Wrapped in a wool blanket, I take a sip of warming tea. I look out the window and take a deep, satisfied breath as I study a tangle of black branches etched against a frosty golden sky. The falling snow is so fine I can barely make out the individual flakes sifting...
musings from the studio and beyond ~
dawn chandler’s reflections on art and life. . . .
Dawn Chandler
how to teach your passion?
What are you passionate about? How would you teach your passion? How would you share it with others? Light a spark in someone else, so that they might get a glimmer of excitement about it? This is exactly the challenge that came my way a year ago, and changed...
walking away from social media ~ one year later
What was getting to me was the sense that I was being manipulated, that someone else was controlling my attention. I’d login with seeming innocent intentions — to see what friends were up to, or if anyone appreciated what I’d shared — and plan to spend just a couple...
spring & the hardest color to paint
As a young art student I often heard that one color is especially hard to paint . Care to guess which one? For the untrained eye it can be intimidating to look out to a verdant landscape and figure out now how to differentiate and mix green. Maybe that’s why a comment...
new mexico sky musings ~ a new release
There was a time a long time ago when I considered signing my name on my paintings with my initials, because a landscape painter named “Dawn” seemed a little too sweet, maybe even cliche´. I’m glad I got over that. According to my mother, it was my father who...
autumn across america
Late afternoon fence line, Brush Creek Ranch, Wyoming. Photo by Dawn Chandler When I was a teenager there were two places at home where I liked to do my homework. If I really needed to concentrate — say when writing a paper — I would work at my little desk in my tiny...
cutting a [creative] path to those deep woods
At this point in my Vermont sojourn, my Long Trail journal starts to ricochet. My next entry is five days after I limped off the trail in Manchester, uncertain of my future; I then time-travel and describe the past. My diary continues this way for the duration. Alas,...
prayer wrapped in my father’s red bandana
14 September 2015 — Day 6Solo backpacking the length of Vermont on the Long Trail So early the next morning I set off — first out of camp. My knee tied with Dad's red bandanna. After thirty or forty minutes or so, Flagman caught up with me. "How's the knee feeling?...
uhh-oh my knee, ‘come to jesus’ & a clash of egos
13 September 2015 — Day 5Solo backpacking the length of Vermont on the Long Trail May that remain the most miserable night of my camping life. Because the TarpTent SUCKS in a 12-HOUR VERMONT RAIN. Because the rain comes down, hits the ground and bounces up and hits...
first light, a sea of trees, a worrisome mystery hiker & a twelve-hour downpour
11 September 2015 — Day 3Solo backpacking the length of Vermont on the Long Trail Set my alarm for 5:45 (got up to pee only once — it was raining, but not too hard). Got up well before Justin, but he got up by the time I was finishing my breakfast. Hit the trail with...