Ajo Visit And Canyonlands Revisit

January 11, 2011

Got a speech today in Ajo, which is about a two-and-a-half hour run down to the border. Carole Glenn is going along to keep me company and help me sell books.

Meanwhile, over the weekend I uncovered an old photo I took near Moab in 1984. We were coming back from visiting the Bell family in northern Iowa and came back through Canyonlands, Utah. The kids (age four and two) were asleep so Kathy and I hiked out into the sandstone wilderness. Took a photo in the early morning light. Thought it had potential for a painting, came home, went back to work at New Times, tried to make ends meet by joining a radio show (Jones & Boze) and then promptly forgot aobut the image.

Fast forward to last weekend and there it was in a box full of other landscape photos waiting to be rediscovered. Added a rider and here it is:

Nice study. Very Maynard Dixonish.

"And so we turn the page over

To think of starting. This is all there is."

—John Ashbery