Zion National Park announced its 2024 Artists in Residence on Feb. 5, welcoming three new creatives to the park this year. They will spend 30 days living in a historic cabin within the national park, creating art inspired by Zion, hosting open-studio sessions and holding presentations at the visitor center.
Roxanne Everett is a painter who will spend April in the park. She has participated in residencies all over the globe, including Iceland, Greece and five other U.S. national parks. “I find that these artist residencies have helped me hone my art practice to really focus on learning about, and then painting, what is unique in each place,” Everett said.
As a former park ranger, Everett’s love of nature runs deep. Having visited Zion only twice before, she is hopeful that she will find a new variety of inspiration in southern Utah. “Coming from the Pacific Northwest where I am frequently painting stunning forests of several types, Zion’s spectacular geology as well as its flora and fauna provide my work with a whole new palette of colors, textures and patterns,” she said.
She hopes to create at least 12 paintings that will highlight Zion’s ecology and the disturbances that have shaped it. Natural disturbances such as fires, disease and human influence change an environment over time and can affect what we consider natural to a space. Everett will focus on these changes in her work.
Hannah Jayanti describes themself as a “documentary filmmaker, organizer and educator” on their website. One of their most recent projects is Topography, a documentary series about some of America’s most iconic and impressive public lands. Zion is included alongside areas like the Badlands, Death Valley and Fire Island. Their residency will take place in June.
Between October and November, Simon Arizpe will take on the residency. He is an illustrator and paper engineer who has designed award-winning pop-up books and teaches as a professor at The Pratt Institute and Parsons School of Design in New York City. He has taken part in artist residencies in Finland, Italy and several U.S. states.
Zion’s residency brings an artist’s eye into the park, attempting to preserve its beauty for generations to come. According to an article about the program, “this art helps visitors understand and appreciate Zion and reflects the National Park Service’s mission to conserve the park’s landscapes, plants, animals, and history.” Works from previous artists are often displayed in Zion’s visitor center and their Human History Museum.
For more information about Zion’s artist residency program, visit their website.
Author: Lily Brunson
Photo Credit: Colton Johnston//NPS
Editor: Lily Brunson
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