{"id":54900,"date":"2020-09-28T11:31:01","date_gmt":"2020-09-28T17:31:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/?p=54900"},"modified":"2020-11-19T01:49:46","modified_gmt":"2020-11-19T07:49:46","slug":"still-here-stephen-trimble","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/still-here-stephen-trimble\/","title":{"rendered":"Still Here: Stephen Trimble"},"content":{"rendered":"

With our “Still Here” series, we are checking in with members of Utah’s art community to see what the past six months has meant for them. Writer and photographer Stephen Trimble<\/a><\/em>\u00a0lives in Torrey and in Salt Lake City. His latest book, <\/em>The Capitol Reef Reader, is his 25th<\/sup>. In 2019, <\/em>he was honored<\/em><\/a> as one of Artists of Utah\u2019s 15 Most Influential Artists.<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/h3>\n
\"\"<\/a>

“Escalante River below Calf Creek” by Stephen TrimbleSte<\/p><\/div>\n

Parked in Paradise<\/strong><\/h3>\n

For nearly 20 years, we\u2019d had a house on a redrock mesa in southern Utah. As much as we loved this retreat, we \u2018d never spent longer than ten days here.<\/p>\n

Then, the pandemic.<\/p>\n

Everything changed<\/p>\n

Wayne County, with 2700 people in 2500 square miles, would surely be safer than Salt Lake City. So off we went, chased south by the virus (a threat to us by virtue of our longevity), hurled from the city on the afternoon of the earthquake.<\/p>\n

Now, my wife and I live in Torrey. Our lives keep evolving, as history runs on fast-forward.<\/p>\n

March<\/strong> \/<\/strong> With absolute limits on socializing, we spend our time simply. We look forward to long walks. We anticipate the next meal. We have become our dogs<\/a>.<\/p>\n

April<\/strong> \/<\/strong> I\u2019m living in a place I know and cherish. But I\u2019m a move-in, a newcomer, a privileged second-home owner. Not always reciprocally cherished by the legacy ranching families proud of making the desert blossom like the rose. What does it mean to be a local?<\/a> I\u2019m still figuring this out.<\/p>\n

May \/<\/strong> I\u2019ve parked myself in a remote corner of America, idling, while the rest of the world blows up. The summer of protest snaps to attention complacent white folks like me, requiring us to learn, insisting that we understand and acknowledge the consequences of white rage, white fragility, white supremacy.<\/p>\n

June \/<\/strong> I\u2019m trying to write and not having much luck. As a conservationist writer, my job is to respond, to fight back, to write<\/em> back when the Trump administration attacks our public lands. I\u2019m horrified by plans to destroy tens of thousands of acres of pi\u00f1on-juniper woodland \u2014 my home landscape. I start op-eds but can\u2019t finish them. Pi\u00f1on and juniper trees, as fundamental as they are to the West, seem insignificant in the face of our national crises. I\u2019m stuck.<\/p>\n

July \/<\/strong> Wayne County has only two documented cases of Covid. We have financial safety and access to endless open space. We\u2019re grateful. But Trump continues to lie, and people continue to die. His cultish supporters do nothing, say nothing in response. I keep reading the morning updates. It\u2019s my responsibility to stay engaged, but the news feels poisonous.<\/p>\n

August \/<\/strong> And then, on hot summer days, we stroll down creeks, cool in the clefts between heat-shimmered slickrock. That first step into water washes away the toxic headlines. Peace descends. I photograph\u2014my practice, my lifelong nourishment, responding with my camera to the caress of light on the land.<\/p>\n

September \/<\/strong> Earth, wind, fire. Catastrophe after catastrophe. A forty-foot spruce falls across our front yard in Salt Lake, grazing the house. Family and friends on the West Coast can\u2019t breathe. Here in Torrey, we see smoky days\u2014one so intense we don\u2019t go outside. Then the wind shifts. The sky clears.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m beginning to understand just how far away Salt Lake City really is\u2014in distance and culture. I\u2019m settling in. I\u2019ve become a rural Utahn.<\/p>\n

Once more, I can write.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With our “Still Here” series, we are checking in with members of Utah’s art community to see what the past six months has meant for them. Writer and photographer Stephen Trimble\u00a0lives in Torrey and in Salt Lake City. His latest book, The Capitol Reef Reader, is his 25th. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":54901,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_piecal_is_event":false,"_piecal_start_date":"","_piecal_end_date":"","_piecal_is_allday":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3837],"tags":[1102],"class_list":["post-54900","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-still-here","tag-stephen-trimble"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/Escalante-River-below-Calf-Creek-089.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-15 16:12:34","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54900","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54900"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54900\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":55068,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54900\/revisions\/55068"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/54901"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54900"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54900"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54900"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}