It's a Wild Life
12/09/2023 07:16AM ● By Deborah Olsen
(Photo: Moose with her two calves. Courtesy of Deborah Olsen.)
Steamboat Springs, CO - The moose’s eyes appraised me with an intense look, one that I returned with a stupefied stare after I came around a corner and found myself face-to-face with her in our yard last fall. Behind her, two calves chomped on willow trees, oblivious to my dinnertime intrusion.
Fortunately, Mama Moose paused for a few seconds herself, giving me time for a slow, cautious retreat. I think she was the same moose who had settled into our front yard for a couple days last spring. Then she had moved on, leaving droplets of blood behind her. A wildlife specialist who came to check on her said the blood was from winter ticks, which burst when she rolled in the snow. The bigger issue was that she was pregnant. I followed her tracks to a neighbor’s pond, where she rested until her babies were born a few days later.
In Routt County, we live side-by-side with moose, mountain lions, coyotes, foxes, bears, raccoons, skunks, marmots, porcupines, rabbits, deer, elk and pronghorn, to name a few of the wild animals of Northwest Colorado.
While we struggle to drag our top-heavy bearproof garbage cans to the curve, and barricade our vegetables inside a plant penitentiary to discourage our foraging friends, we wouldn’t trade our experience with wildlife for a Parisian shopping spree.
Each encounter with wildlife is emotional, even surreal. If you live here, you know the feeling.
I struggle to find the right words and often wish I could experience these thrilling moments through an artist’s eyes.
This ski season, we have a chance to do just that when the Steamboat Art Museum hosts “Wild West: Wildlife Masters Past and Present.” As president of SAM’s board, I have watched this exhibit take shape for the last 18 months, and it is exquisite. That a small town like Steamboat could stage an exhibition of this magnitude is a tribute to the community, SAM’s staff and the art world for recognizing what a special place this is.
We are pleased to share a small sample of this collection by the preeminent wildlife artists of the West in the Ski edition of Steamboat Magazine. As always, we have put together a collection of work that we hope our readers will savor.
Enjoy,
Deborah Olsen, President, Ski Town Media Inc.
Steamboat Springs, CO - The moose’s eyes appraised me with an intense look, one that I returned with a stupefied stare after I came around a corner and found myself face-to-face with her in our yard last fall. Behind her, two calves chomped on willow trees, oblivious to my dinnertime intrusion.
Fortunately, Mama Moose paused for a few seconds herself, giving me time for a slow, cautious retreat. I think she was the same moose who had settled into our front yard for a couple days last spring. Then she had moved on, leaving droplets of blood behind her. A wildlife specialist who came to check on her said the blood was from winter ticks, which burst when she rolled in the snow. The bigger issue was that she was pregnant. I followed her tracks to a neighbor’s pond, where she rested until her babies were born a few days later.
In Routt County, we live side-by-side with moose, mountain lions, coyotes, foxes, bears, raccoons, skunks, marmots, porcupines, rabbits, deer, elk and pronghorn, to name a few of the wild animals of Northwest Colorado.
While we struggle to drag our top-heavy bearproof garbage cans to the curve, and barricade our vegetables inside a plant penitentiary to discourage our foraging friends, we wouldn’t trade our experience with wildlife for a Parisian shopping spree.
Each encounter with wildlife is emotional, even surreal. If you live here, you know the feeling.
I struggle to find the right words and often wish I could experience these thrilling moments through an artist’s eyes.
This ski season, we have a chance to do just that when the Steamboat Art Museum hosts “Wild West: Wildlife Masters Past and Present.” As president of SAM’s board, I have watched this exhibit take shape for the last 18 months, and it is exquisite. That a small town like Steamboat could stage an exhibition of this magnitude is a tribute to the community, SAM’s staff and the art world for recognizing what a special place this is.
We are pleased to share a small sample of this collection by the preeminent wildlife artists of the West in the Ski edition of Steamboat Magazine. As always, we have put together a collection of work that we hope our readers will savor.
Enjoy,
Deborah Olsen, President, Ski Town Media Inc.