"Late Afternoon Light at Artist's Point, Yosemite Valley" by Thomas Kinkade (1958-2012)

For years, a hand-retouched, signed and numbered, Thomas Kinkade 1992 cotton-fiber artist’s canvas print of “Late Afternoon Light at Artist’s Point, Yosemite Valley” hung in our hallway. With its dark location and short viewing distance, I often passed it by without notice. When some filigree scrollwork on the Brandy frame required repair, for the first time in almost a decade, I brought the 18" X 24" canvas into the light.

Regarding the original painting, Thomas Kinkade wrote, “Nowhere on Earth am I more aware of the sheer awesomeness of God’s handiwork than Yosemite Valley. This painting depicts the valley as seen from the little known place called ‘Artist’s Point’, named in tribute to the many 19th century artists who favored it as a sketching ground. In 1989, the National Park System selected ‘Yosemite Valley’ as their official print. I was thrilled with the honor, but after all, God alone deserves the credit for the beauty and majesty of Yosemite Valley”.

On the back of our frame, I found a Collector Fact Sheet and a Certificate of Authenticity. Our Kinkade is “No. 533/980 sn Canvas”. On the lower right corner of the print is the lithographed signature of Thomas Kinkade (1958-2012). Below that, hand-signed is the unintelligible signature of the artist who highlighted our canvas in oil. The net effect is a canvas print that looks like an original Kinkade oil painting.

Although a Master’s Canvas Edition of twenty hand retouched, signed and numbered prints was available in 1992, Kinkade’s own retouch and signature in oil made them too expensive for us at that time. In comparing our “sn” print with a Master’s Canvas Edition, the two look uncannily alike. That was part of Kinkade’s appeal. Through the economy of scale, and with added handiwork, Kinkade marketed “original art” at affordable prices. Since Kinkade personally trained all of his retouch artists, each of them retouched within the master’s concept. Thus, a well-kept “sn” can look every bit as good as Kinkade’s highest price offering at the time.

With Kinkade’s original art often retained in his own collection, lithographs and canvas prints are the only way for most of us to own a “Thomas Kinkade Original” painting. With its customary dryness, Wikipedia describes Thomas Kinkade thus: “Thomas Kinkade was an American painter of popular realistic, bucolic, and idyllic subjects. He is notable for the mass marketing of his work as printed reproductions and other licensed products via The Thomas Kinkade Company”.

After examining our own Thomas Kinkade “Yosemite Valley”, I could see both sides of the Thomas Kinkade legacy. Upon close examination, our Kinkade is indeed a hand retouched canvas print. Yet, when I photographed the print in natural light, it became a painting before my eyes. In the warm light of afternoon, the canvas shone with yellow, orange and brown. In later light, the sunlight faded and the Alpenglow of sunset displayed upon the clouds behind. With fuller light, the painting exhibits "morning light".

How one canvas could take on so many different visual aspects was at first a mystery to me. Then I remembered that early in his career, Thomas Kinkade had dubbed himself, “The Painter of Light”. Although the moniker had sounded pretentious to me at that time, my story is different now. I realize now that even a reproduction of Kinkade’s work can reflect light in interesting ways. With my renewed interest, our Thomas Kinkade now hangs lighted, in a place of honor on our walls.

With a collection of other paintings now crowding our wall space, we decided to sell our Thomas Kinkade to an appreciative new owner. With only nine hundred eighty original canvas prints of the “sn” type ever produced, our “Late Afternoon Light at Artist’s Point” has since moved to grace the walls of a happy new owner.

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By James McGillis at 05:57 PM | Fine Art | Comments (0) | Link

An Energy Bridge to the 1930's Opens at Gandria Village, Lake Lugano, Switzerland - 2013

 

An Energy Bridge to the 1930's Opens at Gandria Village, Lake Lugano, Switzerland

Accompanying a recent email from Julia and Lowel Wise of Huntsville, Alabama were images of their Costantino Proietto original oil painting. While stationed as a service member in Stuttgart, Germany during the 1950’s, Lowel’s parents had purchased the painting. Lowel went on to write, “I was excited to see this on the Internet. We had searched back in 2006, but could not locate the artist by name”.

We live in Huntsville, Alabama. The Space & Rocket Center are located here, along with NASA, at the government military installation Redstone Arsenal. It is there where my father was last stationed, and then retired here.

The painting has traveled to many locations with us; from Germany where it's acquisition took place to Ft. Polk, Louisiana (my birth place) and back to Germany, and then back to Ft. Rucker, Alabama, and then to Ft. Wainwright, Alaska for five years, and finally here to Huntsville, Alabama. The painting was purchased on my father’s first tour to Germany, before I was born in 1956 and my older sister’s birth in 1955. She was born in Stuttgart, Germany where my father served two tours in the Army. My father (David J. Wise) served in the Korean War and then the Vietnam Conflict/War where he was an Explosive Ordinance Disposal instructor. After returning from Vietnam at the end of 1972, he retired. My father and mother (Gwinda A. Wise) are deceased. We acquired the painting after my mother’s departure in 2001, and my father’s passing was in 1988.

Since I was a child, the painting has been of particular interest to me. Sometimes, I would sit and stare at it and then wonder… What it would have been like to live in that location and what life would have been like there… Just a simple way of dreaming as any child would do. My father and mother would tell all four of their siblings how they struggled to save and buy one of C. Proietto's paintings while he was on his first tour to Germany. Again THANKS for the information.

In 2006, little if any information about the artist Costantino Proietto (1910–1979) existed on the internet. Not until 2011, when I began writing a series of eleven articles and founded a website about the artist did C.Proietto become widely known. I also met Mr. Nunzio LoCastro, first cousin to the artist, now living in New Jersey. With Nunzio’s help, I compiled an accurate biography of the artist, now published on AskART.com.

Since then, several owners of C. Proietto original oil paintings have sent images to me. Via internet searches, I discovered other examples of the artist’s work for sale in Europe and the United States. Since the Wise family C.Proietto represents the fourth known painting of the same village, I am now publishing images of all four paintings.

In July 2012, I purchased a Costantino Proietto painting identified only as “Villa di Lago”. Although my new painting bore strong resemblance to two C.Proietto paintings of “Lago di Lugano Gandria”, which I had found on the internet, I could not be sure. The artist’s Italian and Swiss lake scenes often contain ancient villas, snowcapped mountains and villages on far shores.

Using the Wise family C.Proietto painting as a guide, I can confirm that both their and my paintings are of Gandria Village, Lake Lugano, Switzerland. By comparing landscape and architectural details with those from the internet images, we now have four confirmed C.Proietto paintings of Gandria Village.

The Wise Family C.Proietto displays the 4:3 width-to-height ratios (27" X 18.75") typical of the artist’s early works. Yet, both it and one later example of the artist’s work depict the same stairs and doorway on the right side of the image. Other old photos show letters above that archway reading, “Ristorante Crivelli, Lago di Lugano-Gandria, Switzerland, 19”. The later C.Proietto painting, probably from the 1960’s, displays a wide-angle format, similar to a Cinemascope movie screen. Even so, because of a near-identical point of view, both paintings likely used the same 1930’s photo as their model.

From Nunzio LoCastro we know that the artist painted in his Stuttgart studio, using photographic prints to model his scenes. During the late 1930’s, the artist traveled extensively in northern Italy and Switzerland. During World War II, Costantino Proietto emigrated to his future lifelong home in Stuttgart, Germany. Using his German-made Leica camera, Costantino Proietto documented a soon to be bygone era. Having seen and photographed the major peaks and lakes of Italy and Switzerland, Tino Proietto was later able to depict with accuracy a simpler, more tranquil time and place. Although the simplicity of the artist’s work appears fanciful to some, I have yet to see evidence that Tino Proietto painted from anything other than real life, or his own photography.

With its lack of markings on the back, the Wise Family “Lugano Gandria” painting (top) is clearly the oldest of the four paintings pictured here, probably dating to the early 1950’s. In the late 1950’s, the artist affixed paper tags to the backs of his paintings. By then, he would often write the subject matter on the frame, in pencil. Later still, he affixed wax seals to the tags, indicating their authenticity. By the late 1960’s, the artist also wrote descriptive captions on the frames, often using a red felt-tipped pen.

With the publication of each new painting, we expand the body of work attributed to twentieth century master impressionist, Costantino Proietto. To keep this expansion going, I invite owners of Costantino Proietto original oil paintings to forward images (front, back, signature and details) to me via email. Please identify purchase location, past and current ownership, plus any details that might help to tell the story. Over time, I will be happy to authenticate and publish images of any newly found C.Proietto impasto oil painting.

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By James McGillis at 12:46 PM | Fine Art | Comments (1) | Link

At Castoro Cellars Tasting Room, Discover the Charm of Cobblestone Creek Vineyard - 2012

 

At Castoro Cellars Tasting Room, Discover the Charm of Cobblestone Creek Vineyard

In early February 2012, we hooked up our travel trailer and headed north on U.S. Highway 101. Our destination was the Wine Country RV Resort in Paso Robles, California. Arriving before dark, we finished our setup and then sat down to dinner. Accompanying our roasted turkey breast and trimmings was a bottle of Castoro Cellars Paso Robles 2010 Cabernet Sauvignon. With a foggy chill setting in outdoors, the red wine and white meat became perfect gastronomic partners.

A day before, I had visited our local Costco. My mission was to buy provisions for our Paso Robles wine country adventure. Although I had never purchased a bottle of Castoro Cellars wine before, the simplicity and elegance of their label attracted me. At less than ten dollars per bottle for an estate-grown, produced and bottled “Paso Cabernet”, the Costco price was exceptional. As it turned out, my instincts were correct. Unlike many Central California Cabernet Sauvignon of yesteryear, from the first sip to the last, this 2010 Cab was a multifaceted jewel.

The following morning, we awoke to cloudy, cool weather. Undaunted, we planned to go out for wine tasting that day. By noon, the weather had warmed to almost sixty degrees and the sun shined lightly through a winter haze. Heading west on California Highway 46, also known as “Windy Way”, we soon saw a billboard featuring Castoro Cellars and their motto, “Dam Fine Wine”. In Italian, castoro means beaver. In this case, the “dam” refers to that industrious animal as well.

After a brief jaunt south on U.S. Highway 101, we regained California 46 West, known there as “Green Valley Road”. In the coastal live-oak parkland of the Paso Robles Wine Country, we found a profusion of small and medium sized estate wineries. As we turned on to North Bethel Road, Peachy Canyon Winery, with its oak-studded vineyard greeted us. A bit farther along the road, we turned right at a driveway leading through an old head-pruned Zinfandel vineyard. Nestled there in Cobble Creek Vineyard is the Castoro Cellars Tasting Room.

After parking our car, I stopped to take pictures of the vineyard in its winter dress. With its leafless grape arbor, the path led gently uphill to the tasting room. At the foot of the path, a big red cat greeted Carrie and me. Immediately, I realized that this was no ordinary red cat. For that moment, at least he had adopted us and was leading us up the hill. Upon arrival at the courtyard above, the cat waited for us to open the door and then disappeared inside.

While standing just inside the doorway, we surveyed the busy tasting room. Attracted to a flickering fire in the large stone fireplace, I spotted a love-seat that faced the glowing hearth. Thinking that it might be nice to rest and enjoy the fire, I moved toward the love-seat. Just before I sat down, I realized that a cat, camouflaged with the colors of the love-seat was sleeping there. Later, we discovered that both were “outdoor cats”, meaning that they stayed outside all night, even in cold, wintry weather.

Since the love-seat was off-limits, we entered the second of two tasting rooms within the building. Inserted neck-down in one of the large racks, I found a rare 1996 Paso Robles Zinfandel. Pioneers such as Ridge Vineyards and David Bruce Winery had made Zinfandel wines from Paso Robles vineyards as early as 1967. Because of their excellent reputations, current offerings from both David Bruce and Ridge include only recent vintages. Some will claim that Zinfandel does not have the longevity of Cabernet, but I disagree. If well vinified and cellared, an old Zinfandel can be every bit as good as an aged Cabernet. If the just released 2011 “Zinfusion” we tasted at the bar that afternoon is any indication, my old 1996 Zin should be quite an interesting wine.

In the courtyard, we found old head-pruned Zinfandel vines re-purposed as fanciful planters. Even with annual pruning and great care, some old vines must go and new vines must take their place. With an extensive array of solar panels on the roof of the tasting room and a commitment to sustainability, the “recycle, reuse and re-purpose” ethic at Castoro Cellars is strong. After seeing the beauty of dead grapevines sprouting a cornucopia of flowers, moss and succulents, we purchased two bare vines. After “planting” the dead grapevines on our patio, I will write an article about planting our forty-year-old rustic sculptures.

According to a recent count, there are more than one hundred eighty bonded wineries in the Paso Robles Wine Country AVA. Any place named for a beaver and run by cats is my kind of place. With its beautiful setting, organic architecture and great wines, Castoro Cellars is now my favorite winery in Central California. If you visit “Paso Wine Country” and partake of a Castoro Cellars’ classic Zinfandel, be sure to tell them that Moab Jim sent you.

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By James McGillis at 03:24 PM | Travel | Comments (0) | Link

Colorado River Dine & Unwind - 2012

 

"First, there was the beating drum. Then, somebody invented the flute. Maybe we should have stopped there." - Edward Abbey

On October 6, 2012, I was busy with two projects in Moab, Utah. By noon that day, I had two live webcams operating Behind the Rocks at the last and final 24-Hours of Moab Off-road Bicycle Race. As soon as I had the webcam images of the race streaming properly, I headed for my base camp at the Moab Rim Campark. After a quick cleanup, I dashed off to the Canyonlands by Night pavilion on the banks of the Colorado River.

Travel in time through the North Portal of the Colorado River, Moab, Utah.

Now called Canyonlands by Night & Day, in 2012 the company celebrated its forty-ninth year as a river tour operator in Moab. With their unique floating dock, flat-bottom excursion boats and high-speed jet boats, the company offers a wide variety of tours both up and down the Colorado River. In the early 1970’s, Canyonlands by Night was already an established tourist attraction. In the early days, their most popular tour was a night visit to the Colorado River Canyon, downstream from Moab. With powerful lights played upon the canyon walls and music to match, it was a multimedia experience unique to Moab.

I had met Evan Haworth several years ago, while dining at Pasta Jay’s Restaurant in Moab. In conversation, I discovered that Evan and I had something in common. We both played traditional wooden Indian flutes. As it turned out, I am a novice and Evan is a master flute player, internationally known in the realm of the wooden flute. In those early days of Facebook, we "friended" each other and kept in touch from time to time. In October 2012 I found a special reason for taking the Canyonlands by Night “Dine & Unwind” tour.

In September, I received word that Evan would be playing the flute alongside Gray Boy, his Native American friend and master of the Navajo Hand Drum. That Saturday evening, Evan Haworth and Gray Boy were to play live on the new “Dine & Unwind” dinner tour at Canyonlands by Night. After rushing to the river, I was the first guest to arrive for the tour. A few minutes later, Evan and Gray Boy approached, dressed for their performance. Soon, a busload of French tourists arrived and we boarded our boat.

With forty guests, plus crew, we headed upriver in the open-air excursion boat. Almost immediately, we passed beneath the new U.S. 191 Highway Bridge. Actually, there are now a pair of identical bridges in place there, separated by a narrow gap. In order for traffic to keep rolling during bridge construction, engineers first built a new southerly span of the bridge. After switching traffic to the new span, engineers demolished the old highway bridge. With all of their experience constructing the southbound span, the new northbound span took far less time to build.

To motorists crossover over either span, each side appears to be part of a greater whole. From our vantage point, we could see dual structures arching gracefully over the Colorado River. With their concrete spans and massive center supports, the color-matched bridges created an impressive sight.

Earlier in the season, there was sufficient water in the Colorado River for the boat to travel unimpeded upstream. After passing beneath the highway and bicycle bridges, I noticed that the water level on the Colorado River was near its all-time low. About a mile upstream, our shallow-draft excursion boat could go no further. Ahead there was a rock-shelf in the river bottom over which the boat could not pass.

Taking advantage of the slow current, our captain centered our boat in the river, with the bow pointing upstream. As the sound of the engines died, Evan Haworth and Gray Boy began for their performance. Between each song or chant, the captain swung the boat back into upstream position, preparing for another slow drift downstream. As I looked through my viewfinder, the late afternoon sunlight played tricks with both my eyes and the video camera lens. As Evan played his first number, my eye caught the image of an Ancient Spirit up on the canyon wall. Known locally as “ET, the Extraterrestrial”, the Spirit of the Colorado Riverway is visible in the video accompanying this article.

Next, Navajo elder, Gray Boy performed solo, rhythmically playing the hand drum while chanting in Dine' Bazaad, his native Navajo language. As a young man, Gray Boy departed the Navajo Reservation to the south, traveling to Moab and there finding a good life for him and his family. Now, thirty years later, Gray Boy worked as a maintenance person at Canyonlands by Night & Day.

Earlier in the season, musicians scheduled to play on a river cruise were unable to perform. In his unassuming way, Gray Boy offered to play the drum, while his friend Evan played flute. The rest, as they say, is history. Now, during the season, Evan Haworth and Gray Boy often play together on “Dine & Unwind” dinner tours. If you plan to visit Moab, be sure to call ahead and see which days they will play, as theirs is still a limited engagement. Once the world discovers this unique experience, I expect to see the pair perform several times each week.

If you had walked the banks of the Colorado Riverway one or two thousand years ago, you likely would have heard both flute and drum. Throughout Canyonlands, those were and still are the primary musical instruments of traditional Indian culture. For a sampler of what you will see and hear on your own “Dine & Unwind” tour, please watch the accompanying video.

For several years now, I have studied and written about various energy bridges in and around Canyonlands. In my concept, an energy bridge allows us to experience vibrational energies that existed in that place, but at a different time. That particular time we may say is in the future or the past. The key to the energy bridge concept is that we can feel past, present and future, all right now.

While listening to the timeless music of flute and drum echo from the canyon walls, I realized that the new highway bridge serves a dual purpose. On one hand, it conducts traffic across the river, north of Moab. On the other hand, the the dual arched spans serve together as an energy bridge to the culture of the Ancients. After passing under the Colorado River Bridges, our boat headed up through the North Portal of the Colorado River. As we motored farther up the canyon, we were just in time to enter the timeless realm of the Ancients.

On our return trip, we passed again under the energy bridges. As we transited beneath the bridges, the sun was setting behind the Moab Rim. With fractals of new energy light captured by my still camera, the concept of an energy bridge seemed real enough for me. If only, I thought, we could capture that new energy; think what it could do for our world and us.

As rapidly as our upstream passage had sent us all to another place in time, we found ourselves back at the Canyonlands by Night, disembarking on to the floating dock. Shifting as we had from one earthly dimension to another in so brief a time, we had all worked up quite an appetite. Luckily, an excellent chuck-wagon-style barbecue dinner awaited us in the riverside dining room. At dinner that evening, I sat with Evan Haworth and Gray Boy. As we unwound from our mesmerizing upriver experience, I again felt the attraction of the energy bridge.

Suddenly, it was two hundred years before and I was sitting at a rendezvous between a mountain man and a Navajo elder, discussing their music. Since that ancient day, I thought, not much has changed. Being with friends while listening to live music on the Colorado River is as pleasurable now as it ever was.

 

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By James McGillis at 03:51 PM | | Comments (0) | Link

New Kodiak 100 Turboprop at Redtail Aviation, Canyonlands Field, Moab, Utah - 2012

 

New Kodiak 100 Turboprop at Redtail Aviation, Canyonlands Field, Moab, Utah

In April 2012, I visited Redtail Aviation at Canyonlands Field, Moab, Utah. As usual, I was servicing the live webcam that I provide to Redtail. When I arrived, my desire was to get my work done and get back to town. Soon, my plans changed. Upon walking into the Redtail hanger, I was awestruck by a beautiful new airplane that stood center stage, facing the main door. From its red, black and white paintjob to its ninety-six inch diameter, three-point prop, this was an airplane designed for business in the backcountry around Moab.

 

Watch the Kodiak 100 land at Canyonlands Field, Moab, Utah

In black lettering on the engine cowling was the single word, “Kodiak”. With its compact size and under-fuselage baggage module, it would take a superior power plant to lift this ten-place aircraft on hot days and the high altitude (4557 ft. elevation) of Canyonlands Field. Later, I discovered that the Kodiak 100 utilized a Pratt & Whitney PT6-34 turbine engine with 750 horsepower at takeoff. That amount of power provides the safety margin required to access gravel strips and unimproved airfields throughout the Canyonlands area.

Inside and out, the airplane was immaculate. With its first one hundred hours already in the logbook, the Kodiak was just then entering the Redtail Aviation charter fleet. Even with nine passengers and their luggage aboard, the lightweight materials utilized in construction kept takeoff weight to less than 7,300 pounds. With only moderate loading and two passengers, my Nissan Titan pickup truck weighs over 6,000 pounds. Built for high altitude, rough terrain takeoffs and landings, the Kodiak appeared to be a cut above any other airplane of its type.

In October 2012, I was back at Redtail Aviation working on our webcam, as usual. Even while buried in my work, I could hear the radio crackle to life. When the Redtail Kodiak pilot announced his imminent arrival in Moab, I ran to my truck, retrieved my camera and headed for the tarmac. Although the Kodiak had already landed, I was able to capture video of the airplane gracefully taxiing to a stop near the terminal. In only a few minutes the ground crew had secured the Kodiak, unloaded the baggage and helped a full load of passengers disembark in preparation for their own personal Moab adventures.

For any group up to nine people planning a Moab visit, I suggest contacting Redtail aviation for rates and schedules. As of this writing, Great Lakes Airlines provides daily service from Moab to Vernal, Utah and Denver, Colorado. For a group visiting Moab from Phoenix, Las Vegas or Salt Lake City, a Kodiak charter with Redtail Aviation might provide better service and lower costs. Although I enjoy traveling on Great Lakes Airlines, given the chance, I would opt for the adventure of flying in the Kodiak. After all, it is an airplane designed specifically for the conditions at Moab and all around Canyonlands.

Who knows…? Maybe the next time I service their webcam, the good folks at Redtail Aviation will take me up on a demonstration flight in their fabulous new Quest Aircraft Company Kodiak 100 airplane. I can hardly wait to ask, when I return to Canyonlands Field in Moab, Utah.

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By James McGillis at 01:54 PM | | Comments (0) | Link

The True Cost of Mineral Extraction in Grand County, Utah - 2013

 

"A billion here, a billion there... Pretty soon you have some real money." - Senator Everett Dirksen

While living in Los Angeles in the 1980s, I first became aware of “The Moab Pile”. Near Moab, Utah, on the right bank of the Colorado River, stood an eighty-foot tall mountain of uranium tailings saturated with acid, ammonia and radio nucleotides. In newspaper articles of that time, I discovered that seasonal flooding of the Colorado River threatened to sluice 16 million tons of tailings into the drinking water supply of fifteen million people downstream.

When I started traveling to Moab on a regular basis in 2006, the Moab Pile once again entered into my thoughts and dreams. Although the subject did not receive much press coverage, that year floods of a size not seen since 1984 again cut into the Moab Pile. Throughout its term of office, the George W. Busch administration was slow to commit funds to the cleanup of the imminent hazard.

Once the Obama administration took over, it allocated federal stimulus funds to the project. Now, four years later, the Moab Pile is smaller by almost one-third. With current funding curtailed to pre-stimulus levels, the twenty-five million people now living downstream will have to wait another six to twelve years for the complete removal of the Moab Pile. If ever there was a good case for increased federal funding, the Moab UMTRA Project is that case.

Following is a timeline for the creation and demise of the Moab Pile:

• 1952 – Near Moab, Utah, prospector Charlie Steen discovered and claimed the largest uranium deposit in United States history.

• 1954 – Steen approached the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) about building the first large, independent uranium mill in the United States.

• 1957 – Near Moab, on an outside bend of the Colorado River, Uranium Reduction Company (URC) dedicated its $11 million uranium mill.

• 1962 – Charlie Steen sold URC and its uranium mill to Atlas Corp.

• 1962 – Licensed and regulated by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), Atlas Corp. continued the operation of the uranium mill.

• 1970 – The Atlas Corp. mill converted from producing uranium concentrate (yellowcake) to producing fuel for commercial nuclear power plants.

• 1984 – Spring floods on the Colorado River blasted up to 66,000 cubic feet [1,870 cubic meters] per second directly into the Moab Pile, causing an undocumented release of contaminated material into the Colorado River.

• 1984 – Atlas Corp. ceased operations at Moab, leaving both the mill and up to 16 million tons of uranium tailings and contaminated soil at the site.

• 1988 – When it became obvious that the mill would not operate again, Atlas Corp. began on-site remediation of the mill and tailings pile.

• 1995 – Atlas Corp. crushed the mill and then placed an interim cover of soil over its remnants and the tailings pile.

• 1998 – Atlas Corp. declared bankruptcy, relinquished its license and forfeited its reclamation bond.

• 1998 – The NRC appointed PricewaterhouseCoopers as the trustee of the Moab Mill Reclamation Trust, licensing that company to initiate site reclamation.

• 2000 – Congress and President Bill Clinton approved transfer of responsibility for the Moab Pile to the Department of Energy (DOE).

• 2001 – The DOE accepted transfer of title for the site, with direct responsibility going to their office in Grand Junction, Colorado.

• 2003 – In order to slow the migration of ammonia and other contaminants into the Colorado River, DOE contractors constructed eight extraction and more than thirty freshwater injection wells at the site.

• 2004 – The DOE Moab Project Team published a draft plan that called for moving the contaminated tailings and decommissioned mill to an offsite location.

• 2005 – DOE announced its preferred disposal site, thirty miles away in the desert, near Crescent Junction, Utah.

• 2006 – Flash flooding cut through layers of sand that covered the pile, washed out a containment berm and left a large puddle on top of the 130-acre Moab Pile.

• 2007 – EnergySolutions of Salt Lake City, Utah received a $98 million contract for removal and disposal of tailings through 2011.

• 2008 – In preparation for removal of material, DOE began infrastructure improvements at both the Moab Pile and the Crescent Junction disposal site.

• 2008 – The DOE announced that transportation of tailings to the disposal site would be by rail, rather than by truck.

• 2009 – In April, after upgrades to the roadbed of an existing rail line, DOE and its contractor began removing tailings by rail, disposing of them near Crescent Junction.

• 2009 – Stimulus Funds provided by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act increased removal activity to two trains per day, six days each week.

• 2010 – In March, the Moab UMTRA project reached a milestone, with over one million tons of tailings removed from the site.

• 2010 – In August, the Moab UMTRA project reaches another milestone, with over two million tons removed from the site.

• 2011 – Just as stimulus-funding dried up, the Moab UMTRA project reached another milestone, with over four million tons removed from the site.

• 2011 – The Colorado River overflowed its banks at the Moab UMTRA site, causing damage to earthworks and a riverside bicycle path, but sparing the river from direct contact with the Moab Pile.

• 2012 – In a competitive bidding process, Portage, Inc. of Idaho Falls, Idaho displaced EnergySolutions as the prime contractor for removal of tailings from the Moab UMTRA site.

• 2012 – In February, the Moab UMTRA project reached another milestone, with over five million tons removed from the site.

• 2012 – With commencement of reduced federal funding, Portage, Inc. announced a new concept, whereby the annual contract for removal would switch to a nine-month schedule, with a three-month hiatus each winter.

Now, more than sixty years after Charlie Steen discovered uranium near Moab, the estimated completion date for the Moab UMTRA project ranges from 2019–2025. In 1957, the original Uranium Reduction Company mill cost $11 million to build. The current estimated cost to remove and dispose of the mill and its contaminated tailings is $1 billion. For that honor, U.S. taxpayers will shell out almost one hundred times the original cost of construction.

This week, the two top stories in the Moab Times Independent newspaper concern the future of mineral extraction and processing in that area. In one story, “A controversial oil sands mining operation proposed for the Book Cliffs northeast of Moab has cleared its final state regulation hurdle, allowing it to become the nation’s first such project.” In another, “The Grand County Council voted unanimously to send a letter to President Barack Obama opposing creation of national monument status for 1.4 million acres surrounding Canyonlands National Park.”

If the president were to grant national monument status to unprotected landforms, wildlife and viewscapes around Moab, Utah, large-scale mineral extraction projects there would at last receive increased scrutiny. In the sixty years since Charlie Steen discovered uranium near Moab, have we learned anything about the true cost of mineral extraction and processing on our most sensitive public lands?

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By James McGillis at 08:49 PM | | Comments (0) | Link

A 1950 Chevy 3100 Half-ton Pickup Truck Becomes an Award Winning Work of Art - 2012

 

A 1950 Chevy 3100 Half-ton Pickup Truck Becomes an Award Winning Work of Art

Each October, I make it a point to visit Moab, Utah. By then, it is the shoulder season, with warm days, cool nights and many happenings around town and beyond. On October 6-7, 2012, I covered the last and final 24-Hours of Moab Mountain Bike Team Relay Race, Behind the Rocks near Moab. That same weekend, PleinAir Moab ’12 brought artists from all over the country to Moab for some fast-action outdoor painting.

The prior year, I had stopped on a Downtown sidewalk to watch woman paint. Before my eyes, she recreated Pasta Jay’s Restaurant. This year, when I saw a man setting up his easel behind the office at the Moab Rim Campark, I knew just what he was doing. Not wanting to miss the action, I grabbed my camera and headed outside.

By the time I arrived, artist Larry Rudolech had already sketched his subject in charcoal or graphite. After introducing myself, I asked if Larry would allow me to document his creation. In the “Quick Draw” format of PleinAir, I knew that Larry’s current painting would be hanging in the competition room Downtown in less than four hours. Graciously, Larry allowed me to photograph his sketch. We also conversed about his paint preparation and painting technique.

Returning to my appointment with Jim Farrell, owner at the Moab Rim Campark, the artist and his painting soon faded from my mind. After working inside for over an hour, I returned to the back lot, only to discover that both Larry and his painting were gone. “Darn”, was about all I could say. “I wanted to photograph the finished canvas.” After realizing that Larry was long gone, I sighed, “So much for that story.”

One reason that I was interested in Larry’s work was his subject matter. I too had studied his subject for over five years. In 2008, I first discovered Jim Farrell’s 1950 Chevrolet 3100 pickup truck. By the looks of Jim's old Chevy, I surmised that it had been in Moab since it was new, over sixty years ago. Like an old park ranger truck, once it had been painted forest green. Now it was equal parts fading green paint and hard-finished rust. I photographed the old truck in the carport where it stood, its front end raised up on blocks. It was obvious to me that the truck did not run.

After reviewing my photographs, I asked Jim Farrell about his truck. “Well, it still worked when I bought it, but once I got it here, it wouldn’t go any farther.” With a wistful look on his face, Jim said, “I plan to fix it up some day”. Three years later, in 2011, I found Jim’s truck parked under a tree by the office. With new hubcaps, gauges and wiring, Jim Farrell was back in the Chevy truck business. As the Rainbird played water over the cab, I hoped that its windows were waterproof.

Thinking of the great hospitality that Jim Farrell and his wife, Sue had shown me over the years, I decided to purchase Larry’s PleinAir painting and present it to them as a gift. Although the price of Larry’s art was reasonable for an original oil painting, I quickly realized that my budget was too low. Once again, I said, “So much for that story”.

The next day, I walked in to the Campark office, only to find Sue Farrell showing off a new painting that she and Jim had just purchased. Of course, it was Larry Rudolech’s PleinAir painting of Jim Farrell’s old Chevy pickup. After taking photographs inside, I asked Jim Farrell to come outside with me. There, Jim held up his new artwork, with the truck itself in the background. As the reader will see, Larry has an uncanny ability to sense both the whole scene and the details necessary to convey a separate, miniature reality to the viewer. To me, Larry’s work was impressionism at its finest.

Later, via email, Larry Rudolech told me about the great time he had in Moab that week. Following is a synopsis of Larry’s email to me.

“Ok here you go… I am sending you a photo of the Best of Show Award at the Moab PleinAir Event… and Yes, I think Jim and Sue were happy with their painting. I was very surprised and honored to be chosen as this year’s top award winner. The painting I won with was of four VW Buses at Tom Tom's VW Museum. I normally enjoy painting ‘the different’, and when I found the VW Junk Yard; I just had to paint it. I thought it was cute that people called it a Museum.

When I heard the story behind the title of Tom Tom's VW Museum, I was even more pleased I had chosen to paint it. If Moab is the home of many wonderful landscapes, this I thought was a very good rendering of what Moab had become for me. The people of the area give more to Moab than some of the red rocks. After all, one red rock is like the other, but it is clear to see that one Moab resident is not like the other. This I think is one of the great things about Moab. I even began talking a lot about the many FREE SPIRITS of Moab. I am already looking forward to returning to Moab in 2013.

Take care,
Larry Rudolech

Sometimes, when I am far from Moab, listening to the cold winds of winter, I allow myself to travel there in my mind. At my Moab, the days are always warm, but never hot. It is breezy, but not enough to kick up dust. Of course, the landscape is spectacular and the FREE SPIRITS of Moab abound. Around any corner, you never know whom you are going to meet in Moab, Utah. If you see Jim Farrell driving to town in an old green Chevy truck, please say “Hi” to him for me.

for more information on Jim Farrell's 1951 Chevrolet 3100 pickup, please visit MoabTruck.com.

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By James McGillis at 03:15 PM | | Comments (0) | Link