Desert Art Making

The Las Vegas Range, a mountain peak in the Sheep Range mountains to the east of the Desert Wildlife Refuge. (watercolor and ink on Coldpress paper)

Corn Creek Pyrg, the tiniest little snail that is barely even the size of a grain of rice. Unique to this habitat. (Watercolor with ink and pencil on Coldpress paper)

Pahrump Poolfish, a very small fish with a big story of resilience and relocation. Only found in the springs of the Mojave Desert. There is a refugium for the poolfish here on site at the Desert National Wildlife Refuge. (watercolor with ink and pencil on Coldpress paper)

I am not a traditional landscape nor wildlife artist. Yet here I am at a desert wildlife refuge where the artists who have preceded me in their residencies have created wonderful works inspired by the vastness of this magnificent refuge.

I have made a handful of landscapes over the years and a few birds and butterflies, but this past week I made my first fish painting as well as an artwork that honors the tiniest snail I did not know existed. I also made a solid desert landscape with a colorful sky, which is something I will be leaning into more of these next weeks and months. Bold vibrant skies are pulling at me in my personal life as being in the desert feels so Home. I did not like growing up in Las Vegas with it's harsh dirt and rock landscape and scorching temperatures as well as the hustle culture of The Strip. Yet something shifted deep when I came to visit this past summer. I saw the desert with new eyes.

That is why I'm here. I am responding to a sense of being drawn to connect to the desert as an artist and also as a woman, to lean in and learn the wisdom that nature provides through some of the most resilient lifeforms on the planet.

Find me on social media for current updates of my time in this desert art residency. I'll be working mostly in watercolor with some acrylic paintings as well. The Refuge has asked me to donate an original to their offices in the visitor center. I will be making an acrylic painting with much desert sky as a permanent display inside their government offices.

Is this my life?

YES IT IS!!

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