Valles Caldera Announces 2024 Artists in Residence

Valles Caldera National Preserve has selected five artists to take part in its inaugural Artist in Residence (AiR) program during the 2024 summer season. Through the AiR program, selected artists will immerse themselves in the park’s natural and cultural landscapes to create original artistic works inspired by the setting. During their residencies, they will also share their work with the public through presentations and interactive workshops. The selected artists for the 2024 season are as follows.

Izzy Anderson

Elizabeth “Izzy” Anderson has a multi-faceted career as a professional musician, an award-winning artist, and a published children’s book author and illustrator. Her love of teaching culminated in the creation of her own musical and artistic academy which provides students with an engaging studio environment where creativity is nurtured. Her award-winning artwork and workshops have been featured internationally. Izzy regularly volunteers through music and art programs because she understands first-hand how important the arts are for individuals and the community. She is currently working on her first beginner piano songbook with accompanying artwork she paints en plein air.

Rachel Black

Rachel Black is a Principal Lecturer and Lead Faculty in the Foundations program at the College of Visual Arts and Design at the University of North Texas (UNT), where she has taught for 20 years. Black holds an MFA from UNT and a BA from the University of Dallas. Her studio practice is focused on drawing and painting the experience of being in the landscape. During her residency, Black seeks to learn more about how art can function as a method of stewardship through the application of design thinking. She will begin studies in landscape architecture at the University of Texas at Arlington in Fall 2024.

Ansel Elkins

Ansel Elkins’ first book, Blue Yodel, won the Yale Younger Poets Prize, and was published in 2015. Her poems have appeared in The American Scholar, The Atlantic, The Believer, Guernica, The New York Review of Books, Oxford American, Ploughshares, the Southern Review, Virginia Quarterly Review, and others. In 2014, she was The Paris Review Writer-in-Residence, and has also been the recipient of a “Discovery”/Boston Review Poetry Prize, and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, the American Antiquarian Society, the North Carolina Arts Council, Lighthouse Works, and the Outer Cape Artists in Residency Consortium. She is an Assistant Professor of Creative Writing at Berea College in Kentucky. She is currently working on poems that explore the ecological and spiritual importance of dark skies, and how the threat of light pollution is fracturing humanity’s deep connection with the stars and meditation of our place in the universe.

Melissa Fu

Photo by Sophie Davidson

Melissa Fu grew up in Los Alamos, New Mexico and lives in Cambridge, UK. With academic backgrounds in physics and English, she had a career in education before focusing on writing. Her fiction, poetry, and creative non-fiction have been widely published in both the US and the UK. Her first novel, PEACH BLOSSOM SPRING, was a 2022 Indies Introduce title for the American Booksellers Association and a BBC Radio 2 Book Club pick in the UK. Translated into 7 languages, it was nominated for a 'Book of the Year' award by Book of the Month Club and a 'GoodReads Choice Award for Best Historical Fiction'. She is currently working on a novel that explores the impact of wildfires on Northern New Mexico through the story of three lifelong friends.

Dr. Heather Heckel

Dr. Heather Heckel, EdD is an artist and art educator. Her award-winning artwork has been shown internationally and is in numerous national permanent collections. She is in her eleventh year of teaching public school art, and has taught at the college, high school, and middle school levels. She earned her BFA in Illustration from the Ringling College of Art and Design, her MAT in Art Education from the School of Visual Arts, her MFA in Painting from the Savannah College of Art and Design, and her EdD in Educational Leadership from the University of the Cumberlands. She lives with her two dozen houseplants in New York City, and loves to travel, go to the movies, and try new vegan restaurants.

Lisa Spangler

Lisa Spangler is a former software engineer and current website developer who is happiest when she’s outside painting the natural world around her, from large landscapes to tiny leaves to cacti and mushrooms. Through her art and travels, she aims to capture that feeling of awe and wonder on paper and spread that joy to others. Taking the time to stop and paint or do a simple sketch helps connect her to a place in a way that snapping a photo just can’t do. She believes that if she can learn to draw and paint, anyone can!

“Valles Caldera is an awe-inspiring landscape,” said Superintendent Jorge Silva-Bañuelos. “People come to national parks for many different reasons, and Artist in Residence programs provide extraordinary opportunities to connect with some of America's most treasured places. We look forward to collaborating with the selected artists to inspire new ways of experiencing and interacting with Valles Caldera National Preserve.”

Visit the park’s Calendar of Events web page for upcoming Artist in Residence programs and interactive workshops.