Sunday, June 12, 2016

Separating Art from Scenery.

  Spectacular here in every direction....but that doesn't make it art.  Mostly had blue-sky days except for yesterday when a series of thunderstorms rolled behind the park.  Got a full days work in, but mostly looking, not shooting.  When I reloaded film holders at 2:00AM I was surprised how many sheets I had in the boxes.

  First deer mouse in the trap last night.  Was picked up by a Raven off Raven Rock almost immediately.

Nailing this in morning light.

Katie sunning on the lodge veranda after Huevos Rancheros.

Leaning tree.


From Cape Royal.

Point Imperial.

Wandering while waiting on light to roll over at Point Imperial trail.  Finally found a deer bone....but just one.  Coyote pup must have carried it a long way.



  Checking out with handler today but not leaving until Tuesday morning.  They used to give us three weeks, cut it to two.  Two weeks became 13 days....and they don't want you to arrive until after 3 on the first day and expect you to leave by lunch on the last day.  It's really 11 working days.  Just enough time to start to settle in, meet people and know your way around.  Not much internet.  Someone just mentioned a free laundry one cabin over instead of driving down the road to the campsite laundry.  Since artists don't talk to each other, it's hard to get any institutional knowledge piled up.
  Rumor is this is the last AIR class.  The problem seems to be staffing, but mostly selection of the artists.  The NPS wants that to be a group decision with many fingers in the pie but very hard to arrange and then actually work through.  Can be 200 applications.  They take 5 on the North.  So the whole program is going to be shut down.  There isn't even an archive for the North Rim.  I did three lectures, one more than they require plus a ton of interaction every time I set up the camera.  Met a lot of wonderful folks.

2 comments:

Denny1600 said...

Love those trees! And the canyon shadows!
Too bad that the Grand Canyon AIR is being suspended. There is such a tradition of art in the National Parks. Artists are an inspiration to others to visit the parks. So sad to lose that connection at that wonderful park.
I can see you did it justice. Too bad your time there was so short. I can see that Katie got some relaxation done.
Safe trip tomorrow.

Mike in Austin said...

Hi Robert, I really enjoyed this idea of art vs scenery. It's definitely something I struggle with, trying to show something more than just documentary. I really enjoy seeing your AIR adventures as well as the darkroom work. Keep up the awesome work.

Mike in Austin TX