About Canyon

In design, I tend to look inwardly, almost meditatively, for inspiration behind my work. I am often naturally inspired by things I find in the outside world, like the flowers in my garden or the architecture of my childhood home, but I will rarely search for it intentionally. This last May, I embarked on a month-long solo road trip along the entire West Coast, seeing many sights and people along the way. One priority I had for this trip was to leave my mind open and take inspiration from my experiences to inform my next work. 

Though there were many inspiring destinations along my trip, my visits to the Badlands and Grand Canyon impacted me the most. There was something complete and circular about it. Some of my fondest memories growing up were visiting the Badlands, where I commonly camped with my family. Now, seeing it as an adult as a result of my own volition, emotionally moved me in a way I seldom have been before. I started my trip in the Badlands, and eventually stopped in the Grand Canyon as one of my last National Park visits. I had originally planned to stay in Nebraska after a brief stop in Denver before my final drive home, but the Badlands called again and I heard her song. Staying once again in the land basked in the empty northern hemisphere left the trip complete. By morning, I was on the road again, destined for home, with the stern hills of the Badlands in the review mirror, tears rolling down my face, full of gratitude to be able to experience such a place under my own two feet.  

On one hand, the Badlands pale in comparison to the Grand Canyon, but yet it still shares the same natural layers of sediment built up over millions of years that fascinated me long ago as a child. This realization that no matter where your footsteps take you, you are still ultimately standing on the same beautiful ground, land, world, is what drove me to cultivate these experiences into my work.   

Many of the ideas and themes for this capsule were spurred by Bob Dylan’s “Let Me Die in My Footsteps”. In a modern world crippled by fear, war, disease, inequality, and isolation, this song, written many years ago, is now more relevant than ever. On hikes and walks along my trip, I found myself experiencing many of the things Dylan demands we should be able to do in the land of the free. This calling to go out in the country where the land meets the sun and see where the craters, and canyons, and waterfalls run resonated with me. As long as we can call ourselves children of this earth, it is our obligation to experience the world with our own two feet, not so that we may die in our footsteps, but live in them. 

“Let every state in this union seep deep down in your soul” - Bob Dylan