"the best idea we ever had"
- Wallace Stegner's famous words on our National Parks. His thoughts on this newsletter are unknown.
The three-sentence-rejection-letter, goes something like this: “Thank you for applying to…Unfortunately due to the large volume of interest…We hope you consider applying again next year”.
When I receive these - and I happen to have received several recently - I just keep reminding myself that a lot of rejections means that I have applied to a lot of things - I am working hard and challenging myself. So I am right where I need to be.
(And I only have to repeat that to myself about 16 times, after moping for a solid day, to really believe it).
One of these recent three-sentence-rejection-letters came from Zion National Park’s artist-in-residence program. Many U.S. National Parks have artist-in-residence programs. Since learning about this program I have applied to both the Zion and Acadia - my two favorite parks - every year. I would be over the moon if selected. Awarded artists are provided lodging for about a month, lead public art workshops in the park, make a lot of art, and donate one piece to the National Parks Service art archives.
To date, I think have received four rejection letters from the National Park Service.
But, I am currently working on my Acadia Artist-in-Residence application.
Fifth times the charm?
This year I am taking a new approach to my portfolio submission and am filling it with as much Acadia themed artwork as possible and am narrowing my focus to only my collaged works. I think the judging panel wants to have absolute confidence of what the final art piece made during the course of the residency will look like - so consistency in style as well as Park specific content will surely help my chances - right?
I am planning on making a minimum of 3 collages capturing scenes from around Jordan Pond (my favorite hike).
As always I start with a simple sketch outlining shapes. These shapes are then transferred to tracing paper which I use as a stencil to cut out hand painted paper.
So far I have only finished one piece completely which is the view of “the Bubbles” looking across Jordan Pond.
I experimented with the materials for this collage and I am really happy with the effect. I used a piece of mylar (kind of semi-transparent paper) to paint the water. This allowed me to place the shadowed forms of the mountains and trees underneath the mylar so that they appear as reflections of the collaged shapes above the water.
I then took it one step further and cut slits in the mylar to insert the rocks into the water so that a small amount of the rock is visible just below the surface.
And I did some final line work and color editing in Procreate, and added some cute little fish. Now I just need to make two more. And keep my fingers crossed.