Meme/Fan art

Ok so this isn't in Utah but I liked this meme, because I feel that it makes an interesting statement on what our interaction with wilderness is as modern Americans. I believe that wilderness does still play a big role in our lives, mainly as an escape from our work-a-day, routine driven lives. I do not really know statistics, but I wonder if now more than ever we seek out wilderness to escape from the stresses of our lives. I think this popularity is a good thing in the fact that it promotes the protection of these areas from development. This meme functions in a couple of different ways, In some ways it is promoting the concept of wilderness, as well as our need for it in our modern lives. But in another way it is also mocking our work-a-day mentality, where we escape for a day or two into the wilderness and then spend 90% of our time in a cubicle, completely miserable. I also like how this meme took the form of a motivational poster, it really adds to the comedic value of the meme.

This is a satellite image of Desolation Canyon near price UT. Desolation Canyon is not technically a wilderness area, but is a BLM wilderness study area.

So this is a photo by Guy Tal, this photo was taken at island in the sky at Canyonlands National Park. There is a proposal to have the greater canyonlands area surrounding this park to be designated wilderness to prevent things like oil shale development, and nuclear power plants being built (both of which are being proposed) This photo is particularly interesting, and works nicely for this assignment. At first glance I thought this was painting, but as I read on I realized it was actually a photograph. Clearly this image has been drastically altered through the means of some digital image editing program such as photoshop. I thin that is an interesting interaction there between a natural image, and filtering of it through digital means. There is a certain skill here to be appreciated, I mean the image is impressive, and the natural beauty is enhanced by the digital alterations to it. In the end I believe that the primary purpose of the image is to instill in the viewer a greater appreciation for the natural world, interestingly with the use of technology.