The Interns of Community Rebuild

Looking back at our project with Community Rebuilds, it’s obvious that the program would in now ways be the same without the interns. Each...

Community Rebuilds – Moab, Utah

We’re back in Utah once again, this time in Moab. If you don’t know Moab this is red rock country. It’s where you find...

European Teaching Tour – June and early July, 2013

Over the past year or so I’ve been trying to juggle/understand the process of how one manages the digital world of the internet, social...

Visiting Counter-Culture Icons, Lloyd Kahn and Lesley Creed

Lloyd Kahn is one in many million when it comes to the fascinating people we have met In the course of our lives.  Our...

The Return of White Sonoran Wheat

“The abandoned flour mills throughout Sonora,” said the Mexican anthropologist Guillermo Nuñez Noriega, “are the equivalents for Sonorans of the pyramids in Central Mexico.”...

Artistry with the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch

Photography has gone through a major change.   With the arrival of the iPhone, almost overnite, it became possible to capture high quality images, process...

Dispatch from Sonora

I’m sitting on the town plaza in Banamichi, Sonora, the temperature couldn’t be any more perfect, I’ve got my laptop and it seemed like...

Spring, Summer, Etc.

I started this blog post back in early July, my thought was to write something that would catch up on our spring and early...

“Old Style Organic” – Santa Clara Pueblo, New Mexico

Since childhood, when my parents took me along with them to visit Santa Clara Pueblo in northern New Mexico during summer vacations, my life...

Heirloom Tomatoes, Garlic and Chiltepines – 36 Hours in Northern Sonora

Why go to Mexico?  For me, the reasons vary and mostly have to do with encountering and seeing things I don’t come across here...

Dirt-O-Rama – Intriguing Tales Beneath Our Feet

From July 14th through the 29th, Athena and I will be at the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum participating in their summer program entitled “Dirt-O-Rama –...

iPhones on the Rio Sonora

Through much of November and December my attention was focused on an iPhone photography course we sponsored in Banamichi, Sonora and that was held...

To Bluff and Back

I was being overtaken by recurring thoughts reminding me that I should write something for my blog.  Athena added a few of her own...

Transitioning at 15 – “The Quinceanera”

We’ve been back about a month from Europe, hosted the Xunutzi dance group for Tucson Meet Yourself, been to Minneapolis to line up work...

Grupo Danza Xunutzi, Big Jim Griffith and Tucson Meet Yourself

I thought I’d be done with my European posts by now, but apparently, I came home more tired than expected.  One more remains about...

France and Camera Thoughts

We’re home in Canelo, 6 pretty hard, but fun weeks on our European tour.  My blogs dropped off after Finland, the pace always seems...

Marvelous Mud on the Baltic Sea

Our Finland workshop took place at the edge of the Baltic sea on a small island just outside the center of Helsinki. The location...

Forests, Forests, Mushrooms, Mushrooms and the Sea

Something very beautiful about the rain in Europe is that it can be raining and you don’t see until you feel it, then you...

Clay Plaster Workshop in Denmark

We’ve completed our stay and workshop in Denmark and are now in Finland, just outside of Helsinki staying with Irish transplant Paul Lynch, his...

Welcome to the New Canelo Chronicles via the Rio Sonora

Welcome to our newly redesigned Blog and our website should you decide to have a look there as well, both long overdue for change....

Denver – Around the Edges

This is primarily a piece about photography.  The subject in this case, is the context in which we worked.  When I was immersing myself...

Denver Art Museum – The Final Chapter

Once in a while, you get a project where everything seems to come together seamlessly.   Such was the case in Denver.  From the accommodations...

More Marvelous Mud in Denver

Monday Morning – Denver

Our first weekend working at the Denver Art Museum is behind us. I think I like Denver, our experiences here over the last year...

Canelo Dispatches

Denver Art Museum News This weekend begins our program at the Denver Art Museum and their summer program “Marvelous Mud – Clay around the...

Monsoon News and a Little Bit More

Scattered rains around us, norther Sonora got a great soaking the other night, some decent rains to the east of us, Tucson even got...

Flowers in the Dirt

Right now, there’s a whole lot one could say about drought, lack of rain, fires to the right, fires to the left, there are...

iPhone Photography Course on the Rio Sonora

Provided this part of the world, Arizona and the state of Sonora to the south, doesn’t dry up, burn up or disappear by the...

Upcoming New Mexico Magazine Article – Athena’s Mother’s Adobe House

Last year we did a post on Athena’s mother’s house in Santa Clara Pueblo just north of Santa Fe in New Mexico.  It’s almost...

Our Summer Schedule-Marvelous Mud and European Tour

Marvelous Mud Program – Denver Art Museum – July 9th thru July 24th In July we go back to the Denver Art Museum to be...

Earth Floor – Diamond Mountain Buddhist Community

This past weekend I spent a day helping/teaching three young folks installing an earth floor in a 400 sf straw bale cottage belonging to...

A Long Overdue Post

I keep thinking I should post something to my blog, our past 3 months have been ridiculously busy.  However, I’m poised to fill in...

Odds and Ends from Home

Here’s a few items that I thought I’d share with you, mostly this post was driven by people requesting the recipe for the “coctel...

Photo Dispatches from Sonora

Looking back, March seems little more than a blur.  Our life was consumed by the state of Sonora.  Either we were there or it...

Connecting Some Personal Dots

“Connecting People, Culture and Nature,” was the phrase we chose when we created The Canelo Project. To this day, I think it describes our...

Distilling the Rio Sonora – a Great Weekend

Several weeks ago, we took 13 friends along with us on a trip to Mexico.  Many of them had never met. Our idea was...

Denver’s Urban Folklore – Random photos

One of the fun things for me when working away from home is the opportunity for different kinds of photos whether it be people,...

Drywall Plaster Notes from Denver

For those who are interested here are some notes about the plaster we applied to the drywall panels behind the sculpture. The museum mounted...

Mud Woman Continues – Part 2

So much for trying to post photos on a daily basis while working in Denver. I knew it wasn’t likely, but I thought I...

Mud Woman Continues

We returned to Denver yesterday to begin working with Athena’s sister Roxanne on her sculpture piece “Mud Woman Rolls On.” Our presence coincides with...

Grupo Danza Xunutzi Video

The one thing we have been lacking in our writings about this lovely group is video footage other than a few short clips that...

Music, Dance and Astronomy

This beautiful article/speech was sent to me recently, I thought it absolutely brilliant. It gave me words and a means to express what I...

The Other Border

Last summer I got an email from friends who live in Washington D.C. and were planning to visit us over the Christmas holidays. They...

Mud Woman Begins to Roll

Funny where the world takes you at times. A desire to upload this blog before going to Mexico tomorrow and trouble with the internet...

Love Stories

My great grandfather came to Mexico from southern France in the mid 1850s in search of opportunity and a new life. When he arrived...

The Song and Dance of Mexico in Arizona

Once again we find ourselves in that time of year when a handful of individuals manage to spend a lot of other people’s money...

Rio Sonora Dance Group – Tucson Meet Yourself

This is basically an announcement or reminder for friends in Tucson, Arizona. A few blog posts back we featured several videos of a folkloric...

Sieben Linden Ecovillage of Germany

Last Summer (09), while traveling from Denmark to our next workshop in Slovakia, we were given a tornado-like tour of the well-known German ecovillage,...

Revisiting Slovakia – The Straw Bale Dome Project

One of the highlights of our European tour last summer was getting to know the country of Slovakia – the landscape, the people, it’s...

Mud Woman Rolls On

Driving from the airport to the downtown metro area of Denver, the first thing that got my attention last week was how dry the...

Rio Sonora – Regional Folkloric Dance

Back in March I posted some photos of a folkloric dance performance on the plaza in the town of Banamichi on the Rio Sonora....

More Monsoon Driving

I’ve gotten several inquires since my last post about the roads we traveled. So I thought it a good idea to post a map...

Driving Southeastern Arizona’s Monsoon

The monsoon summer of our part of the world has begun winding down, perhaps a little slower than usual. Here in Canelo, our rains...

The Southwestern Monsoon

Our blog has been quiet for the last several months for a variety of reasons, but mostly due to the arrival of warmer weather...

A Great Blog on the Rio Sonora Valley

It’s spring in Canelo, our April workshops have finished and I’ve been here at home, taking the time to work on various odds and...

Arizona Immigration to Music

In case you haven’t noticed, and it’s kind of hard to miss, the state of Arizona’s recent immigration legislation SB1070 has caused somewhat of...

Fast Changing Southeastern Arizona Weather

If you saw the straw bale photos from last week you would have noticed participants wearing short sleeve shirts, shorts and the like. Thought...

Artistry with Clay and Lime

Someone reminded me that it might be a good idea to post announcements about any upcoming workshops that we’re having. I thought, “Geez,” perhaps...

The Canelo Project – Straw Bale Comprehensive Workshop, April 2010

Spring for us typically means workshops, this year is no exception. As you know from previous posts, much of winter was spent traveling in...

Images from Ranchito La Martina

I have been fortunate, a large part of my life over the past 25 years has taken place along a straight line that runs...

Spring on the Rio Sonora

Moonrise over Banamichi, Sonora Spring along the Rio Sonora Valley brings the first signs of the fierce summer heat that will peak during the...

A Tribute to our Boys and to Family

Looking at our children, it’s becoming obvious that their capacity for workand to accommodate the vast amount of information coming their way, far exceeds...

Northern New Mexico in August

Last August, we traveled north of Santa Fe, New Mexico to Santa Clara Pueblo, one of New Mexico’s Eight Northern Pueblos, where Athena’s mother,...

The Rio Sonora Valley Continued

There are a number of topics that I would like to write about before warm weather, workshops, gardening and such things begin to compete...

The Mescal Bacanora of Rancho Tepua

Bacanora, the regional mescal that comes from the state of Sonora, is a topic that could easily make for a long drawn out narrative,...

Return to the Rio Sonora Valley

Tacos with Martin’ (prn:Marteen} – A Story of Contrast We just returned from our second trip to the Rio Sonora Valley in northern Mexico....

Arizona Travel – The Apache Trail

This is a piece that I wrote after we finished our project at the ASU Ceramic Research Center, I just never got around to...

The Rio Sonora Valley

Recently we spent a week in a somewhat remote area in northern Mexico known as the Rio Sonora Valley. It has little to do...

December Guests from Japan to Canelo

Thinking back over the past year, I thought about writing a summary of all that we’ve done and for a number of reasons that...

Canelo Winter

This winter has kept us busy enough to make it difficult to find the kind of leisure I enjoy when it comes to creating...

The "How To" of Native Confluences

Since writing about our project at Arizona State University’s Ceramic Research Center I’ve had a number of requests to talk in a little more...

Native Confluences: Sustaining Cultures

During the early part of November we had the opportunity to participate in fall program of Arizona State University’s Art Museum entitled “Defining Sustainability.”...

Slovakia – The Workshop

Our workshop compound in Bucany, Slovakia as sketched by architect Radoslaw Barek of Poland.Traveling south from Denmark, where half of our workshop had been...

Touristing Slovakia – Pre June Workshop

This posting goes back to the month of June when we were in Slovakia for one of our European workshops. This will tell you...

Straw Bales and Mariachis

What have I been doing for the last month in that I’ve made no posts to this blog? Without going into detail, here’s a...

Clay Ovens in Ireland

While I’m catching up on Germany and the Slovakia blogs, I thought I’d post these photos of ovens built during workshops in Ireland by...

Straw Bales, Clay and Mariachi Music – San Jose, CA

My account of our Europe trip got temporarily shanghaied due to our recent trip to New Mexico. We were there for the annual Santa...

Tadelakt in France

Our workshop in France had an additional workshop within our workshop. Two Moroccan/French masons were there to teach “tadelakt,” a method of burnishing or...

Travels through France

While in France we had a few days before and after the workshop and I thought I would share some images with you from...

Our Workshop in France

For the sake of ease and recent memory, I’m going to leave our travels through Germany and Slovakia for later, instead I’d like to...

Home from Europe

Wheat field and red poppies – Slovakia We arrived home in Canelo Saturday evening after a long flight from London to Tucson with a...

From Slovakia to France

Other than two brief opportunities to check email we have not had internet access since leaving Slovakia which made updating this blog quite impossible....

The Denmark Workshop

Getting ready to start another workshop in Slovakia this evening looking at a weather forecast that has rain predicted for each day of the...

Denmark – Part 1

Our location for the Denmark workshop was about one hour north of the town Arhus, Denmark in the small village of Feldballe.   Thatched...

Estonia – Bits and Pieces

We’ve been in Denmark for about a week now, in the small village called Feldballe, near the town of Arhus.  Took that week to...

Part 2 – Estonia Workshop and Weekend Conference Our Estonia stay began with a two day conference at the Esna Manor where a variety...

Before we left for Europe we attempted a small amount of research via the internet on the countries we would visit just to get...

We’re landing in Tallin, the capital city of Estonia, the sun is just setting – it’s 11 PM. We spent the first week of...

Off to Europe

Today we leave for a two month teaching tour of Europe.  This trip will take us to 5 countries including England, Estonia, Denmark, Slovakia...

Always Becoming Goes to Mexico

This being the first post to this blog, I (we) find myself recently back from a quick trip to the state of Sonora, Mexico....