Finding Freedom and Perspective: My Wyoming Ranch Workshop Experience

This is why I teach.

I just got back from my Wyoming Ranch Equine Workshop — and every year, it fills me up in ways I can hardly describe.

It’s not an easy one to pull off. I have to pack up my entire studio and drive 14 hours from St. Paul, MN to Wolf, WY. But the moment I cross from South Dakota into Wyoming, everything shifts. The long drive melts away, and anticipation takes over. I know that soon I’ll be turning right onto Beckton Road — where the noise of everyday life fades and the wide-open quiet of the West begins.

This ranch is the real deal. There’s a sense of freedom there that’s hard to find anywhere else. Nestled at the base of the Big Horn Mountains, the landscape is breathtaking — and when 200 horses thunder past, it’s absolutely mesmerizing.

Every year, I’m filled with gratitude to return and teach there.

Creating in a vacuum is hard — for me, and for most of us. What keeps me coming back to workshops like this are the people. The artists who show up. The friendships that form. The way we continue to support and inspire one another long after we’ve packed up and gone home. Those connections are the real reason I teach.

For six action-packed days, we photograph horses and the western lifestyle. We ride, work in the studio, chase the sunrise, and let the rhythm of ranch life guide us.

These workshops give me something invaluable: perspective. It’s so easy to get caught up in the constant motion — social media, deadlines, the endless to-do list — and lose touch with why we create in the first place.

But when I step away, slow down, and immerse myself in the raw beauty of Wyoming, something shifts inside me. I remember what matters. And that renewed sense of purpose carries me through the rest of the year — until it’s time to return again.

Want to know more? You’ll find all the workshop info here. We gather every year beginning the second Saturday in September — a perfect time to capture Wyoming’s golden light.

Be well….be creative,