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...
musings from the studio and beyond ~
dawn chandler’s reflections on art and life. . . .
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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...
five years ago today I set out to walk across vermont
Vermont's Long Trail: It was grueling. It was anxiety-riddled. It was way, way, way harder than I ever imagined. I'd give anything to go back and do it again. My goal was to solo backpack the 273 miles of Vermont's Long Trail. Though over the years I've shared some of...