The Museum of International Folk Art houses the permanent exhibit of Alexander Girard with over 10,000 toys and figurines from around the world. It’s one of the most extensive collections of its kind. As a toy and product maker, my mind was blown seeing it in person. Anyone that works in the development or design fields should visit for culture, education, and inspiration.

Multiple Visions: A Common Bond has been the destination for well over a million first-time and repeat visitors to the Museum of International Folk Art. First, second, third, or countless times around, we find our gaze drawn by different objects, different scenes.

Just as impressive as the collection are the elaborate dioramas the characters are arranged in. The museum staff mentioned that Alexander and one other assistant spent 3-4 years painstakingly setting up each display in immaculate detail.

This one is remarkable for a reason that isn’t as obvious at a glance. The sculptures vary in size from about 1” in the background to the 7”- 8” in the foreground. It enhances a depth and drama to the storytelling that wouldn’t exist otherwise.

To take a Google 360 virtual tour of the exhibit, go here.

For the second part of the hike at Bandelier National Monument, I was encouraged by the Park Rangers to visit Alcove House. It was about a mile further on the trail separate from the other cliff dwellings.

I did not anticipate was how high 140 feet up a cliff wall would look. There were 4 sets of ladders, each tilted about 60-70 degrees against the hot sandstone wall leading to the home at the rim of the divide. 😳

I experience vertigo at certain heights, and saw no failsafes if one were to slip while ascending. No turning back now, right? After putting on headphones with tranquil music, the ascent proceeded, one careful maneuver at a time. Looking up or down would freak me out, so I fixed my gaze straight ahead at the rock wall scrolling down with each step up a rung of the ladder. 1, 2, 3, 4… synced to the ambient drum track in my ears.

Finally I was at the top in the Alcove House, enjoying the breeze, and looking over the canyon for 10-15 minutes. It was worth the struggle to get there.

The Tyuonyi cliff and cave dwellings of the Ancestral Pueblo are a site to behold. I’m going to break up the visit across two entries, as the second part involved getting over a fear of heights.

The Ancestral Pueblo people lived here from approximately 1150 CE to 1550 CE. They built homes carved from the volcanic tuff and planted crops in mesa top fields. The people of Cochiti Pueblo, located just south and east along the Rio Grande, are the most direct descendants of the Ancestral Pueblo people who built homes in Frijoles Canyon.

Every space had its purpose, from the kivas and structures on the grounded portion of the settlement…

…to the reconstructed and preserved cliff portions. This is one of the only dwellings I’ve encountered where there was laddered access to the interior rooms.

The beauty of Pueblo architecture is the result of functional necessity and impermanence as they eventually migrated to other parts of the canyon due to environmental shifts. It’s a lesson for anyone experiencing a transition to or new season in life.

Meow Wolf is a multi-sensory, non-linear experiential exhibit space with locations around the country. You are greeted by a giant robot, wolf, and spider in the parking lot. Entering the front doors is like stepping into a fever dream of Neil Gaiman and Takashi Murakami. There is a trippy lounge with projected wall art and an intergalactic gift shop where you can bring a bit of psychedelia home for time-dilated remembrance.

I was going to see The House of Eternal Return. It was reminded me of favorite paranormal suspense stories like Twilight Zone, Twin Peaks, and Oxen Free.

It starts with a relatively grounded premise and location before launching into the otherworldly. A fundamental to reality architecture is giving the audience a space of familiarity, or “house”, to echo back to. In repetition one begins to map themselves subconsciously to the characters, progressively empathizing to the narrative’s conclusion. Whatever storytelling genre you choose is the tonal preference of the mapped experience once the “house” is established.

Entering into the southwest was a pleasant change in scenery. The open deserts started populating with dense shrubbery, deeper red soil, and pueblo-style dwellings.

I’ve been staying in a variety of spaces: hotels, extended family’s homes, and camping under the stars. This time I wanted to find an Airbnb with someone who knew the area. I ended up at a local artist’s residence and studio. He recommended several galleries, museums, and hiking spots, and reminisced over his time painting backgrounds and set pieces for theatrical plays over 4 decades.

In a new region or city I often have 3 top places to visit, and find an increasing joy allowing interactions lead to deeper exploration. That’s how the locations grew from a personal note of 25 to 600 pins on a digital map. People and experiences are at their greatest value before conversion to a statistic. It’s what we count on first and remember last.

Perched on a bluff in Sante Fe Community College campus is Ethyl The Whale, the Guinness World Records largest recycled plastic sculpture on the planet:

Commissioned by the Monterey Bay Aquarium on the California coast, the 82 ft sculpture was designed by artists Joel Stockdill and Yustina Salnikova, then built over a six-month span with aid from over 50 artists and volunteers. Purchased by Meow Wolf, Ethyl was disassembled and driven 1,080 miles to New Mexico, where she’s become a powerful teaching tool for students.

Impressive feat. I am an advocate and have worked on initiatives for alternative materials in products and packaging. In all cases it required a team spanning several disciplines. Like Ethyl, memorable solutions require a re-imagining of the variables, leading to a new format, which redefines the shape it occupies.

On Linwood Blvd east of OKC Fairgrounds is a little business (Don’t Stress Meowt) that brings together two positive and pleasantly juxtaposed themes: coffee and animal adoption.

Our hope for the cafe is to foster a love of animals and others, while giving the community a safe space where all are welcome to come, have fun, and save lives.

The concept is akin to specialty cafes in Japan, and builds on them with uplifting cause. There is a wall that features all the successes they’ve had in the past, along with an area where you can interact with the felines while they play. You can read about the founding couple’s life/work rubric that resulted in the idea here.

We each embody a set of passions and principles. Growing them with others is finding home wherever we live.

Downtown Oklamahoma City has a giant cylindrical conservatory built in the middle of the Myriad Botanical Gardens, straddling over a pond filled with koi fish and ducks.

What’s striking is not only how large the structure is, but how low the clearance on the walkway underneath. You can hop up and brush the metal form with your fingertips while navigating to the stairs on the opposite side. Of course I did, haha. I could not resist.

What’s the appeal of reaching out to touch something created or natural unusual to everyday life? There is an instinctive inclination we have from childhood to do this. It’s a reason why there are signs in museums and public areas that say “don’t not touch”, or “touch this”. Hmmm…something to that…

In Dallas I caught up with a friend who has made his life’s purpose quietly helping others around the world. As we were discussing the process of growth and creativity, I shared my focus on stillness from the beginning of the journey. It’s helped in the appreciation of small details that people and places hold. One example would be the peculiarly sweet smell of rain in the high desert after a thundershower.

He thought a bit and asked me if I heard of an author named Edgar Morin. He brought a book out of his bag and pointed to previously highlighted lines on a page:

I’ve been thinking about the “Method” as The “Path, Way, and Walk”, since then. It also had me considering the Mandalorians and Benedictine Monks and how they’ve adapted a similar “Way”.

I’ve always been a fan of Jack White’s music, but didn’t know about his love of baseball until I wondered into Warstic. (thanks Brandon)

Jack is co-owner of the bat and apparel company, with the flagship store in the heart of Deep Ellum. In the back of the facility you can purchase a billet of maple or birch wood and have it spun up on the lathe to create a “war stick” of your choosing.

It’s fun learning about other’s pocketed interests beyond what they are commonly known for. And it’s a surprising gift when they share it back with the broader community.