Zion Day 13

Wow, today was a wonderful day for me. It started simply enough with several of the deer grazing outside the Grotto
.

I painted on the detail of the “lady” mountain I have been working on. (I found out today the names of many of the peaks around here so I will try to call them by their proper titles.)

I was first visited by “Barry”, a hiker whom had just hiked up to Emerald Pools and returned via the Grotto trail, the same little hike I did last week. Barry was taking a pic of the Grotto and was looking at what I was painting, so I invited him in. It turns out he was an Olympic refugee, from British Columbia. He had skeedaddled out of Canada to escape the deluge of the Olympics. The Canadian army had invaded his little town some time ago and it had finally got too much for him so he left. (it used to be people went to Canada to flee the Army, my how times have changed)

Barry from BC

 He said the Army even brought in tanks for security, (who knew they even had tanks?)

and that helicopters were flying over head so much it was just a zoo. (He should have been here last Saturday.)

Shortly after Barry left, I was expecting Roland Lee, a tremendous watercolor artist that has been painting Zion for over thirty years. He was also a big inspiration for my blog, I had read travel sketchbook and it inspired me to do this for my little adventure.

See his website here www.rolandlee.com , you can get to his blog through there also.

He is also the Board Vice-Chairman of the Zion Natural History Association which is the Non-profit that works in conjunction with the park in merchandising , raising funds and awareness for the Parks in this region. I visited with Roland about the program and about art and his experiences and background here in Zion.

Roland went to get another person with the Zion Natural History Association, Lyman Hafen, whose title I am not sure of but I think he represents the ZNHA for the park and is the point person for their business side of things, because he has a corner office with a window overlooking the West Temple, The Altar of Sacrifice, and the Towers of the Virgin, I could just paint from there.

 Roland and Lyman, outside Lyman's office.

Roland and Lyman gave me a wealth of information on the history of the park and the program and the art in region, giving me further knowledge that adds depth to my experience here. They also took me to lunch, which for those who know me, I will work for food.

Leslie was bringing the students involved with the program and Reece Summers the Director of Braithwaite Fine Arts Gallery to the Grotto shortly after 1pm to talk about my experience and if I had any thoughts to improve it. So far I can’t see much to improve on. I think just keep doing the residency program and let it grow naturally, because I think it will grow very, very quickly with the seven people now following along my blog. Thank you, Jon.

Next was another all important activity, laundry. Clean clothes were getting rare so it was good to hit “refresh”. I was able to use the washer /dryer the Park Emergencies Services Center have for their fire and emergency personnel.

 Waiting for the washer to finish,

I used the time while waiting to go to the Zion Visitors Center and bookstore and whoa-boy, I loaded up with some great books on the history, the art, the people, the geology, and the tunnel, of this awesome place. I ended up with ten new books today, a wealth of info I am pouring through as thoroughly and quickly as I can.

  Waiting for the dryer to finish.

As I said it was just a wonderful day, probably the most enriching of my time here. The visual imagery is just amazing, but when you add the layers of history and people and art and all the people who have had a part in me getting to be here, well it’s just overwhelming and very inspiring. Each day the magnitude of this opportunity is more evident, and the scale of responsibility comes into focus, the challenge is to live up to it artistically.

I can’t wait. This is what life is all about!