Postcard from Tucson

If you want to get your outdoor exercise here in Tucson in the summer, you better get out early…and I mean real early. Even then you may run into 80-85 degree weather with higher than normal humidity. You see, summers here include temperatures in the low 100’s and severe monsoon rainstorms coming in from the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico. I’ve seen days where our temps and humidity are higher than Miami on the same day! So the old expression about Arizona…”yea its hot but it’s a dry heat” isn’t exactly true.  

Enough complaining. This photo was taken just a few days ago around 6:00 AM. I took it with my iPhone camera as that is all I had with me on my walk. I was on a large piece of desert land owned by Pima Community College, right across the street from my new place. It is crisscrossed with trails that offer a great walking experience as well as elevated views of Tucson. On this morning, the view offered a view of two localized light monsoon rainstorms. These are quite common this time of year.

My home was hit the previous evening with another storm that brought heavy, heavy rain and a spectacular thunder and lightning storm right overhead. The storm you see here, especially the one on the left, was very near my home, but petered out before it got to me.

One would think that walking on the ground after a heavy rainstorm, one would be sinking in mud. Not here…this land was bone dry. Rain, even monsoon rain, goes right through it so mud is a rare commodity. The Sonoran Desert is very different from most. Its these rains than allow the cactus and other desert flora to thrive. The large Saguaro Cactus store the water in their rather large arms.

The large mountains you see in the distance are the Santa Catalina Mountains. To the right of the photo, you would see Downtown Tucson and the large campus of the University of Arizona. PS: If you ever come here this time of year, stay out of the gullies and dips in the road. They flood in 5-10 minutes. Flash floods are no joke and we have received several flash flood warnings this year. Still, I do like living here even with these inconveniences.

For the last couple of years, I have managed to escape in August to the San Francisco Bay Area for a length of time and come back home when the temps start to drop. Next week, I will again be winging my way north to see friends and attend the last Indy Car race of the year in Sonoma. I look forward to that. You may recall I went to that very race last year which took place after a large earthquake. Hopefully we can see the race without an earthquake this year.

Of course, this means I won’t be writing this blog for a couple of weeks, but I promise I will be back with new photos from my time up north. So take care and I will return.

Postcard from Tucson

 

The Old Door

There's an old door in my garden,
Was put there long ago.
Rather then leave it for the trash,
I planted it so it might grow.

Dug deep I did that it might root,
And one morning I might see.
The hand of the Lord at work,
Of an old door birthed from a tree

.
' Knock and it shall be open',
These words written so long ago.
So much lay beyond for you and me,
More then you'll ever know.

This door once hung on someones house,
Held by hinges made of brass.
Painted white, chipped and faded now,
With panes crystal clear, now just broken glass.

How many times did one knock,
Yet never enter in?
Held to all their selfish needs and pride,
And not forgiven of their sins.

Every year I will replant,
With hopes that with sun and rain.
It will bring forth little seedlings,
From the wood, the brass, the panes.

Then I shall place God's harvest,
Along the roadside, for you to take on your way home.
Then maybe you'll plant one of your own,
From the old door God had grown.

Poem by Linda Mitchell

Photo by J.R. Corkrum – “Doors of Old Tucson #1”

Postcard from My Computer

Sometimes the emphasis of this blog is about one of my photographs and sometimes its about the place in the photo. Mostly, its about me sharing my photos with you and weaving an interesting tale worth reading. I think I am a pretty good photographer and artist…and writer. I certainly have been to many places in the world and have interesting stories to share. I probably have more stories to share that don’t have corresponding photos. That is because all of my photos prior to 1992 are gone. All my European photos prior to that date are gone. My journey around the islands of the South Pacific and the Caribbean are gone. It’s a sad story not worth telling. 

But back to today’s photo. I love to experiment with photos I’ve taken along the journey of life. Way back in the 90’s, I got tired of ordinary photos, no matter how good they were. That is when I first started digitally painting and sketching photos. My work became good enough that it sold at art shows, hung in prestigious galleries and in homes around the world. I am humbled by my experiences and the fact that people would pay good money for my work.

If you follow this blog regularly or see my work on Flickr, you have seen some of the results of my experiments. This photo is another experiment in digital photo manipulation using a new software I recently picked up. It is amazing the number of software products one can find today for this kind of work. That was not true when I first started creating digital paintings and sketches from my original photos. I had to experiment long and hard to come up with interesting images. I think I was a pioneer in this field. That makes me feel good.

This photo, originally taken at sunrise from my campsite in the Arches National Park is quite lovely without any enhancements. But, like so much of my work, I experimented with the photo and came up with this beauty. I liked it immediately. You would be surprised at the number of images I experiment with that you never see because they are not up to my standards.

What makes this work is the array of sunrise colors behind the leafless tree that are woven into a new image using the existing forms. For me, my art will always be about beauty, even in abstract form. I hope you find it interesting.

(To see a larger version of this image, just click on it)

To see more of my work, both in photography and digital painting, please visit my website, www.corkrum.com…or visit my Flickr Page