Art or vandalism? Park paintings spark uproar

Officials are investigating paintings and drawings of eerie faces found on rocks across the West in some of the country’s most recognizable national parks.

National Park Service spokesman Jeffrey Olson says the probe stemmed from a post on a California-based hiking blog about a woman who traveled across the West, apparently using acrylic paint to leave images on the rocks.

The blogger, Casey Schreiner of modernhiker.com, says the New York state woman documented her work on Instagram and Tumblr.

The woman’s photographs have sparked a furor online, with people blasting the paintings on websites such as Reddit.

National parks agents have confirmed the vandalism in Yosemite and Death Valley National Parks in California, Canyonlands and Zion in Utah, and Crater Lake in Oregon.

Investigators also are looking for vandalism in other states the woman visited.

The vandalism first came to light through postings on Instagram by someone calling herself Creepytings. She included photos of her paintings, tagged with a “Creepytings” signature. The account has since been set to private.

“I was able to screen grab a bunch from her Instagram and she also had a bunch on her Tumblr blog as well,” said Schreiner, who posted the pictures to his site, sparking an online firestorm.

“Because we are actual outdoors people that like to go to these places, we were able to identify a lot of these specific trails where she had done her graffiti artwork,” Schreiner said.

Modern Hiker has identified “Creepytings” as Casey Knocket. That has not been confirmed by the National Parks Service.

“This is one of the rare examples of social media being used for the power of good,” Schreiner said.

Vandalism in national parks is considered a federal misdemeanor and carries a potential jail sentence and fine.

Schreiner hopes that this teaches more than one lesson..

“I’m glad that this is highlighting the problem of graffiti in national parks, and I hope people can look beyond this specific incident to see that it’s a much larger issue,” he said.