Below Expectations Amber Share’s tongue-in-cheek take on promoting North Carolina’s natural treasures by Addie L adner
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PineStraw
The Art & Soul of the Sandhills
PHOTOGRAPHS BY EAMON QUEENEY
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National Park’s desert landdon’t claim to be from scape and the Grand Canyon’s anywhere,” says Amber rocky ochre horizon. But she Share. The daughter of wanted text on her illustraa Navy chief, Share and tions, something to identify her family spent much of them, something other than her childhood on the move. By the the park name. “Drawing time she entered high school, Share the parks proved to be a nice had lived in Italy and five different capsule project,” says Share. states, and family trips took her all “But I wanted something more over the country. In Hawaii, she unique.” explored the lava-laced shores of the She stumbled across a Ala Kahakai Trail; in Florida, she perplexing one-star review of trekked through the Everglades with a national park on Reddit that manatee and alligator sightings. A had her laughing out loud. road trip across the southwestern “Save yourself some money. United States brought her through Boil some water at home,” said the Grand Canyon, Zion National one visitor to Yellowstone — a Park, Yellowstone National Park, and landmark that spans three Badlands National Park in South states and is home to the Dakota. world’s tallest active geyser. For Share, these national parks That became her aha moment. became home. They were timeless, “This review was too good everlasting, grounding experiences to Graphic designer and Subpar Parks not to do anything with,” she her. “Parks solidified a vacation in my creator Amber Share at one of her thought. Soon, she found mind,” she says. go-to natural areas, William B. other strange, yet hilarious, Those experiences have stayed Umstead State Park. reviews. “The only thing to with her since, etched in her mind do here is walk around the and soul. “Even as an adult living in desert,” said a guest of Joshua Washington, D.C., a bustling city, Tree National Park. Another griped that the Grand Canyon is just “a I would go to Rock Creek Park for reprieve,” she says. “Or I would hole. A very, very large hole.” drive to Shenandoah. Anytime I want a break in my life, I wind up These one-star reviews were the perfect amount of words to add in a park.” to the bottom of her illustrations. “You might not notice the words Share studied graphic design and fine art at the University of at first, it’s just a beautiful landscape,” Share says. And she chose the Nebraska. After graduation, she landed a job working full-time in reviews strategically: “My focus was reviews that have to do with the Raleigh at a design agency. But she began to crave a creative project of experience of nature. I’m not here to make a statement about how her own. “As a professional designer, you don’t get to draw. I wanted well or not well the parks are managed. It’s more about people being a side project that was a creative outlet for me and pertained to my underwhelmed by nature. Most people just find it hilarious.” interest.” She thought about all those national parks she visited over And indeed, they do: in December of 2019 she shared her illustraher lifetime and started sketching them on her iPad. tions on Instagram with the handle @subparparks — and they went Soon, she had retro illustrations of places like Joshua Tree
