Today would have been The Artful California Native Gardens of East San Diego County Tour through the California Native Plant Society. However, due to the global pandemic and rapid spread of COVID-19, it has been postponed until next year.
We were all going to spend the day exploring and learning from these gardens that illustrate habitat plants, dry streambed bioswales, adjacent natural areas, pool-to-pond conversions, water catchment devices, slope gardens, charming water features, bridges, sculptures and more. You would have meeting artists in many of the gardens who will be creating and selling their California native garden-themed artwork and crafts. Be inspired this Spring!
We had a handful of really talented native plant inspired artists lined up to display and sell their work at each of the gardens. To check out their work, I’ve linked their websites and Instagram handles below.
Marissa Quinn
San Diego based artist Marissa Quinn creates intensely detailed and intricate pen and ink drawings, based on personal visions and dream states. Her work narrates the cyclical stories of extinction and growth in nature, with an emphasis on native California flora and fauna. Quinn’s dramatic compositions seem to be caught in space and time, in states of either transformation or adaptation to current biospheric changes in our Earth.
She obtained both her Bachelor's Degree in Fine Art (BFA) and her Master's Degree in Fine Art (MFA) from Azusa Pacific University in Los Angeles, California and is an Adjunct Professor of Art at Point Loma Nazarene University in San Diego, California. Her work is currently in the Oceanside Museum of Art and in the private collection at the Lancaster Museum of Art.
Molly Paulick
Molly is an artist based in San Diego, California. Her bold and whimsical paintings explore the beauty and importance of the plants we often overlook within our urban environments. She is currently studying and painting California native plants in and around Balboa Park. Molly received her BA in Art at Azusa Pacific University in Los Angeles and is the recipient of the Business of Art Scholarship through the Studio Door Gallery in San Diego. She volunteers with habitat restoration in San Diego's urban canyons, and is developing a California native plant garden with her neighbors.
Amanda Kachadoorian
Amanda Rose Kachadoorian is an emerging Californian artist who was born and raised in San Diego, California. She is a graduate from the University of California, Berkeley with a BA in Art Practice. Her art practice has been focused on painting and drawing while experimenting with mix media, sculpture, and installation. Her body of work aims to express the notions of identity, psychology, ephemerality, and nature. Every concept has an underlying relationship with one another which she intends to create a dialogue around. She derives these ideas from the human anatomy, diverse plant life, and her multi-cultural background.
Yvonne La Chusa-Trottier
Yvonne La Chusa Trottier, Ipai, Mesa Grande Indian Reservation, works at the Shumup Ko Hup store and is an accomplished California Indian master basket weaver living in San Diego County, Southern California. IN HER OWN WORDS: "As an artist, I had always enjoyed painting and drawing as a child and have always been especially interested in Indian Arts, culture and the traditions of my own family as well as learning about other indigenous tribal cultures.
Barona Cultural Center
As San Diego County’s first museum on an Indian reservation dedicated to the perpetuation and presentation of the local Kumeyaay-Diegueño Native culture, the Barona Museum offers a unique educational journey for visitors of all ages. The Museum’s collection represents thousands of years of history—some objects dating as far back as 10,000 years—and it demonstrates the artistry and skill of the hemisphere’s first inhabitants.
At the Water Conservation Garden, Kumeyaay historical and cultural uses of native plants for baskets, housing, clothing, and traditional arts will be presented by Barona Cultural Center and Yvonne La Chusa-Trottier, master basket weaver.
Christine Waters
An enduring love of nature and art drives Chris’s pursuit of on-location (plein air) painting in watercolor. Carrying a bag of art supplies and paper brings the artist to a place where inspiration from exciting views can be captured in the moment. Fine art techniques acquired in earlier college years, more recent workshop studies and continued ed courses, provide tools used to translate the “in the moment” mood observed at locations ranging from urban to undisturbed nature. Christine paints in an impressionistic, expressive style with rich, flowing color. She credits this to the influence of the french impressionists (among many others). Her passion for nature also includes serving as an outreach docent at the San Diego Natural History Museum, educating local children through hands-on learning experiences.
Coko Brown
Coko Brown is a fourth generation native San Diegan. As a child she was fortunate to visit the Julian area regularly with her family. Her love of the area took her out of the city to live and pursue her art aspirations in nature. Eclectic in both her media as well as subject matter, Coko paints in oil, acrylic, watercolor and pastel. She paints on wood panels, canvas, paper, and guitars – as a musician she enjoys blending the two creative forms. Her subject matter includes landscape, portrait and still life, painted in a variety of genres that include realism, impressionism, expressionism as well as abstraction. Additionally, Coko is a Certified Master Gardener. She participates in many activities with the San Diego Master Gardeners Association as well as being a member of the California Native Plant Society, the Pacific Horticultural Society and the National Wildlife Federation.
Kathleen Cook
Kathleen Cook began weaving in 1998. Her botanical weavings incorporate California native plants, celebrating the natural beauty which surrounds us and expressing the interconnection we share with each other and with our environment. Her work is shown in Ramona and beyond. She has recently been awarded the Volcan Mountain Foundation’s Rubenson Artist-in-Residence Endowment for 2020.
Andrea Wagman-Christian
“Tree and Window Bling" contain Semi Precious Stones, Murano Glass, Pearls, Finest Quality Cut Crystals, plus Imported Beads and Mirrors. These exquisite creations respect nature by honoring the elements of sun and wind in our homes and gardens. “Sun and Wind Catchers" give immediate joy to those who set their eyes on the intense and colorful rainbows. Reflections are displayed on your walls and catch you in the eye. Light and Color Bounce Everywhere! When hit by the sun or light, “Tree and Window Jewelry” gives back day and night. Each is One-of-a-Kind and Hand-Made with the finest selection of materials from around the globe. “Tree and Window Bling" creates an environment that reinforces qualities of balance, joy and peace.
Margaret Gallagher
Margaret Gallagher’s detailed ink-and-watercolor illustrations highlight the intimate beauty of Southern California's native ecosystems. Long, quiet walks in LA's often-overlooked wild spaces provide inspiration for her drawings, which depict the hidden worlds of plants, animals, fungi, and invertebrates that quietly teem in the spaces around us.
Palomar Handweavers and Spinners Guild
For over 60 years, the Palomar Handweavers’ Guild has been supporting handweavers and handspinners in northern San Diego County. In partnership with the Antique Gas & Steam Engine Museum, guild members helped construct the 4000-square-foot Weavers' Barn on the Museum grounds and have assembled a collection of hundreds of looms, spinning wheels, and fiber-related artifacts which we actively work on and maintain.
Sneha Kochuparambil
I strive to create art that is unique, to expand imagination. Working in abstract and nonrepresentational art means I have to elicit interest without context, using the pure elements of color, line, shape, form, space, texture and value to portray a dynamic piece to build a connection with the viewer. Through my work I hope to connect people to their instincts; not to form a connection they recognize but something that needs to been thoughtfully sorted. I have fond memories of creating when I was a child and started a formal education in community college where I had some memorable professors whose lessons still inspire my style today. I graduated San Jose State University with a BA in Art studying any art form I could, including weaving, glass blowing, ceramics, paper making and lithography. I use ink and acrylic in a watercolor style on circular supports which clarify and bring harmony to my work. Titles only exist as a means of identification and/or personal memento.
Carol Gross
There is something magical in taking a lump of “mud” and turning it into a functional and beautiful object. Mostly thrown on the potter’s wheel, then altered and carved to create pattern that gives a sense of movement, my work reflects my two passions in life: gardening and creating with clay.
Charles Turkle
Inspired by nature and architecture, Charles designs custom pieces to suit the individual. A color wheel provided inspiration for an artist looking to screen light coming from the road and the Rainbow Mountains of China created some drama for a geologist’s front entry. A snail shell creates an abstract spiral of color.