I spent most of today on prep work for the painting workshop I'm teaching next week. I found a suitable photo for everyone to work from, filled palettes with paint, and organized everything else. That's as much as I'll say on that topic, it's far from the most interesting thing.

This evening we packed clothes and gear for a weekend of camping up the Noatak River. Tyler and Cassia's friends have some land along the river and are in the process of building a cabin. We went along to help where we could and hang out in the evenings. After getting all packed up and having a quick pizza dinner, we headed to the friends' house to load up the boat. There were seven of us, plus gear and food. The great thing about the late sunsets is that there's no rush to get out the door. It's about an hour's ride across the sea and up the river. We arrived around 10pm, got tents set up, and sat around the fire for a bit before turning in.

Looking back as we boat up the Noatak.

Approaching our stop.

A quick break from my residency blog posts for a shout-out to our national parks on this, the 100th anniversary of the creation of the National Park Service. Like so many, I am extraordinarily grateful for these places, whether park, monument, preserve, historic site, lakeshore, seashore, riverway, etc. We are more fortunate than we realize to have access to all that these 413 sites the NPS offers us, from education to solitude. I am grateful to the park employees who pour their time, heart, and continued dedication into doing their best to fulfill the mission of the NPS despite all the challenges the parks face: under-funding, under-staffing, and beyond. And I am grateful beyond words for the opportunities and experiences I have had through the park service's artist-in-residence programs. I have been able to develop a sense of belonging to some of these places, acquire a tremendous depth of knowledge, share my love for them, and give back by working as a volunteer on cleanups and wildlife work. Perhaps most meaningfully, I've been able to condense all of that and share it with the public, interpreting these places through paintings, blogging, teaching classes, and giving talks. Hopefully, somewhere long the way, I've managed to bring some people closer to the NPS, motivating them to visit, care about, and work to maintain our parks.

I'm far from home and my image file storage, but I do have a few photos from some of the many National Parks I've manged to visit so far. I had thoughts last year about spending this centennial year on the road, with family, visiting all of the parks. In the end, I think I'm glad the logistics proved too complex, I greatly appreciate the depth of knowledge and experience gained by taking it slow, and would be hard pressed to have had a better park experience than my eight days of peace in the Noatak National Preserve.

In no particular order, here are some photos of a few of these spectacular sites.