Shack on the Hill

Shack on a Hill, 10x10

The best painting spots are the ones when you can face in one direction and see one amazing scene to paint, then face in the other direction and paint a different amazing scene. 

That's the case with this painting. I face north to paint "Near Steamboat," then turn south to paint "Shack on a Hill." It's an especially excellent spot, as it's a windy day, and I'm able to use the van to block the wind. 

I continue to be amazed at the homesteads that I see out on the plains, miles and miles from neighbors, stores, commerce of any kind. Many of these do involve more than one building, though, and as I stayed on, it became clear that entire families live together on the reservation - grandparents, great-grandparents, and many adult children and their children. 

This is a good thing and a not-so-good thing, according to a couple Navajo women I meet. It's great to have the love and support of a family, but not so good to have the constant presence of a watchful family. One young woman moved to a hogan at the very edge of the property, but tells me she still feels that her privacy is virtually nonexistent. 

Another Navajo, however, pointed out that while I see homeless dogs on the reservation, I see no homeless people. And she's right. 

My painting in the landscape

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 I have to crop these photos so that you can see the houses, but believe me, from the road, they are just tiny specks. And there are no other houses anywhere near these. The quiet must be amazing and total. The night sky must be astonishingly brilliant. But how do you get help, if you need it? How much of your day is spent traveling to shop or visit friends, on the day that you do that? How long a bus ride is it for the kids to get to school? I thought places I saw in Maine, or on the Eastern Shore were remote - they are nothing compared to places on the reservation.

This scene, above, feels like the top of the world to me. 

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Dog of the Day

Yes, I know it's a cow. It makes me laugh, though. Cows are more or less allowed to roam free on the reservation. Across most access ways to the roads are cattle guards - roadway-wide segments of metal bars set into the road itself. Cars can go over them easily, but cows won't walk on them. But I see cows in a number of un-cowlike places, and this is one. These metal buildings are part of the government complex at Window Rock, and this cow is enjoying some government-grown grass, late one Sunday afternoon.