04/30/2026
A bit about my process lately! The folks at the beautiful asked for something very special for their new restaurant, Alia, opening next month. A mural that is subtle yet highly custom to the species of the Columbia River Gorge, and grounded in the ecology of the Pacific Northwest.
That meant that before any design sketches it was time to learn even more about the native plants of the gorge, beyond my most familiar species.
Serendipitously, this commission overlaps with a Native Plant ID class with and that I am taking to better understand the species that shape this region. Drawings of the way they grow and relate to each other became the foundation for the piece.
This mural is built from that research and time spent studying, sketching, and translating these endemic species. Here we are out in the field, more views of the painted mural coming next!
