The Garage is a space for creative minds. It is also a place to provoke conversations and envision a better community in Rapid City, and around the region. The Garage’s Chalk Artist in Residency Program invites one artist to participate in a one-year residency program to contribute to the vibrancy and conversation of the community coworking space through chalk art.

Our 2016/17 Chalk Artist in Residence is Natalie Geary.

About Natalie

Natalie Geary was born and grew up in the Black Hills of South Dakota. She is a junior at Stevens High School, and is taking Advanced Art and Advanced Clay. Natalie would like to go to an art college. She was inspired to start creating art by her amazing friend who is great at drawing, and introduced Natalie to different mediums of art. Natalie enjoys a number of mediums, including digital art. Her printmaking art was featured in the "Best of the West" Dahl High School Art Show, and was one of the winners for the Teen Summer Reading Bookmark Design Contest. She likes to take requests from friends and family for drawings and designs.

Artist Statement

I started drawing with my best friend Madison, who got me to where I am today. I’ve been drawing for about seven years now and I do it because it brings me joy and clears my mind. I enjoy working on big canvases the most so I can move more freely and put more emotions into my artwork. When I start a piece, I have the image of the final piece in my head and I work on it until the artwork looks exactly like how I imagined it. Most of my drawings are in marker or pencil. I do enjoy painting and using oil pastels. Chalk is one of the messier mediums, but that makes it better (in my opinion). You can do almost anything you want with chalk and that is why it is one of my favorite mediums to work with.

I’m very excited to work on the walls in The Garage because the canvases are so huge. I love the feel of the place and I can’t wait to meet new people through art and hear what others want to see on the wall.