I cannot help myself sometimes to wonder whether or not what I do is really art. I am driven by inexplicable forces to go out and do what I do in the name of art. It makes perfect sense to me, however, when I try to explain my process to my 8 year old daughter, it seems less convincing. You be the judge!
Earlier this week, I spent 3 days riding my motorcycle throughout the Los Padres national forest, scouting for a location for an 'art' installation that I would like to construct in the deep back country in mid-March 2014. And by 'deep backcountry' I am talking about a 2 or 3 hour motorcycle ride on old fire roads and motor cycle trails away from town and country.
I started my scout on Monday morning in the Ojai ranger district at the south end of the Los Padres National forest. By the way, the Los Padres national forest is bigger than you might think. It is the mountain range that runs from Oxnard, California in the South to Monterey, California in the North. I followed the Ortega trail and camped at the Ortega camp. I am not too sure of the history of this trail, but I can tell you that it was beautiful and hard to travel. It was fantastic.
The following day, I left the Ojai district and descended to the coast. I road north to Santa Barbara and set my sights on a trail named Divide Peak, which was essentially a washed out road that followed the entire ridge of mountains that can be seen from Santa Barbara and Carpenteria.
I followed the Divide Peak trail for two and half hours and then made a sprint to the San Ynez Ranger District north east of Santa Barbara. Weather was coming in fast and my ride took me through the clouds.
I made it to the valley around 5 pm. At the end of a paved road in the foot hills I jumped on to a motorcycle only trail that continued up into the mountains. I rode 4 miles and then camped for the night at a wonderful place called Hidden Portero.
The following morning I woke up before sunrise and rode my motorcycle 20 miles into the back country to the very top of the mountains and beyond. I had reached my turn around point(based on a finite amount of gasoline). I rode down the mountain and back to Santa Monica, excited about the location that I had found.
Look for a post in the next month, of the installation that I will build at my chosen far away place. In the mean time, please check out the water color paintings that I made along the way. These works on paper are field studies and can be seen and purchased at my website at the following link: Field Studies
