I am honored to have served as an Artist in Resident at Capulin Volcano National Monument, New Mexico, from October 7-November 2, 2024. So many celestial events happened during my time there that I’m calling this residency “out of this world”! I feel humbled to have served in this special place, and want to thank all of the rangers for their help in making my second residency such a great experience.
Public Outreach Programs
In addition to inviting visitors to join me while I was out painting/sketching in the park, I gave three Public Outreach programs at the Visitor Center:
- October 12 (65 attendees): Watercolor Demo, where I shared how to paint the aurora borealis that I saw at the park on October 10th and gave away mini paintings. I asked younger attendees to help me paint the stars.
- October 19 (19 attendees): (the park only had 200 visitors this day): Nature Journaling Demo, taught inside on a cold, rainy and foggy day.
- Ocotober 26 (56 attendees): Nature Journaling Demo, taught outside on a glorious fall day.
For my Nature Journaling Demos, I made mini journals out of watercolor paper for participants use and take home with them, and provided a handout with prompts and examples of things to journal about at Capulin Volcano. Participants took the journals with them on the drive to the top of the volcano and on hikes, then brought them back to the visitor to add watercolor if they wished before taking them home. (Watercolor sets from the park’s art supply cache, other materials provided by me.)
Here is a video montage that I put together with participants and their journals (photo credit: NPS/Lisa Spangler):
Here is my example filled journal:
Donated Works
I was required to donate a painting to the park about “what Capulin Volcano means to me”. I couldn’t narrow it down to just one subject since so many amazing things happened while I was there, so I ended up donating three works.
Here they are, in the order that I painted them:
Painting #1: The Pleiades Rising
There was a solar storm on October 10th and the aurora made it all the way down to Capulin Volcano where I was lucky enough to see it. So of course I had to paint it!
The most magical part was when the Pleiades rose up over the volcano, centered on the peak.
This was my first time seeing an aurora in person and it took me multiple tries to get the background how I wanted it. I painted each star individually using three different techniques to get depth and precision. The volcano and foreground were painted with sumi ink.
Painting #2: Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS
I was lucky enough to see Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS many times during my residency, so of course I had to paint it too. Capulin Volcano was named a Gold Tier Dark Sky Park by the International Dark Sky Association in 2016 and I thought that the park could use this artwork for dark sky events so I kept it really simple.
Painting #3: Prairie Grasses and the Volcano
The third and final painting was a labor of love — and I love how it turned out! It’s the view of Capulin Volcano from the Boca Trail, with larger-than-life prairie grasses coming up out of the top. I wanted to emphasize this view of Capulin and the prairie especially since it’s not the view that people that people normally see from the Visitor Center or driving in from the road.
Capulin Volcano is surrounded by a sea of prairie grasses and I wanted to try and capture that feeling. The volcano was painted in my usual watercolor style, and I switched to my botanical specimen style for the individual grasses.
The grasses from left to right are: big bluestem, sideoats grama, buffalo grass, little bluestem, blue grama, and Indiangrass.
A Review from a Ranger and Visitor:
Thank you for everything and providing a great experience for visitors. You got a rave review on Google reviews: “The artist in residence was most enthusiastic. I mentioned my upcoming itinerary and she had great info, suggestions, and joy for my journey”.
— Ranger Nico
