TRAVELING IN A TINY HOME THAT IS REALLY AN ARTISTS' BOOK ON WHEELS

Peter and Donna Thomas have been making fine press and artist's books for over 40 years. When they started, as craftspeople at Renaissance Faires, they fell in love with the graceful beauty of "gypsy wagon" caravans that other vendors had made to sleep in or use as booths for selling their wares. In 2009 Peter and Donna built their own tiny home on wheels, designed after a typical late 19th century Redding Wagon. This blog documents their trips around the country, taken to sell their artists' books, teach book arts workshops, and talk about making books as art; as well as to seek out and experience the beauty of the many different landscapes found across the USA.

Peter and Donna started their business in 1977 and made their first book in 1978, so from 2017-18 are traveling to celebrate 40 years of making books with shows in a dozen libraries across the country. See the schedule on the side bar to find if they are coming to a town near you....

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Friday, April 5, 2013

Natural Beauty Alert: Big Bend National Park

While on an Arizona Raft Adventures trip a few years ago to the Grand Canyon, one of the guides had a saying, "Natural beauty alert." she would call that out when she noticed nature "showing off " with nobody paying attention. I loved getting the call from others and I especially loved making the call when I noticed the beauty! This post is a natural beauty alert for Big Bend National Park

Donna's birthday was on Easter this year, so as a present Peter let us take a few days off from the business of being wandering book artists to rest and recreate in Big Bend National ParkIt is pretty far from everywhere, about 8 hours from either San Antonio or El Paso. Check out some of the pictures of this lightly visited place of awesome beauty:

Camp spot in the Chisos Basin

Telephone booth, minus telephone. Sunset on Casa Grande.

Hiking up the trail, oak, pinyon and juniper trees

Sharp spines everywhere keep one from wandering too far off-trail, luckily this one bloomed beside the path.

Lovely stonework adds beauty to the trail
 
We soaked in the 103 degree hot springs beside the Rio Grande in the moonlight and again in the 95 degree heat of the day!

Peter: beer and tin can art: fun at the campsite. Do you think it's fine to use power tools in the park???

Rio Grande at the Texas - Mexico border

Blooming cholla  

And a final photo: This unusual trailer was spotted in Big Bend. The family loves going off the paved highways to find hot springs and other spots of natural beauty.

The cute trailer is the kids' bedroom.

4 comments:

Unknown said...

Amazing!! Looks like another beautiful trip. Happy travels from the Logos crew!

Roberta Warshaw said...

Another great adventure!

Unknown said...

Ah... looks wonderful, and surprise surprise you found a hot springs?

S

Tanya Cothran said...

Amazing! It's a true natural beauty alert! Those big views are something I miss here in Toronto.

Dad, power tools in the park?? It reminds me of the time when the folks next to us in a Wisconsin campground invited us to their site to watch Nascar...