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MOAB — The Community Artist in the Parks was selected for 2015 and she hopes to focus on and improve her artwork while also teaching visitors how to sketch landscapes.
Moab resident Katrina Lund began doing art when she was a child, and besides taking a class in junior high and high school, she said she has not had any formal training. The self-taught artist said her favorite medium to work with is pen and ink combined with water colors, but she also uses colored pencils, markers and graphite.
Lund works as a biological science technician for the National Park Service in Arches and Canyonlands National Parks. However, she said sketching has always been one of her hobbies and she always has a sketchbook with her.
“(My job) is all left brain kind of stuff so I’m excited to do more artsy, right brain stuff and get a little balance,” Lund said. “Usually I’m stuck behind a tripod, surveying all day, wishing I was painting… All my sketching that I do is outdoors as well, so it’s kind of a natural fit for me to do art outside.”
The Community Artist in the Parks program was founded in 2009 as a way to engage park visitors and give them a more interactive experience at the parks, according to Community Artist in the Parks Liaison Chad Niehaus. The program also gives local artists a chance to profile their work and gain experience while creating art outdoors with an audience.
The local artists are selected from Grand, San Juan and Montezuma Counties where the southeastern parks — Arches and Canyonlands National Parks and Hovenweep and Natural Bridges National Monuments — are located. One artist is selected per year and they work within the parks a minimum 24 hours per month from April through October and interact with people as they do their artwork, Niehaus said.
“It kind of deepens the visit a little bit, personalizes it a little bit,” Niehaus said. “Rather than just kind of feeling like you don’t belong in the area and you have no connection to it, you have a chance to meet somebody on a little deeper level.”
During that time, the community artist creates paintings of the park landscapes and can sell them in the national park visitor center bookstores. The artist also completes an outreach program and Lund said she plans to hold monthly sketching sessions at different locations around the four parks.
“Doing this community artist is definitely me taking my art to the next level and taking it serious on a level that I never have before, but that I’ve always dreamt of doing,” Lund said. “I’m absolutely delighted about the opportunity to be the community artist.”
