I Love Your Soul
I am stocking my shop shelves at 10AM (mountain time zone) tomorrow. For a couple of weeks, I have had a sickly, wavering WIFI connection so hopefully there will be no glitches tomorrow. If my new listings fail to load, you’ll know why! Apologies in advance…in case they’re needed.
XX
I’m going to the ocean tomorrow and the thought of leaving the high desert causes me to feel a small, quiet anguish. Leaving the high desert, leaving my home canyon, leaving the sounds of the river…the tight yank required to pull my roots up for a moment creates an uncomfortable tension for me. I go places all the time but for some reason I balk at the idea of loading the car and hitting the highway. As soon as I’m out the door, the tension will go slack and I’ll know I’m headed to where I’m supposed to be. But I feel defensive, I don’t want to be distracted by other environments right now. I’m besotted with the desert, with her textures, with her moods, with her smells and sights. My writing and my metalwork are all about her at the moment. I’m afraid to look up from that inspiration and find myself elsewhere, astounded and full of wonder, pulled off in a new direction. But I must go.
I made a goal of trying to take more trips for the sole purpose of inspiration seeking this year (and all years to come). To not travel for work — to travel for the heart of my work, for the sake of my work — to travel less for freelance photography and modeling, to travel more just to keep my soul fresh and my eyes wide open, to use my cameras, to take the time to write and paint, to explore and squander my curiosity in broad terrains and exquisite cultures. To take back the road and choose my own path again. To meet my friends along the way and to enjoy the delicious lonesomeness of my escapades, too. To feel my heart brighten at the thought of homecoming.
I have a feverish wanderlust at the moment but it’s at war with my securely planted roots and rhythms. It’s a conundrum.
But I must go.
To my desert, my sagebrush, my river canyon, my muse — Zane Grey said it best:
“The spell of the desert comes back to me, as it always will come. I see the veils, like purple smoke, in the canõns, and I feel the silence. And it seems that again I must try to pierce both and to get at the strange wild life of the last American wilderness — wild still, almost, as it ever was.”
The high desert is for people who don’t require immediately obvious beauty. We’re willing to wait for beauty to emerge and quietly stun us into awe and wonder. We see it in the buck rising from his bed beneath the bitter brush. We catch a glimpse of it when we see the golden eagle in the gale, sketching concentric circles with her wingtips. It comes to us in the steady, blond rattle of the bunch grass in the canyon winds. It touches us as the sage turns to pale violet in the gloaming. This piece speaks for that simple beauty, that easy solitude, that fearless and inhospitable and redemptive place I call home; the place that claims me as its own.
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Malawi agate, sleeping beauty turquoise and one other American turquoise — though I am unsure of the claim, so too is the lapidary artist who cut it. I’ve incorporated a cast jackrabbit vertebra (which I found in the sand country of New Mexico while bird hunting), fabricated sagebrush, one of my SOS nuggets, a golden eagle and a spangling of dimensional feathers. While working efficiently, I made just shy of 150 solders to build this piece — some tiny and some very large. The stones I chose to include in this piece speak to the palate of this river canyon and the agate itself looks like the sun popping up over the canyon rim. This design is burnished with intention and understanding: if you know the high desert, then you know.
I’m proud of this piece. I feel it is inspired, that the vision of it was breathed into me while I was out in the sage running, riding my horse and seeking treasures that my animal friends leave for me in life and death. Most importantly, it is true to my life and that is the greatest measurement of all when it comes to what I make:
Is it true and is the work original to me?
Yes. Yes it is.
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I am planning on making this piece available in my shop tomorrow. Before then, all inquiries are welcome if anyone is interested in purchasing it outside of Etsy. Please shoot me an email if you’d like pricing details.
thenoisyplume at gmail dot com
If it sells before tomorrow at 10am, I will post it as sold in this space.
Thank you all for claiming my more diminutive (but no less special) designs so that I can have the time, space, momentum and support to build these larger scale narrative pieces.
Thank you.
+Of The West+
:::EDIT:::
These dendritic agate rings run sizes 6-9.5 (as always, they’ll fit slightly smaller than they measure).
This batch of rings runs small, size 5.5-6.5. I have four more partly built. I hoped to have them ready for tomorrow but unexpectedly, I had to haul my horse to and from the vet yesterday and it cost me the entire day. I simply cannot get these other rings made in time for Friday morning. They will be larger sizes so hold onto your ponies! They’ll eventually make their way into my shop — your patience is appreciated.
I will be stocking my shop shelves on Friday February 23 @ exactly 10AM (MOUNTAIN TIME ZONE). Thank you all for your consideration! It’s always my joy to create for you.
XX
