Glacierside

30″ × 96″, oil on linen (2014) Henrietta Nesmith Glacier, Quttinirpaaq National Park, Ellesmere Island, Nunavut, Canada

Five days into my trip on Ellesmere Island and I had yet to start a painting.

Camping near the top of the world in Quttinirpaaq National Park for a month with my brother Carl, we inched along the shoreline of Lake Hazen with ridiculous 50-kilogram packs on our backs. We had landed a few days earlier, sorted through mounds of gear to select what was needed for a 10-day hike, which, with all the painting, filming, and camping, was still enough to bury us.