The Guadalupe de Muertes

This piece completed in 2000 and was shown at Tohono Chull in that year. The piece then toured  2 years as part of a show sponsored by The Arizona Commision on the Arts. G de M has not been publicly displayed since that time. It is an electrified wall hanging piece measuring 18 x 24 inches with an approximate depth of 8 inches. It is on pegs that force it from the wall creating a multi-colored glow about it's entire frame. The interior of the box is lit as well. This is truly a unique and one of a kind piece.
  
The Guadalupe de Muertes will be shown as part of a coming show in titled "La Morenita" at the Raices Taller Gallery 218E. 6th St Tucson Arizona. The show will run November 23rd to December 28th.

La Morenita is a theme that reflects traditional or contemporary interpretations of the Virgen de Guadalupe, Navidad, Hanukkah, Las Posadas, or Kwanzaa. In addition a Milagrito (folk art cross) depicting the virgin at it's center piece will be shown as well. Milagritos have long been a major component of the many creative projects at Rancho Milagrito.   
 The Gallery may be reached at (520) 881-5335 

Life of Pie

It's Pie Time !
Fresh Baked in the ovens of Rancho Milagrito and on it's way to Cornucopia Cafe in Art friendly Bisbee Arizona. This tasty piece of delicious Art will be present and available for carry out at Cornucopia's Grand Reopening Saturday 11/16 at 5:00 pm. "Life of Pie" will be among a number of irresistible baked and
unbaked offerings present for the most discriminating of palettes. Plan now to be a part of a creative and fun eve in support of one of Bisbees best eatery's. It's an evening guaranteed to leave you feeling totally satisfied.
  

   Dear friends and followers of The Shop at Rancho Milagrito. We are blessed, and busier than ever creating our colorful, and unique hand made ART. Below you will find a list of the quality venues both in the Tucson area and beyond where our craft is presently available. Our growing commitment to these shops, and galleries has rendered us short on time for presence at holiday craft fairs this coming season.

Please consider a visit to one of these locally owned quality sources in times ahead. In addition we continue to welcome folks to the shop and home gallery by appointment. Many thanks for your past support, and we look forward to sharing time with you again.
Royce Davenport  
The Shop at Rancho Milagrito 
Vail Arizona    (520) 762-9263   ranchomilagrito@msn.com

Church of the Holy Cross
780 Chapel Rd. Sedona Arizona 86336   (928) 282-4069

Church of The Holy Cross

Tucson Museum of ART  (Museum Shop)
140 N Main Ave  Tucson, AZ 85701    (520) 624-233

Tohono Chull Park  (new venue soon to be announced)
7366 North Paseo Del Norte  Tucson, AZ 85704    (520) 742-6455

Paloma ARTS
4747 E Sunrise Dr  Tucson, AZ 85718   (520) 577-9224

Hacienda del Sol  (Gift shop)  5501 N Hacienda Del Sol Rd. Tucson Az. (520) 299-1501

Jewelry Designs by Owen  74 Main St Bisbee, AZ 85603  (520) 432-4400

Birds, Blooms and Bugs

Birds, Blooms and Bugs

The shop at Rancho Milagrito is showing two pieces of work as a part of the Birds, Blooms and Bugs Exhibition in the Phoenix Airport Museum. The museum is located in Terminal 3 at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport. This exhibition will run November 2, 2013 through May 4, 2014.

The two free standing pieces are shown below:

Gadfly

The Gadfly is a free standing metal sculpture, found object piece. A refitted carpenter drill serves as it's base.

Gadfly: Latin derivative: Flamboyansis Buzzin' Aroundasis.

Description: Exaggerated wing span and rapid wing fanning ability is said to have encouraged forest burnings in dry months. Gadfly's rareness to this region is considered of positive value as it only takes one Gadfly to wreck an entire garden party!

Note: When present in a given area, all other life forms nearby are by default, moved to the Endangered Species List. Nonetheless, absolutely lovely to behold!

Angel Claw

This piece intermittently moves between bug life, and plant life. It is an assemblage of both found metal, and a seed pod, taken from the devils claw plant of the Southern Arizona Region. The artist forages these pods and commits them to a process which then renders them in his words to "Angel Claws".

Dia de los Muertos

Celebration of Day of the Dead (Tohono Chull Park 2013)

Friends and followers of the shop at Rancho Milagrito; The shop is pleasured to be a part of Tohono Chull's Day of the Dead offering to the Tucson community for 2013. The show will host some of the region's best artists who will share their unique and insightful interpretations of a holiday that Tucsonans have taken to heart.

Show runs - September 13th thru November 10th

Reception - September 13th 5:30-7:30PM

Crossin' The Line (Meeting the after  life head on).

This free standing piece measures 12 x 16 inches with a depth of approximately 17 inches. This humorous drive on the wild side is a complete manufacture of found pieces of costume jewelry, an abandoned Stuart Little remote control car, and cast off skate board wheels found in the streets of old Bisbee, AZ. Not another one like it.

LIFE AS AN ARTIST
Did you choose ART or did it choose you?  In the course of our lives we have occasion to try on many shoes, as in possible vocations.  Perhaps like myself over time you have come to find only one pair that didn't pinch your toes.  This path unwinding that makes up our days is one of varied terrain. You will have need of the most comfortable shoes.  An ARTist is one who must work twice ,even three times as hard and travel further than what a good many folks would do. This done just to reach some level of validation in their eyes.  This is the journey. It's the path that I travel, and my life has been richly rewarded in this choice. NO,not outside in the fields of illusion. Here inside where I go to get the very best of myself to share with all of you. This is what ART has chosen. and I'm honored that it has chosen me.

 

Dina is all spiffed up and ready to go to the Holiday ARTE fiesta ! Hope to see you there in support of local Artists ! Please drop by and see the unique & creative offerings from the shop at Rancho Milagrito as well as the very best hand made offerings of the Tucson Valley's creative best! 

Details in the post below.

Western Star gifted to Tohono Chul Park, Tucson AZ

Western Star- Copper & metal construction. Gifted to Tohono Chull Parks 20th Anniversary Holiday in the Park Fund Raiser. Rancho Milagrito has participated in this worthy cause for almost the duration of the program. This organization promotes a greater understanding of the Sonoran Desert region while lending a spot light to the many creative souls who's imaginations are inspired by it.

Design created for this years Patagonia Lake shore clean up . No T shirts this time but this "sweet" design will find it's way on to a cake as part of the celebrations pitch in potluck. Prismacolor and ink rendering.

"Tanked Up"

Prismacolor and ink rendering gifted to Air Tanker 61 Memorial . Wild Lands Fire Education Center Klamath Falls Oregon September 2012.

A New Show . . .

 

Life left to give, creating new possibilities from materials others abandoned.

The mission of my work is twofold.  Life affirmation is at the center of all I endeavor to do creatively.  My commitment to this philosophy is anchored in the usage of primarily found materials.  Time and again we hear the phrase consumer or throw away society.  Having always found such a definition unsettling - I have chosen to move in an opposite direction in my work, as well as my lifestyle.  Over the now many years that I have chosen to integrate this approach to all I create I have come to regard it as a source of great satisfaction. Picking up a this ,or a that lying about the landscape in a state of disrepair and breathing new life in to it is for this soul as good as it need get.  After many years of this process the materials and I have arrived at a common point of salvation for one another. If I were to use one phrase to lend definition to my work it would be "High Folk Art".
 

Life Left to Give

Creating new possibilities from materials others have abandoned.

October 5th - October 22^nd

Opening Reception -Wednesday October 8th 4:30 P.M. to 6:30

Community Center, Long Gallery

The Academy Village

13701 East Old Spanish Trail

Tucson Arizona

Gallery Hours: 10:00 am-5pm, M-F

Below are two of the many offerings to be seen at the Life Left to Give show:

Gadfly; Refitted Carpenter's Hand-drill.

  

Little Brother; Fabricated from a car battery  bracket case.

It's Been A Long Time Come'n . . .

Dear friends and followers of all that goes on at Rancho Milagrito. It has long been a dream to move the work a day activities of the shop to a point "out side the box" and at long last it's a solid reality !   Over the past few weeks things have come together in a big way.  Minus some finishing detail tweaks the little 20x20 roofed in work zone has taken on a whole new feel.  At last !  Opportunity to work in the great out of doors where the lessening of work shop dust and occasional solvent fumes will be greatly lessened. Improved natural lighting to boost the softening focus of these aging eyes will be of benefit as well.  Then for the real kicker.  Finished to a point of habitation just in time to gaze out upon those delicious summer time thunder heads that come scudden in from the South !  Yeow Lordy Momma drop your load ! 

Just a little bit "O" back ground in respect to all that you see standing here (As in credit where it's due).  The wonderful heavy timber slabs that are the primary materials making up this construction were a gift from Cathy Clark owner of the widely known Cave House in Bisbee, Arizona.  This gracious lady who along with husband Randy had completed a major project taking them where no man had gone before, that being directly in to a granite face of Mule Mountain just North of Bisbee.  These timbers, recruited from the site of an ancient bridge as well as a regional mine were left overs of this major home owner project.  Kudos as well to Robbie and Milly Williamson who lent a hand as well as a H.D. flat bed trailer to haul the liberated materials North to Rancho "M".

Following on the heals of all the afore mentioned there is Ricardo. A long time friend and supporter of all that has transpired here over such a stretch of  time.  Ricardo, who will possibly some day learn to no longer utter the words  "Just point me at a major project and I'll knock it out for you during my stay."  During this stay the concrete slab was poured and primary uprights were placed in position.  Then there was a plane to catch, and I'm sure he slept well on it.

Next came an amazing performance by neighbor Tim Peterson.  Tim managed what would have taken a lesser soul 3 days of measuring and cutting easily half that.  Defying all known laws of cutting such heavy materials with a hand held circle saw and arriving at an easy "got it right the first cut" he was something to see.  He was as well something to see at the end of the day when he was barely distinguishable from the saw dust that coated him.  Tim could well claim fame as king of the circular saw cutters.  Thank you Tim ! 

So there it stands, a little 12 x 15 ft. rock solid monument as to just what can be when good friends step forward and lend a hand and a heart to a friend.  I say thanks to all those "Hearts & Hands" !    

F.Y.I. or "I"nterest . . . go to www thecavehouse.com.

P.S. For those of you who were curious enough to ask.  That beautiful matching set of swinging saloon doors are from a 1948 Ford Coupe.  A rare find !

Now how about a look inside The Shop at Rancho Milagrito

Thanks for dropping in.  We'd like to show you around our most unusual shop.  Upon entry this well preserved 1949 Plymouth rear deck is hard to miss.  (Note) The 1921 New Mexico plate (not of registry to this car).  The 609 suggests the likely hood that maybe there were little as a couple 1000 vehicles registered in the state at that time.

The area in the foreground is one of a number of work stations within the shop itself.  Though it may appear to be in a state of utter calamity there is a level of organized chaos present that gets us through our working day.  (Note) The little Pick Up trucks that serve as finish hardware containers.  "Pick Ups" (the older the better) are objects of honor here at the ranch.  Sort of the American West’s answer to the "Sacred Cow".

Look up! Is it a bird ? Is it plane ? Or is it a little of every body doing what we do so well here.  Breaking the "RULES". 

And how ‘bout a couple a Kirby Speedsters (Circa 195. . .whatever).  Just think, back in their day they both cleaned and entertained.

Hope it's been fun.  Hope you have been inspired.  And hope we hear from you here at Rancho Milagrito (Little Miracle Ranch ) Vail, Arizona.  http://www.ranchomilagrito.com/contact.html

Rancho Milagrito Offerings Now Appearing in Tohono Chul Park Main Gallery

"Take'n the Back Road" and "Cabin on the Rim" are currently on exhibition in the gallery at Tohono Chul Park as a part of the park's Arizona Cenntenial Celebration.

The show is currently running through April 22, 2012.

Take'n the Back Road

Old pick up trucks and dusty Arizona back roads. This piece is reflective of the artists love for both.

Note: The Saguaro cactus in this piece are actually finished from real Saguaro wood.

A Cabin on the Rim

For some so fortunate "A Cabin on the Rim" may be a very real place in space and time. For others it may be solely anchored in their mind. For either it may offer escape and refuge from the rigors of a contemporary life stile. In an environment whose air is tainted only by the smell of pine one can reunite with the simple joy of breath. In such a place one may gaze in to a limitless star filled sky and recall their place as a part of it all.

About Tohono Chul Park

"The mission of Tohono Chul Park is to enrich people’s lives by providing them the opportunity to find peace and inspiration in a place of beauty, to experience the wonders of the Sonoran Desert and to gain knowledge of the natural and cultural heritage of the region." To see more about the exhibit click here.

The park is located One stop light west of the intersection at Oracle and Ina Roads at 7366 N. Paseo del Norte, Tucson, AZ 85704.
(520) 742-6455
8AM - 5PM daily. 

For directions to Tohono Chul Park click here.

Team "Creative Block" brings home the GOLD !

4th of July B.R.A.T.S. Bisbee Rolling Arts Transport Society.

Thanks to Katie Williamson for driving.

4th of July B.R.A.T.S Update-Bisbee Rolling Arts Transport Society

It was an issue of some concern and debate for a passage of time but . . . The affairs of the world have shifted to a better light ! As much as I would dearly love to be speaking of any one of the numerous challenges to our planetary home at present I’m not. Until such a thing can come closer the following will have to do. Great to announce That the Shop at Rancho Milagrito

will be present this coming July 4th in Bisbee Arizona with an entry in the annual B.R.A.T.S. arts car parade!

This year presented an unusual array of challenges to the Rancho “M” teams ability to be in the running for the highly regarded event. Perhaps the greatest challenge was presented by the untimely loss of the teams transport vehicle itself. It can be said that the very fact that there is at this writing an existing Rancho “M” art car entry is a solid statement in respect to

the level of Rancho “M’s” commitment to the running of the B.R.A.T.S ! Included here dear reader you will find a grouping of images of a car that only 2 days ago did not exist any where on the planet other than in the thoughts of it’s creator.

The car “Creative Block” represents the very best in the recycling of a combination of card board boxes, and a rebirthed B.M.X. bike. Creative Block will be present at a public display ,

and celebratory happening on the the eve of the grand down hill parade of over 20 other art cars to be present on the “4th” ! The Rancho “M” team is proud as well to announce that by special arrangement Miss Katie Williamson will pilot the Creative “B” in the grand parade . Upon discloser of this fact many have been heard to say “Atta girl K. T.

 Bisbee Rolling Arts Transport Society   

B.R.A.T. S. and beyond What's it really all about.
  The annual running of the BRATS art car parade which just completed it's 4th consecutive year in Bisbee Arizona has captured the imagination of a growing number of drivers and spectators a like .  Why has such a wacky and off beat endeavor so quickly been embraced to the degree that it has ?  Times are changing ,and in this evolution many of us are
arriving at a point of viewing our relationship with the automobile in a new light.  What was once sold to us as our ticket to greater personal freedom has come under great scrutiny
where such ideas are concerned.  For a growing number of planetary inhabitants the car powered by it's internal combustion engine it is now viewed in terms precisely the opposite .

   As operational costs soar on all fronts for this symbol of our personal freedom it has at the very least become a tethering agent separating us from the possibility of true freedom.
Whether a tether,or a down right ball and chain ,the time when a serious modification of how we feel about,and interact with the automobile is now upon us.  The BRATS have taken a
bold and initial step in this direction with their zany rolling vehicles that are more than simply a means to get from point A to point B.  As a matter of fact they are much more about creativity and ingenuity than any thing else . They just happen to be of the ability to move you from point A> to point B. anyway.

  The BRATS vehicles encourage us to suspend our entrenched ideas about just what the family sedan ought to be. As a matter of fact they entirely blow the doors off of any preconceived notion about that. And until you have been at the controls of a giant mouse or bratwurst sandwhich moving swiftly down the street as countless folk line the side walk cheering you on don't knock it. That family sedan could of course make the trip but not with nearly the accolades.

  As to just how long any of us can continue to stay in this perpetual ante up game I could only guess will be measured by the depth of each players pockets.  For all those who must
finally fold (and at some point  that may well be 100% of us 99%ers) some creative thought in respect to the three or five now motionless hulks plugging our drive way may well be in order. Not unlike that fabled display of Cadillac fins that jut skyward over Texas way there may well be a wave of such activity all across this great nation ,no wait make that the world .

Two views of the BRAT mobile.

B.R.A.T.S. Festival July 4th at Bisbee, AZ.