Wender·Vista
Indiana Dunes National Park
shown on ceramic, 12-inch tileUnited States
along the southern shore of Lake Michigan, an hour east of Chicago

Indiana Dunes National Park

— a dune that walks east while you sleep.

— Where it lives

Not only on a wall.

A small tile on the nightstand catching the morning. A larger one above the fire. Yours, wherever you spend the slow hours.
— On the nightstand, a 6-inch on a walnut stand
— Among the books, a 6-inch leaning into the spines
— Beside the kettle, a 12-inch propped
— Down a quiet hall, an 18-inch floating off the wall
— Above the fire, the 24-inch in a walnut surround
— a note from the studio

“Fifteen miles of Lake Michigan shoreline between Gary and Michigan City, redesignated as a national park in 2019 after fifty-three years as a national lakeshore. Mount Baldy still walks east at four feet a year. Cottonwood and marram grass hold the foredunes; bog and oak savanna run a mile inland. On clear days the Chicago skyline stands across the water, sixty miles west.

from the studio
Indiana Dunes National Park
— bring it home

Indiana Dunes National Park, on ceramic.

Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.

What kind of piece?
One tile — square or rectangle.
How big?
the popular one — counter, shelf, nightstand
6 × 6 in · 15 cm · 1.6 lb
Surface finish
A clear glossy finish — the artwork reads as if under resin. Ideal for show-pieces and framed wall art.
How it sits
A hidden cleat — sits ¼″ proud of the wall.
$58
Hand-finished and shipped from our studio at the foot of the Smokies. On your wall in about ten days.
— size
6 × 6 in
15 cm
— weighs
1.6 lb
solid in the hand
— surface
ceramic, hand-finished
art rests beneath a thin glossy finish
— from
Knoxville, TN
our family studio, at the foot of the Smokies
— start a Coaster Set

Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.

— about Indiana Dunes National Park

The place, in three passes.

A little of what's known, in case you fall down the rabbit hole — or want to go see it yourself.
— the place

Indiana Dunes became the country's sixty-first national park on February 15, 2019, after fifty-three years as Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore. The park covers about fifteen thousand acres along fifteen miles of Lake Michigan shoreline in Porter and LaPorte counties, an hour east of Chicago by car or by the South Shore Line. The dune ridges rise to one hundred and ninety feet at Mount Tom. Henry Cowles's 1899 fieldwork here on dune succession is one of the founding studies of American plant ecology.

— the water

Lake Michigan holds about twelve hundred cubic miles of fresh water and sets the climate of the park. Summer surface temperatures climb into the low seventies by August; winter brings shelf ice along the foredunes from January through March. Rip currents along the central beaches are strongest in southwest winds, and the National Park Service flies coloured beach flags daily from Memorial Day to Labor Day. West Beach, Porter Beach, and Kemil Beach are the three patrolled swimming areas. The Calumet shore once carried the steel mills; the lake has been recovering since the 1970s Clean Water Act.

— informed by NPS Beach Safety
— the season

The park reads in four clean seasons. Spring brings hepatica, trillium, and shooting star to the oak savanna at Cowles Bog through April and early May. Summer crowds the beaches and the South Shore Line; weekday mornings stay quiet. September turns the maple and sassafras at Bailly Homestead first, with peak colour usually the second week of October. Winter brings shelf ice formations along the foredunes from January into March, and the dunes themselves continue to migrate east on the prevailing winds, Mount Baldy moving four feet a year.

— informed by NPS Seasonal Guide
— where
United States · Porter County, Indiana
— within
Indiana Dunes National Park
— position
41.6533° N · 87.0524° W
— the neighborhood

What's nearby.

A handful of named places within an hour's walk or short drive. Some we've already painted; some we will.
80 km W
Chicago
city
10 km E
Michigan City
city
1 km N
Indiana Dunes State Park
state park
3 km S
Bailly Homestead
historic site
N
Indiana Dunes National Park
Chicago
Michigan City
Indiana Dunes State Park
Bailly Homestead
— common questions

What people ask.

A few questions we get about Indiana Dunes National Park — and about bringing the piece home.
— about the place

Indiana Dunes was redesignated as the country's sixty-first national park on February 15, 2019. It had been Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore since 1966, after a decades-long campaign led by Senator Paul Douglas.

The park covers about fifteen thousand acres along fifteen miles of Lake Michigan shoreline in Porter and LaPorte counties, Indiana. Indiana Dunes State Park, a separate two-thousand-acre property, sits inside the national park's boundary.

Mount Baldy is a live dune that has lost its vegetation cap and now migrates east about four feet a year on prevailing southwest winds. The Park Service restricts access to protect both visitors and the structure.

The South Shore Line commuter rail runs from Millennium Station to Beverly Shores and Dune Park in about ninety minutes. By car, the park is roughly fifty miles east of downtown Chicago on Interstate 90 or US-12.

The park records more than three hundred and fifty bird species, including sandhill cranes during fall migration. Smaller mammals, frogs, and the federally endangered Karner blue butterfly use the oak savanna and wetland.

Late September through mid-October brings fall colour and cool beach walks with few crowds. Spring wildflowers peak in early May. July and August are the warm-water swimming months and the busiest.

— about the piece in your home

The park is a shared landmark for Calumet-region residents and the Chicago commuters who ride the South Shore Line out on summer weekends. A Small with a handwritten note from the studio carries well.

The piece holds in Midwestern lake-house interiors, prairie-modern rooms, and biophilic spaces that lean on natural fibre and oak. The blues and dune tones lift a white or warm-grey wall.

Yes. Dune and shoreline art is central to the biophilic direction running through 2026, alongside linen, rattan, and unfinished oak. The Medium reads at the right scale above a console or daybed.

Above a standard sofa a single Large or a four-tile Mural reads at the right scale. Above a narrower console a Medium holds. For a feature wall, the nine-tile Mural carries.

Yes, in either the Dura Satin or Matte finish. Both are scratch-resistant and handle steam and splash. The Glossy finish is reserved for framed wall pieces away from direct water.

A soft microfibre cloth with water is enough. The colour is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, beneath a thin glossy finish, so it does not scratch off in normal cleaning.

Yes. Every WenderVista piece is original to Reid Wender and produced in our Knoxville studio. We do not license third-party imagery or resell other artists' work under the WenderVista name.

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