The breathtaking views of the canyons, cliffs and rock formations found in Colorado National Monument draw thousands of visitors every year, but few get to study it in detail -- the way the sunrise hits a rock tower or a shadow plays against a cliff -- like painter and local Neonatal Intensive Care Unit nurse Monica Esposito.
Esposito, a Grand Junction resident, was selected as the first Community Artist in Park for Colorado National Monument. As part of that program, she is hosting painting events in the monument over the next several months.
"Colorado National Monument, it's in my backyard, and I love promoting such a beautiful space," Esposito said. "I think people really enjoy experiencing the space and seeing how the artist interprets that space. I think that all of the different kinds of sandstone and the vegetation and the bighorn sheep and collared lizards, all of that is amazing."
Esposito is originally from Denver, but her father's military career meant they moved around quite a bit, she said. Outside Colorado, she spent a "big chunk" of her life in Texas. She had an early interest in the arts and earned a degree in fine arts from the University of Texas at Austin.
After college, Esposito said she returned to Colorado's Front Range for work where she discovered a new side to painting.
"I was really more of a figurative painter when I had graduated college, but when I lived in Fort Collins I worked for a company that sold plein air painting equipment," Esposito said. "That really changed my perspective on what I liked to do when I was painting because I loved bringing my paints outdoors and exploring different places. I found that that was a great way to spend my time."
Plein air, which literally means "outdoors" in French, is a style of painting that arose in the 1800s with the Impressionist movement and artists like Claude Monet. Artists paint in the outdoor environment in natural light conditions.
"When you're looking at a scene and you're there for two hours, you're really absorbing the sense of a place," Esposito said. "You really understand the light. You really understand the shadows."
Esposito said she decided to go back to school around 2008 to earn a nursing degree. She said the schedule from nursing shifts gave her time to paint while she also found working with patients -- especially premature babies and their families -- rewarding.
Around eight years ago, Esposito moved to the Western Slope to work at Intermountain Health St. Mary's Regional Hospital, which has the only Level III NICU in western Colorado.
"When I came to work at Saint Mary's, I was really amazed and inspired by the natural landscape around here," Esposito said. "I think the national monument is one of the most beautiful places I've ever seen."
The monument and the natural beauty of western Colorado became a new source of inspiration for her painting, she said.
"I just really changed or evolved my painting based on more of the dramatic landscapes that were here in western Colorado," Esposito said. "I mean, that's a big evolution for me when I moved here."
After moving to Grand Junction, Esposito began seeking out ways to be involved with the local art community and with the monument. She said she participated for several years in the Colorado National Monument Association's annual calendar contest, which features local artists.
This year, the association decided to launch a Community Artist in Park program and put out a call for artists. Esposito was selected and said she was excited to be able to promote the park through art.
"The National Park System in general has had a long history of artists being involved in the park system," Esposito said. "I feel like people really enjoy seeing the interpretations of artists and the spaces that they love."
The programs she has been putting on, and will continue to offer over the next few months, include short hikes, events where she paints and others where everyone paints together. She said plein air painting is a great way to study the monument, but it also comes with challenges.
"Sometimes, you only get minutes at sunset where the light is good or weather is coming in and you have to pack up mid painting," Esposito said. "So those are some of the challenges of painting outdoors, but it's worth it because I think that, again, you get to experience a space (with) much better understanding by looking at it with your own eyes."
When she isn't putting brush to canvas, Esposito is taking care of some of the smallest new lives to enter the community. The NICU at St. Mary's is where newborns who were born prematurely or need extra attention are cared for. It's the "best place to work" in the hospital, she said.
"It's been a very big and important part of my life," Esposito said. "I really see that there is a good balance between being a painter and having this worthwhile pursuit of art in my time off from the hospital and then also having a very rewarding job taking care of sick or premature newborns."
As a NICU nurse, Esposito said she and the other nurses serve as the "rock" for the families as they go through a stressful period after the birth of their child. She also is the lead of the neonatal flight team, which goes to other Western Slope hospitals to bring premature and sick babies to St. Mary's for more intensive care.
"They look to their nurses as their support and especially when they may not be from this community and they may be coming from somewhere else where they don't have any connections," Esposito said. "The nurse is the first person that they really interact with."
There are so many happy families and success stories over the years, she said. Each year, the hospital throws a NICO reunion party for its former patients -- which she said is the highlight of the year.
"Seeing your patients grow up and become big kids is always a rewarding experience," Esposito said.
And when things are tougher at work, as they can sometimes be when caring for sick babies, Esposito said she has her outlet in painting.
She said she often revisits spots like Independence Monument with its iconic red rock fin and thinks about the landscape and how nature has carved out this striking feature.
"I really do feel like you feel a sense of time when you're looking at it, imagining the fact that at one point all of that was connected," Esposito said. "It was one big rock wall and wind and water and thousands of years have eroded away to show what's what we see now. It's pretty amazing. It's probably one of my favorite spots to paint."
Esposito said she's excited to share both Colorado National Monument and her passion for painting through the new Community Artist in Park program. Visit coloradonma.org/events to find upcoming events with Esposito.
"I'm excited because this is a new program for them," Esposito said. "I'm excited for them to be promoting the national monument through art because I'm hoping that it will attract more people to come and see the park and maybe see it in a different way."