Our third annual MFA trip is a study in contrasts. Sin City provides the surreal backdrop book-ending our time in the so-called Arizona Strip, the band of remote desert north of the Grand Canyon and south of the Utah border. We’ll leave Las Vegas immediately and journey to the canyons of the Virgin River. This is the gateway for one of the largest proposed wilderness complexes in the Southwest, and it’s also an invitation to discover the paradoxes shaping this little-known region: an arid land shaped by water, scarcely peopled yet rife with evidence of past populations, boasting jaw-dropping splendor but overshadowed by proximity to one of the nation’s top destinations.
The MFA trip is equal parts vacation and creative recharging. Along with conveying baseline backcountry skills, we’ll use this labyrinthine setting as a laboratory to discover the connections between our ongoing artistic pursuits and our sense of wildness. What can we learn from the economy of desert life? From our observations of the nocturnal? From adapting to a very different studio? We pair quick collaborative projects intended to stimulate observation with exercises encouraging you to think and communicate about your work with clarity and sincerity. We also make time for naps, day hikes, and being alone.
Participants: Participants: Maria Davidoff, Erin Hayden, Katie Holden, Ronald Linn, Sarah Meadows, Bertrand Morin, Griffin Pines, Thalassa Raasch, Alanna Risse, Chelsea Wills
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