Through their third annual Art in the Park for Wildfire Protection and Recovery project, the partnership between Boulder’s Chautauqua Park and the Cal-Wood Education Center has proven that beauty and strength in community can emerge from the scars of a natural disaster. When the 2020 Cal-Wood wildfire tore through the area, it burned over 600 acres of the Ponderosa Pine forest, with many areas experiencing 100% tree mortality. However, in the following years, the Cal-Wood Education Center’s staff salvaged the untouched wood inside the burned tree trunks and handcrafted them into “canvases” for local artists to transform. On the surfaces of exquisitely built wooden benches and birdhouses, Colorado artists have splashed these canvases with their personalities, manufacturing a varying array of work to be displayed around Chautauqua’s grounds as part of their efforts to raise money for wildfire recovery and prevention for the past three years.
Members of Watershed have been selected to participate in this project for the last two years! Chosen from over 200 submissions, artwork from educator Chris Carithers’ Upcycled Mosaics class is now on display amongst that of 26 other local artists for the next month at Chautauqua’s Art in the Park for Wildfire Protection and Recovery initiative.
This year, our students collaborated to adorn one of the Cal-Wood birdhouses with a stunning mosaic, using the newly acquired skills they’ve learned in class. Featuring the Colorado columbine flower, the piece is entitled “Shadow from the Starlight” (inspired by John Denver’s “Rocky Mountain High''). Students exclusively used recycled and donated materials to craft a work of art that represents the beauty and resilience of Colorado in more ways than one. Chris describes the inspiration for the design as, “a blend of geometric abstraction with realism, where precise lines are broken by the curvature of natural shapes. We enjoyed that interplay and the thought of this piece shimmering in the fall light.” Additionally, another Watershed student was given the opportunity to personally design and paint another birdhouse to be displayed alongside the communal class project!
“One thing that was special about this experience was that we all got to collaborate together on one piece, which isn’t something I had ever done in art. It was my first time working with mosaics, and it was cool to work together as a class on a large project like this,” reflected art student McCall ‘25.
Following the submission of their birdhouse, the group was invited to a luncheon at the park, where they had the chance to meet with the other artists and to explore all of the different works before the event officially kicked off. Each artist used different media for their birdhouses (all materials used were non-toxic for the birds!), including clay, cork, gold leaf, plaster, metal, and moss. Watershed’s “Shadow from the Starlight” piece represented the only mosaic amongst the displayed entries, and it was done with little time to spare.
Chris explained that the class was under a bit of a time crunch to submit the project on time. “Due to the deadline for this project, we needed to complete it within the first five days of our mosaics class. Most of the students had never made a mosaic before; however, as Watershed students they understood what it meant to engage in this kind of work as well as the kind of effort and collaboration it would take to produce a great piece of work. Given the missions of both Chautauqua and Cal-Wood, we hope the proceeds from the Art in the Park auction, as well as the awareness that this event brings to the public's understanding of wildfire protection and recovery, will positively impact our community.”
Over the coming weeks, the birdhouses will be placed around Chautauqua's campus and gardens and will be auctioned off to raise funds for the continual efforts of Chautauqua’s and Cal-Wood’s critical wildfire protection and recovery efforts. Watershed is so proud to be a part of a project that symbolizes the optimism and fortitude of our community!
The exhibit (view map) is now open to the public until October 17. Auction bidding is open from September 16 - October 17. Learn more about this event here.
