SPECIAL PROJECTS
Seasons of Denali
Ree was commissioned to create an art quilt in 2007 for the New Eielson Visitors Center at Denali National Park in Alaska. She chose to use the view from the center’s front windows as a framework to depict the unique plants, birds and animals that live within a quarter mile of the site.
This commission took one year, using all her art and sewing skills, and required learning some new techniques to achieve the desired outcome. The fabric used in the piece started as white fabric. It was immersion dyed, painted, stamped, silk screened or stenciled to create color and images. Ree worked in units and added final images in fabric paint to maintain flexibility as the composition developed.
Portrayed are the changing seasons, from the last hint of winter on the left through spring, summer, and fall, to the beginning of winter on the right. Images of birds, animals, and plants, are shown at the appropriate time of the year as they would be seen.
Seasons of Denali
7' h x 12' w
Watch fabric artist Ree Nancarrow create "Seasons of Denali," a remarkable panoramic representation of the landscape near the Eielson Visitor Center using white cotton fabric, dyes, paints, silkscreens, stencils, and oil sticks.
Detail views
Key to Seasons of Denali
As installed at Eielson Visitor Center in Denali National Park. As of 2022, due to the ongoing Pretty Rocks landslide and the closure of the park road at Mile 42, Eielson is currently closed.
When the Eielson Visitor Center was closed in 2022, Ree's quilt was put into storage at the facility to await a re-opening at an undetermined date. In 2023, during a visit to nearby Camp Denali, and with the permission of the Park Service, Ree retrieved Seasons of Denali in order to better preserve the quilt. This retrieval was documented in a Camp Denali newsletter titled "Summer Roundup: Beavers, Art Heists, & Road Rallies".