all you want to know about mimi kato » Roswell

Another bitterlake sunset

admin — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 16:23:23 +0000

So this time, we went back with all the equipments we needed to observe birds, such as egg sandwitch, egg nog, and binocular. It was probably the best sunset of the year. Amazingly beautiful.

Bitter Lake Sunset

The air looked pink and more birds than last time. The bird we wanted to see was the sand hill craine. They are the one frying in V-shape. Very big beautiful gray bird.

sand hill craine

After observing the birds by drinking egg nog, we decided to drive the path around the park. And see what we found.

Porcupine!!

He sure did look pointy.

halloween

admin — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 15:57:44 +0000

So here is our pumpkin lantern.

Hubbit-o-lantern

The Hubbits are coming.

Texas Style cowboy tater

admin — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 05:54:59 +0000

I have never seen so many fries… Here is a Texas style cowboy tater that we found at Eastern New Mexico State Fair. It was really good at the beginning but we started to notice vegetable oil dripping from our faces…

Cowboy likes fries

After this tater, I still had to consume a funnel cake. Who can pass up a funnel cake at the fair??

State Fair Parade

admin — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 03:51:12 +0000

For the past 3 weeks, Nancy and Jimmi (our new friend from Colorado Springs) slaved away to make a float for the Democratic Party to participate in the Eastern New Mexico State Fair parade. Many artists on the compound also helped painting, and I think we did make the BEST float in that parade. The theme of the parade this year was “86 years Down Home Country Fair”. Here is our float.

click on image to enlarge

The theme of our float is sewing. The big thing in the front is a ballot box wrapped with a quilt with words such as change (yes we do need changes!!), peace, etc. The red thing at the end of parade is a giant pin cushion with the names of people who are running for office. The round things in between are buttons. Everyone who pulled the floats wore T-shirt which said “powered by people” since all other floats are on trailers pulled by trucks with stinky exhaust.

on main street

Reactions from people are little cold since Roswell is a big republican town, but we heard cheering here and there. We walked about three miles on main street. It was actually my first state fair to go to and also to participate. It was a good experience after all.

hayride

And here is me after the parade getting a ride back to my car. Hayride!!

so many bullet shells

admin — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 04:10:46 +0000

shot gun shell

Roswell is pretty and I am loving it, but there are some things here that make you feel that you are in the wild west. If you drive a couple of miles out of Roswell, you will see a whole lot of nothing. And in this “nothing land”, people go out and practice shooting. The bad thing about this is that I am shooting my photographs (not guns) in these fields, and I heard so many gun shots pretty close to me. Right now, my project is about these evolved bunnies living secretly in the lands of New Mexico, and I dress up like bunny to do my photo shooting. So, for them, I am a really good hunting target to shoot. Anyway, I found many empty shells on the ground and started to collect them. 22, Winchester 270, 726, 30-30, shotgun shells, etc. All kinds of them. Coming from Japan, possessing of gun still startles me and I am not appreciating it at all, but I found the shells to be beautiful objects. I am using these to make one of the tools that the bunnies use. I am not telling you what exactly I am making. You will see it in the exhibition in November in Roswell Museum of Art. (I think).

Unidentified flying object??

admin — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 00:49:53 +0000

moon rising over Comanche hill

Jimmy is finally here in Roswell. He got here on 15th and since then I have been taking him around Roswell to show him the pretty spots. His first day here, we went to Bitter Lake wildlife refuge (7 miles away from the residency compound). It was just before the sunset, and the sky was turning into a pink orange and the moon was rising over Comanche Hill, which was definitely a Kodak moment.

We drove the path around Bitter Lake and parked the car to have a better look at evening sky and we found this thing. It was a very big shiny object, much bigger and brighter than star and moving slowly across the sky. First, it was bright white light and started to turn to orangish color. Definitely it was reflecting the sunlight. What was it??? A satellite? No it was too big and too close to the earth’s surface. A weather balloon?? It could be. UFO?? That would be really cool. Well, later we found out that it was a weather balloon flying over the Roswell sky. I still haven’t seen UFO yet here in Roswell but this was something close. Weather balloon, that’s what people always say, right?

weather balloon

Roswell

admin — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 03:16:52 +0000

I have been in Roswell for past 7 months living in an artist in residence program. Life here is great, with no schedule and all the time I want for what I want to do. So I am trying to make as much art as possible but I am also enjoying doing things that I have not had a chance to do before. Recently, I have been baking bread ( we have a whole sourdough culture going around in this residency ), and cooking a lot of different things. Finally, I got New Mexican green chilies from a store. I got a half bushel and didn’t realize how much a half bushel is. A lot…. I have a pile of green chilies sitting in my freezer now. They are really good though.

One more thing in Roswell, we have the greatest sunsets ever here. When I got here in the end of January, it seemed like almost every day I saw really pretty ones, but now we are in the rainy season and I don’t get to see them as much I used to. But here is the photo of one of the pretty ones I saw a couple days ago.

Trip to Sitting Bull Falls

admin — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 23:11:35 +0000

I went to Sitting Bull Falls in Lincoln National Forest to research the next location for photo shooting. Sitting Bull Falls is located about 50 minutes from downtown Carlsbad, NM. Byron, with the National Forest Services, showed me some spots with incredible views. After driving on bumpy roads, we hiked down to one of the caves he knew. The cave has a huge entrance which looks like a big mouth trying to swallow whatever comes in, which gave me goose bumps. But inside the cave is amazingly beautiful, decorated with incredible formations. After this, we hiked the area above the sitting bull falls.

New Mexico is a very dry state, but this park has so much water coming from underground, and it is incredibly clear water. Actually you can go swimming in the pool at the bottom of the falls, and you see so many fish in the pool. Very cold water though… (around 67F?). I have done a photo shoot at the falls, and the image will be included in my next exhibition at the Roswell Museum of Art.

Anyway, I couldn’t find a location for photo shooting this time, but it was a good hike and a good break.