Meeting Ralph: An Essay
Ralph Waldo Emerson By Dan Eldon It’s Monday and time to do my essays for class. Gone are the days of churning out a page and a half on “what I did last summer or over the weekend.” For Wednesday I have due: “Discuss the characteristics of Romanticism, using examples from Goethe, Wordsworth, and Keats” […]
The Journey is the Inspiration: Chelsea Nicole
I was introduced to Dan Eldon’s book “The Journey is the Destination” in 2004 by my high school art teacher. Dan’s imagery inspired me greatly, and his story was completely fascinating to me. As a young artist I imitated his work, fell in love with multi-media collage and had my room decorated with his posters. […]
An Excerpt from “Art of Life”: Border Control
An excerpt from the book Art of Life by Jennifer New. While on the STA safari… The morning of July 15 began poorly. It was just five days since they’d left the coast. The previous night, they’d been unable to find a hotel until 3:00 A.M. People were slow to wake up, despite needing to prepare for […]
The Journey is the Inspiration: Patrick Ahern
I am a crocheter, knitter, and knot-tier and fiber is my media of choice in creating art. I grew up in Woodland Hills, CA where my mom taught me to crochet and knit during my last year in high school; I haven’t put it down since. Crocheting pictures came out of my frustration with making […]
The Journey is the Inspiration: Shazdeh Omari
When I was a sophomore in high school in 1997, a teacher showed me Dan’s journal and let me spend the 40-minute period looking at it. I saved up money that summer and bought it from a Border’s, excited to get home and take it out of the bag. I spent hours poring over it, […]
An Excerpt from “Art of Life”: Discovery
An excerpt from the book Art of Life by Jennifer New. No one remembers exactly how the bag arrived at Mike Eldon’s home in Nairobi, only that it took several weeks after Dan’s death to get there. It was a black nylon military bag, something he’d come by in a trade with a Marine, the same way […]
The Journey is the Inspiration: J. Dean
Dear Dan, I never met you, but learning about your life has resonated deep within me. I felt a connection that has no barriers when it is about another soul’s journey triumphing in the dark and ugly spaces. Your life took you to a wider World than mine has been, in which you met and […]
Tiyeo’s First News Story
One day while Rachel and I were helping carry cement blocks in Grippis, I started talking with Tiyeo, a senior in high school, about her dream of becoming a journalist. Having majored in Journalism myself, I couldn’t help but offer to bring my camera the next day to film Tiyeo’s very first newscast. It is definitely a […]
The Journey is the Inspiration: William J. Charlebois
I wish I could remember exactly how I first learned about Dan Eldon. There was probably an article in one of the many magazines my sister buys. After reading about Dan, I ordered the book The Journey is the Destination: The Journals of Dan Eldon. The photos of Dan’s journal pages were amazing. Their content […]
Dan Inspires in Ecuador
Students at Academia Cotopaxi International School in Quito, Ecuador transformed their personal experiences into visual autobiographies. The pages of Dan’s Journals served as inspiration for the students’ work. The high school artists featured here, Juliana Passos and Sofia Sandoval, were both enthralled by the life and work of Dan, particularly his unrelenting need to put […]