And the Dust Storm Cometh

Wow, what a change yesterday! While still in the 70’s, the wind came with a roar and brought with it an impressive amount of dust. A good part of southeastern Utah ended up deposited here in southwestern Colorado (and on our bathroom counter and bathtub - we left the window open). Too rough to hike, we set out to do a little shopping and touring. As we approached Cortez, I snapped this photo of the approaching storm and rapidly disappearing Sleeping Ute Mountain.

In Cortez, we visited one of our favorite places, Clay Mesa Art Gallery and Studio. As the name implies, Rick and Lesli St. John started out making beautiful large, decorative wall plates in brilliant colors and southwestern designs.

When I first visited them three years ago, they were just beginning to branch out into bags and weavings. Now their work has switched over entirely to making amazing handbags and framed art in very colorful and original southwestern-inspired designs.

Every year Marie buys a bag for herself, along with several other items to give as gifts. Now Rick and Lesli are branching out to craft shows, beginning with one coming up in Pasadena, CA. Although they’re not producing any more of their beautiful plates, you can check out their remaining inventory on www.claymesa.com until September of this year. Check out their spectacular handbags at www.sanjuanbaggs.com (note the two “g’s”). On the wall in the Clay Mesa studio is a quote from Lyle Lovett: “Look carefully at the art and you will see the artist”. This is certainly true of Rick and Lesli: great people, great products. Give them a look (or just ask Marie to show off her bags).

We ended our day in Durango, CO, checking out two more of our favorite shops: Toh Atin Gallery (Native American and Southwest art) and Earthen Vessels pottery. As always, we could buy out each store but limited ourselves (for now). Durango is a neat mix of college town, outdoor outfitters, and cowboy architecture, which we always enjoy. (No photos in Durango due to the conditions.)  We ended our day by finding a brewpub in town that would feed us and let us watch game 7 of the Stanley Cup (hockey) playoffs between our Washington Capitals and the Montreal Canadiens. That was the good news; the bad news is that the Caps lost and are finished for the season. It was a long, sad drive back to Cortez. But today we can look forward to … 40’s with thunderstorms, wind and maybe snow. YIKES!!! What’s next? A plague of locusts?