quietly absorbing the sunset view. The first few winters in the not-yet-weatherized cabin were cold, and the well sometimes went dry. But for Strand, it was an “absolute wonderland.”

As a young girl, Strand showed budding artistic talent, and in high school she brought home art awards. But it wasn’t until a few years after high school that the idea of actually being an artist first congealed in her mind. She had graduated at 17 and joined the traveling youth musical performance group Up With People. (The group’s first performance was at the infamous 1972 summer Olympics in Munich, Germany.) For two years Strand performed all over Europe and North America, living with dozens of families and experiencing a mind-expanding wealth of circumstances and cultures. It was during this time, needing to orient herself in each new city, that she formed the habit of turning to the phone book for ideas. It was also while with the traveling show that she realized visual art could become a vital outlet for the overwhelming inflow of new experiences. “I was on a train in Germany and I looked out the window and saw some immigrants walking, bent over with boxes on their shoulders,” she recounts. “I took out a sketch pad and started sketching. I was taking in too much andhad to get it out.”

Two other experiences as a young woman also were important in allowing her to see herself as an artist. One was reading a book on Michelangelo and being struck by the fact that she related naturally to the way an artist thinks. The other leap of
understanding took place during a photography class, when she realized there’s a strong connection between the way we see and how we think. All this was subconsciously at work, no doubt, when she flipped open the Chicago phone book in search of direction in her life.