Mating dance of the Desert Leaf Cutter Ants

September 20, 2025. Four and three nights ago we finally got some measurable rain. Two days ago, our Leaf-cutter Ants swarmed and danced in the early morning hours. As every time I spot this event, so probably once a year, the column of dancers rises and falls over a Thuja tree (Conifer like a cedar) in our drive way. One big old colony lives not far from it under an Ironwood. The dancers probably come together from several nests in the area. I know that I would find other dancing swarms simultaneously further down the road (this is a community with dirt roads, losely spaced houses, and mainly desert or not-at-all-landscaped yards.

These non-sting ants (Desert Leaf-cutting Ant (Acromyrmex versicolor)) live quietly in populous communities deep under ground with extensive fungus-growing chambers. Ever now and then they will venture out, cut leaves, carry them home and compost them under ground for their fungus gardens. (denuded bushes usually are not killed but rejuvenated. The larger Atta species in Central America can cause financial set backs for owners of teak plantations because the wood production is slowed down by the loss of leaves. But in a normal desert garden, the occasional raids of our small Acromyrmex are usually not more than a nuisance) When the weather is 'bad' too dry, too hot .... the ants close their entrances and stay hidden for months.

BTW, the characteristic cone shaped structures often seen are not nest entrances but heaps of sand that is expelled when new fungus chambers are built.

Of course, the entire dance party serves bringing nubile females and males together. The mature colony produces those about once every year and releases them all at once after a certain trigger, a good monsoon rain in this case. The sexes find each other up in the air, but then the 'bonded couples' or rather groups of one female with several males usually sink to the ground together .... This time I got the inpression that there were fewer females than normal .. annecdotal but possible in the current stress situation

Mud Ponies

For over a year I have produced a herd of 'Mud Ponies'. They are a big part of my 'wild and primitive pottery'. When I am introduced to a new clay deposit, I crumble some in my hand, douse it with water from my drinking bottle and kneed it a little. Most potters now test plasticity and wet-strength by bending a short coil into a doughnut. I make a pony instead. In the image above on the right is my first one from my first wild clay dig in Benson, AZ.

Surprises happen: we collected clay from the salt pan of the Willcox Playa. The crean colored clay seemed quite pure and plastic, easy to shape. Our workshop teacher Andy Ward explained that the clay needed to be levigated thoroughly to eliminate some of the salt. It would be a lengthy process because this clay tended to stay suspended in water for ever.

I made a little white pony right on site, and over night, while drying, it grew a pelt like an Islandic Pony in winter. Salt crystals that burnt off during firing

In my own European background, horse imagery and sculpture go of course back to the Upper Paleolithic Periode, ca 17000 years ago. But for the decoration of my stubby clay equines I at first borrowed symbols from the painted war ponies of the Natives of the Plains of North America. As far as I know those tribes made little pottery or sculptures.

To make the mud ponies even more my own, I eventually switched from those war ponies to my own Peace Ponies

Some were quite big like the one inspired by 'my' pinto pony Gypsy or a replica of a sculpture that I gave to Japanese friends in the eighties when I had some access to my cousin's salt glaze kiln

Later I gave my more realistic ponies some motion and herd relationships. But still, they stayed on stubby legs as the material dictated. Donkeys, or Burros, became part of it because they add a whole spectrum of interesting expressions and are very popular at my art fairs

With my latest filly I am moving a little bit away from my usual stubby stylizations. The reason: a friend asked me for a pony to memorize a very special encounter with the wild horses of the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest. We had come together to camp and collect clay and minerals, but some of us were just too fascinated with the little herds of wildlings all around us, especially because many foals were just born.

Cremello horses were more common than in other herds, and those fillies seemed even more leggy and fragile than other foals. So for this special request I abandoned my sturdy-pony-style a little. She is still somewhat supported while drying, but I think it's going to work

My Ceramic Display at the Phippen

My Ceramic display

No body is left behind - Coati mundi family

Three Graces - Sonoran Desert Toads

A Hary Situation

Secrets Shared - Racoons

Fox Glow

Nearly full ensemble

Phippen Museum Western Art Show and Sale in Prescott

The 51st Annual Phippen Museum Western Art Show & Sale will be held over Memorial Day weekend, May 24-26, 2025, at the Yavapai County Courthouse Plaza in downtown Prescott, Arizona. This beloved event is one of the nation's premier Western art gatherings, offering fine art, live demonstrations. My booth ill be on the corner of Montezuma and Gurley Str.

All our Pretty Snakes

With my pottery, I ran into problems when I used the local sand as temper. So I'm now grinding up old clay flower pots to make grog. That is very hard work and maybe good exercise for me, but I doubt that it is good for my little corn grinder. Anyway, today when I poored collected old sherds on my metate for pre-crushing, a little snake slithered away. My sherd collection had been sitting quietly since I last used some for plant-potting, so it may even have wintered in there, who knows. Slender (like a pencil, at about a foot long) and cryptically patterned with two larger dark aereas behind its head - the first Night Snake (Hypsiglena torquata) that I've found on our property. It slipped quickly away, so the photo is not my own. It's snake sp. number 13 for oour place! King, Longnose, Patchnose, 4 Rattlers, Thread, Racer, Sonor. Whip, Gopher. Only the 4 rattler spp are significantly venomous to humans.

Primitive Pottery, my new passion

After years of mainly painting watercolors I found my way back to threedimentional work using natural materials. The is clay and pigments that I dig at several locations around Tucson. The method follows the technique of Ancestral Puebloans of the southwest. I joined workshops by Kelly Kayenta and Andy Ward to learn clay and pigment preparation and open firing. I loved working on Anasazi style vessels, especially polychromes, but eventually moved on to sculptural work, more in line with my usual art work that is strongly influenced by my interest in the local fauna. After all, I am a biologist

"When you craft something with your hands, whether you are knitting, wood working or making pottery, you are activating a powerful part of your brain. You are problem solving in real time, thinking in three dimensions and connecting with ancient human traditions.” I cannot backtrack who said this, but I like it