Middle of Nowhere

I've always loved the Great Outdoors. As we currently live in one of the biggest, dirtiest metros in the country, my husband and I like to revisit nature when we can. It's a balm to our souls.

Last week I was looking at this:

Grand Teton National Park

and this:

Yellowstone National Park

and a hundred other awe-inspiring places. My mind boggled on how much of our country looked like this before, well... "progress."

One of my favorite parts of the trip, besides seeing this fellow
up close and personal (really, he was twenty yards away at one point!) was the chance to visit the National Museum of Wildlife Art.

The museum is a few minutes outside of Jackson Hole, Wyoming and admission is only ten dollars. I planned a visit because they had original art from Seuss' The Lorax, only to find out the exhibit was ending the day before we were to visit! *sigh* I decided it was still worth visiting, despite this painful fact.

And I was right. The place has gorgeous larger-than-life-bronzes of native wildlife everywhere. They have several galleries and an interactive area for children. Besides being able to see the wonderful work of luminaries in the field of wildlife art, I was able to discover some new favorites. There was Tucker Smith, Robert Kuhn and even the Audobons, but if I could have anyone's work hanging in my home, it would be that of Carl Rungius.

Black Bear-This piece was at least ten feet by twelve feet, and the colors glowed!

Not only was his personal story interesting, but his work was just arresting. Something about it just spoke to me. I envied his ability to live in the wild and work with what was in front of him, bringing it to life on canvas. More than anything, he adored the wilderness and the creatures that existed within it. That fact resonated with me the more I looked at his body of work. With all of the artists in that museum, really.

My personal style couldn't be more different than those of the wildlife artists I saw in Wyoming, but I've got an itch to try my hand at a few large-scale paintings and create my own love letter to the Great Outdoors. If you ever find yourself near Jackson Hole, Wyoming be sure to take a detour to this museum. You won't be sorry.