Saturday 2 May
Packing up the camp, the Petrified Forest and Devils Garden and homeward bound through the mountains
Joe Ostraff, BYU tutor
Travelers consider all sorts of things, time destination, exposure to new foods, new germs, a strange bed and meeting others. Others are those people heard of, but unknown. For those that will receive the travelers there are concerns of service, will it be enough and will the traveller feel welcomed. After the initial shock of all this and more and the first meeting, comes the time together. In this case it has meant long van rides to distant and hostile lands, heat more like an oven, sleeping on sandy ground, eating strange combinations of foods, walking like a pioneer, and thinking about the project that must come to be in less than four days. The exchange of ideas has been unbeliveable. The Wirralites have performed brilliantly! They have brought with them a fresh eye for the land and the BYU people are being challenged to rise to the occasion.
Friday 1 May
Calf Creek Canyon Hike
Paul Bearman, WMC Staff
The students were invited to take part in an informal drawing session, on the 5 mile hike up Calf Creek box canyon, to record their perceptions of this unusual place.
This approach, of observing the landscape using traditional drawing materials, proved to be a successful and engaging experience evidenced by the varied interpretations which were shared at the end of a physically tiring day.
Bryan Hutchison BYU student
We came to map the Southwest of Utah. On our hike today we were encouraged to draw, to make rubbings, to interact with the land through mark marking. Explorers and settlers make maps – a sort of document symbolizing their conquering an unforgiving land, or a document of ownership. I wanted my friends from Liverpool to conquer this land, to own it, to be a part of it, and bring a piece of it back with them.
We created a sort of relation with the landscape, perhaps even connected to a sense of past peoples connection to a land that gave and took life, and we bring a piece of it to the world.
Max BYU Student
I have never seen this land before. Talking with the Liverpudlians about their landscape has helped me realize how unique the land we are visting is. They helped me realize the absolute control water has in shaping the land and dictating what lives or dies. Having never visited England I can only imagine how opposite the landscapes really are.
Thursday 30 April
Reflections on the camp out and the cultural differences of BYC and WMC
Lili Hall BYU student
When I was a little girl, I would go on road trips with my dad. He would give me a map of Southern Utah and tell me that I could pick any point on any road, and off we would go. As a result, I've been exposed to many rugged terrains off the beaten path, and the sometimes barren/ sometimes lush (it all depends on elevation, the latitude, and the time of year) landscape of Escalante is very familiar and homey to me. I was excited to go to Bryce Canyon with the Liverpool group, though, since this is one famous site in my own home state that I've never seen with my own eyes.
I found that being with people who were seeing this kind of landscape for the first time influenced the way I viewed things–I kept wondering what our new friends were thinking of the mountains, of the highways, the dry air, the red rocks, the heights, the blue sagebrush, the s'mores…of everything. Viewing the sites through their eyes gave me a bit of a fresh perspective on the land I sometimes take for granted. I paid attention to the comments people made–both from the BYU group as well as the Liverpool group. The Liverpudlians expressed things such as "I feel so small" or "everything is so big," while those of us who grew up here said things like "even though I've never been to this very spot, it still feels like coming home." I don't typically realize just how cowboy-ish this countryside really is until I'm with people with lovely English accents!
In October, I came home from a yearlong study program in England. Having lived in the English countryside so recently, I can't help but juxtapose the two places (Utah and England) in my mind as I embark on this Mapping the West art collaboration. The two landscapes are so vastly different… but they're the two parts of the world most familiar to me.
I think that travel impacts the way one sees and appreciates their own home. The fact that I've seen Liverpool gives me a bit of insight as to where my new friends are coming from as they come out to visit. I can't help but link the two places in my mind as I approach this Mapping the West book arts project, and I think that my piece for the show will be an exploration of my thoughts as to how the two places and their people are (or are not) linked insofar as my own experiences are concerned.
Thursday 30 April
Bryce Canyon and the first day of camp out
Cath Mcgrail
Wow what a day, the weather improved as we travelled south to Escelante andwe reached Bryce Canyon by lunchtime in bright sunshine. We ate a delicious lunch prepared for us by our hosts and then we set off to walk the canyon.
You get a taste of what is to come when you look over the rail at the incredible landscape below, the alien shapes and the intense colour, but walking down the steep path right into the canyon you become engulfed and swallowed up by these monolithic sculptural forms, the deep deep orange colour intensifies and changes constantly with the changing light.
The trek takes you deep into the heart of the canyon and bottoms out into a dry river bed. At this point you are in the middle of a western movie and lizards are skittering across your path.
The trail then begins a steep ascent up through the canyon and the landscape changes again. Looking back the rocks change shape and colour and then finally you reach the top of the path and the landscape is again laid out before you.
I was lucky enough to stand on this path alone, no other walkers and in silence. I have never felt so overawed by a landscape the way I have here.
We use superlatives all the time, awsome, incredible, superb, wonderfull, but in the case of Bryce Canyon they all apply and then some.
I have discovered the worlds best architect and sculptor is nature itself and I would not have missed this sight and this experience for anything.
Wednesday 28 April
Book intro and planning for camptrip
Christine
We’re off to the desert on the first leg of our foraging tour to gather images and impressions that we can interpret into print. We leave at 8 o’clock in the morning, but I am nervous about the task ahead. It’s hard to prepare for the project when you have no idea where you will be going, or what you will be doing. And you don’t know what you don’t know yet.
We are all armed with the technical skills to produce something special, but we don’t know what to expect from the landscape we are about to see for the first time no matter how many cowboy films we have seen.
My mind is full of dangers and hazards such as scorpions, snakes and sand, and it is hard to concentrate on anything else, so planning ahead a challenge.
Despite these dangers I am looking forward to the trip. New experiences are good for the soul and I hope that inspiration will flower in the desert.
