Artist-in-Residence Program

Artists’ Stay

Selected artists will stay in the historic DeLonde Barn at Caribou Ranch.

Artists can stay up to four days and three nights (Monday-Thursday) during period from July 15 to September 30.

Artists will not share residence with another artist, but are permitted to bring one adult companion if desired.

The open space property offers a variety of landscapes to explore including streams, waterfalls, forests, and beautiful vistas. Moose, elk, black bears, beavers, bats and nearly 90 species of birds live within or pass through the area.

Also found on the property is the Blue Bird Mine complex where miners from the 1870s to the 1960s extracted silver ore. In the early 1900s, the site was a whistle stop for the Denver, Boulder & Western Railroad.

The residence includes:

• Solar-powered electricity for lighting, cooking, and heating water.
• Outlets for low-powered electrical devices (there is no Wi-Fi).
• Twin-sized bunk beds (no tents or camping allowed outside the living quarters).
• Outhouse with pit toilet and solar-powered camp shower and sink.
• Outdoor dish washing station.
• Dining area and kitchen furnished with drinking water, electric stove-top burners, toaster oven, cooking utensils, and cleaning supplies.
• Two large RTIC coolers (there is no refrigerator).
• Outdoor picnic table (campfires are not permitted).

Sophie Adams

Primary Medium: Crafts

Sophie’s inspiration comes from the natural world. Her pieces reflect her own curiosity, to spark questions about the world we live in; scientifically, morally, and energetically. Sophie taps into her ability to write, embroider, paint, control electronics, work with fabric, create music, and visualize in images, and would like to feed that ever-bubbling spring at Caribou Ranch. Sophie wants to serve as a bridge, to express her learnings through images, words, and sounds, subsequently providing a potential path to gratitude, beauty, and peace for those with whom her work speaks.

Marie Bush

Primary Medium: Photography

Marie is a creative fine art photographer based in Lafayette, Colorado. Nature, especially the forest, is where she finds sanctuary, a place of healing, growth, strength, peace and beauty. For many years Marie has worked on a series, “Intimate Colorado”, by photographing numerous wilderness areas including Caribou Ranch and Open Space. Through her images, she hopes to convey a sense of refuge, inspiration, and renewal to the viewer. Her goal is to immerse myself in the diverse landscape photographic opportunities that Caribou has to offer. Marie hopes to explore the forests, meadows, and streams in all kinds of light and weather conditions.

Bill Enyart

Primary Medium: Painting

Bill has a longtime love of Colorado outdoors and his first painting that sold on site was at Caribou Ranch. He has returned there many times to paint and he counts it as one of his favorites for beauty, wildlife, and rich history. Bill went there once in 2020 just before he started oil painting en plein air. He currently is active in Boulder County arts and is represented in several galleries and has won awards at numerous painting events. Bill also has written the outline of a children’s book that features Caribou Ranch and his goal is to complete it in 2023.

Xan McKenna

Primary Medium: Painting

Xan grew up in Colorado and the dramatic natural landscapes of the Southwest has always captivated her and inspired her artwork. Immersion in nature has played an immensely important part in shaping her artistic focus, and she is always seeking new opportunities to spend time in nature to inspire new art, especially in Colorado and the Southwest. Climate change poses a threat to both the environment and to the art it inspires, and as a Colorado resident Xan has experienced many devastating fires due to climate change. This threat is one that is very present in her life, both as an artist and as a being, who depends on the environment.

Sarah Nance

Primary Medium: Writing

Sarah is currently an assistant professor in the Department of English & Fine Arts at the United States Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs. As a teaching-focused institution, the Air Force Academy does not leave her much time for writing and research, so summer work as well as residencies have given her pockets of time to work on her poetry manuscript, titled This Road Ends in Water. In navigating memory, loss, destruction, and pain, her manuscript attempts to reconstruct the life and death of her father.

• Black Hole