This painting of Palestinian farmers harvesting from an olive tree is inspired by an article about the conflict and symbolism around Palestinian olive groves (linked in my bio). In the occupied West Bank often Palestinian farmers risk their lives to reach trees that have been tended by their families for hundreds of years. Sometimes settlers steal olives from the trees under the protection of Israeli soldiers. Whole orchards have been burned down by settler militias. What a terrible thing to lose a tree that sustained your ancestors for generations. And yet, olive trees can resprout from the roots so they are a poignant symbol of Palestinian resilience.
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Call your reps to stop military aid to Israel today! There are lots of orgs with systems that will call you and connect you to each of your reps in turn. Just look up “call my reps for ceasefire” on google. It’s so easy.
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Peace is never found when to the winner goes the spoils. And the spoils can never compare to the food, poetry, customs, economy, and lives swallowed up by the insatiable mouths of standardized, sterilized military machines. May at every opportunity people choose the safety of diversity and mutuality, and sink into the gentle turbulence of interdependence.
#ceasefire #ceasefirenow #freepalestine
@liminal_space_collective and @santacruzpl are collaborating on #SolarpunkSummer! In June we will be curating displays at the main branch as well as hosting events and activities. Join us to share and cultivate your vision for a just and sustainable future!!
I will be hosting a Solarpunk Pen Pals Workshop on June 28! Sign up through the link in my description.
Sign up through the link in my bio!
"Channel the power of visual storytelling through painting as you learn to translate complex landscapes into elegant paintings in gouache. Each week you will paint at a new location that is specially selected by Taylor for its relevance to local history, ecology, culture, and which demonstrates the resilience of the land. Taylor will offer a natural history presentation to start each class, and share inspirational details about the location. No need to worry about your en plein air gear! Taylor will provide easels, palettes, and other painting supplies and equipment to create a pop-up plein air classroom for you each week, and will handle all the setup and cleanup of tools and equipment.
Beginners will learn the essentials - how to block-in, mix colors, and simplify. More experienced painters will learn tips and tricks specific to Santa Cruz County’s diverse landscapes, and how to achieve a painterly but realistic style. By the end of class you will know how to acquire your own plein air gear, have the skills and confidence to go out and paint plein air on your own, have new natural history knowledge about three unique sites, and understand how to tell meaningful stories about your environment with plein air painting. You will have time to complete three 6” x 8” paintings, one during each class."
Sign up through the link in my bio!
"Channel the power of visual storytelling through painting as you learn to translate complex landscapes into elegant paintings in gouache. Each week you will paint at a new location that is specially selected by Taylor for its relevance to local history, ecology, culture, and which demonstrates the resilience of the land. Taylor will offer a natural history presentation to start each class, and share inspirational details about the location. No need to worry about your en plein air gear! Taylor will provide easels, palettes, and other painting supplies and equipment to create a pop-up plein air classroom for you each week, and will handle all the setup and cleanup of tools and equipment.
Beginners will learn the essentials - how to block-in, mix colors, and simplify. More experienced painters will learn tips and tricks specific to Santa Cruz County’s diverse landscapes, and how to achieve a painterly but realistic style. By the end of class you will know how to acquire your own plein air gear, have the skills and confidence to go out and paint plein air on your own, have new natural history knowledge about three unique sites, and understand how to tell meaningful stories about your environment with plein air painting. You will have time to complete three 6” x 8” paintings, one during each class."
Present:
During the City Beautiful Movement at the turn of the 20th century, city planners used classical architecture to romanticize the imperialistic military ambitions of San Francisco’s wealthiest 1%, all of whom were heavily invested in the arms industry. San Francisco's City Hall and Civic Center were focal points for this architectural movement.
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.
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.
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I think I nailed the valentines this year lol
Thank you @liminal_space_collective and @mariposa_coffeebar for putting up with my incessant giggling during Creative Commons collage night <3
I was so honored to create this painting of Beach Ranch for the Land Trust of Santa Cruz @landtrustscc ! Beach Ranch is a property at the mouth of the Pajaro River which was recently acquired by as a part of a landscape-scale wetland protection and climate change resiliency project.
Celebrate this project and all of the Land Trust's amazing work this Friday at their Holiday Open House. This is my only holiday market where I'll be vending this season so come say hi!
This farmland right at the mouth of the Pajaro River has been flooded multiple times and becomes ever less viable as climate change worsens. The Land Trust plans restore it to wetland and rejoin it with the slough visible on the left of the floodbank. The expanded wetland will be a living buffer that sequesters carbon and protects upriver farmland and communities from the effects of climate change.
#pleinair #conservation #wetlands #gouache
Taylor Seamount # 40
@taylorseamount
taylorseamount.com
Painting
Has Demo
Working Studio
South County October 4 & 5
All County October 18 & 19
@artscouncilsc #santacruzopenstudios
Esperanza Community Farm painted en plein air. @esperanzacommunityfarm is an organic farm in Watsonville. The crops harvested at Esperanza are packed into CSA boxes and distributed to locals who desire to be directly connected to a local farm and farmer. Approximately 70% of Esperanza’s CSA members would otherwise be unable to afford farm-fresh vegetables. Many of the CSA members are farm workers themselves. Because of the injustice of our food system, many of the people cultivating our food, can’t afford the very food their labor provides. Esperanza promotes an inclusive food system that brings together people of different classes around common interests as a way to achieve shared prosperity.
Each row of vegetables at Esperanza is different and the rows are rotated annually. This prevents the spread of pests and disease, and allows the soil to thrive. Without the need for pesticides, farmers and volunteers can work safely on this beautiful August morning, free from poisons in the air and soil. (To learn about the impact of pesticides in Pajaro Valley follow @safeagsafeschools .)
I had such a sweet time volunteering to pack CSA boxes and hope to do it again. It was a beautiful way to connect with the land and community. They are looking for more regular volunteers.
This land was originally in relationship with the Kalenderuc Tribe. After colonization, the land was converted to conventionally cultivated farmland and degraded over time. In 1990, @watsonvillewetlandswatch protected the land from a condo and golf course development project, and later the @santacruzlandtrust purchased the land for conservation. Today, the Land Trust leases it to Esperanza, recognizing farming as a form of conservation when done wisely.
#farm #farming #pleinair #art
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.
#solarpunk #hopepunk #santacruz #mycelium #ecology
