4 days, 600 miles + 2 bags of potatoes later...

with karyn denny, my assistant on day 1

inspired by marco sueno's recent work in mexico i decided to cover the facade of an abandoned trailer.  i figured i'd go big with my first installation on the rez in 2013 and to do a piece that celebrates the season - spring time which is sheep shearing time.  i talked with the woman who manages the property at gray mountain where yote, jorael elliot and i have worked on old gas storage tanks.  the proprietor, glenda, was totally down with me pasting this trailer.

day 1 went a little slower than expected.  i worked about 6 hours and was slowed trying to paste paper onto shards of glass in the windows.  

i honestly thought i'd be able to finish the trailer on sunday, day 2.  however, if i'd spent more time looking up at the front moving in on day 1, i would have known what was coming.  actually, i checked the weather forecast for sunday but didn't realize i'd experience gusts of wind at over 40 miles an hour.  it was so windy that i secured a huge rock to the ladder so the wind wouldn't blow it over.  this proved to be useless.  at least my camera and tripod which were secured in a similar way didn't hit the dirt.  i worked alone for about 5 hours and was thankful when people from the community stopped by.

the rolls of paper i pasted were 3 feet wide x 10 feet long.  because of the wind, i couldn't paste a 10 foot long piece of paper.  my strategy for installing in the wind involved going into the trailer, unrolling the paper and cutting the strips in half to 5 feet.  it turns out the trailer is a squatting site though i didn't see anyone during my 4 days there.

because this site is 75 miles from my house and i work during the week, i had to wait a week before returning to the spot.  i returned 2 days ago with 2 friends from flagstaff (james martin + catherine ryan).  the proprietor, glenda, and her husband stopped by to check out the process and my progress.  when i started work on the site a week ago i gave her a bag of oranges and a sac of potatoes to thank her for letting me work there.  i did the same on day 3.

about an hour after glenda and her husband left, a truckload of 4 people pulled up.  a young man of about 15 demanded to know who told me i could paint their trailer and said i had to stop doing what i was doing and to paint the trailer back the way it was.  it'd been a long day.  i was tired and this wasn't what i wanted to hear.  his sister, mom and grandmother joined the conversation.

when i told them that i'd gotten permission from glenda, they weren't impressed and had no idea who glenda was.  as it turned out, the grandma owns the trailer.  she'd moved out of it years ago and was sad that it had been vandalized and all of her belongings stolen.  she said that she had plans to haul the trailer back to her present property and to restore it.  i didn't challenge this but couldn't imagine the trailer surviving a trip anywhere.  the woman's name is mary.  she said money was preventing her from doing anything with it.  in fact, may said she was having trouble getting hay for livestock and for gas.  catherine and i pooled the money we had and gave it to her.  they left satisfied.  it occurred to me that she should be the person getting the sacs of potatoes.

day 4 was much like day 2.  it was windy and i worked alone.  at least my ladder didn't get blown over once i attached the big rock.

ahhhhh.  spring time on the rez.  the cycle begins again.

frybread; you've got to be nice to your customers

photo by aura bogado

it's been a crazy, crazy couple weeks.  so crazy in fact, i'm not even sure where to begin.  for example, last weekend jb came up from phoenix with 2 other artists to paint the back of the vendor's stand at navajo bridge.  the woman who manages the stand asked me on 2 separate occasions to please put some art on that ugly metal stand.  so jb decided to go for it.  while jb and his crew were painting the navajo nation pd rolled up on them asking if they had a permit.  jb didn't have one so he called me and asked if i'd speak to the officer.

that in and of itself was interesting.  the officer said he'd received a complaint about some people doing graffiti on the back of the vendor's stand.  i told him that i know the stand manager and dropped her name several times.  he finally said "...okay, next time let us know you're going to be doing something like this and get an agreement in writing to have onsite."  now i know.

then 2 days later my friend, the stand manager, sent me a text saying "the park service says the art isn't appropriate for the area and that i have to paint the stand back to it's original color."  ugh.  my friend elaborated that although she manages the stand, the actual structure is the property of the national park service.  

meanwhile, two pieces i put up over the past 2 weeks have gotten tagged beyond recognition.  they are owen at moenkopi wash and the halloween kids in cow springs.  i think this struggle about claiming territory. i give up since i'm never there to engage the people as they're going over my piece.  still, i really liked the owen piece.

also this week i got to go back to austin mix's roping arena "the rope zone" in preparation for the tuba city fair.  i only see austin about once a year now while i'm working on his stand  and each time i see him i'm reminded how wonderful and positive a human being he is.  tuesday after work i drove to the rodeo grounds to scrape off all of the piece from last year.  i painted the stand as well just as it was getting dark, dark.  thursday night i went back after work and pasted the piece.  this morning i added the "wind swooshing the hat off" marks.

as i was driving to the tuba city fair parade this morning i noticed mrs. woody's stand wasn't where it normally is.  

"hmmm.  that's very odd," i thought.  "maybe she loaded it on a flatbed trailer to take to tuba city send sell food at the fair."  it bothered me all day wondering why her stand was down.

coming back from the fair i stopped to talk with mr. and mrs. daws and to get some roasted mutton from them.  mrs. daws broke it down.  apparently mrs. woody was having a run-in with one of her customers and was chasing him or her across the flea market grounds when a gust of wind came along, knocked over a pan of hot frybread grease onto an open flame and burned her stand to the ground.  poof.  just like that.  no more source of income for mrs. woody.  no more doodles' art.

mrs. daws said repeatedly "...it just goes to prove.  you've got to be nice to your customers."