Rocky Mountain High

I have had a desire to travel the world since I was 12, and fortunately that dream came true. I have visited over 50 countries since I was a summer exchange student to Germany in 1974, and my passion for travel has not diminished.  On many of those trips I took a group of quilters, artists and friends along. I was always interested in photography since I was a kid, and documenting the art, design, landscapes, wildlife, culture and people of each new place has also become a passion. In addition to traveling to photograph quilt festivals and special exhibits at museums, I have  also enjoyed traveling to Alaska and Northern Canada  to photograph bears, and landscapes. Some of those photos became my references for art quilts.

Here at home in Colorado, I am blessed to live in a beautiful place with plenty of sunshine, stunning mountain landscapes, and abundant wildlife. Although most of my wildlife photography has taken place outside of Colorado, I stay connected to Colorado wildlife by visiting Rocky Mountain National Park, and traveling to photograph the Aspen Gold in the Fall….our brilliant Autumn season…which corresponds to the elk rut. Having grown up in Colorado, and attending summer camp at Rocky Ridge (at the base of Longs Peak) I’ve had many encounters of the furry kind, starting with a juvenile bear on a moonlit mountain trail  when I was 11. My rural-suburban neighborhood in Boulder sees fox, raccoon, and the occasional coyote, mountain lion, bobcat and bear. It is a thrill to know something that wild has pass by our house. At night before I go to bed, I go outside to look at the stars and listen to the coyotes howling.

This weekend as I plan projects for 2024, I am realizing that I’ve made 3 pieces so far of our Colorado mountains. I am planning a Wolf artwork for this year, and that will doubtless have an element of our  mountain landscape because wolves have just been reintroduced in the last month, due to a popular vote to bring them back to our state. Many people go to Yellowstone to photograph wolves, but we hope to have that opportunity for photography and eco-tourism here as well.

You can find these 3  Rocky Mountain quilts in my gallery here, but for reference I will give you a brief recap of these artworks:

“Rocky Mountain Poison” – 2016 – Made for the “Water is Life” exhibit at UN in Geneva. This piece documents the Gold King mine spill into the Animas River near Durango.

“Chautauqua Sanctuary” – made for “Sacred Threads” exhibit 2019.  At the time Boulder declared itself a ‘sanctuary city’. Our Chautauqua Park has been a sanctuary outdoor space for me  since I was a kid,  and I wanted to honor the overlay of the ‘sanctuary’ concept for both Boulder and our Chautauqua.

“Uncompahgre Fritillary” for “Little Creatures” exhibit at the Boulder Library Canyon Gallery.  More recently I was asked to make a piece for an art exhibit on endangered pollinators in Colorado, so  I chose this  endangered butterfly that lives in a small habitat adjacent to Mt. Uncompahgre.

The Rocky Mountains are fantastic subjects for landscape artwork because they are so photogenic!