suburban narratives

Sleeping Mother oil on canvas

Paved the way, oil painting, 2002

Mountain Lion Gets Death For Acting Like Animal, Oil Painting, 2002

Why did the coyote cross the road?, oil painting, 2002

detail

A delicate feather

Up above the birds flew by

a delicate feather fell from the sky

 drifting gently to the ground

Too soft and pretty to make a sound

Art VULUPS

The long name is Art as a Vehicle to Understand Land Use Planning and Sustainability, and is a unique collaboration between artists and urban planners. Each artist/planner team   explored a topic to conceptualize for greater public understanding. I was pleased to be working with Grace Williams from the March Joint Powers Authority on the topic of jobs and housing balance. It got me thinking about my own commute to work from Riverside to Nuevo, and what I would rather do with the time spent on the road in addition to the guilt I feel environmentally speaking. It brings peace of mind and time to enjoy life when work is close to home. A balance in jobs and housing is a balance for not only communities as a whole, but also for the residents of those communities. And its better for the environment. Commuting is polluting and all that jazz! If the topic is interesting to you there is a dialogue about the project in more detail here at the Art VULUPS website. Here are a few pictures of our project. We were inspired by the idea of "more time to play", and wanted to use an old airplane propellor (march air force base reference), and create a merry-go-round (what people often refer to the chaos of working/life cycle as). As this was not possible to realize (YET!), I designed a board with a fan installed. The fan represents the fresher air from less pollution, and when it is turned on it becomes a mandala. The blended colors become symbolic of the oneness of your living and working life. A mandala represents being balanced, finding harmony. Visit the Art VULUPS website to check out all of the amazing interpretations by other artist/planner teams, there will be more to come from the program too -I'll keep you posted :)

Sundogs and lightrays

I love these sundog rainbows, large and small. I see them all the time, here is a small collection of photos when I've been lucky enough to capture them, also some beautiful light rays. Don't forget to look up when you're out, enjoy! click the photos for a bigger view.

this image has been graced by the Virgin de Guadalupe! I added nothing but a high contrast filter and beefed up the color saturation so that the sky had more definition.

this one is very unique, there was an inverted one mirroring the main one...what?!!!!! Mrs. Bianca Memory Heyming saw it too :) this picture of course does not do justice to the spectacle

thanks for looking! want to see more of my photography? well you can here :)

Thanks for the Sunset

This painting shows the effects of air pollution from LA on the Inland Empire.

Knowing not the impact of their daily lives, cars, and actions

Constantly moving but no forward progress.

The ocean breeze takes it away

into The Empire enclosed by regal mountains.

The waste from the West sets,

stagnates, and destroys lungs, lifestyles, atmosphere

As the sun gets low it illuminates

The particles heavy and the gasses many

The view we behold is extraordinary.

The silly jurisdictions cannot contain the air they rule

No one can, do not be fooled!

Together as one we will overcome

and clean the air that we all share so tomorrow comes for everyone.

The South Coast Air Quality Management District (AQMD) and the Center for Community Action and Environmental Justice (CCAEJ) put together a clean air summit for the Inland Empire back in May. I was honored to have my painting on display, and a photo of it along with my poem was included in all of the binders given to the conference attendees. It was a great surprise when Roger Kintz (Branch Chief/DTSC Environmental Justice Coordinator,Enforcement/Emergency Response Program) purchased my painting so that it may hang in the offices and be viewed by many visitors! Thank you Roger! I hope that we will collaborate in the future on hosting art shows that relate to our local environmental issues. Here is a photo of woman of the year Penny Newman and I at the conference:

I also did a painting about acid rain and the "asian brown cloud" situation. Here it is:

want to see this on a shirt? or a tie? or a...?

Riverside Re-street

Restreet, or complete-the-street, is a movement to help create more safe and efficient communities. I recently had the honor of being invited by the City of Riverside Planning Department to  coordinate a chalk mural. The purpose of the mural was to help inspire a new vision for how we use University Avenue. The question "what if the street were designed for more than cars?" drove the concept. People were invited to come and participate in a discussion and brainstorming session regarding how the street itself can be redesigned to be more walk and bike-able, more sustainable, more economical and sociable, and safer. Many ideas were presented that day from implementing more green roofs and building skateparks in vacant spaces, to creating more bike lanes, better public transit, and traffic calming and zoning for more small, local retail. As the "city of arts and innovation", I commend Riverside for inviting artists and all concerned citizens to the drawing board. Unindoctrinated input will surely help create a more unique and genuine sense of place.
Artists and community members were invited to come to Ceasar Chaves Community Center to create a collaborative mural. The mural would be seen by the participants at the meeting the following day. Here are some photos of the work in progress, and a short story below that describes my personal vision for a more ideal town. What are your ideas?

“Strengthening the community by integrating wisdom and nature through art in public places”

By Selena Wilson

Imagine this:

You are walking down the street to the market with your six year old. Along the pedestrian median of the boulevard, there are trees. These are fruit trees encircled by metal, artist crafted tree guards. They have symbols integrated that the community holds dear, and have hand-holds and planters built in. Your child climbs on one, reaches into a planter pocket to eat a strawberry, and climbs further to pick you an orange. The next tree has mint growing. You take a pinch to bring home to your mother who isn’t feeling

well. You will make her some tea. A mural in the neighborhood illustrates with pictures and words which commonly found, and purposefully planted by the city, vegetation is useful for our health and well being. In fact, the city uses many useful and drought tolerant plants. There are vertical gardens all over city walls. Where there aren’t, there are murals that share the wisdom, traditions, and history of the various neighborhoods. You stop to fill your water bottle at one of the many public drinking fountains. This water is clean and unflouridated; you give a sip to the little one who climbs everywhere. This city is the playground and the classroom. All along the street there bars to hang from and small sets of three or four steps to do spontaneous exercise or performances on.

When you get to the market you notice your teenager’s bike at one of the bike racks (welded by local metal smiths, these are everywhere!). You remember that he comes here after school as part of a community service program initiated by the schools and neighborhood committees; he helps out at the neighborhood coop. This is where people from the community volunteer in order to participate in sharing of garden harvest, organize work parties, give and get tutoring for all ages of students, and offer workshops on things they are good at. As you peek in you see him rearranging the bulletin board that faces out the window.

On your return home with your groceries, you decide to use the public transit to make it home faster and easier with the load you now carry. Here you are able to see posters advertising local events. Local musicians music is playing on the airwaves. The transit drops you and your child off in your neighborhood, whose character and history is told through murals and sculptural elements. There are a few neighbors who sponsor the painting of their fence with a new mural, a community goal, each year. People here are regularly invited in person to attend neighborhood meetings. Twice a year some streets

close down in order to have block party’s where neighbors eat and play together. These events give people a chance to identify common goals. Their children paint the murals under the supervision of the local talent. They know who they are, and where they are going.

Trees

The wind is the voice of the trees...

 sometimes when they sneeze 

                                                                        it creates a breeze.

You really should hear when they all start to cheer,

the whirlwind they cause reaches all the trees ears.

The joshua tree ...

...emits energy!

Did you ever hear your name in the wind? It was breathed by a tree who is your friend

So next time you see

these providers of air

give them a hug to show them you care.