Lunar New Year is a spring festival in the northern hemisphere. What better way to celebrate than to launch a swarm, a flight, a cluster, a glimmer and a shimmer of dragonflies.
The beautiful and ancient dragonfly petroglyph which I visited on a Gila National Forest hike two weeks ago was the starting point.
The design is also inspired by and a tribute to the Mimbres style of pottery created by peoples who inhabited this region of Southwest América Mexicana and northern Mexico a long long time ago before the naming and renaming of the world as we know it began.
Though I’ve seen the imagery on Mimbres ware described as psychedelic, to the best of my knowledge, no hallucinogenic substances were ingested during the making of this dragonfly printing block. I was born this way. Maybe the ancient potters were too.
Before my next market on February 11, I am trying to print this new design in every colour ink.
I might not manage that, though. Due to circumstances beyond my control, I am not able to be as productive as I would like to be on this project. I am on call for jury duty for the first four months of this year. Doing my civic duty as a citizen requires spending a lot of time waiting in windowless rooms various at the local courthouses, often on as little as 24 hours notice. This wreaks havoc with time management and productivity in a life.
Spring is galloping toward us here in the northern Chihauhauan desert. While the garden and I are ready to put arctic temperatures behind us, fruit trees need pruning with an urgency.
Plumbing contractors are also scheduled to replace my kitchen sink and hot water heater this week. Imagine: hot water coming out when one opens the tap! I haven't known that luxury since April 2024 and haven’t had running water in the kitchen since August 2024. Yes, it is that hard to find and schedule a qualified and licensed plumber in this town.
Deliberate elemental disruption has been invited into the heart of the Shala. For long term benefit. I hope.
I did, however, find a brief window of time to bake a batch of my own vegan adaptation of World Peace cookies to share around in celebration of the Lunar New Year. As we welcome the Year of the Earth Snake I’m thinking we could certainly use a bit of that world peace stuff.
Gorgeous design