A personal travel blog of my pursuit of recreational opportunities from an artist’s perspective along the Wasatch front, back and the westward expanse stretching across the salt flats to the Nevada border. My personal application of the principals I teach in modeling the role of art in times of socioeconomic transition. http://wasatchart.blogspot.com/
Art as outdoor recreation. I have always believed that art as outdoor recreation will eventually find its greater place in our society. I believe that the socioeconomic conditions we are experiencing indicate and will perhaps necessitate and allow for expanding the enjoyment of the arts.
In my lifetime many of my lifestyle recreational choices have been supported by affordable mobility. Often I would drive the 170 mile round trip to fish for a few evening hours at my favorite Strawberry fishing hole. The summer of 2007’s $4.00 a gallon price was an impetus to consider consuming $30.00 worth of gas for such short outings.
While considering my recreational options and looking at expanding my personal enjoyment of the visual arts I encountered a disheartening circumstance. My summer plans for outings in the Wasatch and Uinita mountains all changed due to a detached retina and subsequent surgery.
The surgery to repair the detached retina included laser repair and also the insertion of a gas bubble. Inherent to this type of surgery is also the rapid formation of a cataract. Due to possible expansion or contraction, the gas bubble restricted my mobility to a constant elevation for 6-8 weeks until the bubble dissolved. Absoultely no complaints the miraculous surgery performed at the University of Utah Moran center saved my eye sight.
The recovery period is a perfect excuse to stay home and do nothing or an excellent time to plan and develop and implement new and creative ways to enjoy the outdoors.
Another extenuating circumstance of the recovery period was not being able to drive. While legal to drive with one eye due to depth perception problems I deemed it not wise to do so until recovered.
Not content to spend month’s confined to home and travel limited to commandeering family a chauffer the most plausible alternative has been, you guessed it public transportation, the bus, AKA the UTA.
After using public transportation for a month or so I started contemplating how I could develop outdoor recreational opportunities accessible within the UTA system. Since the system covers approximately 140 miles north to south and also about 40 miles west I studied the transit systems maps and scoped out some trial trips.
The whole plan was to expand my enjoyment of painting and sketching while exploiting my limited mobility due to elevation to the max. So I loaded my back pack with sketch pad, camera, drinks etc. and hit the road via the bus.
Since the initial trial trips I have decided to present a blog of sojourns along the Wasatch front. While my eye has recovered from surgery my plans to sketch and paint paintings utilizing public transportation will be an ongoing activity.
Considering the socioeconomic conditions that have developed since the summer of 2008 It is my hope that this blog will present new ideas for many desiring and needing extremely affordable outdoor recreation
This blog will describe and present the experiences I encounter, and the paintings produced in my outdoor recreational experiment.
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