The title Algorithm refers to the many complex systems that have come together to comprise this natural kaleidoscope. Depicted here are the colorful rocks of a stream bed carved out of the mountains by ancient glaciers. Ironically, those rocks are seen here bathed by the turquoise melt-water of today’s dwindling glaciers – shimmering with refracting colors on a sunny day.

It’s the iterations of the color that create an algorithm for beauty — small bits of deep blue from the Montana sky above, yellows reflecting from the Aspen trees along the bank, maroons and ochres representing the distorted reality of the streambed — the prismatic colors throughout are the refracted prisms of the shifting waters. All together, this semi transparent abstraction is gathering, reflecting, and refracting a brilliant array of shapes and colors unlike anything I have ever witnessed in nature. And like most things in nature, it becomes even more incredible the more you ponder each element.

George Bird Grinnell, a great turn-of-the century conservationist and a personal hero of mine, described the park as “the Crown of the Continent.” With his help, it became an official addition to the National Park Service in 1910. At the end of the “Little Ice Age” in 1850, the park was home to 88 glaciers. By 1966, there were only 35 left – and recent aerial surveys show less than 24 made it into the 21st Century. My hope is that pieces like Algorithm inspire folks to think more consciously about our impact on the natural world, so we can preserve beautiful imagery like this for the next generation.