Day 4 – Bus from Seward to Denali

The fourth day was mostly a travel day. We were on a bus for 8 hours with two stops. It made for a very long day, but had beautiful views. The highlight of the day was the stop in Anchorage. We were there for about three hours and most everyone went shopping. I however snuck away and spent the few hours in the Anchorage Museum of Art and History. I took my time and saw many great pieces of art. The museum was home to so many beautiful landscapes, modern pieces from local artists, and other pieces including glass, bronze, wood, and video projects. The thing that impacted me the most in the museum, however, was not a piece of art, it was actually a quote hung beside one of my favorite pieces in the museum. The quote read:

“The country itself…it’s grand. It’s so damn grand…It’s like trying to paint Niagara Falls or a brilliant sunset or the Grand Canyon or some other visual aspect of nature which can only be described by people who have lived in it, have soaked it up, have been in that environment long enough to assimilate and understand it…It is very hard to look at something with you mouth open and at the same time try to think in technical terms: how do you control this image, how do you present it? How do you compose it so that it is the most effective?”

-Karl Fortess

WPA artist who visited the Alaska Territory in 1937

I connected with it...for a couple reasons. First, I’ve spent the last few days in one of the most beautiful places on earth. I’ve tried so hard to capture these moments so I wouldn’t forget. These efforts however had only ended in frustration because, in spite of my best efforts, I am incapable of capturing even fraction of the grandiose beauty that I’m surrounded with. My camera lens is too small, my mind is too cluttered. I know I’m going to forget the profound impact being in the middle of it all has had on me…and that makes me very sad.

I also connected with the quote because in some senses, it is what I attempted to do for a living. I try to capture an incapturable God and create moments of transcendence and life-change. We Christ-followers follow a God whose ways are so very much higher than our ways, and whose thoughts are far beyond our own thinking.