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Two New Stories in National Parks Magazine

Two New Stories in National Parks Magazine

My latest feature story for National Parks magazine is about someone I had never heard of: Chiura Obata, an Asian-American painter who helped bring an understanding of Eastern art to the West in the early 20th century. The story, “Wood Blocks and Watercolors,” appears in the summer issue.

I love writing stories like this. Obata was not only a remarkable artist—he created woodblocks and watercolors of Yosemite that still look fresh and modern today—he was also an exceptional man. He was a lifelong teacher, a source of hope and leadership during the Japanese internment; and a philosopher who helped friends, students, and family members understand Zen and look at the world in a different way.

This quote, written by friend and artist Robert Howard about a trip he shared with Obata in 1927, sticks in my mind: “Before turning in for sleep, Obata would bring forth his philosophies of life. How to appreciate every minute of existence and time. How right it was to be happy, and cheerful, and productive. How wrong to shed tears, do nothing, and waste time and strength. That to be an artist was the best of all things.” Exactly.

In the same issue, I also have a short story on sea otters, “Shifting Tides,” and their remarkable comeback in Alaska’s Glacier Bay National Park. By the turn of the last century, fur hunters had all but wiped out the species in the Pacific. Scientists estimate there were fewer than 1,000 left around 1911, when an international treaty helped protect them. Glacier Bay is a massive success story that could help scientists elsewhere understand otters and the conditions for their recovery.

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