Photo Credit: Mark August Photography
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About Me and My WorkMy work aligns with the emerging culture and arts movement Solarpunk, which envisions a regenerative future interconnected with community and nature. I embrace Solarpunk themes on a local level, finding the positive transformation within my Santa Cruz community and extrapolating into the future.
Painting en plein air keeps my Solarpunk visions engaged with the world around me. For me, painting en plein air - capturing landscapes from life rather than from photos - means seeking out local environments that inspire hope, such as restored meadows, urban gardens, protests, and stewardship projects. Painting on-site allows my work to be shaped by the activists and stewards who are manifesting a Solarpunk world today. I also paint places of environmental distress - freeway overpasses during rush hour or neighborhoods recovering from floods - then I repaint these scenes infused with tangible solutions. Though I trained in oil painting, I now create small works in gouache and watercolor - a shift initially made to accommodate invisible disabilities. Over time, this choice evolved into an artistic philosophy - small art implies a small home, leaving more space for community and nature. I use they/them and she/her pronouns. |