Photo Credit: Mark August Photography
Why plein air?
Painting en plein air keeps my Solarpunk visions engaged with the world around me. For me, painting en plein air 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. |
Why solarpunk?
Our media landscape of dystopic science fiction and doomscrolling crushes down our visions of the future into a narrow set of worst-case to lesser-evil scenarios.
But the truth is that the future is as wide as our imaginations will allow. Under the umbrella of solarpunk, I use my art to supply visions of the more hopeful outcomes while speculating on the myriad paths to them. Solarpunk is grounded in intimate knowledge of land and community. My knowledge lies in the bay area and central coast of what is, for now, called California. I believe in universality through specificity and I hope that my work inspires viewers to cultivate a solarpunk narrative for their corner of the world. 
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