Latina artist sees nature as a muse and encourages young artists to embrace creative freedom

When it comes to nature-inspired artwork, “you can change a tree ― you can even make it pink if you want,” Álvarez-Diaz mentioned, as she labored on including shades of blue to a palm tree. “It doesn’t have to be so concrete … There’s countless potentialities.“

Latino tradition depicted in art work

As a first era immigrant, Álvarez-Diaz mentioned figuring out the Mexico-born artist was going to be there opened her up to attending, regardless that artwork isn’t her forte.

“I felt safe to come here because (De Los Angeles) has experienced some of the same things,” Álvarez-Diaz mentioned.

Álvarez-Diaz is obsessed with social justice and her father works within the fields in Sonoma Valley. She mentioned regardless of there being a massive inhabitants of discipline employees in Sonoma, she feels she hasn’t seen a lot of illustration in art work at her college or in the area people, apart from De Los Angeles’ mural in Glen Ellen.

“When I saw that I did a double take,” Álvarez-Diaz mentioned to De Los Angeles over lunch on the park. “I was just like ‘woooow’.”

Álvarez-Diaz hopes to set up the creation of a mural in a high-traffic space in her highschool depicting the Latino neighborhood and discipline employees.

“Maria De Los Angeles motivated me a lot because I was feeling so deteriorated,” Álvarez-Diaz mentioned. “I didn’t really know anyone that did a mural or is passionate about doing murals of people of color.”

She mentioned her takeaway from the workshop was motivation to proceed combating for her concepts on illustration of individuals of shade in art work as she strikes ahead in her life.

Inspired by Mexico’s panorama

De Los Angeles, remembers drawing in Mexico as a young little one.

She remembers drawing the mountains, crops and animals in her hometown, which has a tropical local weather, and in methods appears related to Jack London State Historic Park, she mentioned.

“I think (nature) is probably our second sense of beauty,” De Los Angeles mentioned. “Probably our first one is our mother and the people around us and then as the world gets bigger, it becomes nature … so it’s kind of our first muse.”

Many within the artwork world say artists are all the time emulating nature.

But with deforestation, air pollution, and world warming consistently on the rise, “Maybe we need to go back into the world a little more now that we’re destroying it so quickly,” she mentioned.

“We have to train ourselves appreciation once more for it, proper?“

Art is a type of that appreciation, and being within the park, “feels like the right place to be,” she mentioned, taking within the view.

One of her murals in Glen Ellen is panorama and nature-inspired.

“For me the roses are really important,” De Los Angeles mentioned. “And the distant hills ― they have a big personality.”

She mentioned stepping again into Sonoma County, the artwork is far totally different than the New York artwork world, the place a lot is figurative drawing, nonetheless life oil work and buildings. “I think they’re both exciting,” she mentioned. “It’s like stepping into two different energies.”

That power of our environment and the individuals round us rising up usually has an affect on early art work.

“A lot of children, they draw their family and whatever is around them,” she mentioned. “For me I grew up in my grandparents’ farmland,” the place she painted flowers and the panorama.

While attending SRJC, De Los Angeles turned focused on figurative drawing, abstraction, mixing panorama ultimately and figurative components with magical realism.

Continuing the connection between artwork, tradition

De Los Angeles has labored on a whole of 4 murals throughout Sonoma County, together with a lately accomplished mural at Sutter Santa Rosa Regional Hospital and an upcoming inside mural at SRJC.

Spending time at Jack London park and workshops “is perfect inspiration” for her upcoming mural with SRJC she mentioned.

The mural will incorporate native crops, an oak tree and themes on the neighborhood’s relationship with nature.

“It’s beautiful to be out here,” she mentioned. Being in nature “makes us feel small again.”

Matt Leffert, the chief director of the Jack London State Historic Park met De Los Angeles throughout her mural fee in Glen Ellen in June final yr.

“I thought her approach to that project was really interesting,” Leffert mentioned. She had toured the park final yr in a journey to perceive the area people on a deeper stage.

Leffert attended the Saturday workshop and mentioned it was shifting to see college students exploring the park for the primary time, and noticing nature from a creative lens.

“For many of these students, looking at the landscapes to draw their own interpretation of the environment, to me is such a meaningful moment,” he mentioned.

Those experiences when connecting with nature could be really transformative, he mentioned. The park plans to host extra artwork workshops to get college students and neighborhood members related to their surroundings.

“Nature has the flexibility to enhance not simply our bodily well being, however our psychological and religious well being too,“ Leffert mentioned.

And the pure world may also encourage creativity.

“Seeing how unique and interesting each leaf is and each tree really enables students to see more deeply into what’s around them,” he mentioned.

“For us it was great to have an opportunity to have an accomplished artist like Maria to come and teach a workshop at the park,” Leffert mentioned. “We feel very lucky to have made that connection with her.”

There shall be one other workshop led by Los Angeles at Jack London State Park on April 30 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. For extra data, contact Kristi Lanusse, the park’s affiliate director of donor relations, at klanusse@jacklondonpark.com

You can attain Staff Writer Alana Minkler at 707-526-8511 or alana.minkler@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @alana_minkler.