I applied for an Explorers Club Flag last year for my 2015 WildArt Mongolia Expedition and was notified in January that the President and Board would give me that honor. I then was asked which Flag I wanted to take.  After doing some research on the Club website, I made my choices. I was notified late last week which one will go with me to Mongolia. It arrived via FedEx yesterday so now I can break the news….I will be carrying Flag 179, which as been taken out into the field 35 times since 1959. It has been carried to, among other places: Mt. Everest, the South Pacific, the North Pole, Ecuador, the Amazon, Thailand, the Caucasus Mountains, Rwanda, St. Pierre and Yeman. On June 27th it will travel with me to the Land of Blue Skies. I requested this one because one of my sponsors for my application to join the Club, Stephen Quinn, took it to Rwanda where he searched for and found the exact location where Carl Akeley painted the study which became the background painting of the mountain gorilla diorama at the American Museum of Natural HIstory. Steve painted his own study from that same spot and I got to see it when I visited his home. So I am now the second artist to carry this Flag.

There is also Expedition news! I’ve been offered the opportunity to join two argali researchers, Dr. Barry Rosenbaum and S. Amgalanbaatar, to observe and record the capture, collaring and release of Altai argali for four days at Hokh Serkhiin Nature Reserve. I will be flying from Ulaanbaatar to Ulgii in the far west on July 16. Joining me will be a young Mongolian artist whom I met last year, Tuvshintur. We’ll be sketching and painting in the field for three weeks as we visit a variety of wildlife destinations. You can find out more on the Expedition page.

More on The Explorers Club, founded in 1904, here.