Go Wild
Bring the outside in with works of art featuring America’s iconic parks, forests, and other public lands.
by Bill Donahue


The Philadelphia suburbs and surrounding areas abound with a network of stunning vistas, serene forests, and well-manicured hiking trails. Even so, it’s a big country, rife with public spaces that offer awe-inspiring sights, sounds, and experiences. From the fiery spires of Utah’s Bryce Canyon National Park, to sky-high geyser of Old Faithful in Yellowstone National Park, to the marshy wilderness of Everglades National Park in South Florida, the U.S. National Park System aims to evoke feelings of wonder and humility—and summer is the perfect time of year to see many of these sights. 
 
Colorado-based photographer and graphic artist Rob Decker would know. He was just six years old when he started exploring (and later photographing) the country’s most revered public lands. In the late 1970s, while in California’s Yosemite National Park, he even had the opportunity to study under the iconic Ansel Adams. 
 
Decker’s adventures inspired him to immortalize America’s many national treasures in the form of nostalgic posters. Available for $35 through the website National-Park-Posters.com, each poster features a signature scene from a site of historic and cultural significance. A few examples: the butte of igneous rock at Devils Tower National Monument in northeastern Wyoming; a lighthouse on the rocky shores of Acadia National Park in Maine; the snow-capped peaks of Montana’s Rocky Mountains in Glacier National Park; and the telltale façade of Independence Hall, the centerpiece of Independence National Historical Park in Philadelphia’s Old City neighborhood. 
 
Decker says he hopes his artwork stirs fond memories of past experiences in the nation’s parks, while encouraging those who have not yet seen these spaces to “get out and explore.” For his part, he suggests he will use 10 percent of annual profits from poster sales to support the organizations such as the Joshua Park National Park Foundation, the Glacier Conservancy, and Yellowstone Forever, which help to sustain America’s national parks. 

Published (and copyrighted) in Suburban Life magazine, June 2019.  
 
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