28 days at Turtle Bayou! Amazing how a one night stay can expand into a 28 day adventure. I’ve met so many great people here and made some good new friends. The fellowship with V.R. and Jean, his wife, was unquestionably the high point of the trip. Spending time with them in their home, in the field with the Longhorns, and at their Church where V.R. is the Pastor, has given me memories that will last a life time.
While staying at Turtle Bay I made one of the multi media images of Bruce Springsteen, The Nebraska Session, for my gallery in New York. (The Gallery at the Katonah General Store). The images were printed in the airstream, the plastic was poured in the dinning room/kitchen of V.R. and Jeans’ Church, The Day Spring Church, in Liberty, Texas and the steel frame was made by V.R.’s son, David Hylton, who owns The Lone Star Fab Inc. company in Mount Belvieu, Texas. David is a true artist with metal and if you are looking for any metal work in the South Texas area, from fabrication to fine art be sure to look him up. His email is HYLTONDAVID@cs.com.
Now I come to the matting and framing of the work. This really is more of an installation piece than a straight framing job and we were truly blessed to find Dakota Framing, owned and run by Joan Bueling. Joan runs the framing show and is also a private dealer of fine art, primarily photography, but has a very eclectic group of artists ranging from potters to very fine rug weavers. Meeting her and her significant other, Jerry Herring, who is a photographer and owner of a graphic design firm made the numerous 80 mile round trip drives to Houston something I could almost look forward to. So while in Houston the best frame shop and dealer has got to be Joan! And special kudos to Frank, my friend and the owner of Frontier Frames in Santa Fe (just the best little frame shop in the Southwest) for recommending Joan to us!
Now I’m not gonna try and tell you that doing a multi media piece while on the road is something I’d do often…. But with the support people we found here it turned what was beginning to look like a complete disaster into a finished image I am quite proud of.
The time I have spent here has been what I’d hoped the trip would be about. To head off into the unknown with little or no direction, allowing The Great Mystery to unfold, trusting in it to guide us down a path of discovery of the American landscape. Not only the hills and valleys but of the People who reside here. Learning that there are no wrong turns, no missed exits because it is unfolding as it should and perhaps that’s better than the way we think it should be. Each wrong turn only deepens the Mystery and allows so many new possibilities to come into our lives. If only we can learn to trust enough and believe.

V.R. and Jean in front of their Church

Singers at Church

Food

Shooting on the road to Liberty Texas

The Turtle Bay Camp