Hi my name is John and my origin stories project is titled Mountains.

It is made out of wood, plaster, gauze, air drying clay, and acrylic paint.

I chose mountains because they're beautiful and they are a symbol of the wilderness.

At age 14, I climbed Costa Rica's tallest peak, Mount Chiripo, which is 12,000 something feet and trudged through the mud and the jungle and then got to the summit and it was dense gray fog and on a clear day you can see the Pacific, both the Pacific and the Atlantic Ocean at the same time.

And that was my first mountain that I climbed. Also as a teenager, I did roped climbs in Yosemite Valley. I bought carabiners and ropes and things and also went to Joshua Tree.

One time I did a multi-pitch climb in Yosemite Valley and pitches are rope lengths. So I was way up on the granite and looking down and could see the miniature trees on the valley floor and that experience was really intense and was an outside-the-box experience for me and helped me see things in a way that most people weren't able to see. So that was pretty special and then in my 20s I did a lot of panning for gold in the foothills. That was mountain related and it was a search I think I was why I was very disillusioned with my artwork at the time and searching for gold was a way and to search for value and make my artwork more valuable it worked in the sense that I did find some gold and to get into coins and jewelry from the dust, but more that I got to experience some inaccessible nature, which was wonderful.

In my 30s, I attempted Mount Bora, Idaho's tallest peak. With a headlamp, I got up and did most of it in the dark and then got up to this ridge and called the Chicken Out Ridge and there were ominous thunderheads approaching so I turned around and that first attempt was memorable. It stood out my mind next attempt was the Matterhorn in California. I went by myself again and cramponed up frozen lakes and mount ice to what I thought was the base of the Matterhorn. It took me all day and it was sublimely beautiful and then the snow melted and I don't think I even made it to the base of the actual Matterhorn, but I made it pretty far and then I skied home. So in my 40s I got some climbing buddies, which were my brothers, and we have been inspired to select some SBS Peaks, which are, according to the Sierra Club, the most prominent, and climb them. So, we climbed North Peak on the eastern side of Yosemite, which is 12,000 feet, then Cloud Ripper, 13 ,000 feet, Mount Good, 13,100 in Agassiz, 13,800. Besides being really fun, these mountains require extreme fitness levels and that was something that I underestimated but which I have been training for and it's like doing a six -hour Pilates class the talus fields that stretch to the horizon are the size of cars their rocks the size of cars rubble.

So I would I hope I aspire to climb Pico de Orizaba in Mexico elevation 18,500, similar to Shasta it's a volcano it casts a big pyramidal shadow across Mexico and I ultimately chose mountains because they symbolize beauty and they're a way for me to get an otherworldly view.

And I have an experience of sublime beauty and freedom when I have the goal and I'm focused on being out in nature.

Thanks.