My trip from my home in the Mojave desert in California to the banks of the Green River in Utah began with familial challenges and unexpected car issues. This was only my 2nd out of state road trip that I had ever done on my own, car packed with camping gear, art supplies and altar items. I made my way along the Southwest to share space with loved ones among the Saguaros & laugh at the silliness of life and relationships deep in the remote sandstone monuments of Canyonlands National Park. Midway, I stopped to camp and gaze at the Grand Canyon’s South Rim, a landscape I had always imagined from stories, photos and descriptions. I don’t yet have the right words to interpret what I was able to experience and view but I hope that the few photographs that I took can in some way capture the emotional impact that the canyon had on me.

I write this now from the basement studio of my artist residency with Epicenter, a non profit organization that runs the Frontier Fellowship from Green River, UT. Last night I gave a brief but very ‘Blanca’ artist talk in which I focused on my cultural work and interdisciplinary artist practice which involves emotional (to me) themes of family, trauma, cultural traditions, plants and dreams. Most if not all of my art is about healing as I create mostly to process my mental health; relational healing and the work that happens in the dream & waking world.

In order to be present with myself, the folks here in Green River and the land itself I will continue to be absent on social media and will posting a few blog entries a week in order to archive my experience of this new chapter of my life. xoxo - b