Rich McCutchen and his wife, Joey, make their home in Freshwater, a small neighborhood nestled among the redwoods of Northern California. They came here in 2014, drawn by their two sons and grandchildren, and together with neighbors and family, founded (CreeksideArts.org)—a nonprofit dedicated to nurturing artists and the creative spirit. The organization welcomes artists from around the world for residencies and hosts theater productions, intimate house concerts, thoughtful discussion groups, poetry readings, and art exhibitions. This move to the redwoods has granted Rich the gift of time to immerse himself fully in creative life.

Before the redwoods, Rich and Joey raised their sons along Old Downieville Highway in Nevada City, California. The 1980s found Rich working as a contractor, transforming homes with his hands, but also yearning for broader horizons. The family spent a year wandering through Europe in a VW van, and another year journeying by small RV to Costa Rica, where they stayed to live and explore.

In the 1990s, Rich returned to his earlier profession as a therapist, deepening his studies until he earned a doctorate in Psychology. His practice centered on couples work, group facilitation, and organizational consultation, and he taught courses at Meridian University. Following the publication of his book, Awakening the Spirit of Osiris: The Transformative Power of Anger, he devoted more energy to leading workshops throughout northern and central California, including several at the Esalen Institute in Big Sur. His specialty became Archetypal Psychology, the study of the soul's timeless patterns.

Since discovering the High Sierra at age eleven, Rich has returned nearly every summer to backpack its trails. Now in his eighties, he still walks those high places. Last summer alone, he covered more than fifty miles of alpine country.

All of this, the work, the wandering, the wilderness, has fed his devotion to creative imagination as it moves through nature, mythology, death, family, and place. These are the doorways through which Rich discovers beauty in his life.