Back From Arizona
Cedar Lee May 11th, 2010
I just returned home from a week in sunny Arizona to visit some close friends I hadn’t seen in a long time.
It was a week of adventure and decadence. I enjoyed lots of sunshine, hiking, and good food! I lounged poolside. We ate at a fantastic Ethiopian restaurant, a fantastic Greek restaurant, a fantastic vegan restaurant, and at my friend’s house we enjoyed ripe avocados, fresh-squeezed citrus juice, and dark chocolate!
I of course brought my 7-month-old with me, and carried him on my back for much of the time.
My friends and I had a wonderful visit to Sedona and hiked one of the Boynton Canyon trails to a “vortex,” or a spot where spiritual energy is believed to converge in a spiral, where this beautiful rock formation sits.
I climbed partway up the actual rock formation too! In the picture below, the tiny figure waving at the bottom is me and the one at the top is my much more badass rock-climbing friend.
Enjoying the view:
Near this spot were dozens of little cairns (stacks of balanced rocks) left by people all over the place. It is customary to build your own cairn, say any prayer you like, and leave it there. I thought it was cool, and beautiful to see the physical representations of the prayers of many people who had passed through.
The mountains in Sedona are incredible!
I also really enjoyed browsing the Southwest-themed artwork in the Sedona galleries.
I’m glad to be back to work in the studio. I’m currently working on a new Lotus triptych. The Lotus series is popular as ever and I’m struggling to keep up–the good news is I’m still not tired of painting them! Here you can see I’m just laying down the base colors in the first layer of oil paint. Much more detail will be added as I add more layers.
A collector sent me this photo of one of my Lotus triptychs hanging in their home. It looks beautiful with the colors of their bedroom!
I just received word that 3 of my Sunflower Heart paintings have sold from my NC gallery, and I have more of those in progress. A fresh 40″ x 30″ canvas is sitting on my easel as well, with the design already sketched in for another tree painting. So there’s a lot of action right now in my studio! More news to come…
