Hello!

I am a painter and educator who usually creates portraits of ecosystems en plein air. This summer my family joined the Winnemem Wintu tribe on the Run4Salmon canoe journey to bring advocacy and community together around the health of California’s waterways (Run4Salmon.org is awesome!)

While paddling, I had a vision of a painted story-map to support the Winnemem Wintu in visualizing what’s impacting California’s salmon and river health and how their creation story, ceremonies and prayer run are inviting us back into right relation.

I’m a little over halfway done! The Winnemem Chief Caleen Sisk and her son have given me approval on the design and feedback as I send updates of my progress.

My intention is to gift the tribe the painting upon completion, so they can use the painting as they best see fit, and additionally make prints of the image to sell for fundraising the Run4Salmon.

I could use a little awesome funding to help offset the many hours put into this large-scale painting. I’m creating it from natural pigments and binder (gum arabic powder!), which has been an awesome transition off of oil paint, which I used to use.

Creating a story-telling painting with figures and nature pigment is really different for me, and I’m loving the experimental process. I also love collaborating to support California’s water and Indigenous tribes.

Thank you for taking the time to learn about this project!