One photo obtained by the blog Modern Hiker and shared with the
National Park Service shows the artist putting the finishing touches
on an acrylic drawing of a cigarette-smoking woman at Utah's
Canyonlands National Park in June.
Other photographs show other graffiti, such as a woman with blue
hair at Oregon's Crater Lake and a bald man with a snake protruding
from his mouth at California's Yosemite, all signed "Creepytings"
and dated 2014.
"It's especially egregious to a park visitor who has worked very
hard to get somewhere as far off as Death Valley or Crater Lake only
to be hit by the blight of what you are more used to seeing in an
urban area," said National Park Service spokeswoman Alexandra
Picavet.
The woman is suspected for vandalism in at least 10 National Parks,
including the Grand Canyon in Arizona and California's Joshua Tree,
where she can be seen in a photograph crawling among a protected
cave painting.
The hiking blog sent the photos it gathered earlier this month by
screenshot from the suspect's Instagram and Tumblr accounts to the
National Park Service on Wednesday, sparking the investigation.
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Picavet said the artist had not been arrested or charged with a
crime. Reuters could not independently verify the blog's report or
the authenticity of the photos.
Officials were working out the best ways to remove the acrylic
graffiti, which could cause permanent damage, Picavet said.
Vandalism is a federal misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in
prison and a $5,000 fine, though the artist could face felony
charges depending on which surfaces she painted, Picavet said.
(Editing by Sandra Maler and Dina Kyriakidou)
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