‘Looking Past the Pandemic’ with Bridgette Meinhold from Park City, Utah

Keeping travel dreams alive and setting goals has never felt more important. We can all agree that 2020 has been an unfortunate year so far, and almost every facet of daily life has been wrought by this ongoing global pandemic, the start of which now feels like forever ago. The arts has been one of the hardest hit areas, so The AU Review has kickstarted a Q&A series “looking past the pandemic”, encouraging creatives from around the world to share their travel hopes, dreams, and the thoughts or things that are getting them through 2020, while also highlighting essential experiences in their own country.

Bridgette Meinhold (Park City, Utah)

Bridgette Meinhold is a conceptual artist, naturalist and writer living in Park City, Utah. As an artist, she works on a variety of media, from milk paint and watercolour to found materials. Most well known for her encaustic painting, Bridgette creates paintings by layering beeswax and other mixed media to create atmospheric landscapes that have a three dimensional feel. Bridgette is the former architecture editor for design and innovation website, Inhabitat and is also the author of two books – Urgent Architecture & Down Deso.

One of Bridgette Meinhold’s artworks.

We caught up with Bridgette to look past the pandemic.

When travel opens up completely, the first place I’m going is…

Tough call, because I have a long list of travel destinations, but high on my list is Iceland, Sardinia and Corsica, back to Japan, New Zealand and Alaska. But I also would really like to visit my family in Iowa as I haven’t seen my Grandma in a really long time and this whole Covid thing has me really missing family.

The Grand Canyon is one of the must-see sights of USA.

Three spots in the USA I think everyone should visit at least once in their life…

There are so many wonderful places in the states to visit – to learn more about history or the natural world, but if you can only visit a few, I would definitely recommend the Grand Canyon to be blown away by its enormity, Washington DC for all the museums and the history, and a road trip from Denver to Salt Lake City through the Rocky Mountains and the desert.

High West Distillery / Photo: Visit Park City

Whenever I have a visitor in my city and I want to show them a good night out, the first place I take them is…

I’m a big fan of High West Distillery, so I would start there for cocktails and an app in the bar, then we would head on over to Riverhorse or Shabu for a really great dinner.

Drinks on the deck at Spur / Photo: Park City Chamber/Bureau

We’d end the night at…

For after dinner drinks we would either go to the Spur or No Name Saloon depending if there was live music.

Most memorable thing I’ve eaten on the road…

I still think about the fish tacos I’ve had while down in Baja. When I lived in San Diego, we would drive across the border just to go eat these tacos.

The one international destination I’m yet to visit but have always dreamed of…

I’ve heard amazing things about Buenos Aires and Argentina overall. From pictures, the architecture just looks beautiful, the food sounds delicious and the scenery must be spectacular. I’d like to spend some time there and work on my Spanish some more, and go trek in the mountains.

The three things or thoughts that are getting me through this pandemic…

Since we’ve been home a lot, I have been spending a lot of time experimenting and painting with my homemade inks made from foraged materials. Playing with a new art medium has given me something to focus on and distract me from the news. We have also started working on plans to build a new house and that has me really excited and looking towards the future.

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For more information on the Park City spots mentioned head on over to visitparkcity.com.

Feature photo by Claire Wiley.

Chris Singh

Chris Singh is an Editor-At-Large at the AU review, loves writing about travel and hospitality, and is partial to a perfectly textured octopus. You can reach him on Instagram: @chrisdsingh.