Announcing the 2024 Great Basin National Park Artists-in-Residence

We are thrilled to announce our 2024 Great Basin National Park Artist-in-Residence selections! Three artists and one alternate were selected from over one hundred applications.

Suze Woolf will be the winter Artist-in-Residence. Suze is a lifelong hiker, backcountry skier, mountaineer, and professional artist from Washington state. Suze has exhibited in hundreds of locations throughout the West and has won dozens of awards for her artwork that focuses on the environment. Suze relates,

“I have watched glaciers shrink and burned forests increase all over the West. At first, I painted beautiful landscapes but was soon compelled to portray their ecological disturbances. Portraits of individual trees became my metaphor for human impact. Despite my anxiety, I also see unusual beauty. Fire-carved snags are all the same – carbonized, eaten away; yet different – fire physics and plant structure create sculpture. Painting them is a meditation on the climate crisis.”

Bryce Lafferty will be the summer Artist-in-Residence. Bryce is the Department Head at Jacksonville State University’s Department of Art + Design and is a Professor of Drawing, Painting & Illustration. Bryce has had numerous exhibits and won several awards. Bryce relates,

“My watercolor drawings emerge as poetic expressions of my wonderment for the natural world. They provide a surreal, emotional, and ineffable response to the overwhelming beauty of nature. The paintings I plan to do at the Park include a series that will interpret pocket ecosystems and their connection to the greater ecological tapestry of Great Basin, with a focus toward the park’s geologic history, and how that has informed the past and present day landscape.”

Paul Atkinson who lives in Raleigh, North Carolina, will be the fall Artist-in-Residence. Paul is an exhibiting artist specializing in night photography and infrared photography. His work celebrates not only the natural landscape, but also explores the human landscape from a detached examination of what is left behind. Paul is an advocate for Dark Sky International and his work has been exhibited nationally in numerous juried shows. Paul relates,

“I look forward to having the opportunity to use my art to further the appreciation and protection of our shared cultural heritage, dark night skies.”

Alina Lindquist is the alternate Artist-in-Residence for 2024. Alina is an emerging artist who graduated from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas in 2020. Well respected artist Phyllis Shafer shared with us that “Alina is one of the most talented, serious, and dedicated painters with which I have worked. Alina’s paintings show a reverence for the natural world and a celebration of the stewardship required to maintain wild places.” Alina relates,

“Direct experience with the landscape is a cornerstone of my artistic practice. I primarily paint en plein air with oil to capture my initial experience on location. Sometimes I will use watercolor or gouache, depending on how much I want to carry that day. No matter what materials I use, the marks and colors captured outside inform my larger work back in the studio. Ultimately, my work seeks to transmit my love and sense of wonder for the desert.”

Many highly qualified artists applied for the 2024 AIR Program supported by Great Basin National Park Foundation. The artists, working in many mediums, displayed professionalism, creativity, and a mix of traditional and modern art styles. The jury’s selections were based on artistic integrity, creativity, ability to reside in an isolated high desert environment, and how an artist would relate and interpret the Park through their work. Congratulations to these four talented individuals.