When the opportunity to give back to Chautauqua and to fire recovery and prevention organizations presented itself, Chris Carithers, longtime educator and administrator at Watershed, jumped on it.
Last summer, Colorado Chautauqua partnered with Cal-Wood and put out their annual Art in the Park call. The announced theme was Art in the Park for Wildfire Prevention and Recovery and the Cal-Wood Education Center commissioned Luke and Bella Waldroup to build birdhouses from a tree that had survived the 2020 Cal-Wood fire. The group put out a call for artists and community members to submit proposals to make the birdhouses, symbols of hope, resilience, and community, into pieces of art. Chris Carithers, Director of Academics & Community Partnerships and Art Educator, submitted his proposal and was accepted! The finished products are now on display at Chautauqua and are for sale through an online auction bidding process, with proceeds benefiting Colorado Chautauqua's wildfire prevention initiative and Cal-Wood Education Center's ongoing wildfire recovery efforts.
Settling on mosaic as his medium for this project, Chris writes, “I enjoy working with many different mediums but somehow am always drawn back to mosaics. Perhaps what I love most about this five thousand year old tradition is the way light plays off of the individual pieces, or tesserae. Depending on the material, the cut and how the tessera sits on the substrate, light can get refracted in unexpected ways.”
Chris’s piece, an homage to jazz great, Charlie Parker, is titled, “Summertime’ at Bird’s House.” Chris writes, “I decided to focus on Charlie Parker (aka 'Bird') and titled the piece "'Summertime' at Bird's House". I listened to 'Summertime' on repeat while working on the piece and found myself ruminating on something Charlie once said, "I kept thinking there's bound to be something else? I could hear it sometimes, but I couldn't play it." His comment speaks to the artistic process and certain creative longings; however, it also seems to speak to something bigger, a deep yearning within for what's possible. I like the idea that in order to get there, like the great jazz musicians, we just need to keep improvising and learning to play our instruments as best we can.”
When first moving to Boulder, Chris and his wife lived in a cabin in Chautauqua for four years. Soon after, they got married at Cal-Wood. Both organizations have a special place in their hearts. As over 1,200 acres of Cal-Wood’s property burned in 2020, Chris and his wife stood, stunned, watching the growing plume of ash and smoke from their home. Their hearts sank when it was confirmed that it was Cal-Wood that was burning. Participating in this year’s Art in the Park was a small way of giving back in an effort to support both the prevention of and recovery from wildfires in the Boulder area.
Chautauqua + Cal-Wood Art In The Park 2022 is on display in the park through October 16.
Online bidding for these pieces of art is also open until 11:59pm on October 16.
