Up Front With Sara Parker Pauley

The Buffalo Bill Museum in Cody, Wyoming, is an absolute treasure. I spent the better part of a day there this summer, in part because of a special collection of western landscapes by artist Albert Bierstadt, who is perhaps best known for his stunning depictions of the Rockies, and his ability to combine both realism and romanticism in a single canvas.

Interestingly, Bierstadt was also a charter member of the Boone & Crocket Club (B&C), recognized as North America’s first conservation group committed to conserving wildlife and wild lands. Founded by Theodore Roosevelt and writer George Bird Grinnell in 1888, B&C’s founding mission focused on protecting the wildlife in Yellowstone National Park from the devastating effects of poachers.

Roosevelt and Grinnell understood that to best tell the story of Yellowstone — to elicit emotion and inspire action — they needed to convey their message through words and art. To this point, Bierstadt is perhaps most well-known for his painting The Last Buffalo in which he depicted the horrific reality of the time — the buffalo on the verge of extinction.

In this issue, we introduce you to two modern-day artists — MDC’s Noppadol Paothong and David Stonner. With a camera as their artist’s tool, they, too, know how to elicit emotion with their brilliant depictions of the magnificence of our natural world. Looking at their stunning photographs, I understand what naturalist Michael McCarthy noted, “The natural world can offer us more than the means to survive … it can offer us joy.”

Sara Parker Pauley, Director

SARA.PAULEY@MDC.MO.GOV