Speaking of Art Blog

This week I received a very important letter in the mail.  It was from the Indiana Dunes National Park headquarters congratulating me on being chosen to serve as an Artist-in-Residence in 2023 for the Indiana Dunes National Park.  What an honor!

What does that entail?  I will be hand writing 14 journal entries into a communal AIR journal, recording my thoughts and impressions as I explore the national park while I experience it as of an artist.  I will also be gathering reference photos and storing away memories that I will then combine to create a 2-D piece of artwork that I will donate to the Indiana Dunes National Park, to become a permanent part of the US National Parks’ artistic archives.

I’ve always had a special connection with the Indiana Dunes my whole life.  I can still remember coming to the Indiana Dunes to camp with my family and several other families as I grew up.  We would always arrive on Father’s Day.  We kids would hike up the sand dunes and then race to the bottom again, play in the waves of Lake Michigan, watch the sun set over the lake at night, and sing around the campfire.  We would wake to the sounds of birds we never heard singing at home in a south suburb of Chicago 35 minutes away, and we would gawk as graceful deer would sometimes cross our path while we hiked in the woods.   We would notice from year to year how the sand dunes slowly migrated and shifted, and we would sometimes attend a ranger presentation at the nature center, learning about the geology, plant and animal life of the area.  Each year I looked forward to being closer to nature at the Indiana Dunes for one week.

When my husband and I moved our family to Chesterton IN over 30 years ago from Illinois to Indiana, finding a home within 2 miles of the Indiana Dunes was a big plus for us.  The number of hiking trails and opportunities to interact with nature are endless.  My whole art career would look very different if not for the Indiana Dunes being so close by.  From dune vistas to sunsets over Lake Michigan to a plethora of unique birds and flowers and butterflies and wildlife, I have never run out of inspiring material to draw and paint, all at the Indiana Dunes.

What specifically is my personal artistic goal I want to achieve as an Indiana Dunes National Park AIR?  Now I can give back to our US National Parks system and to the Indiana Dunes National Park in particular.  Lord knows our national parks in this country need our support.  They are chronically underfunded and underappreciated.  If my artwork in some small way can help raise the public’s awareness of what this one national treasure has to offer, then it will be time well spent in creating it.

What aspect of the park will I be concentrating on in my artwork?  Ah, that’s for me to know and the public to find out.  I have my plans (and I already had to spell them out in my application process).  But for now, that’s between me and the Indiana Dunes.  Time will tell, so stay tuned.  Meanwhile, I have some hiking and listening and watching and picture taking and journaling and painting and drawing to do.  So much fun ahead, only now it’s official.