Episode 18: “Amazing Grace”

Oh, what a summer we've had this year!  May, June and July were fairly average, but bookended by extraordinary dry, sunny spells of several long weeks in April and August.  "What universe is this?" we all wondered.  All the while out and about enjoying the beauty and the bounty of the land and sea, including the best backyard imaginable, Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve.  The featured image for this episode, "Amazing Grace," is one of a series of Glacier Bay images in my portfolio.  Two additional works are on display at the Gateway Gallery through September as part of a community show with a Glacier Bay theme:  "White Thunder Detail" and "Gully."Over three million acres of steep mountains, calving glaciers, deep fjords, and temperate rainforest, Glacier Bay is phenomenal.  The Little Ice Age that occurred only 400 years ago displaced indigenous people from their home of thousands of years in the lower part of the bay. The earliest written documentation of the bay, by Captain George Vancouver in 1794, describes one continuous ice sheet "as far as the eye can see," quite a different picture than the world the Tlingit people had known.  Even to this day, the landscape is ever changing.  That ice sheet has retreated over 65 miles in the intervening years, in the process scouring rock, moving sediment and revealing coves and inlets with streams that drain the highest peaks.  The uplifted rocks and scoured valleys tell stories of time passing and enormous forces at work.  Change is the theme song, sung over centuries, endlessly fascinating and informative.The initial photo used to create "Amazing Grace" was shot while I cruised the bay on the Alaskan owned expedition vessel Sea Wolf.  The comfortable 12 passenger ship offers a unique and personal experience of the bay over the course of five days and nights, with knowledgable crew and daily kayak or hiking excursions.  A Sea Wolf adventure is total Glacier Bay immersion: living and breathing the life of the bay, waking to the slap of water on the hull and sea birds calling, watching for wildlife on shore, scanning the sky to guess what challenges the changing weather will bring.  Best of all, at day's end, there is a delicious, hot gourmet meal waiting onboard, a glass of wine and the camaraderie of fellow adventurers.Throughout the week, I struggle to capture the grandeur, the immensity, and the wildness of our surroundings as I take shot after shot.  Afterwards back in the studio, I work the images as I relive the sights and sounds of our trip.  The title "Amazing Grace" is my attempt to express my feeling of awe.  Then, a red rock outcropping inspires "True Colors."  The rocks are so bold in their beauty, so raw.  Plant succession tells its own story of struggle and persistence, seen especially in the image, "Shelf Life."There is a richness to these memories, and they become a vivid tapestry in my mind: towering peaks and rock stories interwoven with plant life of the land and sea, and animal neighbors moving throughout.  It all works together to form the whole of this magical, mystical land.Glacier Bay notecards and prints by Gustavus Alaska artist Lillian Ruedrich.  Click here to purchase more unique Alaska landscape art.