The Narrow Road

The “Narrow Path” is a metaphor representing an ancient and unbroken artistic tradition of seeking enlightenment through experiences and encounters with nature.

Beyond the road less traveled is a narrow and unpopulated pathway, known for its rigor and life-changing circumstances. Along this challenging route the artist seeker is purged of the comfort and trappings derived from urban life. During these extraordinary adventures, the gifted artist sheds the incessant commercial and political associations that society has placed upon them. In order to become pure and powerful in ones art form and personal character, the artist allows nature’s beneficial transformation to be absorbed.

Every year in early spring John Wenger travels the northern routes into the Southwestern highlands and rippled badlands. For thirty years he took his University of New Mexico art students with him to make art and develop personal relationships to the natural world. Running with artists and poets into the heart of deserts and alpine glades has been Wenger’s movida since his early days in Oregon. Journey experiences in the West and in Europe over many years inform this artist’s continued learning, which is more central to his purpose than preoccupations with commerce or past achievements. Bouncing around in the cab of Wenger’s old jeep are some guide service cards he occasionally gives out to folks who are really interested. They are inscribed: Remote Lands Art Adventures Since 1974. His other card lists a website where he represents figurative painting sets under two titles “Webs of Carbon” and “Corpa Vida.” www.johnwengerstudio.com / www.wildearthstudio.org