Voice in the Wind, I and II There is a lot of day-to-day skull drudgery that goes with being a full-time artist. I have galleries and clients to talk to, I have supplies to order, I have emails and calls to answer, I have accounting to do, I have taxes to do. Hiking in the Rocky Mountains is an opportunity to open my mind. It’s like a pathway opens and all of the day-to-day gets shoved to the sides. The gentle wind as I cross the meadows and stand on the precipices carries messages to me. Ideas for paintings, thoughts about nature, revelations about my own life and existence are all free to enter my mind. I must take them for what they are and find a way to hold on to them. For the second I leave the wild, many of them disappear. Perhaps it is only the most important ones that stay with me. Either way, I know that the next time I enter the wilderness new voices will be whispering to me and I will grateful.