Marc Seguin

Marc Séguin is a French Canadian painter and novelist whose work is held in several important collections. He splits his time between his home in Montréal, Québec, and his Brooklyn, New York studio. Touching on themes of the politically backward, the environmentally compromised and the socially divided, his work reveals deeper truths about the nature of humanity through images that are not only thought-provoking but beautifully elegiac.

Since 2000, the Musée d’Art Contemporain de Montréal, the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts and the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec have all acquired major works by Marc Séguin. His prints and paintings can be found in numerous Canadian corporate collections and those of major private Canadian and American collectors. To date, Marc Séguin has held more than 20 solo shows and participated in many more group exhibitions and art fairs around the world, including Madrid, Barcelona, Venice, Berlin, Cologne, New York, Miami, Chicago, Brussels, and Namur.

Marc Séguin has also published 4 critically acclaimed fiction novels – La foi du braconnier, Hollywood, Nord Alice, and Jenny Sauro. He also directed and produced a feature film, Stealing Alice, and directed a documentary entitled The State of the Farm.

3 words to describe Nature? 

A Resilient & Beautiful Thing

3 things Nature taught you?

Patience

Violence

Creativity

3 most treasured Nature spots?

The ocean

The island I live on

Anywhere in the wind

When you look at the ocean, it makes you feel...?

Introspective

When you see a forest, it makes you feel...?

Human, impaired and perfect

When you see a volcano, it makes you feel...?

Like being on a spaceship made of rock

When you see a sunrise or sunset, it makes you feel...?

Like time has passed again

When you hear thunder, it makes you feel...?

Unfit to live in nature. It also means I gotta get out of the river and stop fishing for a while.

When you hear the wind howling, it makes you feel...?

Powerful forces can be invisible. And it draws a smile. Every time.

Are you an Ocean, Mountain, Forest, or Desert person?

Anywhere, as long as it remains wild and not impacted by us.

On a scale of 1 to 10, how important is Nature to your well-being?

10

Share with us a childhood nature memory?

Playing and shaping my child’s world with mud.

 


April Vokey

Photo by Jeremy Koreski

April Vokey began fishing as a toddler. By the sixth grade she was saving her allowance for weekend visits to the local tackle shop where she eventually stocked her ‘hand-me-down’ Plano box with every lure and bait she could afford.

After discovering a passion for fly fishing in her late teens, April soon dedicated her entire life to the pursuit. She began her guiding career on the Fraser and Harrison rivers for sturgeon and salmon, but left after several season to found her own guiding operation, Fly Gal Ventures, in 2007 at age 24. The company was built on the basis of the promotion of education and encouragement to those who looked to chase their dreams. She has since established herself as a respected authority in the sport and has traveled the globe in pursuit of gamefish on a fly rod.

Her writing has appeared in numerous industry leading publications including Fly Fisherman, Fly Rod & Reel, and Fly Fusion magazines. In July 2012, April became the first fly angler to be featured in Outside magazine for their “XX-Factor” segment.

Also a popular TV personality, April has been featured on the Outdoor Channel’s Buccaneers and Bones series, 60 Minutes Sports, The Steve Harvey show, Discovery Channel’s Refined, Discovery’s/OLN’s Close Up Kings, and WFN’s Fly Nation TV.

Most recently, Vokey proudly wrote and hosted her own exclusive series, ShoreLines with April Vokey, as shown on the World Fishing Network. The series focuses on fly-fishing’s rich history and the people it consists of. Feeling limited by airtime, she has since branched out with her podcast, Anchored with April Vokey, an uncensored series dedicated to archiving the stories and personalities from some of fly-fishing’s most influential people. The show is one of the only fishing podcasts solely recorded in a face to face environment where April ensures to ask questions apart from the norm.

She now resides in Canada for six months of the year, and in Australia for the other six. Her dog, Colby, travels with her between countries, keeping her safe from grizzlies and kangaroos alike.

She is a FFF certified casting instructor, a fly-tying instructor, an active conservationist, traveling speaker and an eternal student of life and love.

3 words to describe Nature?

Beauty. Balance. Brutality.

3 things Nature taught you?

How small I really am.

That every day on this planet is a gift.

That predatory animals are more ruthless than an ethical human hunter/angler could ever be.

3 most treasured Nature spots?

BC’s north-west

Australia’s north-west coast

New Zealand’s South Island west-coast

When you look at the ocean, it makes you feel…?

Humbled

When you see a forest, it makes you feel…?

Complete

When you see a volcano, it makes you feel…?

Intimidated

When you see a sunrise or sunset, it makes you feel…?

Thankful

When you hear thunder, it makes you feel…?

Invigorated

When you hear the wind howling, it makes you feel…?

Eager to bunker down

Are you an Ocean, Mountain, Forest, or Desert person?

Mountain

On a scale of 1 to 10, how important is Nature to your well-being?

10

Share with us a childhood nature memory?

When I was around seven years old my parents took me to a nearby river. A large, chrome chinook salmon lay dead and washed up on the rocks. It hadn’t spawned yet, but had died from a head injury during its migration. My parents explained salmon and their lifecycles. It was an invaluable lesson. In that moment, I learned: how complex BC’s eco-systems are, how the inevitable death of the salmon had a bigger reward in the end, and that I could catch these enormous creatures if I just waited for them to enter the river. From there I became an angler.


Rick Roberts

RICK ROBERTS is the Director, Hospitality Operations for Summit Powder Mountain in beautiful Eden, Utah. Summit Powder Mountain is a year-round destination for an ongoing program of events and activities - a home to the emergent culture of creativity and collaboration exemplified by the Summit community. Summit Powder Mountain is the largest skiable resort in North America and is preserving its magical skiing experience for generations to come and to save it from overdevelopment. Summit is now focused on building a new urban village at 8600 feet, showing that by developing a portion of the mountain responsibility, the entirety can be saved from overdevelopment.

Prior to joining the Summit family, Rick served 21 years in the Air Force as a dedicated and experienced thought leader and innovator with a history of delivering measurable results while leading teams of 500 in dynamic, combat and non-combat environments. He is a highly decorated veteran that possess a comprehensive background of managing large scale hospitality operations, fitness and recreation programs, human resources, and capital planning.

Additionally, he volunteers for Healthy Body Healthy Life, a non-profit educating individuals, changing families and growing communities. He is extremely passionate about outdoor recreation and the therapeutic effects it can have for veterans challenged with post-traumatic stress.

3 words to describe Nature? 

Inspiring, calming, pure

3 things Nature taught you? 

Humility, courage, determination

3 most treasured Nature spots? 

Havasu Falls, Interlocken, Switzerland, Cliffs of Moher

When you look at the ocean, it makes you feel...? 

Vulnerable...it's another world

When you see a forest, it makes you feel...? 

Curious

When you see a volcano, it makes you feel...? 

Powerful

When you see a sunrise or sunset, it makes you feel...? 

Thankful

When you hear thunder, it makes you feel...? 

Anxious

When you hear the wind howling, it makes you feel...? 

Attentive

Are you an Ocean, Mountain, Forest, or Desert person? 

Mountain

On a scale of 1 to 10, how important is Nature to your well-being? 

10

Share with us a childhood nature memory? 

I was always fond of being out on a lake fishing with my Dad. After serving in WWII, Korea and Vietnam, fishing brought him peace and joy. I appreciate those special moments with him.


Charlene Winfred

CHARLENE WINDFRED is a Fujifilm X-Photographer who captures exquisitely the byproduct of a life in perpetual transit. She was born and raised in Singapore. She lived for 15 years in Australia. In 2013, she sold everything and began the life of a nomad.

3 words to describe Nature?

Overwhelming, longing, life

3 things Nature taught you?

That life persists. That death comes for us all. That to be able to walk, to test my body against the earth, is one of the finest abilities I am lucky enough to take for granted (at the moment, anyway)

3 most treasured Nature spots?

Arches National Park. The open ocean. Any inner city park, being the closest I normally get to Nature... sad but true!

When you look at the ocean, it makes you feel...?

Overwhelmed and calmed at the same time

When you see a forest, it makes you feel...?

Like I want to go for a very long walk and look at everything. This very rarely happens, however.

When you see a volcano, it makes you feel...?

I've never actually seen one, so I'll get back to you when I do!

When you see a sunrise or sunset, it makes you feel...?

Sunrise - it's been a while since I've seen one of those. Next! Sunset - whenever I'm in a position to see an entire sunset vista, it honestly makes me feel like having a glass of wine.

When you hear thunder, it makes you feel...?

Glad to be inside!

When you hear the wind howling, it makes you feel...?

Like I want to be outside, running around like a crazy person.

Are you an Ocean, Mountain, Forest, or Desert person?

Of the 4, the Ocean has been the only one I can say I've been to enough to be familiar with its many moods. I like to think I'd be a mountain person, because I find rocks strangely comforting to be around (and climbing is one of the things I've wished I could afford to do since I was a kid), but that could be me romanticizing both mountains and my affinity for them! Again, will get back to you if/when that actually happens.

On a scale of 1 to 10, how important is Nature to your well-being?

10, because it's everything. We can't live without nature can we?

Share with us a childhood nature memory?

There are no maritime background, or lineage of proud/rogue sailors in my family’s runaway past. My father was a mad keen fisherman though, and that’s probably where my draw to the ocean started. Dad would disappear for days on these extended fishing trips in the South China sea when I was little, bringing back ice chests full of all sorts of fish and a bunch of awesome stories each time (he was a sensational story teller). I begged to go for years and kept being told it would happen as soon as I was old enough.

So that was my 8th birthday present. My parents worried for their small, sickly child out at sea during the onset of the monsoon season, but as Dad would recall about 20 years later, I’d positively flourished in those 5 days. That was the beginning of yearly trips in Malaysian waters.

The things I remember about being at sea: Stormy days – large approaching masses of angry water waiting to eat the boat, securing anything that would fly when being tossed around. Listening to the boat creak and moan woefully in the thrash. Afterwards, small fish roiling on the water as the clouds moved away, far as the eye could see in every direction; a lone marlin worrying a frantic ball of its prey in the water, the glorious still-frame of a sailfish in flight, a line of sunlight gleaming off its saltwater lacquered dorsal fin, down curved flank and flashing off its sickle of tail. The curious, heady mix of brine and diesel fumes (and in this case, old fish) that to me, will always mean “port.”

But what I retain most about those days is staring up at clouds puffing into existence, wavering shards of sunlight converging conical to a point in the water, or at a horizon that was never really still, the way it is on land. I never took to fishing, but it allowed me to spend days dreaming in any available spot on the boat, with or without a rod in hand.