Tim Pope ’13:
The Burch Ranch, an airy, open space that gleams in the sunlight and disappears under the star-soaked night sky, fills with jet-lagged students from Episcopal, Haverford, and Agnes Irwin each October. They come to join local Montana high school students for three days of art workshops in creative writing, photography, visual art, and theater.
Each year, artists, photographers, writers, and actors travel to the Hobble Diamond Ranch in Big Timber, Montana for the annual Big Timber Arts Roundup. The trip allows students to express themselves through their work in an accepting environment, as well as to appreciate the work of other student artists. On the trip, participants enroll in workshops taught by professional painters, photographers, writers and actors.
As a painter, I worked with watercolors to paint the beautiful landscapes that surrounded us. Even though every artist that participated agreed that watercolors are not an ideal medium for painting, we did learn how to simplify paintings. We learned to not focus on every single detail, but instead to capture on the canvas the inspiration that drew us to the canvas in the first place.
I think I speak for all of the artists who attended when I admit that not every painting we did was beautiful, but every day we were there, improvement could be seen in each of us. By the end of the weekend, we had a good understanding of how to manipulate watercolor to do what we wanted, a skill which very few artists today can master.
We artists weren’t the only participants who honed in on a new skill. The photographers worked on panning, a method for taking photographs of moving objects. They practiced on the breathtaking landscapes around us, and on the horses, cattle, and other fauna.
Writers learned new approaches to forming prose pieces and poetry, as well as creative ways of presenting their work. Actors rehearsed and performed classic Shakespeare with a professional troupe of actors and mentors.
On the first day of the trip, I remember going on a walk along the river with all of the guys on the trip. We had met each other only a few hours before, but as we walked along the riverbank, we were connected. Throwing rocks and avoiding animal droppings, we felt at ease, brought together by a common love of art and our anticipation of the days to come.
Later, after dinner, that same connection pulled us all together around the campfire. We stood huddled around the fire, each student wrapped in the heat of the flames. Guitars came out, and the singing began. The ever-faithful leader of the Taylor Swift Club, Willow Fredrick ’13, memorably started off that first night’s impromptu set list with Swift’s “You Belong with Me.” Verse by verse, the rest of us joined her.
The most marvelous part of the trip, the part that has lingered with me the most since I returned to Episcopal, was the people. We explored the ranch together, rode in the backs of packed flatbed trucks together, sang together, ate together, and created together. We will share those experiences forever, and will carry home with us the footprint of a community that existed, for a few days, for the sole purpose of sharing art.