Exploring Goldwell Open Air Museum: Art, History, and Inspiration in the Nevada Desert

SPEAKER_02 0:06

Hey everybody, this is Howard Fox, host of the Outdoors Literature Series Podcast. And I am here in why I like this ghost now here in Southern Nevada. Southern Nevada is updated today. And I'm at the Goldwell Opening of the Museum. I have a pleasure of introducing to Steve Dunrow. Steve is from Nevada. And we're going to talk a little bit with Steve about some of his work and what brought him up to the museum today with Beatty. And I have the pleasure of introducing you to Patrick Taylor. He is a resident of Beatty. He is on the board. And he's a volunteer here at the Goldwell Open Air Museum. So, gentlemen, welcome to the podcast. Thank you for drawing up, Howard. Thanks. Thanks for having us. And you picked a great day. Now we originally we had hoped to put this outside and give a little bit of the background. I guess I'll have to take some photos of this. The Goldwell Open Air Museum is really a phenomenal museum. We're going to have backlinks in the show notes so we can share with you why it's so unique. But uh little background, Beatty is about, I don't know, we'll say, Steve, about an hour and a half, maybe two hours north of Las Vegas. A little less for you because you're in Mesquite.

SPEAKER_03 1:29

I got to come all the way to Vegas.

SPEAKER_02 1:31

Well, you gotta go to Vegas. About an hour and a half to two hours. Okay. And it's uh it's a it's a beautiful drive. You have to be paying attention because there's a lot of big semis. But it's just a beautiful place. It's very unique because just outside of Beatty, about four or five miles, is the Ryolike Ghost Town, which is very well known, the turn of the last century. This vibrant community was here, and then all of a sudden it was gone. And remnants of the buildings are still here. A lot of folks, artists like like Steve, like like Patrick, like Steve, come up here, take photos, do paintings, drawings, and folks like me come up here and do some dark sky photography using the the relics of the buildings either in the foreground, and then hopefully, if you get it right, the the Milky Way in the background. But just a phenomenal place. We're gonna have back links to to the museum, to Steve's website, and Patrick, your website. So Patrick was just showing us some of his work as well. Pretty phenomenal. But Steve, you can't. Patrick's work, huh? Yeah. Patrick's work. Am I messing this well now? No, I'm just saying, I'm just giving away.

SPEAKER_03 2:44

I'm just seeing this today, too. This is my first time.

SPEAKER_02 2:46

This is your first time? Yeah, okay. That's excellent. This is the beauty. We're not even going to edit this out. First off, I've got to ask, you're holding some books there, my friend. What are you holding?

SPEAKER_03 2:55

Okay, these are my two books that I've recently done. And they kind of they come from podcasting and being a photographer, a night sky photographer, and from being out in the Mojave, in the Mojave Desert. There's just a lot to see.

SPEAKER_02 3:12

There is. And the desert is so wonderful place. Have you always been in had a passion for art? Because I as I've gotten to know you really like a year ago when we met at Vikame. There was a dark sky event. They had some presentations at a Vikwame, which is one of the U.S.'s newest national monuments. We'll provide a backlink to it. But have you always been an artist, have or have had a passion for art?

SPEAKER_03 3:40

No, but first let me say that was a fun night when I met you down there. That was fun night. So that was really good. We we got to see a lot of dark sky. So no, I haven't. And it's actually in my book, my first book, The Art of Noticing, is kind of it's kind of musings of made over the last five or ten years or so. So I didn't think about art at all. I was a photographer. Was a photographer an artist? I think so. Well, I didn't think so. And I started one of my hiking friends told me, Oh, you gotta put your art in uh in an exhibit. And I'm like, What no, I'm not uh that's art. I don't do art. Well, she convinced me very strongly, and I put it in, and I didn't win. Okay, but from that point on, and then her and I would go on these hikes for Friends of Goldview, and we would talk about art. More curiosity than anything else. So that's kind of where this book comes from, is is talking with her, and she talked me into being artists, and then the podcast, as you well know, we we learn as we podcast. We know maybe you did, but I didn't know anything when I started.

SPEAKER_02 4:51

So I've got a question for you. Well, actually, it's asked Patrick here. Are podcasters journalists? They'd have to be. Thank you. Oh, thank you.

SPEAKER_01 5:00

All right, journaling someone's story. Thank you.

SPEAKER_03 5:03

All right, he's just saying that because we're we're out, we outnumber.

SPEAKER_01 5:07

That's true, that's true. You're leading it's like a piece of art, you're leading someone's story so that someone can follow it and get more of an understanding of their life, right? Just like a piece of art. You're leading someone's eye into your vision.

SPEAKER_02 5:21

I like that.

SPEAKER_03 5:22

And that's kind of where my book goes that we lead. But I think I was doing too much leading. Okay. If they were quiet for a second, I have no list of questions. I don't know how much you prepare what I prepare. So if they stop, I'm there with another question. Well, that's not, and I talk about it in this book. Okay. Most of the time they have something else to say. Right. So with us just blabbering in and cutting in and asking them the next question that may be way off from what you just talked about. Right. I think it it's it doesn't lead as it doesn't lead to their story that because they're holding their story.

SPEAKER_02 6:04

And I and I love what you're sharing. My day job is I am a coach, and in coach training, we we talk about holding space for our clients. And I think as as as podcasters, as artists, in our own way, we're holding space for the individual, for the subject, for the scenery, so that we can gather some insights, perhaps some meaning, and maybe ask a question because you're curious, not because we have to fill the space. And I think that was one of the first lessons I learned is as a coach, and and I think in taking it at the podcasting, is just hold side, be silent and wait, wait for the guests, wait for the client. But if you have to, be curious.

SPEAKER_03 6:55

Yes. I wouldn't have had to write this book had I talked with you before podcasting. Because I would have I like that, holding space. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 7:05

A lot of times with my or I want the I want the image to speak for itself. I don't want to use a lot of words to explain it. If you have to, the image isn't doing what it's supposed to.

unknown 7:15

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 7:15

So I I like the image to speak for itself and how it tells story.

unknown 7:19

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 7:20

Before we got started here, we were outside hoping just having a chat, and you shared a little bit about your background, which I'll leave it to you to share if you want. But had you always had art have been has it always been a part of your life and the work that you have been doing?

SPEAKER_01 7:38

But professionally, no. I was a Marine and a police officer.

unknown 7:42

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 7:42

And but I did do art as a as a kid. I drew, I made things, I was into a Native American making different things. But I only did it just for my own self. I got into a career and it it just became it became physical. What you do as a police officer and as a Marine, you're training. But I got hurt early. One year out in the police department, I our Marine Unit got activated for Desert Storm. And we went to Camp Pendleton to train, and on the beach there, an instructor did a karate move, and he pilot dried me onto my head, and my entire spine compressed.

SPEAKER_00 8:25

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 8:25

And I ended up having 13 spine surgeries from that injury.

SPEAKER_02 8:29

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_01 8:30

But being laid up in the hospital and at home so much, I started drawing for therapy. And from that, all this art has come into my life. And it's where I would tell veterans at the hospital where doors close, others can open up when we allow them to. Because for years, you get that bitterness of an injury, you feel like your life is ruined. What am I going to do now? How am I going to support my family? But then you start seeing things differently, and your talents start developing where they hadn't before, and their life can change. And that's that's what's happened in mine. Yes. I love it. Is this ark has truly filled a place that was you talk about these spaces? This ark has filled that space in me where it was empty because I didn't know what I was gonna do.

SPEAKER_02 9:22

Okay, okay.

SPEAKER_01 9:23

And now I I have this passion and it's it's what I want to do. I want to create. So I put all of this into what I'm doing.

SPEAKER_02 9:46

Excellent. How did you get into the art space? I mean, in mesquite, you're part of the mesquite arts council. You've got the the STEM center. And how did you enter this that part of the journey?

SPEAKER_03 10:01

It was when I when my friend talked to me on a hike and said to enter enter my photograph and uh an art contest. Yeah, because otherwise I was a nuts. So she said that, and then from that on we talked. Curiosity is like the best word in the English language, right? We all have that curiosity. I think that's really important, and that helps us. It art comes from curiosity.

SPEAKER_02 10:27

Sure. What have you learned about yourself? And let's just start let's just stop with that. What have you learned about yourself as a result of stepping into this sandbox landscape and being able to explore and be curious? What have you learned?

SPEAKER_03 10:44

First off the people.

SPEAKER_02 10:45

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 10:46

Okay. You, Patrick, all everybody I meet. I've had over 400 guests on my podcast. I just love talking to people. And while I still like photography, I've come to think that my art is talking to artists. So and finding their stories and allowing them space to tell their stories.

SPEAKER_02 11:05

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 11:05

I like that.

SPEAKER_02 11:06

For our listeners, what is the name of the podcast?

SPEAKER_03 11:09

Oh, The Art Box.

SPEAKER_02 11:10

The Art Box Podcast. And if listeners want to learn more about it and subscribe to it, where are they going to go?

SPEAKER_03 11:17

They'll go to our website, which is theartboxpodcast.com.

SPEAKER_02 11:21

Artboxpodcast.com. By the way, he's got uh great visuals for the podcast. I mean, I have a logo. Steve's is incredibly creative, but again, we're we're gonna share that in our show notes for today. When you think about your the the interviews, some close to the 500th interview, that's a lot of people most podcasts. I I think there's a statistic out there, 75% of podcasts fail before you get to say like the 12th episode. Okay, so 500, that's I think that's commitment. I think I'm somewhere in that the city. I was just gonna say, you and I are uh we're beating the odds. I think because there's something about it that we enjoy. Is there like right now we're we're here in the desert, literally eight, ten miles to our west is the an entrance to Death Valley National Park, which I've taken before. Four miles down the road is Beatty. But the desert landscape is just wonderful. And it's just there's there's something new around every corner. Is there something about the desert and just the whether it's the shrubbery, the the architecture, the the ruins, is there something about it that really just kind of tugs at your heart?

SPEAKER_03 12:42

Well, Howard, I I'll I'll go back to my time as artists in residence at Mystery Ranch, which is an Aviquame National Monument. And I'm a nice sky photographer. Yes, so I don't want anything to do with the daytime. Okay. All right, because it's too dark out there. Yes, it is. But when I said Mystery Ranch, there is no air conditioning. So I have to do something during the day. So I when you look out, we're looking out over to the Mojave now, what do we see? We see heat. So they're rising, but when you when you walk out there and you look underneath a bush, that's a little microclimate underneath there. When you pick up a rock, there's a microclimate. There's all kinds of things happening there. So there's millions. As we look out the window now, there's millions of little microclimates that are people or raw people. Bugs that they're they're just as happy as can be. They're going about just doing their thing or doing what they do. So that's that's where I and that became noticing. You've got to notice that.

unknown 13:42

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 13:42

And we can look out there and just see what we see, but if we look deeper.

SPEAKER_02 13:47

Which I love about the book, you just have to the art of noticing. Yeah, it just yeah, you have to stop being present. Be present, you need to be present. Be in the moment, listen, breathe, smell, and observe. All your senses. All the senses.

SPEAKER_01 14:05

That's what's being in when you're when you're like that in your nature, that's that's natural healing. And for myself, someone with with injuries and pain, being out here has truly helped me to do more than I have my my entire life. Sure. I'm doing more now than I have before. How did you end up out here? I was in Vegas. I wanted to get out of town, and I came to Beatty for a few days and I started drawing. Went back to Vegas, came back, drew some more, and I'm like, something's inspiring you out here.

SPEAKER_00 14:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 14:40

So I got rid of my apartment, bought a truck and RV, and I moved up here. And that's when I immediately got involved with the museum out here. I came out here with my dog and I was beating some moccasins. And came in here, and there were three people. There was the founder of the Goldwell Open Air Museum, Susan Morgan, Richard Stevens, who was the volunteer out here, he's been in Beatty for 48 years, and the new president, Michelle Graves. And I started talking to him. I said, hey, I'm thinking about moving out here. Do you guys need any help? And at the time they did. And it was just something that was supposed to be. And it's turned into now being here for two years. But what I saw was all this color out here. The vividness out in this landscape, because it's so open, you can see. For myself, I as an artist, I use Fabinhochi in a lot of work. But I see that out there in the landscape. But it's this color that's so beautiful and vivid and bright. The night skies, man, when you get away from the light pollution, the stars are just amazing.

SPEAKER_02 15:49

That was what I was just blown away by the the stars. Beauty out here. And on New Moon, this this literally is the place to be. Yeah. It's the place to be. Now, uh, how involved are you in the in the Beatty community?

SPEAKER_01 16:06

I'm on their I got on their Beatty Chamber. I'm also at the Beatty Museum. I'm on their board.

SPEAKER_02 16:12

I've been wanting to visit their own.

SPEAKER_01 16:14

I volunteer on their own Mondays, but I I love the history. It's just all this history, and I'm kind of absorbing myself into that. And the people are amazing. When you're in these little communities, you gotta watch out for one another. Yeah. And the people do, they take care of one another, and that's that's a beautiful thing to see.

SPEAKER_02 16:31

I love it. I love it. So why are you out here today?

SPEAKER_03 16:35

I am out here to help them cut bottles. Is that what we're doing? We're cutting bottles. Okay. There's a bottle couch. Yeah, but there's a bottle couch. And you can see the bottle couch out there, but now they're going to expand to like the old bottle couch that used to be back there replacing that. So we're going to cut bottles. I hope I'm not going to cut my hand off. But I think Michelle and Zoe will take care of it. Yeah. They're professionals.

SPEAKER_02 16:59

Now there is when I heard about the the bottle house or the bottle couch, I was I knew there's a there's a there is a bottle house here.

SPEAKER_01 17:09

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 17:10

And when you said we're going to build a couch, I was thinking, you're going to put a couch in the house? That's for the museum. What is you have a lot of visitors coming in to this museum. Give a sense of they're coming to see Rylite, no doubt, but when they come in here, what what do you think their aha moment is? Like, oh my god, look at this.

SPEAKER_01 17:32

I didn't expect this. I would have to say that the energy that's here that has allowed all these artists from all over the world to come and create. And the people that come here sense and feel that. These people that create this in town in seven years felt an energy here and it caused them to move and to do something incredible in such a short amount of time. And again, you have artists that that for with that same idea, that energy that caused them to create. And I think that's what people get out here is they they feel something. And that's why you have to get out in nature. You gotta feel it, you gotta absorb it. And and people get that. They'll they'll be saying, Oh, I'm getting goosebumps. Like, yeah, no.

unknown 18:20

I love it.

SPEAKER_01 18:21

It's real, it's real.

SPEAKER_03 18:23

Well, you've had visitors today from that I've talked to England, UK, and also from Paris.

SPEAKER_02 18:29

Yeah. Wonderful. Yeah. What do you feel when you're when you're out here?

SPEAKER_03 18:34

Joy.

SPEAKER_02 18:35

Joy. Yes.

SPEAKER_03 18:36

Yeah, it's just peace.

SPEAKER_02 18:38

It's just nice out here.

SPEAKER_03 18:39

And there's quiet.

unknown 18:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 18:41

And you're actually going to be helping to create art that is going to be have a life out here.

SPEAKER_03 18:47

Hey, you know what? Thanks for reminding me of that. I was just thinking I was going to cut bottles, but you're right. It's going to be out here. After I'm gone, it's still going to be here. So I'll have something here. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 18:58

Yeah, thank you for reminding me that, Howard.

SPEAKER_03 18:59

I didn't even think about that.

SPEAKER_01 19:00

It's my pleasure. Yes, my pleasure. Well, your work, the work that you do, these these podcasts and videos that you put out, do that also. When we're gone, those things will still be viewed and seen. And those stories will still be told. And we're trying to tell people's stories. We're trying to tell Albert's story and the other friends that he had that have come over. We're telling people's story through art, through through word. Through words.

SPEAKER_02 19:27

Yeah, love it. Patrick, if listeners would like to learn more about you and your art, are there any places you would direct them to go? Or is it is it right now just right now?

SPEAKER_01 19:41

I don't have a website or anything. I'm out here. And come out to the come out, come out to Goldwell and and experience it. Be present. And that's where the energy is. Alright.

SPEAKER_02 19:53

By the way, when I was out here last, I don't recall seeing the Goldwell Open Air Museum t-shirts. Folks, they have merch here. And I do see they have double XL. I hope I fit double XL, but I may have to try one out. But yeah, come out out here, have a conversation with Patrick, see some of his artwork. You want to quickly show something? Sure.

SPEAKER_01 20:14

Let's see, the one I just finished. We'll show this one. By the way, I This is a charcoal drawing I just finished yesterday.

SPEAKER_02 20:27

I have been looking at that, by the way. I love the the swirl. Yeah. And it's like the what do you call the medicine wheel? The medicine wheel. And what's the walk out here called? I should know this. I have a friend that does the the they do the walks around the stones.

SPEAKER_01 20:45

It's a it's a meditation walk. They call it a labyrinth. A real labyrinth has dead ends and stuff, but this spirals into the center. So it's more of a meditation walk to get grounded, get centered.

SPEAKER_02 21:01

But I've been looking at this as I've been sitting down and looking at the camera, looking at you guys. I keep looking at this. This is beautiful, by the way. Beautiful.

SPEAKER_01 21:09

I see that. I use that Fabianci in a lot of my work. Then the stars. But Albert's work, his sculptures have really gotten into my eyes, so I do draw them a lot. Excellent. This person's trying to bring keep his work. And we just take it to different levels. Because we all see in different different different see something very different.

SPEAKER_02 21:38

Yes. Excellent. Thank you. Thank you for sharing. Steve, we'll wait for Patrick to come up come on the back. If listeners would like to learn more about you, listen to the podcast, check out your socials, check out the books. Where are the best places to go?

SPEAKER_03 21:53

Theartboxpodcast.com.com.

SPEAKER_02 21:56

Artboxpodcast.com. Again, folks, we're going to have the links back in the show notes. Gentlemen, it's been great to have you on the podcast. And uh Steve, I'm so it's been a year in the making. You're here. I'm here. We're making it happen. I get to make a new friend with Patrick. And really, folks, when you come to Vegas, plan to take a day, half a day at least, but come on up to Bainey, have there's some great bars, some food, really good food here in town. There's a great historical museum, which Patrick was just mentioning. But then you have this beautiful ghost town, Ryolite, which is just perfect for walking around. And you have this wonderful museum, the Goldwell Open Air Museum. You have to check it out. And again, some great people really celebrating the desert and life out here in Nevada. So, folks, we hope you enjoyed today's episode of the Outdoor Adventure Series. Patrick, Steve, thank you so much. And this episode will be up on our website, outdooradventure series.com. The video, which we we finally did the video, uh, is going to be up on our YouTube channel, Outdoor Adventure Series. The episode will also be on LinkedIn and Facebook on our outdoor adventure series pages. And if you're driving in a car, hiking down a trail, you can listen to this episode wherever you get your podcast from. So, folks, wherever you are, whatever you're doing, go out there, have a fantastic day, celebrate, be present, be aware, and just enjoy the secret. Okay, folks, take care now.