When the day is free, and the winter chill is no where to be seen, the best place to be is somewhere in nature.January 15th 2018 was a free national park day, and for nature enthusiasts like ourselves, Neil and I felt like it was the perfect day to explore Joshua Tree National Park. I had never been, and wasn't even sure what a Joshua Tree was, but I've heard great things about the open space and colors. So we needed to see for ourselves... For the most part, it looked like this.... (look at that blue sky!)  But there were tons and tons of rocks to climb...  To get great views like this....  And there were so many Joshua Trees...  This is a Joshua Tree Joshua Trees are actually not trees, they are a type of Yucca, and a part of the agave plant family. They are the largest Yuccas, reaching a height of 15 to 40 feet. That's just tall...  Super tall... While we were there to see the Joshua trees... we got a little distracted...  ...a raven!  by Ravens flying to Joshua tree tops... You can encounter a raven every day, and it's still a magical experience. Though it wasn't just Ravens that caught our attention... Jackrabbits were around too!  And we also got up close and personal with a Cactus wren...  Or maybe two...  While we were more interested in the birds and wildlife - the landscape is something not to overlook...  It's the perfect playground...
or it might be the perfect place to do your next men's clothing photo shoot   Joshua Tree National Park is split into two sides, a north and a south. We primarily stayed on the north side where the Joshua Trees were. But the south side is still quite beautiful, littered with Cholla Cacti.  We spent the entire time playing rather than doing any plein-air drawing or sketching. But I did manage to create an oil pastel sketch of Joshua Tree National Park, for my daily drawing.  Joshua Tree National Park is located right outside Palm Springs, California. It is where two deserts merge together, the Mohave and the Colorado. It is open all year, and the visitor center has some great information about where to hike, camp or drive. It is definitely worth a trip if you are in the neighborhood.  Photos were taken by Neil Rizos and myself.
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When I was a kid, my uncle had a Muscovy duck. I think his name was Phillip. This is not the real Phillip... this duck lives at Papago Park in Phoenix Every time I see these ducks at Papago Park in Phoenix, |
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 Javalina |  Gambel 's Quail |
 Mourning Dove |  Desert Cottontail |
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The Hummingbird by Harry Kemp The sunlight speaks. And it's voice is a bird: It glitters half-guessed half seen half-heard Above the flower bed. Over the lawn ... A flashing dip and it is gone. And all it lends to the eye is this -- A sunbeam giving the air a kiss |
Possibly a Rufous Hummingbird, taken at Laguna, California
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 Round Tailed Ground Squirrel |  Harris Antelope Squirrel |
 Male Gambel's Quail |  Roadrunner |  Female House Sparrow |
 House Sparrow |  Framed print, available at Fine Art America. |
 Harris Antelope Squirrel |  Framed Print, available at Fine Art America |
"To the extent that artists struggle to express beauty in form and color and sound, to the extent that they write about man's struggle with nature or society, or himself, to that extent they strike a responsive chord in all humanity. Today, Sophocles speaks to us from more than 2,000 years. And in our own time, even when political communications have been strained, the Russian people have bought more than 20,000 copies of the works of Jack London, more than 10 million books of Mark Twain, and hundreds and thousands of copies of Hemingway, Steinbeck, Whitman, and Poe; and our own people, through the works of Tolstoy and Dostoievsky and Pasternak have gained an insight into the shared problems of the human heart.
Thus today, as always, art knows no national boundaries.
Genius can speak at any time, and the entire world will hear it and listen. Behind the storm of daily conflict and crisis, the dramatic confrontations, the tumult of political struggle, the poet, the artist, the musician, continues the quiet work of centuries, building bridges of experience between peoples, reminding man of the universality of his feelings and desires and despairs, and reminding him that the forces that unite are deeper than those that divide.
Thus, art and the encouragement of art is political in the most profound sense, not as a weapon in the struggle, but as an instrument of understanding of the futility of struggle between those who share man's faith. Aeschylus and Plato are remembered today long after the triumphs of imperial Athens are gone. Dante outlived the ambitions of 13th century Florence. Goethe stands serenely above the politics of Germany, and I am certain that after the dust of centuries has passed over our cities, we, too, will be remembered not for victories or defeats in battle or in politics, but for our contribution to the human spirit.
It was Pericles' proudest boast that politically Athens was the school of Hellas. If we can make our country one of the great schools of civilization, then on that achievement will surely rest our claim to the ultimate gratitude of mankind. Moreover, as a great democratic society, we have a special responsibility to the arts, for art is the great democrat calling forth creative genius from every sector of society, disregarding race or religion or wealth or color. The mere accumulation of wealth and power is available to the dictator and the democrat alike. What freedom alone can bring is the liberation of the human mind and spirit which finds its greatest flowering in the free society.
Thus, in our fulfillment of these responsibilities toward the arts lie our unique achievement as a free society."
- President John F Kennedy, Remarks at a Close & Circuit Television Broadcast on Behalf of the National Cultural Center. November 29, 1962
"In the long history of man, countless empires and nations have come and gone. Those which created no lasting works of art are reduced today to short footnotes in history's catalog.
Art is a nation's most precious heritage. For it is in our works of art that we reveal to ourselves, and to others, the inner vision which guides us as a Nation. And where there is no vision, the people perish.
We in America have not always been kind to the artists and the scholars who are the creators and the keepers of our vision. Somehow, the scientists always seem to get the penthouse, while the arts and the humanities get the basement.
Last year, for the first time in our history, we passed legislation to start changing that situation. We created the National Council on the Arts.
The talented and the distinguished members of that Council have worked very hard. They have worked creatively. They have dreamed dreams and they have developed ideas.
This new bill, creating the National Foundation for the Arts and the Humanities, gives us the power to turn some of those dreams and ideas into reality.
We would not have that bill but for the hard and the thorough and the dedicated work of some great legislators in both Houses of the Congress. All lovers of art are especially indebted to Congressman Adam Clayton Powell of New York, to Congressman Frank Thompson of New Jersey, to Senator Lister Hill of Alabama, to Senator Claiborne Pell of Rhode Island, to many Members of both the House and Senate who stand with me on this platform today--too many names to mention.
But these men and women have worked long and hard and effectively to give us this bill. And now we have it. Let me tell you what we are going to do with it. Working together with the State and the local governments, and with many private organizations in the arts:
--We will create a National Theater to bring ancient and modern classics of the theater to audiences all over America.
--We will support a National Opera Company and a National Ballet Company.
--We will create an American Film Institute, bringing together leading artists of the film industry, outstanding educators, and young men and women who wish to pursue the 20th century art form as their life's work.
--We will commission new works of music by American composers.
--We will support our symphony orchestras.
--We will bring more great artists to our schools and universities by creating grants for their time in residence.
Well, those are only a small part of the programs that we are ready to begin. They will have an unprecedented effect on the arts and the humanities of our great Nation.
But these actions, and others soon to follow, cannot alone achieve our goals. To produce true and lasting results, our States and our municipalities, our schools and our great private foundations, must join forces with us.
It is in the neighborhoods of each community that a nation's art is born. In countless American towns there live thousands of obscure and unknown talents.
What this bill really does is to bring active support to this great national asset, to make fresher the winds of art in this great land of ours.
The arts and the humanities belong to the people, for it is, after all, the people who create them."
- Lyndon B Johnson,Remarks at the Signing of the Arts and Humanities Bill. September 29, 1965
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 Moonlight Click to buy |  Coastal Donegal Click to buy |
 Desert splash Click to buy |  Oak Creek at Cathedral Rock Click to buy |
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