Artist in Residence - Badlands National Park

January has been a GREAT month for me and getting opportunities to become better known as a photographer and artist.  It started with the piece above being accepted into the LaGrange National XXVII Exhibition.  There were 879 pieces submitted from 244 artists.  The competition was open to sculpture, painting, ceramics, photography and other artwork. They accepted 130 pieces from 65 artists and mine was one of them! This is an accolade to the work that I do.

The day after I sent the print to the museum I got a phone call and offered the Artist in Residence at Badlands National Park!  I decided to apply for this back in September 2011 and the application was submitted in December.  Any plans that I have been making for the last several months I've taken into account that I planned to be gone during the last half of March and into the middle of May.  I am working on the promotional pieces for a co-op gallery I belong to and I kept bugging them to have a meeting so we can decide on things because I plan on being gone and the work needs to be finished by mid March, or at least the majority of it as I could change some copy while on the road, but I didn't want to worry about getting artwork while away.  I am extremely excited for this opportunity even though there is a financial aspect to the trip, which I was fully aware of before applying.  The reality is, it will cost me several thousand dollars to go there and to get the materials to make pieces from all the pictures I will be taking. The park will be furnishing living quarters for the six weeks and a small stipend to help cover some expenses, but I am responsible for the rest and I am fine with that!

Over the next six weeks I have a lot of things to do to be ready to go.  I am working on an iPhone app that will allow people to look at my work, some modifications to my website, getting more of my pictures on my website, raise funds to go, prepare computers at work so if there is an emergency with one I can log into it on the road, etc.  I have a LOT to do, which is also good as I like to be busy.

I have started a crowd funding campaign on Kickstarter (new Kickstarter) to help me cover the expenses of this trip to the Badlands National Park so I can pick my son up from SMU and take him to Monument Valley and Lake Powell (better known to some as Lake Silencio from Doctor Who)

Thanks,
Steven

FYI I will be posting blogs here while I am at the park and on other portions of the trip that relate to the park or photography/art.  I won't be blogging on here about every little thing I do.  So if you want to keep up to date with some of the preparations and the adventure follow this blog!