Moving into the Grand Canyon

Art professor Liz Roth was selected this year to take part in the Artist in Residence program in Grand Canyon National Park.

"An artist in residence is where someone is providing you with something so you can be an artist," Roth said. "I had a real swanky (position) back in Japan where they paid for my airfare, food, housing … In this case, it's time and space and a pass that says ‘artist in residence.'"

While she is there, Roth will give three lectures and will have a year to complete a piece of art for her new habitat.  

Roth was chosen for participation in the program based on her America 101 series, completed in 2008. The series features 100 landscape paintings, two from every state, and one billboard of an empty water bottle.

Roth said her interest in the earth fueled the idea for  America 101, a continuation of an earlier project in Japan.

"I am interested in issues of environmentalism," Roth said. "I grew up in New York City so I never went to a national park. My idea (of a park) was lines of people waiting in line. I never realized that they were standing in line for something magnificent."

Roth plans to use the Grand Canyon residency program to work on her next project.

"For America 101 I went all over the U.S. and it turned out I did a lot of photography," Roth said. "One of the things I did notice is how people really spend little time looking at stuff. They take a picture then leave."

Roth continued: "I am an artist. I get a lot of pleasure from the visual and other people are like that too.

"Why would you not spend time looking at something that is pleasant? I just don't get it. This project is in response to that concept.

"The point is I'm not going to do it from a photo. It will be a project about paying attention to beauty.

"I am very interested in the things we collect. We collect a diploma that says we are a graduate and we collect a photo that says we were in a place, but were we really there?

"I am interested in that disconnect between proof and process."