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final post from Jon

As the group members part on our separate journeys, we take with us an experience that fulfilled expectations, took unexpected turns, and developed into what I see as lasting friendships.

The experience was creatively fulfilling, as everyone found ways to contribute expressions of their individuality and personal reflection on the time and place of this adventure.  The incredible sights and thin clean air of Wyoming come through in the works, as do the mixed emotions of observing coal mining and wild fires.

The daily workshops and meetings allowed each of us to contribute to the group in ways that were outside of our typical creative medium.  I feel that these activities kept us grounded and eased the tension of the creative pressure and other individual factors.  The activities created a space to get to know each other by performing activities outside of the group members’ typical wheelhouse.  This was humbling, fun, and fulfilling.

As we are now in the post-production phase of this project, I am still processing everything that happened.  We have strong creative works that I believe capture the spirit and emotion of our observations.  I hope this work can move an audience and raise awareness not only of the environment factors but of using improvisation and creativity as a force to make this world better for everyone.

-Jon Letts 

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Fall Creek Road, Jackson, WY

#17

Ellie pulls into the meadow for a simple reason: the ground will be soft on the feet, bare as we walk toward the creek to find a man lying toward the sun. Hat over his eyes. For a beer, I fail to untangle the knot in his line, gnarled by the mud thick enough to hold a hook in its own belly. The man recounts how the billionaires have overtaken the town as he slices the cutthroat trout down the middle, so the scarlet gills fan around his fingers, and the belly spills downriver.

-C.H.New

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Mosquito Creek Rd, Wilson, WY

#15

Ellie says smoke jumpers enter by way of air and silk, aiming for the heart of the fire, for the smallest tree that can stop the forest from falling. 

#16

The smoke leads us to the notice that claims somewhere, things are still burning. The fire line too far to see, but the aspen are green and the fire is intentional: to minimize damage to local ecology and humanity, so claims the chain, as we do not cross the line.

-C.H.New

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3.8.21 Burn site

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[a few memories from research hikes on our trip— samuel]

swimming with birds

the skies were streaking rain ahead of us, and sun behind us back by the car. the intensity of the wind and rain and sun seemed to inspire a chattering catharsis in the trees ahead. we walked in a line, tiptoeing as we approached a gathering of trees about 25 yards down the trail. peter motioned for us all to slow down and looked around excitedly for his binoculars. at about 20 yards away we met a community of supposedly uncommon bird species, and as soon as we entered their field, they started gossiping about us. we stopped as they reorganized, many of them flying from a tall pine tree on the right of the trail, swooping down in front of us, across the trail, into the undergrowth on our left. there were at least 80 of them, and possibly as many as 200. they flew in a staggered pattern—a small group of them leaving every few seconds—anxiously trying to judge our threat. when a group took off, they flapped in lengthy, asynchronous, bounds, maybe averaging 3 to 5 flap/glide cycles, starting slowly with strong flaps, and then fluttering as they braked into hidden landing perches. my eyes effortlessly followed each pack, never focusing on just one, letting their collective wavy air trails draw my head from right to left and then back again for the next group. 

 bones!

caroline’s love for bones put the rest of us on alert. what she did with them was beyond us. toward the end of one of our longer hikes, peter spotted a whole animal’s sun-bleached collection off the trail, on a cliff ledge. i slid down the side of the cliff several meters to take stock of what I assumed to be the remains of a deer: 

jaw       (strong and smooth on the bottom. sharp where the teeth had been torn out.)

ribs       (abundant, supportive, light-weight, hollow. i wanted to clack them.)

vertebrae        (five, spiked in a line, connected only by uneaten skin and cartilage. big-boy legos. plugs=outlets.)

pelvis        (two heavy, heavy knobs. connected in a ‘u’ shape by a brittle flat flap. brought hands to my hips lest they snap.) 

coccyx       (shattered—somehow? revealed coral or blood vessel network. how can you not believe in subtle energy?)

they are now on their way back to michigan in a mysterious trash bag labeled ‘caroline.’

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Jackson, WY

#12

If you let your body antler into the strings of the bass, the trumpet will huff its warmth at your cheek, nostrils unsure which is pentatonic or palomino, E minor slicing the willow sideways.

-C.H.New

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3.11.21 Birdwatching

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Taggart Lake, Moose, WY

#9

The tops of the evergreens are reduced to brush, buried to their crown. Only peeking through the snow to warn how deep the drift and swallow. 

Some heels skim the frozen meniscus, trying to hold their weight, while others fall to their thighs, and keep running. 

#10

Lichen lichen latched to the ledge, leaking light from its own lick and lean, lean, leave me alone. Let me leach the light from this sun. I’ve done nothing but call it my own.

-C.H.New

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3.9.21

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Paintings (top, by Ellie) and drawing (bottom, by Caro) improvised alongside one morning’s jazz workshop.

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Reflections on the 2021 Jackson Hole, Wyoming Artist Retreat (by Peter Formanek)

Life seems to have a way of constantly defying expectations. Although I had intended to go into this artist retreat with as few expectations as possible — especially of myself and of my collaborators — I couldn’t help but bring some along with me to Jackson Hole, Wyoming. I certainly did not set lofty or unreasonable goals for myself, but I did plan on spending a good deal of time alone here developing musical concepts I had left unfinished, practicing, composing, and of course taking in the beauty of the Teton mountain range. I had hoped to make some new friends here, but group dynamics often end up making that difficult for me, so I kept my expectations low on that front as well.

What I could not have expected going into this retreat is meeting and bonding nearly instantly with five other artists of various disciplines and spending the majority of my time with these new friends of mine. Every single day was a different adventure, but the collaborative, communal, creative spirit of this group of individuals ran through it all. Building my own body of work is very important to me, but this trip wasn’t about me; it was about cultivating this group spirit, making art together, and developing close friendships that I imagine will be life-long. So, as I prepare to leave this beautiful place with no new compositions of my own or fully fleshed out artistic concepts, I find myself with no regrets whatsoever. This project was absolutely worthwhile in every respect for me, and I only hope that I can continue to collaborate with these special, intelligent, skilled, creative people for years to come.

I love you all!

-Peter Formanek

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U.S. 90, Wyoming

#6

The difference in dioxide and monoxide is that the woman on the radio doesn’t know which one kills. The answer depends how you define your world: the garage, filling with the engine left running, or the earth swelling with our breath.

#7

The woman on the radio claims

a god omni-potent, with an O harsher than omnipresence or impatience. A god omnisciently impotent with omnivorous intent. And say that it’s so—his portents omnifarious to our omnisexual appetite. If so, remember, he is omnific to the extent of our penitence.

-C.H.New

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5.9.21

Today we all took a walk through Mosquito Creek. All along the water throughout the surrounding forests there had been recent controlled burns and fires. The farther down the trail we traveled, the more cut down, scorched, and displaced trees we came across. We stumbled into some firefighters who pointed us in the direction up a hill with a large clearing and many burned trees/plant life. Samuel and I decided this would be a great place to sit down and play a Pauline Oliveros exercise, where we deeply listen to our surrounding environment and try to become a part of it through the sound of our instruments. Sitting on a scorched stump surrounded by burnt grass and the air, connecting with the land became a very powerful process. The sounds of distant frogs, birds, bugs, and the pulse of the wind all become a catalyst for improvisation. The land had already begun its regenerative and restorative process, and it is clear as ever that humans only have temporary control, if any at all, over nature. The trip ended up longer and more impactful than I think we all expected, as the path and surrounding land only grew more fascinating as we walked. We were able to capture lots of photos, film, and field recordings of streams and distant wildlife, trying to capture everything around us as accurately and respectfully as possible. 

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Panoramas from our hike through burn sites near Mosquito Creek!

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Gillette, WY

#5

Two sheriffs pull their trucks neck to neck into the chainlink, overlooking the crater where asteroids never fell. The earth belly scooped into piles of wasterock, empty mountains sprouting a hopeful scalp of grass, cropped too close for the wind to whip. Sagebrush. Little bluestem. Blooms of bitterroot. In the east, houses crouch in temporary beige. In the west, the smokestacks rise in pale yellow, painted closer to the dead rush than the sun. 

-C.H.New

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3.2.21

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5.8.21

Here are my notes on the masterclass I gave on Hal Galper’s method of time keeping/growing a band sound! I’m super grateful for everyone being so open minded and interested in the material. It was great trying to relate these musical concepts to non-musical situations and other art forms. The concepts of bringing out your instinctual thinking and broadening the sense of time passing seemed to relate deeply to dance, poetry, and film editing as well in a musical setting.