“Darkness is as essential to our biological welfare, to our internal clockwork, as light itself.” -Verlyn Klinkenborg, “Our Vanishing Night,” National Geographic magazine, November 2008

While doing some research, I learned that there’s an Observatory located just north of the Badlands — a terrific reminder that our National Parks protect many invaluable natural resources, and one of those endangered resources is a DARK NIGHT SKY.  Much of our country has become so polluted by lights that our view of the night sky is limited to just a few of the very brightest objects. Because I grew up on a farm in the country, I am keenly aware of how the night skies have been “washed out” during course of my lifetime. Here’s an image of the “Night Sky” showing how overly illuminated our country has become (from the International Dark-Sky Association’s website):

Badlands Observatory website: http://sdspacegrant.sdsmt.edu/bo.htm

Or watch a program about the Badlands Observatory, “Badlands, Good Skies” — as featured on SD Public TV’s “Dakota Life” series in January, 2002:

A town of less than a hundred people may seem like a place where nothing big ever happens, but when the sun goes down in the modest community of Quinn, population 73, there are happenings of astronomical proportions. Visit the Badlands Observatory, its Director Ron Dyvig, and learn how the vision for the observatory came about, the process of building the facility and the work that is done there. Meet some of the members of the Black Hills Astronomical Society and learn about their interest in the facility and astronomy in general.

View:  (RealMedia) movie: “Badlands, Good Skies”

#21 Sunset Glow on the Badlands Originally uploaded by miss_distance

Badlands National Monument: View-Master Reel Three, Image #21

I’ve just digitized 21 scenes from my husband’s vintage View-Master slides — a memento from his own childhood trip to the Badlands with his family, in the summer of 1969. He has a vintage red plastic viewer.  To be honest, it was a bit difficult scanning these images, since the film images are eensy-weentsy, and the paper reels are circular (meaning they wouldn’t fit in my scanner’s film holder, so each needed to be cropped and straightened manually.  But I just love them.   And it was worthwhile, in an archival sense:  some of the paper View-Master reels are coming unglued, allowing the films to fall out.  Now at least the images have been saved, and we can continue to enjoy them.

“VIEW-MASTER REELS — add the realism of stereo to the beauty of color to make pictures COME TO LIFE! Each Packet contains three 7-scene Reels — or twenty-one full-color three-dimension pictures!”

Sage Creek Campground: Originally uploaded by miss_distance

Badlands memory — October 2002:
As I recall, I’d just flown back to Minneapolis after an educator’s conference in Georgia. It was late afternoon, and I was getting sick… but I grabbed my bags and started driving west. Drove through beautiful autumn storms, and reached Badlands in the wee-wee hours… setting up my tent by starlight. It was cold and silent and beautiful, and when I awoke, I realized I’d lost my voice completely!

Portrait of the Artist as a Tourist, in the Badlands

Originally uploaded by miss_distance

Photographic evidence of a childhood visit to the Badlands…

This just in! I’ve been selected to be Artist-in-Residence at Badlands National Park in March 2010!   I’m honored — and excited!  Given that the residency will begin in March, I’ll have to start my preparations immediately.  I intend to make it a road trip, naturally — hopefully I can connect with friends in the Twin Cities as I pass through Minnesota.

Links to some recent Badlands artist-in-residents:

• Rick Braveheart, Photographer
• Carl Johnson, Photographer
• Charles Lyon, Painter
• Timothy W. Young, Painter
• Gary Joseph Cohen, Artist

Welcome to a luminous new year! For my first post of the 2010 decade, I’m sharing this lush, magical Brazillian short-short film, discovered via Rattapallax Magazine. The film was inspired by William Blake’s poem, “The Tyger” (*although the text does not appear in the film, so I’ll share it below for the benefit of those who don’t remember it).

This film also reminds me of later sections of Shelley’s Prometheus Unbound, in which The Earth and Moon are healed and revitalized, and blossom into new life.

The Tyger (from Songs Of Experience)
- William Blake

Tyger! Tyger! burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?

In what distant deeps or skies
Burnt the fire of thine eyes?
On what wings dare he aspire?
What the hand dare sieze the fire?

And what shoulder, & what art.
Could twist the sinews of thy heart?
And when thy heart began to beat,
What dread hand? & what dread feet?

What the hammer? what the chain?
In what furnace was thy brain?
What the anvil? what dread grasp
Dare its deadly terrors clasp?

When the stars threw down their spears,
And watered heaven with their tears,
Did he smile his work to see?
Did he who made the Lamb make thee?

Tyger! Tyger! burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?