Magical SouthWest

You might have to listen closely, but there is something magical about living in the southwest. You can almost hear the drumbeats of the Native Americans who lived here before us. Just down the road from our house, they often find shards of pottery from the Ho-Hokam tribe.

I often imagine their struggles - what did they do for water? It is very dry here in the Sonoran desert.

We've seen petroglyphs and ruins - they are all over Arizona. I used to ride my horse in Catalina State Park, just ten minutes from home. There's an area of huge boulders, where you can see (from up on top of your horse), where they pounded grasses (maize) into grain.

One of my favorite images of the southwest is Kokopelli. Kokopelli is a jester, a flutist. He is a fertility deity, and also he is a trickster God, and represents the spirit of music.

I've been fascinated by Kokopelli since my first visit to Arizona, when I was 16. I have several paintings, and one great print by an artist I found on Etsy.

So when we found this great image of Kokopelli, just the right size to be set in an almost-antique typewriter key setting, I fell in love with it. The background color is turquoise, just right for the southwest. You can find it in my shop, Buster and boo, later today.