As part of The Gondola Gallery by Epic, Jim Harris’ CREATING YOUR LINE transforms the sit ski and wheelchair-accessible cabin of Stowe's Mansfield Gondola into a depiction of Stowe Mountain Resort and the surrounding landscape of Vermont’s legendary Mount Mansfield.
As a rhythmic and expressive linework printmaker, Jim showcases the contrast between the bold and the delicate. Jim worked as a ski photographer and writer until he was paralyzed while snowkiting in Patagonia in South America. It took over a week to reach definitive care in the U.S., where five of his nine broken vertebrae were fused. Since his accident, Jim has pushed toward a remarkable recovery as a walking paraplegic. He’s able to ski again while finding new opportunities to be involved in adventure storytelling.
“Converting a scene into a sketch has been a fun experience. With wood block printmaking, there's parallels to geology. The slopes and valleys of Mount Mansfield have been carved by eons of glaciers, rainfall and wind to reveal the shapes we see today- and relief printmaking is a similar erosive process, carving away the raw material until the image is revealed,” said Jim. “My hope is that guests walk away with just a tiny bit more curiosity towards Stowe, discovering something new in a familiar place.”