NPS AIR OMG

Yes, that actually means something!
I'll elaborate...

National Park Service + Artist in Residence = Oh My Gawd!

Something I have wanted. Something I have dreamed about. Something that seemed attainable but most likely out a few years... has happened: I have been selected as an Artist for the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument Residency program, and I couldn't possibly be more proud or more excited.

JD Fossil Beds, as the locals call it, is in the high desert of Eastern-Central Oregon. When I began my search for a Residency opportunity I was immediately drawn to this park for its rich colorful topography, the geological diversity and its prehistoric significance. Let me go all Wikipedia for you...

"...the park is known for its well-preserved layers of fossil plants and mammals that lived in the region between the late Eocene, about 45 million years ago, and the late Miocene, about 5 million years ago. "

"...The (park) covers a total of 13,944 acres of semi-desert shrub-lands, riparian zones, and colorful badlands."

AMAZING, right?!

Now, LOOK at this place, of course I want to paint here!

John Day Fossil Beds National Monument brings together two of my first loves:  Painting and Geology. Only my family knows that there was a time when I considered studying Geology instead of Fine Art.  I was the little girl with the rock tumbler in her closet who was lulled to sleep by the sound of rolling rocks and swishing water.  My favorite book as a child was a large coffee table book called something like OUR EARTH, and I would spend hours throughout my childhood looking at the chapters on sediment, earth crust, layers of rocks, fossils and shifting plates. It was mesmerizing! But, instead I followed my love of color and composition and I became an artist - an artist who paints outdoors. 

Outdoors, I see rhythms and folds and stripes and angles. I love design in nature. John Day Fossil Beds has ribbons of colors, heavy folds on windblown outcroppings, vertical pillars of basalt and waves of blue volcanic ash hillsides. It is heavenly!

This Labor Day Weekend was a labor of love: I spent it running errands, packing up painting supplies, ensuring I had plenty of supports and panels for paintings... getting ready for this honor, this thrill, this Artist in Residence at one of our National Parks.