Carefree Artist: Creating Art in a National Park

6/20/16

Creating Art in a National Park

Recently I was the official artist-in-residence for Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Parks (the first one ever, they told me!) The residency was all volunteer and I provided the materials for the program and I donated most of the rights and all the of the original art produced there to the parks. The purpose of my residency was to create artwork and materials that could be used for programs in the parks now and in the future. Judging by the enthusiastic response of all those who came and participated on presentation day I think it was a success.

During my week in Sequoia -- I actually only had five days to work because of travel and the presentation day -- I created over 14 photo-op masks, 6 mask and other coloring pages, and several watercolor and acrylic paintings and lots of thumbnail sketches. My only regret? Not having more time there. It was so much fun and I still had a lot more ideas for artwork.

Thanks to all the great people at SEKI for the invitation to create art in the park!

UPDATE: In October 2017 the Jr. Ranger Book for Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks won a 1st Place Interpretive Media Award for Site Publication from The National Association for Interpretation (NAI.) I illustrated the activities and spot art for interior pages. Read more about it by clicking here.

And here are a couple of watercolor sketches of Kings Canyon.

Above are other pieces of artwork created for SEKI including Jr. Ranger Book artwork. I have also created artwork for Pinnacles National Park and Grand Canyon National Park as well.

Please note: I'm always interested in volunteering to create art, etc. for our National Parks. If you work for a National Park and need artwork please feel free to contact me. Click here.

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Some Food for Thought

“Whether you succeed or not is irrelevant, there is no such thing. Making your unknown known is the important thing.”
-- Georgia O’Keeffe

"Those who dwell among the beauties and mysteries of the earth are never alone or weary of life."
-- Rachel Carson

“Art is never finished, only abandoned”
--Leonardo Da Vinci

"If you ask me what I came to do in this world, I, an artist, will answer you: I am here to live out loud.”
--Émile Zola

“There's no retirement for an artist, it's your way of living so there's no end to it.”
--Henry Moore

“The only time I feel alive is when I'm painting.”
-- Vincent Van Gogh

“I found I could say things with color and shapes that I couldn't say any other way--things I had no words for.”
--Georgia O'Keeffe

“Life obliges me to do something, so I paint.”
--Rene Magritte

“Art Is a Demanding Mistress”
--Carrie Mae Weems

“To create one’s own world in the arts takes courage.”
--Georgia O’Keeffe

“All that is gold does not glitter,
Not all those who wander are lost..."
-- J.R.R. Tolkien

“Well, art is art, isn't it? Still, on the other hand, water is water! And east is east and west is west and if you take cranberries and stew them like applesauce they taste much more like prunes than rhubarb does. Now, uh... now you tell me what you know.”
-- Groucho Marx

"What this world desperately needs to make it a more humane and beautiful place is well-funded artists and starving politicians."
-- Mark A. Hicks

About this blog...

My art — whimsical, random, funny, silly, and maybe a serious piece now and then — is what this space is about. One post might feature a cartoon, the next a published illustration that I’m selling to raise funds for my charity project*, and the next an abstract painting. All with an emphasis on originality.

Why is it called the Carefree Artist? A life in the arts, including mine, is usually anything but carefree. It's not reality, only a wish. (Oh how so wonderful it would be to be a carefree artist living the simple life in a quiet and inspiring location and creating a ton of art just for art's sake!)

The blog name also comes from the Carefree Highway...