Tucson Desert Musicians

My take on the 'Bremer Stadtmusikenten' of Grimm's Fairy Tales.

In the story going back to mideval Germany, four ageing domestic animals, who after a lifetime of hard work are neglected and mistreated by their former masters decide to fight back. Standing on each others backs and singing noisily, they appear at a window at night, like a huge monster, scare the humans away, and take over the cottage Since I was a child I liked this story. It applies in so many forms and is time-less - mistreated underdogs will eventually unite, rebell, and be victorious.

My seemingly more playfull version replaces the German farm animals with desert creatures - burro, coyote, bobcat and roadrunner. Of course, all of them have their own problems as human development encroaches on the desert. The burro, although brought here by humans, is considered invasive, useless and destructive. Coyote and Bobcat are still persecuted as predators and considered 'vermin' in Arizona. The Roadrunner seems quite adaptable but is losing habitat as cities grow and food sources as he stands on top of a foodchain that ranges from insects to lizards and small birds, all declining in numbers as the climate gets hotter and drier

Ground Firing April 2026

Kiln opening my style: I fired with cow dung this morning, reached 950 Celsius and let it die down. When I came back after breakfast the ashes had slipped (rare with cow dung) and the cover shirts were exposed. What's under there??

All my critters are in one piece. They are still too hot to check for cracks, but I do not expect any. I used red clay from 2 new locations, both close to our good old Sonoita Highway site. The unslipped areas are very bright red, but the diffeent slips tuned that down well enough. I realize that one baby Javelina is missing. I'll find it when I empty out the ashes. I hope nobody drags it to Wildlife Rehab. Please keep in mind: young animals (real ones!) are sometimes on their own right now, but that does not mean they need to be picked up and 'rescued'. Mothers (in this case me!) will usually come back for them. Growing up in the wild is much better for the little ones than being cooped up in a rehab center.

Great Horned Owl turned out well, even his little pedestol that I first forgot and then stuffed into the flames of the already fully ablaze fire. All the smaller versions are also accounted for and looking good, next time I'll try to make some white-fluffy fledgelings.

Big Bunny, Toad, and Frog all came out looking pretty good - I'll just blow off all that ash. The toad was very black from carbon deposited during the warming-up wood-fire during which the critters were placed on the rim of the brick strukture, and the wind blew open flames directly at the toad which turned sooty black. After this warm-up, the sculptures were placed inside the enclosure and covered with dry cow dung paddies. Those immediately caught firre from the remaining coals of the wood fire. When the temperature rose over 700 Celsius, the carbon deposits were burned off and the red and ochre of the fired clay and slip stood out clean and bright. The light wind ensured beautiful oxidation.

Squirrel and some of the little owls were slipped with brown clay from the Marana Rock Disk Park. That clay not wet-strong enough to be used on its own, it slumps. But as a slip it works very well. I used reclaimed light clay from the Romero House for the sparrows, then decorated with my usual wild-clay slips. The clay is a cone 10, so probably needs much higher temps for vitrification. Maybe I'll refire later. The high-fire wire that the birds will sit on is firmly embedded and cause no cracks. I'm happy with the outcome of this firing, and it was very quick and easy.

Vitrification versus maceration at the SW Kiln Conference in Safford, AZ

A couple of weeks ago, I participated in the SW Kiln Conference in Safford AZ. It was masterfully arranged by Andy Ward on the grounds of the East AZ College at Discovery Park, complete with lectures, demos, and of course about a dozen firing ventures.

Kira loves crowds of nice people, pottery events and fire, so she got to go too

She behaved well, usually just following me around or greeting folks. But then she took off across an empty lot towards what? A log dropped by the wood collecting crew for the kilns? No, she would not enthusiastically roll on wood. Well, it turned out to be her early contribution to halloween, luckily so mummified that she didn't even pick up a stink, at least not for our human noses. She herself felt obviously great about her new perfume. Now I wanted the interesting scull of the mummy, but it was so hard and leathery that not even super sharp stone flakes from the arrow tip makers could cut through it. So I packed up the entire thing. Surprisingly, this group of people accepted my goulish idea as normal enough and contributed advice and packing material. Bill Warner suggested to soak the mummy in a strong lye of wood ash and water. From my own kiln experiments I have lots of fine ash. So at home, I made the concoction rather strong - it discouraged the coyotes that opened up my bucket during the first night but then never returned. Today I finally gathered my courage and fished a now pretty clean scull from the stinking brew. From the lye I moved it to a chlorine bath and then hydrogen peroxide. Whatever killed this animal - now it's nicely sterilized. To my naturalist friends: whose scull is it? To all others: Happy Halloween!

Solving the mystery: it's and American Badger (Taxidea taxus)

Art Fairs in October 2025

For October I have 2 Art fairs coming up: 11 and 12th of October in Patagonia, booth #11, weather permitting

25 and 26th of October at the Oro Valley Market Place Booth #84 Let's hope for nice weather and come visit, I will have a booth full of paintings and a lot of new wild clay sculptures!

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

New Tiles for the Fall Shows

I just prepared some new tiles for the fall season. They look very interesting and combine my interests in Art and Science. Of course all the other tiles of my watercolors will also be available again See you in October!

Pet Rocks revisited

I used to paint hundreds of rocks - making them into cats and wolves and rattlesnakes and selling them at art fairs. But when we moved away from the beach in CA, finding smooth pebbles became difficult. Carrying them to art fairs also became a real drag. My greatest problem: I'd spend every minute between shows on replenishing my inventory, with no time left for serious painting and no option to make any prints. So I gave up on this venue, even though the rocks were still selling like the proverbial hot-cakes. But Facebug brings up old memories and my fb friends saw pictures of old rock pets. So requests came in. But they were not for generic cats or wild-life, they were requests for portraits of individual dogs. I should have thought twice about that challenge. But one pair of dogs was super cute and the photos were usable. So I found a rock in our backyard and started sketching:

After the first dog, the Pomeranian Jazz, was painted and I liked him, I was afraid that the second portrait as sketched would destroy the first. Luckily acryllic paint is forgiving, so I whited out the sketch and turned the little face.

After fleshing out Molly's little Papillion Face I liked the outcome, even if one has to look at them from 2 different angles to do them both justice. That's the curse of a curved surface.

Most importantly, the owner loves it. Success!