Amy Okaya Studio

From this blog or otherwise, you probably know I have a special interest in water. This week I started video production on a new documentary about regional issues of water use, that I’m guessing will have a lot to say about our consciousness and management of water in Minnesota. Right here in ...

In early July the temperature of the air and water were constantly fluctuating not only along the shore of Lake Superior, but in the microclimates of the many streams and rivers that feed into the lake. As the sun passed behind some clouds and the air chilled, I saw a sudden mist form over the [...]

Last weekend my husband Mike and I were down in central Wisconsin. We drove back in the sweltering heat along Wisconsin’s very scenic Hwy. 35 which follows the Mississippi River and meanders through swampy lowlands, across backcountry farms, and past magnificent vistas of the river basin and s...

Last month on one of the few warm days we’ve had this spring, I took a hike with Mike up Barn Bluff in Redwing, MN. Overlooking the Mississippi River Valley, the top of the bluff allows one to see more distinctly the islands streaking the wide river and the contours of the many hills surroundi...

Several weeks ago my husband Mike and I took a drive south along the Mississippi River, on Highway 61. Once you pass Red Wing, there are miles of bluffs that rise up off the river plain. With just the snow and bare trees covering them, the hill shapes were drawn so graphically – it was [...]

Last September, while on a walking tour of the Quantock Hills in Somerset, UK, my husband and I spent the morning on perhaps the most amazing beach I’ve ever seen. Forged during the Jurassic period, the natural formations of fossil-embedded cliff, bedrock, stones, and today’s seaweed wer...