“For the longest time, I avoided anything to do with the backcountry because of my diet. “
Tent time in the backcountry means lots of time for reading, and backcountry trail workers are voracious readers. What books are on their reading lists?
I wanted desperately to do work that would really make an impact in a real and tangible way. And trail work gave that to me. It felt immensely impactful. All of the sudden, I had interesting things to make art about again.
A trail says, “This is where you want to go, trust me. I will take you there.”
“I feel like the outdoors is the only place I can get a hundred percent silence, and I feel like that's when I can actually think. Sometimes I have phrases that just get repeated in my head when I'm banging up a trail six miles trying to find the next log to cut. I think about that phrase and then somehow a piece of art will come to mind.”
“I was inspired to base my works off of the struggles that come physically with working; as well as making the effort to capture those euphoric moments that come with realizing the lands for which you work.”
A roundup of PSA mascots who never quite made it as big as Smokey Bear.