This painting shows the population decline of ochre sea stars in Shelter Cove, CA recorded by the UC Santa Cruz Multi Agency Rocky Intertidal Network. This decline is largely due to seastar wasting syndrome, a mysterious disease that has caused multiple die-offs since at least the 70s, but the most recent die-off beginning in 2013 is the largest and most widespread marine animal die off in recorded history, affecting over 20 species of sea stars. Likely, this is both due to a pathogen, and environmental factors such as the oceans temperature rising. This die-off is not just impacting sea star populations, but also the whole intertidal ecosystem. This issue with Ochre Sea Stars lead to the coining of the term  "keystone species," meaning “a type of species that plays a defining role in its biological community” (OregonWildlife.org). Sea stars feed on mussels and urchins, but since the sea star population decline, less mussels and urchins are being eaten, so they are taking over the habitat space for many intertidal species, as well as the kelp forests. Through UC Santa Cruz, the National Parks Department and other agencies, research is underway and action plans are being made to understand and address this disease. 

UC Santa Cruz Marine Science 

Oregon Wild  

National Parks Service 

piscoweb 

Slime molds are a very unique group of organisms that play an important role in decomposition. They do share some similarities with fungi and were once classified as such, but slime molds are in the taxonomic category of protista, a group of eukaryotic organisms that are not plants, animals, or fungi. Some are single celled and they communicate with each other through chemical signals and come together to form a mass capable of movement. This type is often not visible with the naked eye. Plasmodial slime molds are another type, starting as individual cells, then fusing into one mass with one membrane and multiple nuclei. This form can grow very large, and have even been able to navigate through a maze and anticipate scheduled rewards in a lab setting! This group of eukaryotic organisms are very diverse, and the way they communicate with each other and move is very unique and specific. I chose to draw these slime molds because of how interesting they are as a group, and how this world of slime molds, that whole way of existing is overlooked. Similarly to the motive behind the Medley of Mosses drawing I did, I enjoy discovering these little worlds I had no real knowledge of before, and bringing bright colors to them.

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This project was for a final in my Geology of California class, and it is meant to show how many different types of rock are present at Trinidad Beach, because of the tectonic plate activity right off the coast. The North American Plate, Gorda Plate, and Pacific Plate join to create the Cascadia Subduction Zone, where at the plate boundary, rocks and sediments collect and at the accretionary wedge and get mixed together and pushed up to the surface. The different types or rock created this way are collectively referred to as The Franciscan Complex. How many types of rock can you find?

Trinidad Coastal Land Trust   

 This was an assignment for my Interdisciplinary Inquiry Class. It depicts some of the critically endangered bird species in North America and their total population decline. Birds are very much an indicator species of the overall health in an ecosystem. The data here is from the USGS bird count, there is a gap in the year 2020 as the bird count did not happen during COVID. There is a Western Meadowlark drawn as well. Meadowlarks are not technically listed as critically endangered as of now because the total population of meadowlarks is still large, but I included them because the population is declining exponentially, and in a disproportionate rate to many others. It it also worth noting that the majority of critically endangered bird species are native to Hawaii. 

USGS Bird Survey 

ICUN Red List 

These bowls were the first of my Interdisciplinary artworks. I made these for my capstone project in my Natural History of California class while I was also taking ceramics. The bowls show the different leaf shapes that ferns can have: pinnate, palmate, and lobed. I just happened to find some wild clay while collecting the ferns for this project, so I ended up using it as a slip to show the shapes of the ferns in the bare clay.  These won the Cindy Hoopers Innovative Idea award at the CR Juried Art Showcase!

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