Past and Present
Hope Crosbie (sorry no relation to Bing or Bob)

Barrel Location: Kathy’s Kountry Kitchen, Clay City

Artist’s Interpretation:  The Gladie Historical Site is a great example of a homestead/logging town, and how the land was used in the late 1800’s. When mankind thought natural resources were abundant and inexhaustible, they also believed removal of natural resources for profit or to open the land for farming would never harm or bother the land. It wasn’t until later years that folks saw fewer fish and animals and connected the reasons for their depletion to the damage done by the past use of the land and watershed.  The watershed had been crushed under mounds of silt, soil, human and industrial waste that was washed down to the rivers. 

Now today we see more careful and thoughtful use of water and the watershed.  Many more people understand their connection to the land and how they can affect their environment.  More needs to be done, and collecting rain water to use is a fun and free alternative to processed water for gardening, washing, and drinking*.

Bio:  I work for the USDA Forest Service, at the Gladie Cultural and Environmental Learning Center in the Red River Gorge for the Cumberland District on the Daniel Boone National Forest, as an interpreter.  I have been with the Forest Service since 1992, started in the White Mountain National Forest in Northern New Hampshire and came to Kentucky in the fall of 2004, and found a place that sparks my imagination.

I have had little to no formal training as an artist, I was given a gift of being able to put imagines down on paper, and have taught myself how to play with all the different tools and materials available to do this. I’ve been stretching and creating all my life in one form or another, but I didn’t start painting until my twenties. I consider myself very lucky to have found a job I love that uses my creative abilities.

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