Locale curates an annual gift guide with Jackson Hole items. This year’s focus is on the “Local Maker’s.” They all draw inspiration from being in our great valley, where daily we are in awe of its natural beauty; this beauty is reflected in the patterns, designs and ingenuity of the items they create.
See the Gift Guide:
It was day break near Eden, Wyoming and the Falcon was sitting on his kill. Steve Chindgren walks over to the rest of us protecting his bird from a rouge Bald Eagle looking for an easy breakfast. I only had my new iPhone 7 Plus and took a few images at ground level which rendered the following one.
I felt it really captured moment. The trainer with his subject who just had a successful hunt for a sage grouse as dawn is breaking. The new iPhone 7 Plus as with its successors have always amazed me. That device in your pocket is a great storyteller!
Xander the Falcon with his trainer, Steve Chindgren
If you haven’t seen it already, check this week’s issue of the Jackson Hole News&Guide’s Working Women! special supplement. Not that I necessarily condone these types of blatant attempts to garner more advertising dollars from a limited pool of businesses, but Circumerro has a particularly fun ad in it. (If you didn’t notice, it’s right at the top of the post.)
Now, I certainly don’t mean to belittle the opportunity to acknowledge the hard work of our female co-workers—specifically in our company, and generally throughout the valley and beyond—but the way I see it there are at least two ways to look at this.
First, is it enough to simply acknowledge them in some kind of “special supplement” in the newspaper? From what I’ve heard and seen, women still aren’t compensated at the same level as men for the same jobs. (As one co-worker put it, “Screw the special section and just pay me fairly for what I do.”) If we can’t all be honest about it, at least I will: most of the women I work with work harder than I do. And I’m just talking about 8 to 5; forget about what happens once they get home. I know first-hand that my wife does; as I write this she’s in the other room working into the evening to get orders out to her customers (it’s 8:45 pm).
Second (and here’s my opportunity to get sexist), when was the last time the N&G (or any newspaper for that matter) published a Working Men! “special supplement”? If we’re going to be equal opportunity about this, let’s have a Working Men! supplement, and a Working Latino! supplement, and a Working African American! supplement (it would be pretty light here in Jackson Hole), and hell, what about a Working Beast of Burden! special supplement? Let’s give props to all those horses, cows, sled dogs and llamas out there!
OK, like I said at the beginning, I don’t mean to belittle the very hard work that women do. But let’s keep things in perspective here. It’s definitely not a balanced world and we each have an opportunity to help bring it more into balance ever day, with each interaction we have in the workplace.
And by the way, thank you to all the women of Circumerro…and beyond.
—Chris
This summer, two of us were lucky enough to attend one of the largest Graphic Design conferences in the country—the HOW Design Conference, sponsored by HOW Magazine. With over 3000 designers, it was a great way to get “Refreshed,” (the theme of show). From workshops, to select speakers, to networking, to booths… all was inspiring. Being here in Wyoming, our educational options to design are limited, and the only way to “keep up”, is to “get out!”
We got to see some great design, even in Atlanta. Coke opened a brand new museum, yes an entire museum dedicated to one brand. Pretty amazing if you ask us. With 3-D movies, art collections, a mini bottling plant, exhibits, history and of course, the tasting room. (Which had some of the WORST soda flavors from around the world!)
HOW made us remember things like: handmade is good, learning about logos, dealing with clients as a creative, psychology of a consumer, the growing possibilities of a PDF, and so much more. We live in a world of branding and design. Recognize the importance of this and take a real good look around you—even in the supermarket or a busy shopping area. A good design to your eye leads you to decisions you make on a daily basis. A good brand can last a lifetime if the time is spent to make it happen right.
refreshed… Julie & Chelsea
Last night around 9pm I had a sweet little moment after putting the kids to bed where I sat on the porch and appreciated the incredible view and solitude this place has to offer. The view, always inspiring, was made particularly appreciable by the color and shape of the clouds.
Just as I was deep in appreciation, I noticed a couple of cars drive by the house that were obviously not from around here (the California plates generally give them away). Now, the road I live on accesses an area in the Hole that has become very desirable, and there are quite a few “second homes” in the area. (It’s always funny to hear the second homeowners or the newly transplanted talk about how long they’ve been coming here, but that’s a whole other topic, and frankly, it doesn’t matter.)
I’ve seen a lot of sunsets—and sunrises for that matter—from this porch and have developed an intimacy with evening in that spot throughout the seasons. But it got me thinking about the familiarity one gets with a place after many years of watching the seasons go by, and I wondered about those second homeowners and their memories of passing seasons in the Hole. Do they only remember the prime summer or winter experiences, or do they develop an appreciation for the cold, wet and snowy times as well? Or do they simply head back to California, Texas or wherever when the Hole is not as nice a place to be? Of course, some do. And do they have a similar appreciation for the view from their porch in the place they call home? One can only hope they do, for without the appreciation of a place you call home—and that is special—what’s the point?
—Chris