spent three days on the
Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. Stayed at a B and B called
The Odd Duck. I guess we were a couple of odd ducks going there; but we are interested in the history of the Native Americans and it was fascinating meeting people who live on the reservation today; to see the wealth of local Native American art there, and to be able to speak with people who were part or full Lakota and learn about their history and current problems with unemployment, poor living conditions, alcoholism, etc.
It is where DH caught a virus, which he later shared with me, but we don't hold that against the people we met, that could have happened anywhere.
We spent a good amount of time talking to and sharing with
Mark St. Pierre, a published author, and his wife,
Tilda Long Soldier, who own the little B & B we stayed at. Tilda is a renown artist of Lokata beading art and she was generous enough to share her work with us to see. The beading was done on treated elk skin that felt like velvet it was so soft. She made clothes for dolls she makes as well which sell in the neighborhood of $1500 each. She has a day job as a teachers aide. While Mark, who has worked as a high school English teacher, a film maker and writer, has started up an industry there making pine wood coffins lined in Star Quilts and Pendleton blankets. He is putting a whole crew of local people to work who had been previously unemployed.
This page shows some other sites we visited after leaving the Rez.
Bear Butte, about which Mark had shared a documentary film he had made regarding a dispute between people trying to build a hooters bar on this sacred Indian site and the politics that ensured... A quick sketch of
Devils Tower; Drive through
The Big Horn Mountains in Wyoming...
DH finally got his wish to be able to reach
Medicine Wheel,
another Native American sacred site. In prior years we were stopped by snow on the mountain. This time the weather was in our favor and we got to the top. It felt very meaningful to be there. All along the fence you can see the offerings that were left out of respect by native American visitors.
At the East Entrance to
Yellowstone National Park we stayed at
Pahaska TePe another set of cabins and
the original home of
Buffalo Bill.
The following day we were in the
Grand Tetons, another favorite spot of ours. I sat outside and did
Plein Air painting there knowing full well there was no way I was going to do them justice; but I enjoyed looking at the magnitude of them and soaking in their natural beauty.
If you want to see more of my traveling art journal scroll back to past Thurs/Friday and Sunday posts.
I will put the final pages on a post on my blog
for
this Sunday linked to Sunday Sketchers.
And I am linking this post to
Paint Party Friday. You can see the other artists works via the icon on my side bar.
On my birthday, which I posted yesterday, my grandkids poured over the art journal
Stay tuned. More to come.
