Phillip Sterling (Artist-in-Residence, 2014)

"First Encounter", 8 ½" x 11" poem and linoleum block print, 2014

NPS/Phillip Sterling

Isle Royale Reflection

"I was invigorated and awed by my time as an artist-in-residence for Isle Royale. I found the island enriching, the time productive. I had discovered in the wonderful journals left in the Dassler Cabin by previous artists (my first week’s self-imposed “orientation” involved a study of those journals) that I was not alone in my feeling of enthusiastic uncertainty, my creative dilemma, for Isle Royale indeed presents a challenge to artists and writers.

Remote and undeveloped, an archipelago of rocky grandeur thrusting demonstratively from the wild northern waters of the greatest of Great Lakes—Isle Royale offers untold beauty, a beauty that one finds difficult to replicate in mere words or images. A beauty that is perpetuated in large part by a concerted effort to protect and manage its wilderness, its isolation. As a consequence there is a certain amount of constancy in its ecology and habitat, in its beauty. Even the astonishing sunrises may become predictable. While a boon for scientists, who appreciate the opportunity for (carefully controlled) scientific study, such constancy and redundancy of wilderness is not necessarily “inspiring” to artists."

• Read Phillip's full Isle Royale Reflection and see another poem

 

Phillip

About the Artist

Phillip Sterling's books include two poetry collections, And Then Snow and Mutual Shores, a collection of short fiction, In Which Brief Stories Are Told, and four chapbook-length series of poems (Significant Others, Quatrains, Abeyance, And for All This: Poems from Isle Royale). He is the compiling editor of Imported Breads: Literature of Cultural Exchange and Isle Royale from the AIR: Poems, Stories, and Songs from 25 Years of Artists-in-Residence. Among his awards are an National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, two Fulbright Lectureships (Belgium and Poland), a P.E.N. Syndicated Fiction Award, and inclusion in Best Small Fictions 2017. Professor Emeritus at Ferris State University, he has served as Artist-in-Residence for both Isle Royale National Park (August 5th to August 27th, 2014) and Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore.

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