|
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.
|
|
|
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.
|
|
|
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.
|
|
|
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. |
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. |
|
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.
|
|
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. |
|
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. |
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.
|
