Saturday, February 13, 2016
Wednesday, January 20, 2016
Into The Brush - Saving the Future of Wilderness One Stroke at a Time
Despite what the media says along zealot extremist environmental organizations, wilderness today is quite fine. It's doing well. very little pollution if any is affecting the Boundary Waters Canoe Area wilderness. Wild animals are still running around. In some cases, it's a little TOO fine - meaning no humans are going to it anymore - it is not down to zero use but the number of humans seeking wilderness in northeastern Minnesota is tumbling. Supposedly, there used to be 250,000 visitors per year to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness in the mid 90's. In 2013 the actual number is 114,000 participants and in 2014, it dropped to 97,000! That is an alarmingly low number relative to the 250,000 back in the day. We're still waiting for the government to release the 2015 numbers. I expect them to be lower and will post them when I get them.
Don't you find it a shame that interest in the natural world is dwindling only to be replaced by the digital world and all of it's cheap distractions? I know it bugs me and that is why I've started the Into The Brush art camp program. The "interest-in-wilderness-death-spiral" needs to stop.
We are going to save the FUTURE of wilderness, one stroke at a time. Just think about that. You go on an experience, paint some pretty cool stuff, go outside and play and have a really relaxing time at it. You then go home, & hang your cool painting on the wall. Your friends want to know more about how it was that you did that, along with where was that beautiful place, and before you know it, you are telling the whole story about your Into The Brush adventure. When they see that you could do it and had a blast, some of them might begin to turn a blinder eye to their electronic distractions. Maybe they'll want to experience wilderness as well. If everybody and his/her brother enjoys wilderness among the mature adults, what might the immature adults think? Those are the ones who will be making the decisions of the future. It's a lot harder to destroy a place that you like. Observation + paint = fantastic experience.
If we don't get the word out to people who can think rationally today about the threat of "lack of public interest" for tomorrow, we are going to have a real problem. Today's kids aren't going to care one bit if the water is drained from the Boundary Waters Canoe Area to grow crops in the Heartland of the US where they are literally running out of water in 2016. That is but only one disastrous possibility that will affect the wilderness of today if we don't get people back into the brush.
The only way to actually save the future of wilderness is start re-introducing people to it. Into The Brush seeks to expose students to bettering their observational skills, while applying basic painting skills using the surrounding wilderness of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area for inspiration. It will be unique way to get back into the brush and see what one has been missing for all these years!
Find out more at our Northwind Lodge site: Click Here
Saturday, January 2, 2016
Switching Gears - Moving into Art & Deeper into Wilderness
Things have really slowed down in this neck of the woods along with resort life.
The sorry state of the economy nationwide and locally is a big reason. Then there are changing tastes by demographics. All of our old customers have aged even more. Many are changing their patterns and interests accordingly with less distance in travel and/or more service-oriented travel such as cruise-type experiences. Rustic adventures are no longer in their wheelhouses. The 20-30 somethings have pretty much traded in all things wilderness for all things digital. You can tell this is true by noting the big lines around the block every time Apple launches yet another iPhone. The 40-somethings are struggling with the economy, debt, and family.
Who does that leave us in the resort business? Independent, single, 20-something & 50-something women and older.
How do I know this? Women in their 20's and 50's tend have no kids at home. The youngin's may not yet be married with no interest in getting married soon or if ever, and respectively, the 50 YO's tend to be divorced, separated or hopefully at a point in their marriages where they are seeking to independently try something different after being "relegated" in a more custodial life role for so many past years. Their hubbies know how to cook, won't burn down the house when they are gone, and they can actually do something for themselves with spousal blessings. Both groups have some money and can afford doing things. They also want to experience something "interesting and useful" with the time they have left being in reasonably good health. And where are the young males in all of this? Good question. They used to be on canoe trips by the car load. Don't even see them any more in just 5 short years.
Tie all of that together with the fact that I have the need to "switch gears" in my business for survival plus the fact that I, too, like to do different things as well. My bus man's holiday is art and I'm willing to share and want to encourage it.
I know how to paint. I enjoy painting but left it almost entirely for about 33 years. During those paintless years, I attempted to get back into painting but I struggled with my artwork. I was unable to find the mojo to make it go for a broad variety of actual reasons. Well, the same reasons above that have caused our regular business to falter somewhat have opened the door to painting for me and the mojo is back in full force.
Time and priority did it. I have more time available in between customers plus I have a lot of orders for commissioned works. I'm now painting at level much higher than when I was young as far as volume. Also, after 40+ years of teaching people how to do many different skilled activities, I'm confident that I can share my abilities in a productive way with people who are interested in learning and having fun while doing it. Paddle a canoe correctly, ski up a hill, set the hook on a walleye, sweat a copper joint, ride a mountain bike, and now how to paint - they are all very similar in end result and I have taught them to many people.
Another reason I decided to pursue a painting instruction program is in my real concern and alarm for the falling off of wilderness use in general. America is aging. Fishing and hunting license sales are dying in Minnesota. The canoe parking lots in the BWCA are 25% full when only 4 years ago, they were 110% full. With the exception of the Blueberry Arts weekend time slot which used to be just another event in summer (and is now the peak of summer), the parking lots at all the Boundary Waters Entry Points are too big for the numbers of cars there. Something drastic has happened and for inexplicable reasons, a lot of people up here are not noticing it or are simply in denial.
For employment, people moved into metro areas and have left the trappings of rural and wilderness living. After going soft, they are not only turning their backs on wilderness as being too difficult, and too rustic to do, they are forgetting all about it as well. How do I know this? In 2014 an advisory panel of 21 Minneapolis "experts" were hired by a local organization up here to solve Ely's decline. After 3 days of study, they suggested putting a footbridge over Miners Lake in Ely as an "attraction". Most notable of their expert foibles was the installation of "pocket parks with free WIFI" throughout downtown Ely Minnesota. Ely is the gateway to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, Canoe Capital of the World and almost surrounded but one million acres of undeveloped wilderness. The expert panel forgot all about the actual real wilderness in Ely MN located 5 minutes from town. Instead they want to give visitors to Ely "a secluded wilderness experience of sorts" while they wander among the "for sale" signs of all the abandoned and closed businesses on the streets. People actually DO come from the metro areas now to walk around in Ely, never venturing outside. It's like a sci-fi movie where the aliens surround the town but never bother anyone who doesn't venture beyond the city limits. If YOU can't figure out how messed up that is, there is no saving you.
Even a complete fool would question pocket parks in a northern Minnesota town surrounded by a massive, real, gorgeous, wilderness canoe-only park with thousands of clean lakes, good fishing, and wildlife. You know we are in trouble with "saving the wilderness" if this is how low city people can go. They are seeking out "fake" wilderness and can't see the forest because of all the trees. Un-friggin'-believable!
The truly sad part is that the expert panel was most likely correct in the pocket-park idea. We now live in a world of internet "pretenders" who want to be in a "safe space wilderness" and feel like they have actually accomplished something by sitting in one and looking at their iPhone. With this attitude and practice will come the decline of wilderness in the future.
And that is why I started Into The Brush. Learn about wilderness and how to put in on canvas for the whole world to see. Painting is one part the skill of the hand and eye, and one part the inspiration of one's soul put to canvas. No stupid pocket parks with free WIFI will bring this about true inspiration compared to REAL wilderness in a nice cabin in the woods with NO concrete side walks and park benches upon which to sit. Somebody's gotta do something in this world gone mad. I can paint, I can paddle, and I can do a whole bunch of other stuff quite well. Do you want to learn how to begin? Click the link and read the program:
Click Here for More
The sorry state of the economy nationwide and locally is a big reason. Then there are changing tastes by demographics. All of our old customers have aged even more. Many are changing their patterns and interests accordingly with less distance in travel and/or more service-oriented travel such as cruise-type experiences. Rustic adventures are no longer in their wheelhouses. The 20-30 somethings have pretty much traded in all things wilderness for all things digital. You can tell this is true by noting the big lines around the block every time Apple launches yet another iPhone. The 40-somethings are struggling with the economy, debt, and family.
Who does that leave us in the resort business? Independent, single, 20-something & 50-something women and older.
How do I know this? Women in their 20's and 50's tend have no kids at home. The youngin's may not yet be married with no interest in getting married soon or if ever, and respectively, the 50 YO's tend to be divorced, separated or hopefully at a point in their marriages where they are seeking to independently try something different after being "relegated" in a more custodial life role for so many past years. Their hubbies know how to cook, won't burn down the house when they are gone, and they can actually do something for themselves with spousal blessings. Both groups have some money and can afford doing things. They also want to experience something "interesting and useful" with the time they have left being in reasonably good health. And where are the young males in all of this? Good question. They used to be on canoe trips by the car load. Don't even see them any more in just 5 short years.
Tie all of that together with the fact that I have the need to "switch gears" in my business for survival plus the fact that I, too, like to do different things as well. My bus man's holiday is art and I'm willing to share and want to encourage it.
I know how to paint. I enjoy painting but left it almost entirely for about 33 years. During those paintless years, I attempted to get back into painting but I struggled with my artwork. I was unable to find the mojo to make it go for a broad variety of actual reasons. Well, the same reasons above that have caused our regular business to falter somewhat have opened the door to painting for me and the mojo is back in full force.
Time and priority did it. I have more time available in between customers plus I have a lot of orders for commissioned works. I'm now painting at level much higher than when I was young as far as volume. Also, after 40+ years of teaching people how to do many different skilled activities, I'm confident that I can share my abilities in a productive way with people who are interested in learning and having fun while doing it. Paddle a canoe correctly, ski up a hill, set the hook on a walleye, sweat a copper joint, ride a mountain bike, and now how to paint - they are all very similar in end result and I have taught them to many people.
Another reason I decided to pursue a painting instruction program is in my real concern and alarm for the falling off of wilderness use in general. America is aging. Fishing and hunting license sales are dying in Minnesota. The canoe parking lots in the BWCA are 25% full when only 4 years ago, they were 110% full. With the exception of the Blueberry Arts weekend time slot which used to be just another event in summer (and is now the peak of summer), the parking lots at all the Boundary Waters Entry Points are too big for the numbers of cars there. Something drastic has happened and for inexplicable reasons, a lot of people up here are not noticing it or are simply in denial.
For employment, people moved into metro areas and have left the trappings of rural and wilderness living. After going soft, they are not only turning their backs on wilderness as being too difficult, and too rustic to do, they are forgetting all about it as well. How do I know this? In 2014 an advisory panel of 21 Minneapolis "experts" were hired by a local organization up here to solve Ely's decline. After 3 days of study, they suggested putting a footbridge over Miners Lake in Ely as an "attraction". Most notable of their expert foibles was the installation of "pocket parks with free WIFI" throughout downtown Ely Minnesota. Ely is the gateway to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, Canoe Capital of the World and almost surrounded but one million acres of undeveloped wilderness. The expert panel forgot all about the actual real wilderness in Ely MN located 5 minutes from town. Instead they want to give visitors to Ely "a secluded wilderness experience of sorts" while they wander among the "for sale" signs of all the abandoned and closed businesses on the streets. People actually DO come from the metro areas now to walk around in Ely, never venturing outside. It's like a sci-fi movie where the aliens surround the town but never bother anyone who doesn't venture beyond the city limits. If YOU can't figure out how messed up that is, there is no saving you.
Even a complete fool would question pocket parks in a northern Minnesota town surrounded by a massive, real, gorgeous, wilderness canoe-only park with thousands of clean lakes, good fishing, and wildlife. You know we are in trouble with "saving the wilderness" if this is how low city people can go. They are seeking out "fake" wilderness and can't see the forest because of all the trees. Un-friggin'-believable!
The truly sad part is that the expert panel was most likely correct in the pocket-park idea. We now live in a world of internet "pretenders" who want to be in a "safe space wilderness" and feel like they have actually accomplished something by sitting in one and looking at their iPhone. With this attitude and practice will come the decline of wilderness in the future.
And that is why I started Into The Brush. Learn about wilderness and how to put in on canvas for the whole world to see. Painting is one part the skill of the hand and eye, and one part the inspiration of one's soul put to canvas. No stupid pocket parks with free WIFI will bring this about true inspiration compared to REAL wilderness in a nice cabin in the woods with NO concrete side walks and park benches upon which to sit. Somebody's gotta do something in this world gone mad. I can paint, I can paddle, and I can do a whole bunch of other stuff quite well. Do you want to learn how to begin? Click the link and read the program:
Click Here for More
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