As the storms move in so do the desert bugs. Apart from time in the studio my life is now occupied with keeping crawling creatures at bay. The left foot was attacked, is riddled with black ant bites. The tiniest of critters these little mites climbed my leg as I watered the ducks the other day. Sudden pain and swelling like you can't believe with a burning and itching sensation that i thought were only reserved for wasps and red ant stings coursed up and down my titanium-filled foot and calve. I was wearing thin flip-flops that present their own problems. There's a lot of thorns around here and I'm always having to fix a flat, as it were, by pulling out a barbed twig stuck to the sole and poking through to my tender underfoot. I shook off the rubber thongs and leaped and yelped and tried to rub the little blighters off as they stuck fast like chicle on hot tar. Today (three days later) the swelling is down but there are still red welts that itch from my big toe to above the ankle. All this helps me paint; the ducks, the thorns, the bites, the stings. I highly recommend it.
