Today we’d like to introduce you to Trish Painter.
Hi Trish, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
I’m a retired clinical researcher. While working, I also did alot of outdoor activities including trail running, mountain biking and backcountry and nordic skiing in the winter. I also am a singer-songwriter. After retiring, I started doing art, which has totally changed my way of looking at things, and I now creating things I never imagined I could do. In retirement I have become very involved in two non-profit organizations, into which I put alot of energy. In the winter, I am operations manager at Ogden Nordic, which is an organization that grooms winter trails for cross country skiing, snowshoeing and fat biking in a county park in Ogden Valley. I started Mountain Arts and Music in 2014 which has a mission of ‘supporting the creative arts in Ogden Valley. Both of these organizations give me great joy and community. I feel that in these divisive, troubled times, putting my energy into activities that bring people together to participate in activities that form common bonds is what I can do for my community and peace of mind. Creating Art and making Music bring people together. Our winter trails venue provides an escape from day to day chaos, and lifts the spirit in the beautiful nature of winter. My former work life gave me the skills of grant writing and the ability to initiate projects and keep them going, all which have been successfully transferred to fun endeavors in my retirement.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Being fully dependent on research funding during my career was stressful, with times of ‘bare-bones’ funding, but working with patients kept me going and it all came pretty naturally to me. I learned alot about navigating bureaucratic academic systems, and since I pursued an unusual research path, I was challenged significantly along the way, which was always interesting. My success came from personal persistence and true belief in the importance of the research path I pursued (the importance of exercise training and physical activity in chronic disease, specifically those with kidney disease treated with dialysis and transplantation).
In retirement, the activities I am involved with kind of come naturally, and again, the persistence and belief in the importance of what these two nonprofit organizations bring to create community and improve quality of life are what keep me involved and committed.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I was a very non-accomplished guitar player when I started writing songs in about 2004. Then I met a guy who was a classically trained guitarist who put beautiful guitar arrangements to my songs, and I referred to him as my ‘house-band’ when we played out in public, then he became my husband. Our first CD was “Dog Tracks”…18 songs inspired by dogs. I moved beyond the canine theme to writing songs about nature and the wonders thereof. We have recorded 4 CD’s and have 5 more songs that need to be recorded. We play music whenever we can, but prefer doing house concerts and benefits for causes we believe in. I am also very proud of my artwork, which still amazes me that I can create in pen & ink, pastels, colored pencils.
Both of these endeavors has led me to start the nonprofit Mountain Arts and Music, which offers arts and music workshops in our rural Valley, organizes regular music gatherings, and we just opened an art gallery that showcases artwork by local residents, and hosts intimate house concerts. The program that I’m most proud of is the weekly summer “Open Arts & Music” event that is held in a beautiful setting in Huntsville, where we have water color supplies and art instructors who encourage and teach how to create a beautiful watercolor painting, a kids art station, and an open mic. This has become a ‘go-to’ activity for our community and visitors to our Valley throughout the summer, and it definitely achieves our goal of providing the opportunity for visitors to DO art and/or music – to CREATE! I have been successful in getting grant funding to cover this amazing community event each year. It has also led to our hosting a one day Arts and Music Festival on July 4 that includes 20 artists who sell their original fine art, continuous music throughout the day and a beautiful showcase of art by local community artists. Making all this happen and getting funding for it really feeds my spirit!
What do you like best about our city? What do you like least?
Ogden Valley is a rural unincorporated area about an hour north of Salt Lake City. It is close enough to Ogden (10 miles up over a pass or through a canyon) where most people work. The Valley is beautiful, and an inspiration for creative activities and certainly offers a lot of outdoor physical activity opportunities in beautiful natural, mountainous setting. However, the community is dispersed, with no one central ‘town’ area where people gather. Thus to do the things we do with the arts takes alot of advertising and word of mouth sharing.
We are getting a lot of new people moving (and retiring) here, which is good, but the tendency is to be build huge homes, that often are scars on our beautiful Valley. Being a tourist destination brings both good (active, variety of people from all over) and not so good (transience, chaotic activity, lack of respect for our community.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.mountainartsandmusic.org and www.ravenspiritmusic.com
- Instagram: mountainartsandmusic
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MountainArtsAndMusic
