Resources That Inspired and Influenced Us
Erica Wheeler:
Terry Tempest Williams – Refuge Through her writing, Terry Tempest Williams has always felt like a soul sister to me. Her intimate interweaving of the personal, familial, spiritual, and ecological deeply resonated when I first read it. Her reflections on the changing Great Salt Lake mirrored my own way of understanding the world—as an ongoing dialogue between inner and outer landscapes, where place itself becomes a teacher and mirror for the self.
Aldo Leopold– Sand County Almanac “There are some who can live without wild things, and some who cannot.” When I was a teenager and read this quote from Aldo Leopold on a wooden plaque on a wildlife viewing tower at the Maryland shore, it lit me up. I knew instantly—I was one who could not. That truth has guided like a north star in my life and work ever since.
David Larsen – Meaningful Interpretation I love the way David Larsen wrote and spoke about interpretation. I would have loved to have had a conversation with him. When people ask that classic question—“If you could have a drink with anyone, alive or dead, who would it be?”—for me, it would be David Larsen. I never met him, but I wish I had.
Nathan Taxel:
I am inspired by the book Inspired to Inspire: Holistic Inspirational Interpretation by Dr. Jacquie Gilson.
Alan Reed:
For a project in college, I designed a museum and monument to Garcia Lorca, a Spanish poet and playwright who was executed during the Spanish Civil War. In undertaking the discovery process and learning about Lorca, I was compelled to take his complicated story and break it down to its essence in a way that would resonate and move visitors. Having the ability to play a part in facilitating the public’s understanding of history has continued to drive my work and purpose.
Daniel Wright:
Much of my interpretive inspiration comes from classic literature and literary non-fiction, including works by Vladimir Nabokov, Thomas Mann, Jorge Luis Borges, Stephen Jay Gould, and John McPhee. Good art is the key to good interpretation. By discussing two things at once—a literal subject matter framed in a broader theme—one is capable of saying more about both simultaneously than either separately.
Theresa Coble:
Recently, the NPS published a series titled “A Stewardship of Storytelling” by Melissa Fu. Serving as Artist-in-Residence at Valles Caldera National Preserve brought Fu home to New Mexico and allowed her to see home place in new ways. Fu says: “Growing up, Valles Caldera, or The Valle as we called it, was always a place of seductive mystery. We loved it from afar, from the top of Pajarito Ski Hill, from the edges of New Mexico Highway 4, but never from inside its forbidden boundaries." In this series, Fu shares place-based memories and ponderings that weave together her upbringing in the Jemez Mountains and her recent residency at Valles Caldera National Preserve.
