Outside Deadwood

Outside Deadwood

Everything changed for me today, when it truly hit me that I don't have to do all the westward traveling first.

Yes, I stopped to paint a couple days ago, in Reliance, SD, and I felt good about it - but unsettled. My plan - which I announced to all of you, to my friends and family, and set in my own mind - was to drive west to Wisdom, Montana, my turnaround spot, and then paint on my way east. I wouldn't drive at all on the way west. I'd look, I'd study the landscape, I'd plan - but I wouldn't paint. 

That plan began to crack with the first painting. Then yesterday, I had an epiphany, and my plan broke completely. I don't have to follow my plan! I don't have to go anywhere first. I am here, I am painting, I am free. This epiphany, small as it might seem, showed me clearly how rigid and unbending I can be, how determined and inflexible. These are all traits I thought I'd left behind when I left the world of newspapers and deadlines. Turns out, they are traits that live in me. 

So I am wandering. I'm not worrying about forward progress, about getting anywhere by any particular date. I'm wandering and exploring and loving the freedom I'm feeling. And as one sponsor said to me, that freedom is already showing up in my paintings! 

***

Deadwood

 

I wanted to see Deadwood, because of the legends and also the HBO series, starring Ian McShane as the filthy-mouthed and appropriately named Al Swearengen. Alas, while many of the buildings have been preserved, the town is full of casinos and shops selling trinkets. Maybe this is what Deadwood was all along, but to me, it felt like it had lost its heart. It was wearing the clothes of the legendary Deadwood, but that spirit is gone. 

I've had the same feeling about Santa Fe, Key West, Virginia Beach and Stonington, Connecticut. All these places, in my mind, have lost the kernel of what made them so beloved. 

 ***

Wall Drug

For hundreds of miles as you drive along I-90, you see these billboards, one after another after another. The only thing that comes close - and might even beat Wall Drug - is Pedro's South of the Border in South Carolina. And so, of course, I had to go! 

If Deadwood seemed a hollow shell of its former self, I can say no such thing about Wall Drug. this place knows what it is, and takes every advantage of it! It's a place that sells T-shirts, key rings and jackalopes. It sells baubles, burgers and bubble bath. It's shop after shop of self-promoting, inexpensive junk. It's the Kim Kardashian of stores, famous for being famous. I had a good time perusing the shelves and shops. 

***

Scenes from the Road

The scene above was across the street from where I made the painting at the top 

of this blog post. It was hard to decide which one to paint! 

Above and below, scenes from Wyoming. 

***

Bighorns!

  

Well, they weren't kidding! I came around a curve in the road, and there was a herd of bighorn sheep grazing in the morning sun. The herd was still there when I finished my painting, and I pulled over and got some good photos. 

***

Dog of the Day

 I took my photos and left the herd, rounded the curve in the road, and saw a big sheep dance down the side of a mountain. He stood there for a moment, then he clambered into the road, stopping traffic in both directions.