Day 8 - New Mexico - Arizona

Driving into Flagstaff is like driving on Mars.

Santa Fe was such a joy, and I can definitely see myself back there, however it was time to continue on.  Set the GPS to Flagstaff, Arizona and pointed it West.

Leaving Santa Fe is incredible.  Basically, Santa Fe is situated out in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by a few mountains, but mostly flat.  There aren't really any large factories around it, so you aren't surrounded by Semi-Trucks on the highway.  Not to mention, any pull off you take you could find yourself in the middle of nowhere.

Albuquerque is the largest city in New Mexico and is located about an hour outside of Santa Fe.  It has a beautiful historic section in the middle of the town with plenty

of color and pattern to keep your senses alert.

I really loved all the side patio spaces in Albuquerque.  Although the central square had a beautiful church in it, and a very historic feel, these patio spaces just felt very calm, peaceful, and beautiful.

Onward!  Decided to switch up the route a little bit and hopped onto the Historic Route 66.  The scenery is relatively the same as the new highway I-40, but you are on a smaller road with fewer traffic.  This is ideal when you are looking at the scenery around you more than the road in front of you.

Met some new friends.

Saw some incredible old signs (which are starting to crop up a LOT in the work I'm producing).

Got WAY out there.

And learned what one of the coolest ways to drive across the country is.

A few hours later, and I was in Flagstaff, Arizona.  Managed to catch the last few rays coming over the mountains - a great way to be greeted into a new city.

Flagstaff seems like a real rad community.  Nestled in the mountains with an historic few block area, and very friendly people.  Again, there were a bunch of old, neon signs lit up to show the way through the streets.  However, that didn't stop the stars from beaming.  I even caught a shooting start.

Another city with live music - this one in particular was a rockin' blues band.  I hung out in the back and watched as people created waves of silhouettes in front of the red lights.  Foreground and background seemed to blur, and the energy in the room was contagious.

Looking forward to checking out more of Flagstaff tomorrow, plus I'm going to check out, what I'm told, is one of the best hidden gems of Arizona.  Any guesses?

One Week - Santa Fe, New Mexico

In Santa Fe, Color reigns supreme.

Santa Fe exceeded all expectations.  I had the understanding that it was an artistic town situated within a beautiful part of New Mexico, along the old Route 66.  Not only does it have the flat desert landscape, but it also has plateaus, mountains, and abundant sunshine.  It was such a treat to wake up to crisp blue skies and warm sunshine after arriving late the night before, although I got to see a beautiful sunset within a thunder and lightning storm.  Plus - the heat was nowhere near the past few 90 plus degree days.  It was the perfect weather for biking the city and exploring the area.

Canyon Street is the main gallery street of Santa Fe.  This means for about 6-8 blocks you have galleries, studios, and artist gallery/studios uninterrupted, one after another.  I later found out that in Santa Fe there are no factories or big businesses, but that the town is completely supported through Art sales and tourism.  It's so inspiring to hear that a town can use Art as a way of sustaining itself and maintain its culture, rather than expecting other industry to produce profit and having Art as a secondary consideration.

I stopped into many of the galleries in town, talked to a few of the artists and gallery attendants, and saw some incredible artwork.  One of the things I enjoyed most about the work was that it really felt authentic.  This may be too much of a broad statement, but when I tour galleries in the city and go to fine art establishments I feel like the work is expected to have a certain level of seriousness, the gallery to a certain level of silence, and the ties are expected to be pulled tightly around the collar, so to speak.  In studying Art History I felt as though in the Fine Art world the work that is seen to be most sophisticated is dampened or void of most color.  In Santa Fe, particularly in Art, color seems to reign supreme.

I visited the Gallery space of David Rothermel and had a very inspiring conversation about this topic in particular.  His works, at this point in his career, involve panels of colors, layered and worked over and over, placed in combinations to evoke different levels of spacial awareness, color relationship, and rhythm.  I asked him how he got to where he is today, and what his process was for creating.  His response was (and I'm summing this up in a very short way because it was a much longer and very fun conversation) that he had gone through the "necessary and expected steps" of becoming an Artist at the time: Go to Art School, Obtain your MFA, move to New York City, work multiple jobs to sustain yourself, and carry on into the early morning hours with extra curricular activities (so to speak), socializing, networking, and what have you.  He talked frankly about the desire and need to distance himself, and as he put it, "get the fuck out of there".  In the early 80s he moved from NYC to Santa Fe and reset himself in his life and artistic pursuit.  With the change of lifestyle and setting came a change in perspective on the artistic practice.  Eventually he got back into the studio and began creating series of landscape paintings, and then these colored and textured panels.

While the conversation had many deeper meanings to me as a young artist, the biggest I will share here is this:  It is inspiring to hear an Artist talk about Art in a way that isn't elitist, but feels genuine, authentic, and real; to talk about Art in a way that is a struggle and ever changing event and process; to talk about the Art world that isn't one dimensional and streamlined.

From there I continued biking around Canyon Street and into the surrounding back alleys and downtown area.  I absolutely fell in love with the color and architecture - brick red clay houses with a pop of color on the window trim, doors, or flowers surrounding.  Every street uncovered a little treasure, which made it hard to actually get off the bike and walk around.  It neared about 4pm and I still felt like I had more to see in Santa Fe, so I decided to stay another night.

Spent a bit of time going over the works I had already produced, and reflected a bit on the journey thus far.  With it being the one week point of the project I wanted to take a step back for a minute to see if I could notice any trends or see a change in my perspective.  I'm not going to go into detail about what new things I've learned or interests that have cropped up, but I will show you a mini-series I have begun to produce.

The artworks below I have created during the drive, literally, to attempt to capture a change in landscape.  These works will be touched up with Ink and Watercolor before being mailed out.  From Top Left to Bottom Right - Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico.

I ventured back into Santa Fe to capture the evening's low light and see how the city looked all lit up after spending a bit of time looking over the project pieces and organizing my thoughts .  I found a nice new ride that I decided needed to be mine, so I swapped my current automobile with him for this ride to tackle the rest of my travels Between the Points:

Just kidding... Unfortunately.

On to the next point Between the Points.  Thank you to Artists' Mediums of Williston Vermont and Black Horse Art Supply of Burlington Vermont for supplying the top quality materials to be producing these new art works, Desillusion Magazine for providing materials for collage works, and all the individuals who have already gotten involved in the project!

Thus far I have used 2 rolls of film, drained at least 3 pens, whittled my colored pencils in half, gone through 2 pads of paper, used up one full sketchbook, and taken over 1,000 photos on my I-Phone.  I have driven over 2,500 miles, been through 11 states, and have seen 0 other Vermont license plates.  I have been asked if I am lost countless times.

Follow Along, Get Involved, Support at betweenthepointsproject.blogspot.com

Or to read more about my artwork visit: www.jessagilbert.com

Day 6 - Oklahoma - Texas - New Mexico

The only vertical things in Oklahoma and Northern Texas are Billboards and Semi Trucks.

And that is amazing.

Driving through the midwest makes you feel so incredibly small.  The sky seems endless and all consuming, and you feel as though you can see for miles and miles.  I had to ward off all desires to pull over and just watch the sky slowly pass over me.

And then... there's Texas.  I must say, northern Texas surprised me.  After driving through endless flats I went about 30 minutes out of Amarillo and found myself at the Palo Duro Canyon.  The land just drops off and you are left with a basin of bright red and white clay gradient.

I drove down into the canyon and hiked around for a bit.  I found an incredible cave along one of the walls, which had a clear streak of white clay through the center of it.  That was one of my favorite aspects to the canyon was seeing the changes in color throughout the walls - I will definitely be referring to this color scheme in some of my works.

I managed to hobble up to the cave and get a new view of the area.  I was wishing my leg was in better shape because the hiking and mountain biking there looks top notch.  I guess I'll have to come back to Texas (Honestly never thought I'd say that).

Even made some new friends in Texas.

I pulled off on our way to Santa Fe in Santa Rosa to check out the Blue Hole.  The blue hole is an incredible natural hole in the ground that is 60 ft wide and 81 ft deep.  They offer scuba diving as well as just swimming.  Thanks Rikki T for suggesting the pull off - this was incredible!

Onward to Santa Fe!  Managed to drive right into the center of a nice rain storm, but it also offered a picture perfect sunset over the mountains.  A deep azure blue sky with a glow from the mountains turning pink to gold to tone on tone.  No wonder Santa Fe is known as such an artistic city - the scenery is spectacular.  Can't wait to check out the town more tomorrow in the sunshine.

For the record - thanks to Tennessee I have had Blue Suede Shoes stuck in my head for going on 48 hours.  While I'm a fan of The King, this is getting to be a bit much.  Don't worry, I made sure the King lived on through some of the Postcards that I sent out to individuals involved.  Although, according to many inhabitants of Tennessee, Elvis lives, he may be working at McDonalds or mowing lawns in Florida.

Thank you, Thank you very much.