Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Virginia, North Carolina---The Beach!

Matt's and Mine's

So today marks the beginning of Matt's and mines new journey. For the past three years we've been living in Madison, Wisconsin while I was in school attaining an MFA degree in jewelry and metalsmithing. We leave with mixed feelings. Like every place we move, and I think Madison was about town 8 of our twenty year relationship, we've made life long friends and colleagues whom we will miss deeply, but I have to say, Madison itself is probably a town I won't miss. Like today for example, I decided I wanted to try the cafe across the street from us which we've been staring at for the past three months as we house-sat for my professor. It's called Cafe ZuZu. We got two coffees and one breakfast sandwich. This place is always packed on the weekend, so I figured it had to be decent for some basics like coffee and sandwiches. NOPE. It was the worst egg and cheese sandwich I've ever had. It was the last in a long line of disappointing food choices we've endured in Madison. Oh well, live and learn.  See also: http://matthewallencrane.blogspot.com/search?updated-min=2012-01-01T00:00:00-08:00&updated-max=2013-01-01T00:00:00-08:00&max-results=5

We're headed on another cross-country tour. This time we are headed to Boone, NC to visit our good friends Arthur Hash and Liz Clark. Then we are off to the NC coast to check out the wild horses and pirates! Then we'll head to Florida to visit another friend, Allison Kline in New Smyrna beach!! Then off to Disney World and maybe Miami. Finally we'll head west through the delta hitting up New Orleans and up through Texas to see our friend Desiree. Finally Matt will drop me off in Colorado and he'll head to Haiti, Cuba and the Dominican Republic for three weeks of drumming!!

La Playa

Went to Puerto Vallarta last week. It was amazing. I did all the touristy things like take a local tour which included a trip up to a waterfall and zip line. Apparently it's where they filmed Predator. We also stopped at a tequilla place. I'm not sure what to call it, because they don't make the tequilla there, they just show tourists how they make it, and give you about 8 shots of different kinds of tequilla and then sell you expensive tequilla! I saw a bunch of huge iguanas in trees. The next day I took a boat out to the Marieta's Islands. I paddle boarded and swam through a cave to a secluded beach. I got stung like four times by jellyfish. It wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. The tour guide kept saying there were tons of "yellow fish," and I couldn't figure out what he meant. I thought that he was talking about yellow fin tuna which I think are pretty aggressive. Then I finally had him point to what he was talking about, and he pointed to the jelly fish. It was funny. Well to me anyway! The little town of Puerto Vallarta is super cute. The food is really good, and everyone is super friendly. I met a lot of Mexican's who used to live in California and then moved back down to Mexico. I can understand why. It's super cheap and it's beautiful. It's a lot more humid and hot, but the water is comfortable and it's a way kick back lifestyle. I took many siestas. Mainly because it's hot. It was also gay pride week, so I caught a drag contest and of course another art-penis!

Cakes and a Penis

Went on a walk yesterday and ran into a wonderful little patisserie. The case had so many cakes and pies to choose from. We met the owner, Marco, who was so nice. He invited us back that evening for dinner, dessert of course and some music. What a treat. Javier, who turned out to be the head of the symphony in Chapala, played the Mexican Harp. It's a beautiful instrument usually used as an accompaniment in Mariachi bands, but he played solo. (his other band members didn't show up). Sienna, one of the resident artists sung a couple of songs with him which was very nice.

Today I met up with Jose Melendrez. He's a local joyero (jeweler) whom I met in his joyeria (jewelry store) in Ajijic. He took me to his studio and showed me how he works with whatever he finds and makes really cool jewelry with. He makes a lot of phallic forms, so you know we got along! Monday we are going to Puerto Vallarta!! He's going to have a pop up store in his condo, and I'm going to explore the beach and local jungle! I'm super stoked. Here are some images of him torch firing enamel. Also some random pictures of my walk and the yummy cakes!! And of course, a penis!

Gonzalez Gallo Centro Cultural

My casita is situated one block from the malecon and the lake, but I'm also fortunate enough to be just down the street from the old train station which connected Lake Chapala to the rest of the Mexican republic. The center was designed and built by architect and engineer Guillermo de Alba in 1920. "From 1904 to 1909, Chapala was the chosen springtime vacation destination for Mexico President Porfirio Diaz and his family and friends." The building was restored in 1997 and reopened in 2006. It's a beautiful building which reflects the eclectic architectural movement of the early twentieth century. We are in the process of organizing an artist talk/exhibition of work scheduled for May 29th, my last day here in Chapala! Sienna Dahlen (www.siennadahlen.com), a very accomplished singer/composer from Toronto, Ontario, is one of the residents for 360 Xochi Quetzal. She will be performing as well as Diana Spechler, (www.dianaspechler.com/) a writer living and working in NYC, Karen Cohen, (www.karencohen.photoshelter.com), a photographer living and working in Washington D.C., local artist Churro will perform improvised painting while Sienna is singing and perhaps while Diana is reading excerpts from her latest book. I will have a slideshow of my work and have some pieces I have made while in residence here. (www.tanyamoniquejewelry.com) We also hope to have other local and indigenous artists display their works. 

Flamenco and Scorpions

Saturday night, my friend Karen and I got to see a Flamenco performance which helped to raise money for local college students studying tourism. Unfortunately the sun was behind the dancer, so she is just a silhouette, but she posed for me off to the side in her beautiful polka dot dress! I also went on a boat ride out to Scorpion Island. We were the only ones on the boat and subsequently the only ones on the island. A volunteer kind of guided us to different spots to look at. It totally looked like a set for a horror film. Everything was falling apart and abandoned, and the bathroom had no running water, and the toilet did not flush! There was a pseudo restaurant that I would never eat at, but on the up side, there were lots of beautiful plants and we got to catch an amazing sunset! The boat was pretty sketchy as well. It was fun though, and I'm glad I went. It's kind of a bummer that there is this huge 8 mile long lake and no one can really utilize it because it is so polluted. Humans are lame.

Layin' Low

Unfortunately for the past couple of days I've had the stomach bug that afflicts so many travelers. I can't say that I was super cautious of my food and drink for the first couple of days, but I did wash my hands and drink only bottled water. But I can't make others do the same, so I paid the poopy price! I'm recovering fairly quickly and look forward to a Flamenco performance and dinner tonight! These are some more images from Ajijic. The two men were so sweet.