To Durango artist Mariah Kaminsky, it’s easy to get caught up in the rumpus of life and to overlook the natural beauty of Southwestern Colorado. Sometimes, she said, it’s good to stop and simply take things in.
That’s the message Kaminsky hopes to get across in her latest mural, “Desert Solitaire,” which borrows the title of the late author Edward Abbey’s 1968 autobiographical book that recounts Abbey’s time as a park ranger at Arches National Park in Grand County, Utah.
The mural is displayed underneath the Animas River Trail underpass just south of Santa Rita Park in Durango.
Before a background of acrylic desert sky and landscape, complete with little crystalline stars epoxied to the piece, a phrase pulled from Abbey’s book reads, “I chose to listen to the river for a while, thinking river thoughts, before joining the night and stars.”
Kaminsky said Abbey’s quote to her means, “Be still and enjoy the scenery around you, or the world around you.”
“With Edward Abbey spending so much time in the southwest, it's just so fitting,” she said.
She said working in Durango is a busy lifestyle. Even for visiting tourists, there’s so much to do they might forget to sit down and just breathe occasionally, which is important for actually enjoying beautiful Southwest Colorado.
“I'm hoping that it just encourages people to take a minute and appreciate where we are and that we need to take care of it and we need to respect it,” she said.
She said the mural’s place beneath the underpass is a fitting one, appearing at a big bend in the Animas River upstream of rapids. People rafting, kayaking or otherwise floating down the river come around the bend and are greeted by the mural in a moment of peace and quiet before the river picks up again.
The moment is made more perfect by the short reprieve the underpass grants from the sounds of bustling motor traffic on U.S. Highway 160 above, she said.
Kaminsky said she is a realist artist. In the studio, she focuses on still lifes and portraits in the style of realism. She described “Desert Solitaire” as a large-scale adaptation of her studio work.
Durangoans might recognize her other murals around town such as “Simple Pleasures,” located north of 34th Street on Main Avenue, which depicts a little boy feeding birds; a butterfly mural behind Mountain Middle School; and the renovation of the late muralist Tom McMurray's depiction of the 1915 boxing fight between Jack Dempsey and Andy Malloy on the side of El Rancho at Main Avenue and west 10th Street.
The city of Durango issued a call to artists in February, asking for proposals for murals and other art to beautify sections of the Animas River Trail. The city budgeted $80,000 from its lodgers tax arts and culture fund to divide between three artistic projects.
She said she was painting in her studio and listening to an audiobook version of Abbey’s “Desert Solitaire” when the idea for the underpass mural clicked in her mind.
Kaminsky submitted her proposal to the city and received a grant for $11,600, she said. She started work on the mural in July right after Independence Day. After 134 hours of work over 15 days, the mural was completed.
She credited Durango artist Cindy Coleman of Duck Girl Art with assisting her on “Desert Solitaire” during the second week of the project. Coleman helped Kaminsky paint Abbey’s quote over the mural, which was challenging in keeping the text level all across the piece, Kaminsky said.
Two more grant-funded projects selected by the city will be created in 2025.
The call to artists in February said the scope of work sought included sculptures and installations, creative signage, pavement art, historical markers and soundscapes that “incorporate the natural sounds of the river or create a serene auditory experience for the trail users.”
“I've been here 23 years, and I've seen the growth of our art and culture programs, and I'm just blown away by how far we've come and what the city is doing and how easy they're making it,” Kaminsky said. “It's so easy to apply for these grants.”
She said all it takes is filling out an application, including drawings and concepts and describing the proposal, and submitting the full proposal to the city.
Applicants must explain the logistics of their proposal and how much it will cost to execute, but that’s all there is to it.
“I hope that everybody on the river trail really appreciates it and loves it,” she said of the mural. “The response was huge and all positive when I was working on it down there. So fun to work every day when people are walking by and giving shout-outs. ... I was glad to do it.”
A brief video panning the scope of Kaminsky’s mural is available online at mariahkaminsky.com/murals.
cburney@durangoherald.com
