Artist in Residence Lecture, August 5

Date: July 28, 2008
Contact: Scott Williams, [phone] ext. 240

Petrified Forest National Park Artist in Residence Program Lecture Series

Petrified Forest, AZ – The public is cordially invited to attend a Photography and Digital Imaging presentation provided by Joe Decker, the park’s current artist-in-residence on Tuesday, August 5 at 10:00 a.m. The presentation will be given in the Painted Desert Community Building located at the north-end of the park (Exit 311, off of Interstate 40). Mr. Decker will present images from his 2006 Iceland and Greenland Expedition and present images of the park that he has created here during his artist-in-residence. Decker is the fifth of twelve artists this season in the Petrified Forest’s Artist-in-Residence Program. He will be at the park for two weeks (July 25 – August 8) gathering inspiration derived from this unique landscape that the natural world has to offer while creating images of the park.

Born in 1961 in the San Francisco Bay Area, Joe Decker received a B.S. in mathematics from the California Institute of Technology in 1984, which in turn led to a successful and diverse career in the technology industry. His work in visual perception during that time provided a foundation for his understanding of color and how people "see photographs.“ Joe's nature photography is a descendent of the West Coast school of landscape photography, showing influences by such artists as Galen Rowell and Frans Lanting. Color, often intensely (but still accurately) saturated, is often a forward element of his work, while composition is often used to signify deeper, more personal levels of the captured experience. In 2003, one of Joe's landscape photographs, Granite and Snow, Little Lakes Valley was "highly honored" by the Nature's Best Foundation at the National Museum of National History, part of the Smithsonian.

The Petrified Forest National Park Artist-in-Residence Program was established to bring park visitors and artists together to foster understanding and appreciation of the natural and cultural resources of the park and the Colorado Plateau.

For more information call [phone] weekdays, 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Mountain Standard Time; or write to the Superintendent, Petrified Forest National Park, P.O. Box 2217, Petrified Forest, AZ 86028; or e-mail the park.