Art By Tali Landsman

Our summer in Colorado is coming to an end. We have only a few more days to enjoy the green Rocky Mountains before we drive down to Denver to board the first of three flights that will take us to Sapporo, Japan. It has been a good summer. This summer, our house was painted by caring and capable painters who went above and beyond the call of duty to fix, caulk and bring our house into tip top shape. Many good things happened this summer, among them we rested and reflected, hiked and collected mushrooms, listened to great classical music, and I had a very productive summer of painting in the studio. I would like to share a fun experience that we just had over the weekend at the Aspen Art Museum.  The Aspen Art Museum had planned for over a year to host the unusual experiment of a "Dream-Sleep-Over." Jules and I were part of a small group of 10 lucky individuals who signed up for this fun and alternative experience over the weekend. The idea was to tap into our subconscious mind...

"Do you see a lot of wildlife around your house?," asked one of the painters who are painting our Colorado home. "Well... Yes, we do! That is one of the reasons why we like living here... It is so quiet, and we do see lots of wildlife," I answered. Moments later the painters came running down, calling "Bear! Bear!" They grabbed their cell phones and snapped photos of the brown-blond bear that had walked regally and calmly down the hill behind my studio towards us. The bear had blond colored fur on his back, and was obviously interested in some fruit that the painters had in their bag.   Reluctantly he walked away when we brought the bag, smelling of bananas and tomatoes, closer to us. In the last week, we hiked twice in the Beaver Creek mountain area. The narrow hiking path intertwined between pine and aspen forests and vast meadows full of wildflowers and wild raspberries. During our hikes we collected many fresh wild mushrooms to cook at home.  I recentl...