Painting Nature with Nature Herself: Meet Artist Caro Arevalo
An interview with a true plant lover
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Hello lovely readers. I hope this finds you enjoying the simple pleasures of early summer time. Richmond is alive with so many floral scents singing along the sidewalks…gardenia, jasmine, elderflower- some of my very favorites. It is not too sticky and hot yet, and the early mornings are hanging onto the cooler air just long enough to get yourself out there and not take it for granted.
I’ve been staying so busy teaching watercolor workshops across Virginia (it’s the best getting to create in person with you all again!), working on new commissioned pieces, and taking an intuitive plant medicine course with the herbalist Asia Suler. It’s an alive season and I am grateful for the freedom and creativity unfurling in me again. I am learning my capacity to hold many truths at once, and knowing that my rest, pleasure, and joy are radical acts against the broken systems still causing intense destruction in the world. It has been a heavy time and it’s also been a time I’ve been cultivating a lot of light. I’ve also been reflecting a lot on how I serve my local community, how I care for my people and myself, and how I care for the little piece of earth where I get to plant seeds of hope along with tomatoes and peppers and herbs.
Recently, conversations with friends around the importance of artists in the world has come up. The way that artists bring visions to life, create new pathways, use beauty and color and form as a way to honor distinctly what is of this moment. Sometimes I forget that there is an importance in that preservation and story telling, but it feels so necessary to have outlets of expression and resonance in our day to day lives, and to then share them with each other.
What do you create to just allow yourself to feel good? To have fun? Where can you bring more of this into your life? Play + creativity seem to go hand in hand, and the world feels so hungry for this. Out of this space, new solutions can come to life, and potentially a much better and just future for all.
This month I am sharing an interview with one of my very favorite artists, Caro Arevalo. I found Caro last year through her incredible fungi kingdom painting. Caro creates large scale mandala like paintings of plants and animals and the living world. You can feel her devotion to her subjects in each piece, like each painting is a prayer in itself to all of creation. I am so excited to have her as a guest here. Please feel free to leave any questions and/or reflections in the comments below.
In your own words, can you tell us what you do for a living?
Hi there! Thank you for being here. I make art in various forms! I am a visual artist working with watercolors and microscopes, filming videos, teaching classes and leading ceremonies. Through my art I explore the plant and fungi kingdoms both with the microscopes and our naked eyes. My love for nature goes beyond painting and hiking to explore new painting subjects. I feel honored to also share workshops and ceremonies alongside our plant kin which have as a central objective to connect with nature, our plant allies and come back to our hearts.
When did considering yourself an 'artist' begin for you? Did you feel like an artist as a child, or was it something that you came to when you were older?
Oh my, this is a hard one! I have an older sister and she was the one who taught me there was magic in this world and that art making was a portal to access it. I loved painting and playing with flowers as a child, I loved making potions and pretty much everything was a form of creativity. This got very lost in me in my tweens and teens, and it was just back in my late teens that I reconnected with the artist within. I guess I pushed away seeing myself as an artist as I somehow, thought there was only 1 artist in a family and I didn’t want to copy my sister’s calling. After years of negating my own artistic ways and realizing everything else felt a little too dull, I decided to give art another try and I haven’t ever stopped since, it’s been a couple decades now.
What is your favorite medium/artform to create with?
I am a devotee of watercolors! I have been working with watercolors as my main medium for the past decade and for the past few years I’ve been only working with handmade, natural earth watercolors. I mainly work with mineral and earth watercolors and my love for them only keeps deepening. It’s been 1 year since I started making my own watercolors from dirt and rock and I know I am just starting a very, very long journey I feel grateful to be embarking on. It is truly inspiring to be painting nature, with nature itself!
How did you first get into the work that you do? How would you describe your niche, and how did you find it?
The type of artwork I do didn’t come to me from going to art school or anything I was taught there. I felt my very first real deep connection with art after participating in my first ceremony. This was a Temazcal ceremony and afterwards this new type of artwork kept pouring out from my hands, I had never felt so connected to my craft. For the first time, I felt it wasn’t just me drawing, but it felt bigger than me and that actually took away a lot of the self-doubt as I felt it wasn’t coming solely from me. My artwork became a healing journey, a meditative practice. And while I kept healing myself, my artwork started shifting with me. Slowly plants and fungi started appearing in my paintings, and my curiosity to spend more time in nature started deepening as well. Even though nowadays I have a very “me” way of painting, I always feel I let the art, or the creative muse, take me wherever it wants to, and that shifts the artwork and the themes I work on. What looked like a “very me” artwork back in 2014 is very different to the type of “very me” artwork that I create nowadays, and I believe that speaks a lot about how our work changes when we change. I love how we -me and my art- change together and I believe the key to keep this change and signature going is to let it be as free as it wants to be.
When you are struggling to find your creative voice, what are some practices that bring it back for you?
Rest has been a big one lately. I was in survival mode for decades and in some ways I believe I still am, but not as much as I used to be and this has been a big challenge to shift in my mindset. The need to always be working to make ends meet is real and letting ourselves rest can seem very counterintuitive in that sense. I am still slowly learning that rest is necessary not only for my physical body but my emotional body. I am a devotee of nature, communing with plants, sitting down in ceremony, exploring new mediums to play with outside my art practice. These are all amazing ways to bring back my creativity! I have a video where I share the 5 practices that bring me back to my creativity the most :)
Here it is:
Who are some artists/creatives/change makers that inspire you?
I am deeply inspired by the protectors of the sacred lands of Earth; the indigenous elders who are sharing their wisdom with so many of us around the world. I am so honored to be learning from various indigenous leaders from different communities around the world and learning how to work in reciprocity with the land and people. Some of them are Nana Marina Cruz, from the Tz’utujil community in Guatemala. Manari Usigua from the Sapara Nation and Maestra Ynes from the Shipibo community in Peru. I am also very inspired by the work of Zaria Forman not only by the artistry and craftsmanship of her work, but also by the message her artwork has and the partnerships she has with organizations like Nat Geo and NASA. And lastly, the work of Harry Chavez; a Peruvian visual artist portraying the bridge in between the spiritual and physical realities, an artist who uses his platform to learn and uplift the voices from Shipibo artists from the jungle in Peru.
What advice would you give to someone trying to become a professional artist? I actually just posted a video sharing the 10 biggest lessons I’ve learned in my 5 years living as a full-time artist. You can find it here:
Do you have a mentor? If so, how has that support helped you get to where you are now?
I have mentors on my plant path! There are lots of them but these past few years I’ve been learning from Nana Marina Cruz form the Tz’utujil community and Florencia Friedman from The Cacao Laboratory. I feel extremely grateful for my mentors’ openness to share their wisdom and traditions. I also have mentors in my meditation and sound paths. I don’t have and haven’t had mentors in my art journey, but I would someday love to learn with the art of visual icaros from the Shipibo community.
Please tell us about what you are working on currently, and if there are any upcoming happenings/shows/print sales we should be aware of!
I just finished a 30”x30” watercolor & gouache painting about the pollinators! I’ve been working on it for 1 year and I will have the prints available in the next few weeks :)
I am also opening the doors to a new session of my online container “whispers of the heart” where we meet for 21 days with the medicines of cacao and meditation. This time around, it is offered in Spanish. There are also a few opportunities for in-person cacao & painting gatherings this June across NYC and Woodstock! All the information is available here: https://linktr.ee/caro.arevalo
You can see more of Caro’s work on her instagram and her website.
Current Inspirations and Musings…
As mentioned above, I am currently taking Asia Suler’s Intuitive Plant Medicine course and am so loving it. I’ve taken other courses from Asia in the past and highly recommend them if interested in learning more meaningful ways of connecting with the living world.
Richmond friends! My husband is hosting some really beautiful tea sessions in June at Celladora Wines. Learn all about the art & tranquility of sitting with tea. It is a meditation, a therapy session, and a nourishing hug all in one. :)
You can sign up here
I am teaching a workshop this coming Saturday at Oakley Farm in Warm Springs, VA, in collaboration with Troddenvale Cider. At this moment, I have ONE spot left! We will be painting some gorgeous flowers from yonderyear farm and drinking delicious cider from Troddenvale. Learn more here.
*If you have a venue or space and are interested in partnering for watercolor workshops, please reach out! Currently looking to book more classes for July and August.
I love all of Amy Chaplin’s recipes, and this almond cake in particular is a great canvas for all of the beautiful summer fruits coming on. I love using strawberries and crystallized ginger.
I have a whole collection of work that I created last year that was intended for a book project that is no longer coming into being. While I let this work rest and contemplate it’s new destiny, there are a few pieces I loved making so much that I am making prints of available now. Here is a sneak peak before they make it into my webshop!
Thank you as always for being here and reading my words. May you find moments to slow down, rest, play, and care for the loved ones in your life, including your very own artist being.
What is the cake in that cake painting? It kinda looks like laminated pastry, but it also looks like a yellow birthday cake!
Her work is unbelievably detailed and deep. I feel like she just opened up the earth.
Thanks for the recipe resources too! (Also, looking forward to Rob's tea session next week!)