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| My 6.3-ounce art kit. |
When ever we travel
away from the things of man*, I take the means to make art. That’s because I
love to paint outdoors. It combines the two things I love most: painting and
Outside.
In preparing for
our trips, sometimes I get a little carried away and my art bag weighs more
than my clothing bag. I like to be well prepared for whatever art emergency
that might occur (oh no, where’s my Holbein Manganese Blue!).
Well, now I’m up
against a serious challenge. We’re planning a 4-day backpack trip and I want to
bring art stuff—and I can’t just toss a big ole bag into the back seat of the
car this time.
Over the weekend,
we began to set out our gear, clothing, and food. Then, we started weighing
everything—and I mean everything—from
shirts to saline bottles—trying to figure out the lightest combination of
essentials. I’m down to four items of clothing beyond what I'm wearing when we
leave plus a jacket and a spare pair of socks. My entire beauty kit (and I use
that term loosely) fits in a small baggy and weighs less than a pound.
We started out with
8 1/2 pounds of food—and that was after I had already eliminated the gourmet
desserts I had visions of dazzling our camping comrades with. After further
scrutiny, we took out a few more items and counted out the crackers into exact
servings. I doubt I'll starve to death, although it seems to be a constant fear
for me.
One luxury, I'm
taking a little bourbon with me. There is nothing like a little whiskey by the
campfire to warm you on a cool night. It’s something that goes way back with me—to
my Yosemite days—when one magical summer night I sat around a campfire with a
few cute cowboys and shared a flask of Jack Daniels—a dewy memory of
comfortable companionship.
Clint just rolls
his eyes at me and declares “the booze” WILL NOT be considered in the divided
weight of our shared gear. “That’s all yours to carry,” he harrumphed at me. I
told him that if we needed to liquor him up and give him a belt to bite on
while we dug out a bullet (or a festerin’ mesquite thorn), he’d sure be glad I
was carrying that whiskey. I got another eye roll.
After weighing and
lessening quantities, and re-weighing and deciding what to do without, my pack
is down to about 37 pounds—sans art tools. How do I squeeze in any art gear at
this point without adding too much weight?
After some thought,
I figured it out. I have a mini-pan of watercolors with a retractable brush. I
found a small spiral-bound sketchpad and tore out all but a dozen sheets. I cut
down some watercolor paper so it would fit inside the pad. My clever MacGyver
husband replaced the spiral wire with a couple of plastic tie wraps (second to
duct tape, undeniably the most valuable fix-it item in the world). My art kit
weighs a mere 6.3 ounces.
Now, how do I offset
that weight? Not with bourbon, that’s for sure. I tried to convince Clint that
I don't need to carry my headlamp, but he wouldn't budge on that one. He's
probably thinking I'll need that light if I have to perform surgery on him with
my Swiss Army knife after dark. Maybe I can sneak something into his pack when
he’s not looking…
Stay tuned.
* From "Joe vs. the
Volcano" (one of our favorite movies)
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