Four weeks ago, in preparation for my Emblem and Artifice opening at Alaska Pacific University, I drove down to Anchorage twice within the same week. The drive to Anchorage isn’t especially harrowing, but at 360 miles in each direction, it is lengthy. I spent a good portion of the drive looking out my windows, looking for the specific type of landscape symmetry that has come to define my ongoing project, Skookum. Both up and down the Parks Highway the first time, I noticed several slabs of ice clinging on to trees on the side of the road near Hurricane Gulch, nearly halfway between Fairbanks and Anchorage. The water underneath the ice had since receded, leaving these slabs about six feet above the current ice level. Both times during the initial trip down (to hang the work at APU), I wasn’t convinced it wasn’t worth the time to photograph or the light wasn’t perfect. On the second trip down (to attend the opening with my family), I still wasn’t convinced. This winter’s late snow has made much of the stretch between Fairbanks and Anchorage barren even in early November – so I was worried any photograph might not fit well with the rest of the set of wintery scenes. On the final trip up, I spent about twenty minutes photographing the scene, finding the conditions right, although the snow was certainly lacking.

Although not absolutely content, I was happy enough with the results to edit and print them out in preparation for the next Photography Untapped meeting. Untapped is a Fairbanks Community Photography Group I started approximately three years ago as a club focused on discussion, critique, learning, sharing and growth. Our bimonthly meetings are an opportunity for photographers of all skill sets to share their work, receive constructive critique and learn new perspectives from artists young and old. What I love most about Untapped is that nobody shies away from offering critique to any of the members – especially those with years of experience.

Their reception of these new images was, happily, no different. Certainly, there were ones that were favored over others, ones that people loved on their own, but the overall critique was that without the snow, they didn’t fit very well in the Skookum series. This is exactly what I needed to hear. I often complain that finding critical, like-minded artists after you complete your schooling is difficult – and so Untapped has regularly been that encouraging voice when I’m being too dismissive of my own work and also a unbiased eye when I might not be.

So: fast forward three weeks and I find myself heading down the same highway – this time to Kenai for Thanksgiving – and I spend another twenty minutes photographing my favorite slice of ice… this time with a healthy coat of snow:

Certainly improved, if I say so myself. Has it found its place in the preliminary edit of Skookum? Yes. Will it remain in the cut? Who knows. I continue to create for this series of work, routinely reconsidering the selections and digging into archives to rediscover images I initially passed over.

The following image from last Spring initially received a lukewarm response at Untapped, but with other recent additions to the series, this one has found its place among the pack:

On our way back from Kenai, I dropped by K’esugi Ken Campground and went on a brief walk up toward Curry Ridge. This campground was the highlight of our summer, after spending two days camping across the valley from Denali in late May. I had hoped to capture a winter shot of a downed tree with shelf mushrooms interspersed vertically and horizontally, but recent snows had covered the tree. So, hoping for a shot of the Alders, I roamed with my family up the trail until fresh wolf tracks turned us packing.  Before we left, however, I did set up a shot among the snow-covered alders. Reminds me of some paintings by Bev Doolittle:

So – progress. Thoughts? Critique is always warmly welcome.