Mesa Verde National Park has selected five artists from across the nation for the park’s 2017 artist-in-residence program, according to a press release.
The artists are painter Larry Hughes, ceramicist Brad Bachmeier, photographer Christopher Eaton, painter Carol Chamberland and photographer Kit Frost.
Each artist will offer a free public program in the park during their residency. The Mesa Verde website will have specific details on dates, times and places of public programs closer to the time of the residencies.
Hughes, of Memphis, Tennessee, works primarily in watercolor, drawing, and oil. With roots in Arizona and California, his primary artistic interests are Western wilderness areas, particularly national parks, where he hikes trails and paints in plein air.
He has been an artist-in-residence in several national parks including Zion, Petrified Forest and Guadalupe Mountains. Hughes will be in residence at Mesa Verde from May 1-13.
Bachmeier is an award-winning ceramicist from Fargo, North Dakota. He has received more than 40 regional, national and international awards, and he has served on the National Governor’s Association Commission for the Arts with former first lady Michelle Obama.
Bachmeier has spent 24 years researching and creating work that centers on the idea of honoring mankind’s ancient and universal partnership with clay. For more information, visit www.bachmeierpottery.com. Bachmeier will be in residence May 15-27.
Eaton is from Grand Junction. As a fine art photographer, his primary goal is to capture the essence of the natural and cultural history of the landscape.
At Mesa Verde, his focus will be on documenting the night skies through still and time-lapse photography.
The Ancestral Puebloan people inhabited the mesa for hundreds of years. Though impossible to document the exact night sky they experienced, the dark sky conditions found in the park offers an opportunity to come close.
For more information, visit www.PinyonRidgePhoto.com. Eaton will be in residence September 4-16.
Chamberland, of Albuquerque, draws inspiration from the landscape of the Southwest. The history of human occupation in these demanding lands is another factor in her compositions. Mesa Verde National Park brings both sources of inspiration together.
Chamberland was Artist in Residence at Canyons of the Ancients National Monument in 2012. The Albuquerque Art Business Association named her a Local Treasure for 2012. In 2013, she was artist-in-residence at Petrified Forest National Park. In 2015, the New Mexico State Historic Preservation Office honored her with an Individual Achievement award for her work in preserving ancient rock art. She also is president of the Albuquerque Archaeological Society. She will be in residence Sept. 18-30.
Frost, of Durango will complete the final residency, Oct. 2-14. She works with film and digital cameras, digital video, 35mm, and medium and large format cameras.
Frost believes that the photograph is not made by the camera, but by the vision of the photographer. Through visually translating Mesa Verde, she hopes to gain and share a deeper understanding of the park and its ancient residents. She plans to capture the texture and light, inspired by ancient architecture and natural landscape of the park, and to meet the challenge of recording the same expansive views experienced by the Ancestral Puebloan culture more than 800 years ago.
Mesa Verde National Park’s artist-in-residence program provides professional artists the opportunity to create art in our national parks. The program is managed by the park’s nonprofit cooperating association, the Mesa Verde Museum Association.
This year’s artists were selected from more than 45 applicants by a jury of five people, consisting of the Chief of Interpretation, museum association staff and three professional artists.
For more information, visit https://www.nps.gov/meve/getinvolved/artists_in_residence.htm or www.mesaverde.org.
For more information about Mesa Verde National Park, visit the park website at www.nps.gov/meve.
