California's native plant life has given me one of my most enduring subjects.

​

This series began in 2020, as I was redefining and recentering my career around outdoor education and the interpretation of natural history. As I dove headfirst into ecological literature, guided walks, and online discovery through resources like iNaturalist, I found that an effective avenue for learning about and remembering my botanical neighbors was to draw and paint them.

​

In my nature journal, I started drawing native plants from my local sand dune and sage scrub habitats. These drawings quickly turned into hieroglyphic-like images: archetypal motifs that I started incorporating into tattoo designs and larger paintings.

​

I found that painting a "portrait" of a native plant was often quicker and in some ways more satisfying than crafting a larger, slower, more thought-out composition. And so this series of digital paintings, completed on my iPad using an Apple pencil, became a way for me to work out ideas for simple motifs through a process of rapid iteration – and it doubled as a method of deepening my knowledge about my local plant relatives.

​

I expanded the concept slightly when I was struck by the urge to paint an abalone shell, making it the singular non-plant entry in the series so far; in the future I'd like to extend this idea by painting other shells, or maybe even minerals.

​

I decided to make this series available in a 5x7" greeting card format. They are carried in a few local stores here in the San Luis Obispo, Morro Bay, and Los Osos area.

​

To purchase California native plant greeting cards, visit the store.

​

If you are interesting in stocking these greeting cards in your retail store, please contact me directly.