Adventures on the Gringo Trail An Artist's Awakening

In 1974, at the height of hippie culture, women's liberation and sexual freedom, the author set off on a journey that lasted nineteen months through Central and South America and included the birth of her daughter in the Andean highlands of Ecuador. As an artist, she kept a journal of over 100 pen-and-ink and watercolor illustrations of the places she visited. Traveling with her eccentric boyfriend by train, plane, bus, ship and hitchhiking, she encountered many unusual situations and people and even a tropical disease, Leishmaniasis, that a local healer called leprosy. Finding a house to rent in Otavalo, Ecuador, the author created acrylic paintings of the incredible landscape surrounding her home, while she was pregnant. Her mother came to Ecuador to be with her when she gave birth with her father arriving a week later to meet his granddaughter. This book displays the artwork she created and tells the unique story of her travels and her evolution as an artist and mother living in Ecuador in a time before technology.

Leeann Lidz has been a painter and artist for the last fifty years. She has worked in pen-and-ink, watercolor, acrylics, mosaics and more. Her style developed from apprenticing with Baila Feldman, a California artist, who specialized in "naive, primitive" paintings with bright colors, hard edges and interesting detail. For years, Leeann carried a sketchbook, pens and watercolor wherever she went to capture inspiring scenes. She took classes at Ventura Junior College in silkscreen printmaking and watercolor. Her goal as an artist is to make the world a happier place through art with her own work and teaching others to be creative.

Leeann spent several years traveling through Europe, Israel and Central and South America. She took art supplies with her while traveling in Latin America and the drawings and paintings she did there became the basis for this book. She found that creating art on location was a spiritual experience like meditation and looking at her completed work could bring her right back to its place in time.

Living in Ventura, California for thirty years, Leeann worked and raised her three children as a single mother while continuing to pursue her passion for painting. She became involved in the local art scene with numerous shows in Ventura, Ojai, Santa Barbara and Los Angeles and winning many awards. Some of her paintings were shown and sold at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art Rental Gallery. One of her dreams was to paint a large mural, and in 1991 she had that opportunity. She painted a 500 square foot mural on the side of a gymnasium entitled "Community Pride" with local children and gang members. She was instrumental in developing a creative arts program for foster children and youth-at-risk, called Kids' Arts, with her good friend, Judy Adams. While Ms. Adams interacted with the public, Leeann wrote grants, which resulted in the expansion of the program to four different locations in Ventura County. As a teacher in the program, Leeann inspired many children and teens to express themselves creatively. She has continued teaching art in her grandchildren's elementary school classes and for eight summers at Camp Winnarainbow.

Although this is her first book, Leeann had much experience writing during her years in school at UCLA and California State University Northridge. She has a master's degree in counseling and worked as a social worker and child custody mediator. In this capacity she wrote reports and child custody evaluations for Superior Court. Since retiring, she has taken writing workshops and a memoir class.

Currently, Leeann is retired and lives in Ferndale, California, a small community in beautiful Humboldt County. She continues to paint and write and has another book in the works. Her greatest joys are her six grandchildren, all of whom have created art with her.