Baby Boomer Ranger

When out photographing, it’s with a sense of play: no bounds are in sight, anything is possible, and the unexpected welcome.
- Chip Forelli

Last month, I climbed up one dam and down another. I ventured into the bowels of powerhouse buildings looking at turbines, gauges, and water sumps. I stood next to deafening generators, and later felt the soft cool spray from water spewing out from massive penstocks and valves.

“Rusty Edison”

Hydroelectric facilities are a serious industrial creation: concrete structures filled with large metal cylinders, valves, wires, chains, towers, levers, pumps, controls, tools, hoses, and pipes running this way and that, disappearing into cold damp walls. These are necessities to keep California supplied with electricity.

“Two Crane Valves”

But not every part the power production scene is solemn. For a change in perspective, I allowed myself to look beyond the generators and oil containment barriers of the powerhouses comprising Southern California Edison’s Big Creek Hydroelectric projects. I took a moment to absorb the colors, shapes, and visual amusements within this utilitarian scene. Aesthetics was not in the equation when these facilities were pieced together, but there within all that power, I found what is best described as fun. Bright colors, playful antics, graffiti, graphic designs, confusing viewpoints, and abstract peculiarities, were scattered around an otherwise engineered setting. I learned that even in power, there is folly.

“Power in a Fish Bowl” and
“The Governor is Maxed Out”

I took digital photos with a Nikon D70s, Nikor AF-S 18-200mm 3,5-5.0 DX VR zoom lens. Post processing was done on my iMac using iPhoto and commercially printed.

My portfolio of twenty photographs, “Power and Folly” is currently on display at the Sierra National Forest Supervisor’s Office.

“Counting Down and Up”

I think relates this to the Forest Servcie, but I’m not sure:

“I think having land and not ruining it is the most beautiful art that anybody could ever want to own.”
Andy Warhol

and

“Land really is the best art. ”
Andy Warhol

I don’t think Andy would have been very successful in the Forest Service, but he is one of my favorite artists.

What would you do if you decided to do something you didn’t really expect you would be able to do, but you did it?
And maybe, you might have even done it well, even thought you weren’t really sure what you were doing?

When I sent my portfolio to Fresno Arts Council last fall, I expected it to be my first in a series of rejection notices. “I can learn how to get rejected.” “If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again” is a very valuable saying and I believe it. When you are self taught, you also need to make your own mistakes.

But they didn’t reject me. They were willing to give me a full 30 days in August of 2007 to publicly show – “exhibit” in a busy public building, a selection of photographs that I took and called ‘art’. Strangers would come and see what I thought was interesting. I would have an ‘artist’s reception’ to meet people who would come to see my ‘art.’

With some serious help from Dave Kohut (Forest Service Retiree), I carefully prepared 21 of my favorites from the Muir Trail Ranch, and learned how to make a professional looking piece of art. I love them and I think they are beautiful. My husband said “I hope you have a successful ArtHop.” But I didn’t know what that would be. What is success in the world of art? Hell if I know. I’ve been living for the last 27 years in the world of the Forest Service, and the likelihood of any similarities between the two worlds would be bizarre.

On the first Monday I took my collection, complete with little title cards and delivered them for hanging. A real live “Curator” met me at Fresno City Hall and said “That’s OK. You can go now. I’ll take your photos, do my magic, and hang them so they look beautiful.” And I left my 21 little children with this stranger to put them on display. I wouldn’t see them until my ‘artist’s reception.’

Next, I took of my Artist’s Hat and put on my Caterer’s Hat. Menu: little rolled sandwiches, veggies, cookies and wine. Cheap three-buck-a-bottle wine. I needed to learn how to give a friendly low cost reception, and it worked.

And strangers came to the Fresno City Hall to see my photographs.

“We’re just here for ArtHop. So… Are you the Artist?” “I just love these little cups. Where did you get them?”

Now, I had to ‘be the artist.’ People came to City Hall to ‘talk to the artist.’

“So, you have this thing with wood…”

“You know, they don’t look all that special up close, but from here they are beautiful.”

“Do you use a digital camera? I have a digital camera, but I don’t know how to use it.

“Are all of these from the same location? Where is that anyway?”

“I’ve never been to ArtHop before. What’s going on here?”

“Where is the Pan Valley exhibit?” (Upstairs. Take the elevator, over there, to the second floor.)

But the best thing of all was that my friends also came. I wish I had a photo of everyone who took the time to see me, and my art.

My hair stylist brought chips and dip and a desert. How many people get food from their hairdresser? Two whole families brought their children. Others brought family members or had to convince family that it would be OK if they were out for a few hours on a weeknight.

And my dear husband the Chemistry teacher (scientist not an artist) helped me set up and clean up after patiently listening to me stress out for the last ten months since we received my acceptance letter.

And everyone was so nice. Thank you all for just being there and being you.
I hope that wasn’t my 15 minutes of fame. There are too many people so proud of my accomplishment.

Now, what am I going to do when I do get rejected? Worse yet, what will I do next?

Thank you Jeanne, Nancy, Barbra, Dave, Retha, Kathy, Mary, Julie, Kim, Carla, Charlie, Cathy, Marty, Lilly, Philip, and Keith.

My ArtHop Press Release

The Fresno Arts Council and Fresno City Hall present A Little Ranch in the Wilderness, a portfolio of photography by Cynthia A. Whelan of Clovis, California.

“Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where nature may heal and give strength to body and soul.”
- John Muir

Fresno, California, July 30, 2007 — Deep in Fresno County, beyond the drive over the Kaiser Pass Road, after the ferry ride to the far side of Florence Lake, five miles within the John Muir Wilderness, along the John Muir Trail, there is a rich mixture of nature and humans – the Muir Trail Ranch. Surrounded by the Wilderness, visitors can return after days of exploring the pristine wild high country or take a respite from a backcountry trek along the John Muir Trail. It is an idyllic location to wander about free, lie on a rock, read a contemplative book, or engage in peaceful meditation.

Cynthia A. Whelan will display her portfolio “A Little Ranch in the Wilderness” on the first floor of Fresno City Hall though the month of August. The collection consists of twenty 12″x18″ color photographs of the rich textures that fill a unique natural setting – humans and the wilderness, reacting and interacting, altering each other, changing together and staying the same. Log cabin kitchens, campfires, and forest decay, display the beauty and the ballet of people and nature.

The exhibit will be hanging from July 30 to August 31, 2007, at the Fresno City Hall, 2600 Fresno Street, Fresno, California. An Artist’s reception will be held on the first floor of the Fresno City Hall during ArtHop on Thursday, August 2, 2007 from 5:00 to 8:00 pm.

Cynthia A. Whelan

A native Californian born in 1958, I have always mixed art, science, and the environment. I discovered photography on a sixth grade fieldtrip to the Los Angeles Zoo where I unsuccessfully attempted to photograph every animal I saw. Early in my undergraduate studies, I learned the science of photography by working in the college physics lab. Copying slides, developing film, astrophotography, and infrared photography were a part of my varied early photographic experience – and love. Photography was a beautiful, precise, and accurate expression of the natural world.

Looking for a career, I decided to select science and the environment over art, and pursued a Bachelor of Science Degree in Forestry Management from Humboldt State University. I was also fortunate to take a handful of art classes sandwiched between my degree requirements. What followed my academic interest is my successful career “Caring for the Land and Serving People” in the United States Forest Service. As an “environmental bureaucrat”, federal laws, regulations, processes, policies, and politics are my primary tools to stimulate others to understand the beauty I see in our natural places. With twenty-seven years of successful government service, I have decided to broaden my perspective and include my love of photography as a way to influence others. Many photographers are initially motivated by producing images and then seek to find their passion; I am learning the art and science of photography to express my passion for the environment.

Armondo, the Curator for the Fresno Arts Council, and I pose for a snapshot as he hangs my photos for ArtHop at Fresno City Hall.