National Park Service names new community artist

The National Park Service’s Southeast Utah Group has a new Community Artist in the Parks.

Katrina Lund was recently selected as the region’s artist for the 2015 year.

Lund works in many different mediums, but her favorite is pen and ink combined with watercolor. She considers herself more of a “sketchbook artist,” a style which lends itself well to creating art in the parks’ outdoor settings.

Moab residents may remember Lund for her 2009 art show at the Love Muffin Cafe, where her whimsical drawings of muffins were a popular attraction.

Lund has called Moab home for nearly 20 years. She first came to Moab in the summer of 1994 to work as a river guide, but over the years her wanderlust led her to many western states to work as both a guide and a biological technician. A full-time Moab resident since 2007, Lund said she is looking forward to connecting visitors and local community members to the parks through sketching. She will be hosting sessions and lessons in all four Southeast Utah Group national parks during her tenure and welcomes people of all creative abilities to join in the fun.

Begun in 2009, the Community Artist in the Parks program highlights the connection between a local artist and the surrounding landscape, particularly Arches and Canyonlands national parks and Hovenweep and Natural Bridges national monuments.

The community artist creates work within the parks during a minimum 24 hours per month, April through October, and shares his or her inspiration and creative process with visitors from around the world. During the artist’s tenure, the Canyonlands Natural History Association sells a selection of his or her work at the Arches and Canyonlands National Park Visitor Center bookstores.

For more information about the program, go to www.nps.gov/arch, or www.nps.gov/cany. More information about Lund and her scheduled visits to the park will be posted on these websites in March.

Chad Niehaus, the Community Artist in the Parks liaison, can also be contacted for program information at 435-259-9314, or via email at Chad@waterpocketpress.com.

Katrina Lund will work at all four Southeast Utah Group parks