28th Year Color Sunday

     Even though this was not painted in the travel journal, and in fact was more than a year before I approached the subject - it really seemed the only fitting Color Sunday to end the Travel Journal Colorado series with.

The Rafting Accident

28th Year Travel Journal - 4

    Animas Peak Drawing.

     Near our campsite in Durango, we drove up on a whim and I am so glad we did.  This place was inspiring beautiful.      

     On this peak I jotted down the idea for a graphic novel of which I have some developmental sketches going.  

It might be a long time in the making, but the idea has stuck hard with me.  

28th Year Travel Journal - 3

     As promised, here is the "comic" I drew on the road.  It was just one of those little moments that happen sometimes in a relationship.  Since I was documenting the trip, I made a comic out of it.  

Hopefully Erik won't be too mad.

28th Year Travel Journal - 2

This is why I love Erik.  The bit in the right hand corner might be a little hard to read so I will sum up.  We tuned into a classical station on the radio and after a minute or so realized that the piece was skipping and playing the same section over and over again.  I said that I thought it was skipping and Erik (in a maniacal voice said) "It IS skipping!  I'm going to listen until they fix it! haha"  Then we lost the signal.

The hostel that we stayed at in Salida.

If you are interested in staying there, this is their site: http://www.simplelodge.com/

This is a ranch gate I designed as a joke for my Aunt's place based on some of the ostentatious ones we saw.

  

The Million Dollar Highway.

Not good for motion sickness.

Tomorrow a "comic" I made at the start of the trip.

28th Year Travel Journal - 1

     Allow a bit of explanation here.  I promise there will be many images to follow.

   Initially I had written about how everyone told me that the year of my 28th birthday was my Saturn Return Year.  And it was indeed a complicated and difficult year.  Today, I received a comment that Saturn Return is usually in the 29th year and not the 28th.

     Since I do like to be accurate, I checked on this calculator, and it turns out that my Saturn Return Year is this year.  My 29th year.

     That being said, my 28th year was extremely difficult.  There was the tragic loss of a friend, a rafting accident and near drowning experience, an extremely difficult period in therapy, continual hospital visits, an insane roommate situation, massive weight gain and teaching for the first time.

     Today I came across my travel journal from last summer and I was reminded that it was also a year of joy.  A fantastic trip to Colorado, the first half of the rafting trip, my first art show, Erik and my 1 year anniversary, moving into our own apartment (which I love), our Tucson trip, and teaching for the first time (which included a memorable experience at the Challenger Center and some truly amazing students).

    Since I am in a particularly rough period right now, it was sublime to be reminded of joy.  This week I will be sharing select drawings from that travel journal.

So without further Ado:

The journal starts with housesitting:

The watercolor pencils I had were a little difficult to use, so at this point I pretty much gave up on them.

We did some camping near where we were housesitting just prior to the trip.

Coming up tomorrow: