|
solarpunk: an emerging culture and arts movement which envisions a regenerative future interconnected with community and nature.
plein air: painting landscapes outdoors from life rather than from photos. AI - free always. |
|
San Francisco's Civic Center
Fan Art inspired by The Fifth Sacred Thing by Starhawk
Current:
San Francisco’s City Hall stands as a relic of the City Beautiful movement, which took place around the turn of the 20th century. At the time, city planners used classical architecture to romanticize the imperialistic ambitions of San Francisco’s wealthiest 1%.
Today, the suffering caused by wealth disparity is evident everywhere in San Francisco, and not least in Civic Center, where many people make their lives on the streets. This painting highlights elements of hostile architecture and policy observed in the area: surveillance cameras (foreground), speakers that play Disney music at all hours (mounted on the light post on the right), the lack of benches, and security guards tasked with preventing people from lying down.
From left to right: a security guard checking on someone who won’t immediately sit up, a person sits after being told to do so and makes the best of the moment by drawing in a sketch book, a custodian takes a break, a man watches over his partner experiencing withdrawal, and three friends discuss politics while sorting through their belongings.
Observed and painted en plein air. Inspired by Imperial San Francisco, by Gray Brechin.
San Francisco’s City Hall stands as a relic of the City Beautiful movement, which took place around the turn of the 20th century. At the time, city planners used classical architecture to romanticize the imperialistic ambitions of San Francisco’s wealthiest 1%.
Today, the suffering caused by wealth disparity is evident everywhere in San Francisco, and not least in Civic Center, where many people make their lives on the streets. This painting highlights elements of hostile architecture and policy observed in the area: surveillance cameras (foreground), speakers that play Disney music at all hours (mounted on the light post on the right), the lack of benches, and security guards tasked with preventing people from lying down.
From left to right: a security guard checking on someone who won’t immediately sit up, a person sits after being told to do so and makes the best of the moment by drawing in a sketch book, a custodian takes a break, a man watches over his partner experiencing withdrawal, and three friends discuss politics while sorting through their belongings.
Observed and painted en plein air. Inspired by Imperial San Francisco, by Gray Brechin.
Future:
City Hall has been repurposed as a co-created community space. Its formerly bare walls and columns are decorated by artists who tell a people’s history of the city and extol the sacred values that inform the city’s future. During the Uprising, activists removed and repurposed the dome, viewing it as symbolic of hierarchy. Miraculously, a madrone took root at the base of the stairs in the central hall and grew up to burst out of the space of the former dome, becoming the tallest madrone ever on record. The roof now serves as a transfer station for the gondola lines that criss-cross the city. The building is still a beloved space for weddings and rites of passage.
Open and welcoming public spaces have returned to the city. In the foreground is a public hammock space, alebrije statues, a native plant garden, an adventure playground centered around a live oak tree, and a preserved piece of the City Hall’s facade, which kids have painted on. The kids play with fishing nets and invent ways to incorporate them into their treehouse.
This vision is inspired by The Fifth Sacred Thing by Starhawk and dreamed in collaboration with local resident, writer, and activist Beverly Litkin.
City Hall has been repurposed as a co-created community space. Its formerly bare walls and columns are decorated by artists who tell a people’s history of the city and extol the sacred values that inform the city’s future. During the Uprising, activists removed and repurposed the dome, viewing it as symbolic of hierarchy. Miraculously, a madrone took root at the base of the stairs in the central hall and grew up to burst out of the space of the former dome, becoming the tallest madrone ever on record. The roof now serves as a transfer station for the gondola lines that criss-cross the city. The building is still a beloved space for weddings and rites of passage.
Open and welcoming public spaces have returned to the city. In the foreground is a public hammock space, alebrije statues, a native plant garden, an adventure playground centered around a live oak tree, and a preserved piece of the City Hall’s facade, which kids have painted on. The kids play with fishing nets and invent ways to incorporate them into their treehouse.
This vision is inspired by The Fifth Sacred Thing by Starhawk and dreamed in collaboration with local resident, writer, and activist Beverly Litkin.
Solarpunk Plein Air
Cob Bathhouse in the Forest
|
Cozy cob bathhouse nestled in the redwood forest built by Buckeye Natural Builders . It is made from salvaged materials including wine bottles embedded in the cob walls. Inside, the walls are covered in ornate mosaics. Painted en plein air on a quiet foggy morning.
|
|
Purrrrrfest at Barrios Unidos
|
Plein air painting the Purrrrrrfest makers market at Barrios Unidos, a movement space for healing and justice located in Santa Cruz. The event raised money for the local animal shelter and Barrios Unidos. The space is overbrimming with beautiful and inspiring art such as this huge wood statue of Native activist Leonard Peltier, designed by Peltier and built by Rigo 23 Studio.
|
|
Solar Punk Farms
|
Present: Solar Punk Farms is creating a beautiful hub for regenerative agriculture, community composting, and visionary events. This is a painting of their geodesic greenhouse. Painted en plein air.
|
|
Phoenix Village
|
Present: This image features a parking sign near Delaware Ave and Shaffer Rd in Santa Cruz. The sign notifies the community of the Oversized Vehicle Ordinance (OVO), which bans parking of oversized vehicles between 12-5 am. Instead of supporting people–or simply allowing them to exist in peace–our City has criminalized people living outside. Many RVs used to park along Delaware Ave, which is now mostly empty due to threats of towing.
Painted en plein air. |
|
Future: The scene is reimagined in a future where everyone has access to all their survival needs. In harmony with the coastal prairie, a self-organized mutual aid and cultural hub has formed for travelers and those experiencing housing transitions.
Come visit Phoenix Village for the mechanic's shop, wellness center, and collective art projects. Enjoy shopping at the various vendors, eat some delicious food, or visit the spa to experience the healing power of water. And don’t forget to check out the stage for amazing shows by fellow travelers! Rejoice and commune with others. Capitalism causes alienation, so we have created a community based on connection. The name Phoenix Village honors Phoenix Camp, a 2019 encampment of people in Santa Cruz, following the destruction of Ross Camp - a testament to resilience and community in the face of displacement. Dreamed in collaboration with abolitionist Jazz Miah. |
Free Waters
Past: A view from beneath the surface of the ancient dune lake fed by the springs from Mt Sutro in San Francisco. The water is held on one side by the bedrock of Mt Sutro (right) and on the other by towering sand dunes (left). The lake fluctuates with the shifting dunescape and weather, sometimes breaking free from the walls of sand and streaming out toward where Golden Gate Park is today.
In the distance, a Yelamu hunting party treks down the dune. Featured wildlife: diving double-crested cormorants, mother common merganser and ducklings (upper right), school of three-spined sticklebacks, and a rough-skinned newt (bottom). Dreamed in collaboration with water detective Joel Pomerantz of ThinkWalks. |
Present: View of the same location today, which is now split by Laguna Honda Blvd. The dunes have been partially stabilized with non-native trees and concrete retaining walls. The nearby abandoned Laguna Honda Reservoir, still replenished by the springs from Mt Sutro, causes frequent flooding of the boulevard. Natural cycles that controlled the lake are “disrupted by drainage into sewers and the removal of part of the bedrock to build the road” - Joel Pomerantz
Painted en plein air. |
Quiroste
|
I joined volunteers and staff of the Amah Mutsun Land Trust (AMLT) at Quiroste to create this painting en plein air. The AMLT collaborated with archeologists and ecologists to research the native stewardship methods once practiced by the Quiroste Tribe at the site. Implementing their findings, the Indigenous-led land trust has begun the work of restoring the once life-giving prairie. In the painting, volunteers pull invasive poison hemlock.
|
Speculative Landscape at Seacliff
|
Future: In this sustainable energy landscape, community-managed power grids on land are supplemented by offshore wind power. A bit of that electricity goes toward the small contraption in the foreground, called a Mycelicom, which taps into the soil’s mycelium network and facilitates communication between ecologists and the plants that stabilize the cliffside.
Painted en plein air with solarpunk elements added in studio. |
Youth Center
|
Future: A thriving youth center has taken form in this refurbished Victorian house. Young visitors access mental-health, spiritual, and vocational guidance, as well as mediation support interwoven with the community. Ceanothus blooms in front of the house attracting monarch butterflies. The roof is thatched in tule as a green building practice and to honor local Indigenous knowledge.
A grandmother is there harvesting oranges with her grandson preparing to make a group dinner. Nearby, a boy monitors solar panels as a part of an engineering project. In the foreground, a grinding stone sits beside a milpa of corn, beans, and squash just beginning to sprout. Dreamed in collaboration with Edgar Ibarra, of MILPA Collective and is inspired by MILPA’s intention to create a Less Restrictive Program (LRP) for incarcerated youth in Santa Cruz County. |
Felix Kulpa Street Scene
Current: Street scene of Felix Kulpa Gallery and Sculpture Garden.
Painted en plein air. |
Future: With a well-planned mass transit system, downtown thrives as a car-free zone, allowing only brief stops for essential vehicles. Parking spaces have been replaced with native plant gardens, where a diversity of insects and birds have become part of life downtown. This particular spring, Santa Cruz has seen an explosion of sphinx moths and their enormous caterpillars munch through the greenery all over town. These edible grubs, traditionally eaten by some Indigenous groups, have sparked an impromptu caterpillar trade. Locals collect and distribute them to restaurants, while caterpillar recipe zines circulate through the community.
|
Palestinians Thrive
Future: In this painting, Palestinian olive farmers in Gaza harvest from a tree stewarded by the hands of innumerable ancestors. This tree was once nearly destroyed in an Israeli missile provided by the United States, but the root was spared. The tree resprouted and was healed by the farmers. Now, the harvesters go about their work with safety and freedom. The world rests in the gentle turbulence of interdependence and the safety inherent in diversity and mutuality.
Reimagining Housing in the Santa Cruz Mountains
Future: Dotted throughout a valley in the wild-urban interface of the Santa Cruz Mountains, are pods of high-rise buildings, blending homes, businesses, and community spaces. Tile mosaic murals lend the buildings extra protection against stray embers from regular controlled burns on the forest floor. Between the structures, rows of hydroponic crops hang, while pumpkin vines climb sculptural trellises. Wildlife moves freely among the human infrastructure.
The community manages and harvests the forest’s mushrooms, deer, salmon and herbs in a way that honors Indigenous people’s knowledge and access to the land. Accessible walking paths meander through the valley, supplemented by a gondola system for transporting goods and passengers between pods. Select redwoods have been nurtured back to an old growth state, sequestering carbon and fostering a cool, wet micro-climate. The community’s decision to structure their forest home vertically mirrors the epiphyte ecosystem on the redwood canopy.
The community manages and harvests the forest’s mushrooms, deer, salmon and herbs in a way that honors Indigenous people’s knowledge and access to the land. Accessible walking paths meander through the valley, supplemented by a gondola system for transporting goods and passengers between pods. Select redwoods have been nurtured back to an old growth state, sequestering carbon and fostering a cool, wet micro-climate. The community’s decision to structure their forest home vertically mirrors the epiphyte ecosystem on the redwood canopy.
Protest En Plein Air
I paint at protests documenting the resistance to the fascist takeover of the executive branch of the USA. These are my quickest paintings, completed in as little as 30 minutes. Sometimes I gift the paintings to organizers at the event.
Veggielution
|
I joined the 4th Saturday Farm Party at Veggielution to paint this image of their beloved farm stand. Veggielution is a 6 acre community farm in the heart of San Jose. At the farm stand they supply their community with affordable, healthy produce grown on their farm and other local women and BIPOC owned farms. The farm was so lush on this spring day that it reflected green onto the underside of the overpass.
|
Reimagining Hwy 1 Optimized for Public Transit
On the left is a plein air painting of evening traffic as viewed from the Morrissey Blvd overpass. On the right is a speculative repaint of our future society. Shown is the Hwy 1 High Speed Rail at the center divider beside a transfer station to the prolific local bus line. A line of native trees divides the road from the rail. Through trial and error the community has settled on a permit system allowing only occupational trucks to use the roads with the busses. Vehicles are adorned with murals by local artists instead of ads.
Local journalist Alix Soliman documented my process creating this piece. Watch her short video below and read her article about me in Lookout Santa Cruz here!
Local journalist Alix Soliman documented my process creating this piece. Watch her short video below and read her article about me in Lookout Santa Cruz here!
Santa Teresa Stewards
I joined community scientists and Santa Clara County Parks staff while they monitored tree growth and weeded around native shrubs at the Pueblo Day Use Area in the Santa Teresa County Park. To the right in the scene was the burn scar from a recent controlled burn. I then repainted the scene imagining the park in the future once the goals of the stewardship had come to fruition.
Artist in Residence with V-O-Cal at Memorial County Park
I had the pleasure of joining a V-O-Cal trailwork and stewardship weekend as their artist and residence. I painted folks working among the redwoods and also set up an art station for volunteers to get creative while they unwound after their day of work.
Artist for Climate Awareness Paint Out at the San Vicente Redwoods
I joined a paint out organized by Artists for Climate Awareness, the Santa Cruz Land Trust, and the Peninsula Open Space Trust.
In 2020 the CZU Lightning Complex fire swept through the San Vicente Redwoods Preserve. It managed to kill almost every non-redwood tree and many redwoods too. In the painting below the firs on the left were decimated by the fire, but the stand of trees on the right were spared. How did those trees escape the inferno? The trees had been the subject of an Amah Mutsun Land Trust cultural burn 6 months previous. The AMLT's controlled low-intensity burn had safely removed the highly flammable dead wood in the understory.
In 2020 the CZU Lightning Complex fire swept through the San Vicente Redwoods Preserve. It managed to kill almost every non-redwood tree and many redwoods too. In the painting below the firs on the left were decimated by the fire, but the stand of trees on the right were spared. How did those trees escape the inferno? The trees had been the subject of an Amah Mutsun Land Trust cultural burn 6 months previous. The AMLT's controlled low-intensity burn had safely removed the highly flammable dead wood in the understory.
|
At the event Patricia Lorenas taught us how to make charcoal paint from the remnants of burnt trees.
The dead trees on the left in the painting above were painted from charcoal paint made from those very trees. |
Protect Juristac
Juristac is the most sacred land for the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band and a crucial wildlife habitat. It's currently threatened by mining interests. Watch my video in collaboration with Protect Juristac to learn more and go to protectjuristac.org to support.
Portrait of a Bug Hotel
Learn about the magic and wonder of bug hotels in my video essay collaboration with local gardener @willowofthewoods.
|
|
Reimagining Rio Del Mar after the 2023 winter storms.
A video essay about the history of what we now call Rio Del Mar in Aptos, CA, tracing the transformation from wetland to subdivision. I then paint a hopeful vision for a stewarded return to wetland.
|
|
Reimagining the upper parking lot at Seacliff Beach as a community garden
Inspired by Starhawk's reimagining of San Francisco in The Fifth Sacred Thing, I decided to start reimagining my own town as a solar punk utopia.
