DEGREES UNEDITED

# 15 [5 May 2009]

Tuesday 5 May

2nd day of printing and making

Rebecca from BYU explains her ideas for her book 

When we were in the Escalante area we were shown a map of Utah from 1868 that had a big empty white circle of where Escalante was. This area had been unexplored and left blank. This part of Utah was one of the last places in the US to be explored and made known to the rest of
the world. I don’t really like that because to me Utah is the greatest place in the world. My ancestors found Utah to be a safe haven, they worked the land, my parents met here, and I did my growing up in Utah.
For my project I have been researching Utah maps. I have found a collection that spans from 1782 to present day. I want my project to illustrate the evolution of mapping Utah. At first I planned to show these maps creatively in layers or some way to chronologically show the history. But I realized that I don’t want the focus to be on the world discovering Utah. I want it to also show that Utah has always been here and why it is important to me, whether it is mapped on the world or not. So instead I have used the old maps I found as a springboard to my own exploration of what Utah has meant and does mean to me; poppies, rainbow arch, Lake Powell, the tabernacle, Mormon temples, the lamp-posts in my city, my home. I hope my project will show how long the process has been for recognition, but if not- at least I was reminded of why I love my home land.

 

# 14 [4 May 2009]

Monday 4th may

BYU response to Starting the project 

Laura Barlow – BYU

 I overheard a conversation as I sat sketching in the cold air at the base of Calf Creek Falls.

“This sort of stuff; they’re mostly just for fun. They help me clear my head. I like to do more conceptual pieces”.

Caroline, from Liverpool, just asked my professor, Joe Ostraff about his artwork. I found myself wanting to blurt out my own responses, in place of his modesty: “The fact that you are here is proof of Joe’s art work!” (I said it out loud, only to the friend seated beside me.) 

I can’t think of a better way to put it. I consider Joe to be more of an organiser of people than a painter. His projects mostly involve placing people in situations where they can share their own stories and listen to those of others. I esteem his art with the highest respect. If only he had a website I could link you to here; I regret that he doesn’t have one.

I believe that the best art is educational, it helps you question your own beliefs and way of life, it leads you to consider the beliefs and lives of others, and / or helps you further appreciate the beauty of the most basic things around you.

 I have experienced all of this during the Liverpool exchange. The red rock cliffs, my ease with breathing at high altitudes, my body’s natural adjustment to the desert heat, the religion I practice on a daily basis, and the accent with which I speak my native language all began to feel exotic in the company of my British camping companions. 

Having never travelled to England, it’s been educational to see others celebrate their own places of origin and to discuss and imagine their own trajectories. Exploring both our similarities and differences helped me to see outside myself and remember that millions of others share this world in their own, very real experiences.

 

# 13 [4 May 2009]

Monday 4th May

Starting work on the project

Michelle

We began today with a meeting to draw everyone together and focus on the work we have to do for the project deadline of Thursday lunchtime. The exhibition of the work is on Thursday evening in the exhibition space in the Harris Fine Arts Centre, its a great space and we have lots of technical help to install it. The gallery is just off the atrium space pictured.

At the meeting we discussed and finalised the collaborative text piece and Louise and Meredith have now processed it an we will print it up on the letter press tomorrow.

We made a group decision to start another collaborative litho plate as we thought the one we started on the camping trip, although fun to do, did not really reflect the content of the text piece and we wanted them to be parner pieces.

We were all on edge today, trying to get things started, trying to learn how to access various facilites at BYU and generally worrying about the quality of our ideas. But we have all made a good start and we have been very well supported by the staff and students here.

Cath and Louise have begun a litho plate each, something they have never done before, we are using Macs which are also unfamiliar. Julie has been introduced to Illustrator to help speed up her process of applying text to image.

All of these obstacles are a challenge, but we are rising to them and adapting as we go. Amy has once again been a huge help with her great patience, knowledge and thoughtful organisation. 

It was also Cath's birthday today and we made sure we celebrated this evening to let off steam and we surprised her with a spontaneous get together with cake and candles late this evening.

# 12 [3 May 2009]

Sunday

Day of sleeping in, rest and reflection

Michelle Rowley

Last night we returned from our camping trip tired, dirty and very happy to have survived the wilds of Utah and to have had the opportunity to experience such an incredible environment. The camping in tents bit, which initially worried everyone for all sorts of reasons, was absolutely fine. No scorpions, no snakes, no bears – what we did see were chukkas, chipmunks, hares, deer, antelope, lizards (assorted sizes), crickets, beetles, massive crows, a water snake, and we caught trout at the waterfall and saw elk on the mountain road home. No casualties and no bites! I carried the EV8 forms all the way up the canyon, in the 85 degree heat, for nothing!

For the first time this Sunday morning we all slept past the 5 am internal alarm clock that has been waking us up all this week. This morning has been a time of reflection and planning for all of us in Amy and Tali’s house. We started by compiling all our individual text elements into a composed piece, which we will show the BYU students on Monday morning when we next all meet up.

The text piece originally came about as an idea to accompany the group litho that we began on Saturday night after our hike at Calf Creek, and we intended to use the letterpress facility at BYU to produce it. This has now changed after a suggestion from Meredith at BYU who is now going to help Louise edit the text with Illustrator and then expose on to a litho plate for speed and economy. Tomorrow we will collect the rest of the text from the BYU group to complete the piece, which we intend will be an impressionistic text portrait of the landscapes we have visited.

After an outing this afternoon to Salt Lake City and a really lovely meal at Joe’s sister-in-laws home, we all returned to ‘our place’ to share our book ideas. We discussed our various approaches and made paper models to try to make tangible some of the practicalities involved in working in an unfamiliar print department.

We think most of us are set to begin tomorrow, I think I am going to find my own ability to work alongside everyone else quite a challenge as I am leading the project and advising everyone, so it will be interesting how much time I can keep for myself.

Keeping the blog updated with posts from a range of participants is also proving to be a full time job, but we have computer access at ‘home’ to help us. With the time difference, we are 6 hours behind the UK, some of our posts stretch into the next day UK time, so if things seem out of sync this is probably why.
 

# 11 [30 April 2009]

Saturday 2 May

Packing up the camp, the Petrified Forest and Devils Garden and homeward bound through the mountains

Joe Ostraff, BYU tutor

 

Travelers consider all sorts of things, time destination, exposure to new foods, new germs, a strange bed and meeting others. Others are those people heard of, but unknown. For those that will receive the travelers there are concerns of service, will it be enough and will the traveller feel welcomed. After the initial shock of all this and more and the first meeting, comes the time together. In this case it has meant long van rides to distant and hostile lands, heat more like an oven, sleeping on sandy ground, eating strange combinations of foods, walking like a pioneer, and thinking about the project that must come to be in less than four days. The exchange of ideas has been unbeliveable. The Wirralites have performed brilliantly! They have brought with them a fresh eye for the land and the BYU people are being challenged to rise to the occasion.

# 10 [30 April 2009]

 Friday 1 May

Calf Creek Canyon Hike

Paul Bearman, WMC Staff

The students were invited to take part in an informal drawing session, on the 5 mile hike up Calf Creek box canyon, to record their perceptions of this unusual place.

This approach, of observing the landscape using traditional drawing materials, proved to be a successful and engaging experience evidenced by the varied interpretations which were shared at the end of a physically tiring day.

 

Bryan Hutchison BYU student

We came to map the Southwest of Utah. On our hike today we were encouraged to draw, to make rubbings, to interact with the land through mark marking. Explorers and settlers make maps - a sort of document symbolizing their conquering an unforgiving land, or a document of ownership. I wanted my friends from Liverpool to conquer this land, to own it, to be a part of it, and bring a piece of it back with them.

We created a sort of relation with the landscape, perhaps even connected to a sense of past peoples connection to a land that gave and took life, and we bring a piece of it to the world.

 

 

 

Max BYU Student

I have never seen this land before. Talking with the Liverpudlians about their landscape has helped me realize how unique the land we are visting is. They helped me realize the absolute control water has in shaping the land and dictating what lives or dies. Having never visited England I can only imagine how opposite the landscapes really are.

 

 

# 9 [30 April 2009]

Thursday 30 April

Reflections on the camp out and the cultural differences of BYC and WMC 

Lili Hall BYU student

When I was a little girl, I would go on road trips with my dad. He would give me a map of Southern Utah and tell me that I could pick any point on any road, and off we would go. As a result, I've been exposed to many rugged terrains off the beaten path, and the sometimes barren/ sometimes lush (it all depends on elevation, the latitude, and the time of year) landscape of Escalante is very familiar and homey to me. I was excited to go to Bryce Canyon with the Liverpool group, though, since this is one famous site in my own home state that I've never seen with my own eyes.

I found that being with people who were seeing this kind of landscape for the first time influenced the way I viewed things--I kept wondering what our new friends were thinking of the mountains, of the highways, the dry air, the red rocks, the heights, the blue sagebrush, the s'mores...of everything. Viewing the sites through their eyes gave me a bit of a fresh perspective on the land I sometimes take for granted. I paid attention to the comments people made--both from the BYU group as well as the Liverpool group. The Liverpudlians expressed things such as "I feel so small" or "everything is so big," while those of us who grew up here said things like "even though I've never been to this very spot, it still feels like coming home." I don't typically realize just how cowboy-ish this countryside really is until I'm with people with lovely English accents!

In October, I came home from a yearlong study program in England. Having lived in the English countryside so recently, I can't help but juxtapose the two places (Utah and England) in my mind as I embark on this Mapping the West art collaboration. The two landscapes are so vastly different... but they're the two parts of the world most familiar to me.

I think that travel impacts the way one sees and appreciates their own home. The fact that I've seen Liverpool gives me a bit of insight as to where my new friends are coming from as they come out to visit. I can't help but link the two places in my mind as I approach this Mapping the West book arts project, and I think that my piece for the show will be an exploration of my thoughts as to how the two places and their people are (or are not) linked insofar as my own experiences are concerned.

 

# 8 [30 April 2009]

Thursday 30 April

Bryce Canyon and the first day of camp out

Cath Mcgrail 

Wow what a day, the weather improved as we travelled south to Escelante andwe reached Bryce Canyon by lunchtime in bright sunshine. We ate a delicious lunch prepared for us by our hosts and then we set off to walk the canyon.

You get a taste of what is to come when you look over the rail at the incredible landscape below, the alien shapes and the intense colour, but walking down the steep path right into the canyon you become engulfed and swallowed up by these monolithic sculptural forms, the deep deep orange colour intensifies and changes constantly with the changing light.

The trek takes you deep into the heart of the canyon and bottoms out into a dry river bed. At this point you are in the middle of a western movie and lizards are skittering across your path.

The trail then begins a steep ascent up through the canyon and the landscape changes again. Looking back the rocks change shape and colour and then finally you reach the top of the path and the landscape is again laid out before you.

I was lucky enough to stand on this path alone, no other walkers and in silence. I have never felt so overawed by a landscape the way I have here.

We use superlatives all the time, awsome, incredible, superb, wonderfull, but in the case of Bryce Canyon they all apply and then some.

I have discovered the worlds best architect and sculptor is nature itself and I would not have missed this sight and this experience for anything.

 

 

# 7 [29 April 2009]

Wednesday 28 April

Book intro and planning for camptrip

Christine

We’re off to the desert on the first leg of our foraging tour to gather images and impressions that we can interpret into print. We leave at 8 o’clock in the morning, but I am nervous about the task ahead. It’s hard to prepare for the project when you have no idea where you will be going, or what you will be doing. And you don’t know what you don’t know yet.  

We are all armed with the technical skills to produce something special, but we don’t know what to expect from the landscape we are about to see for the first time no matter how many cowboy films we have seen.

My mind is full of dangers and hazards such as scorpions, snakes and sand, and it is hard to concentrate on anything else, so planning ahead a challenge.

Despite these dangers I am looking forward to the trip. New experiences are good for the  soul and I hope that inspiration will flower in the desert.
 

# 6 [29 April 2009]

Wednesday 29 April - Caroline

Michelle's Book arts intro

This morning we had a presentation on book making by Michelle followed by a demonstration on paper folding techniques.  Although I am a third year, this was new to me because I joined the Wirral Met in the third year and hadn't done bookmaking at my previous University.  It was a fun day, but also challenging  thinking about what we are going to present as our final piece.  We have bought paper and materials in the very well stocked University shop (we are completely spoiled now, we must speak to our college reps when we arrive home!).  Tonight we have had an amazing meal at our host's house and are preparing for our adventure to Bryce Canyon tomorrow.  Hair wash night tonight as facilities are going to be stretched for the next three days of camping.  Lydia has bought $20 dollars of sweets to eat on way, hope it stays down as will be driving for at least 5 hours! 

Lydia

We had already tried the majority of exercises in paper folding but today was a much needed refresher course. I found the ideas the BYU students had were  very interesting and made me think about folding, collage and paper sculpture I had not previously considered. I enjoyed the lesson and it has definatly promted me to start thinking about the format I want my "Mapping the West book" to take. I am excited but anxious about the camping trip, but as with everything else I will end up really enjoying it, even with scorpions and bears.