Ellen Simper Art: Art Auction, Animal Shelter

This newspaper article was published last Friday. Woo hoo! Living in a small town means that you can get your face in the paper for pretty mundane things. It was a privilege to donate to the animal shelter. They are in dire need of some equipment to take care of housekeeping.

The shelter is located up by the airport in Holbrook. It used to be in a small building at the turn-off to the road going to the Petrified Forest and St.Johns. We took one of our dogs there when the black and hairy cocker spaniel jumped in the water bed with me. That was the end of his welcome. The city tore the building down and replaced it with an interesting sculpture welcoming visitors to our fair municipal tourist trap. I will have to take a photo of that one.

Meanwhile this is one of the 2 dozen paintings and many more color copies I have done of a diminishing landmark on our horizon, called Woodruff Butte. A commercial enterprise is mining the rich cinder pile of the butte for a lot of money. I can't understand why the guy would pass up millions of bucks to dry up the tears of the people who live in the shadow of the butte. The people living in Woodruff have spent many happy times climbing the butte and are lamenting its changing contour. Dan says whereas the butte has been a pimple on our landscape it is all too quickly becoming a dimple on the horizon and not casting much of a shadow at all.

It has been my attempt to preserve some of the history of the butte by taking a LOT of photographs and then painting the look of it on canvas and in watercolor. I acquired a B&W photo from 1925 when there was the original shape on top. I have interviewed the people whose families homesteaded

at its base and those who spent time trekking all around it. I have wanted to make available a print, painting or color copy to anyone who has wanted the artwork. Some of the art has been used for two of our city library fundraisers. There has been a continual stream of interest from people who no longer live here. Many would like a memento of when Woodruff Butte was a favorite place to spend a few hours, a time that has faded into the past and into memories of what it used to be.