cycling :: Surfeit of Passion: the Art and Life of Kathleen King

I didn’t get to go to the Tour de France this year…but a few little Bike Scribbles sure did!

It’s moving day. Cyberspace moving day. My blog and website are being merged, along with a new Bike Scribble store. Today. Literally a year of preparation has passed to arrive at this moment. It has been a jam-packed year on terra firma as well. This time last year I was leaving Cortez, Colorado for Santa Barbara, California after finishing the big mural for Chris Carmichael at CTS and planning for Interbike 2009. I just arrived back in Cortez two weeks ago after spending the previous 9 months in California’s central coast near San Luis Obispo. I have murals to paint here, and, of course, Interbike 2010 is only six weeks away. This area of Southwestern Colorado, Pagosa Springs to Durango, Dolores, on past Cortez to the Four Corners Monument, is filled with awe-inspiring natural beauty and endless cycling opportunities…. But more on that later. Now for…

pendant with original 1km

The BIG NEWS at hand: Bike Scribble Pendants!!

Several months ago, while at a planning meeting for SLO Gran Fondo in San Luis Obispo, I had the great pleasure of meeting Tess Stapleton, who is chairing the SLO Gran Fondo event. Tess saw the Bike Scribbles and suggested they would be great on jewelry. That idea had never crossed my mind, but one of her friends knew of a jeweler in town who might be right for the concept and we started talking. Jeweler Lisa Leonard just happened to have a husband who was crazy about cycling and they both loved the idea. Lisa created a mock up and we showed it to Tess. Tess and her husband, Bob, happen to own a little professional cycling team called HTC-Columbia who would soon be racing in the Tour de France. Tess ordered 30 of them on the spot to give as gifts to team members while at the race. We kept it quiet so the team could have time with their unique gift. The exclusive team design included the special charm “tdf 2010″. Only HTC Columbia’s pendants come with that charm, but now the “1km” pendant itself is available for purchase for any cyclist who wants to keep a bike close to their heart. Many thanks to Tess for her bright idea!

Please click on the photo and it will take you to the store

There are two designs available to choose from now and more styles will be added as the months go by. If you would like a ‘good luck’ talisman to hang ’round your neck and kiss like the pros as you cross your personal finish line, these will do nicely. Soon there will be more news of big bike shop murals and Bike Scribble jerseys so please stay tuned!

We’re going to play a little game called “find the bike or cyclist in this picture”. I didn’t plan on it but there were so many cyclists training on this road I just went with it. There’s one in about every other shot.

Click on the photos to enlarge and they’ll be easier to see.

The subtitle of this blog is: “It’s All Terrifying and it’s All Beautiful”. Never before have I witnessed a scene that exemplified that sentiment so well as what I am about to show you. As many of you know the neighborhoods around East and West Mountain Road in Santa Barbara were laid waste by the Tea Fire. That road is the way to the infamous “beyond category” 3,998 ft alt. hill climb simply known as “Gibraltar Road” and therefore a favorite haunt of cyclists including myself.

I watched as the 300 ft flames climbed into the sky that night and roared, fast, ferocious and deadly down the hillsides, whipped by 70 mph winds. I prayed for the people in those houses. “Run! Get out!” I whispered under my breath. When the fires had all been put out I made a point to ride up to that area on the days that followed, my goal being this:

What had happened to the art collector with the sculpture garden and the cyclist fashioned into a mailbox? I had to know. It took over a week to get there. Edison crews pulled the barricades back a block at a time as they replaced the torched telephone poles.

Here he is today:

As I rode past driveways I knew well I saw instead the houses that high hedgerows had hidden, now reduced to smoking ruins. The air was still oppressive, the smell of smoke filling my nostrils. I rode slower and slower and slower… I couldn’t take my eyes off the blackened smoldering hillsides, the trees, the mailboxes, the twisted metal and wire of all the things that days before had been an everyday part of someone’s home.

No time to get the mail.

This bike tried to run from the fire by climbing a tree.

I wasn’t alone. There were other cyclists and motorists and joggers. We all had the same look on our faces. The way people look at a wake for a child. All I could think about was how horrific that night must have been, to be trapped in one of these canyons. I could see how the hungry fire had fingered through the creek beds like a thief, torching the trees from underneath, curling up the embankments to devour everything. The power had gone out shortly after the fire had started. No light to gather your belongings, children, pets. No street lamps to show a way through the thick smoke. The few narrow roads out must have been chaos. I have never been filled with such sorrow simply looking at a landscape. On the first trip I couldn’t take any photos. I would raise my camera and slowly lower it back down and turn it off. The camera couldn’t see the way it felt. I slogged back the way I came and didn’t pick up my pedal stroke until my path was greener and I was beyond the burn zone.

I resolved to return and document, document, document. When I did I began to see such beauty. Cast-iron black trees against blue sky and chocolate earth. A thousand shades of umber, sienna and rust. Then on the last trip… GREEN! Like a fresh splash of cool life on the eyeballs, NATURE was coming back. And that made it even more beautiful. I wish I was more of a photographer with a proper camera and lenses because I can’t hope to do it justice. My friend Carson Blume, cycling photographer, is sick this week otherwise I would have got him up here. I hope you get the idea anyway.

Green

Remember Christo? The artist who wrapped an island in pink plastic? I know it’s hard to see but this is an entire hillside wrapped in burlap. It looks so surreal up close and it’s BIG.

More burlap hill
(see tiny cyclist?)

A sculpture I could not see before because it was beyond the gate, obscured by trees.

Kind of proud of my calves these days. They’re not massive or anything but I’ve always had trouble growing them and for me they are huge. Thanks for reading and Enjoy your rides!