New Moon Video :: Desert Sage

Desert Sage

A couple weeks ago I made a big announcement that my family and I will be moving to Costa Rica in eleven New Moons or in other words: June 2018.

Along with this announcement, I also shared how absolutely excited I am to be co-creating with my dear husband Hansel in a project that we hope will both document our great love and gratitude for Arizona as well as help us process through some of the grief we feel as we begin to leave this land we’ve grown to call our home.

Ever since I was a teenager I’ve loved to go places and paint outside.

I’ve never been interested in being a traditional plein air painter, but rather I prefer to allow the landscape to inspire my brush and help me connect more deeply with Mother Nature herself.

To me, painting outside is pure magic. I notice things that I would never pick up on if I was simply hiking or riding my bike.

Plus, every painting seems to come with it’s own oracle or lesson.  I always receive some type of juicy download — if it be by a struggle I overcome as I paint or a special totem that seems to make itself present as I move energy around on the canvas.

Hansel, he loves to shoot video — especially of all our adventures we take outside as a family.

So, for this collaboration together we’ve decided to choose eleven places that are very near and dear to our heart here in Arizona.  We each will connect with the place in the way we do best.  I will paint.  He will shoot.

Together we intend to create short, videos that not only show my process of painting in these beautiful landscapes — but feel more like a love story or a prayer.

What I also want to share is that this type of collaboration together is something very new for us.  As I write this blog post, we have already created three of these videos together and I must say that each one keeps getting better and better.

It’s been thrilling to create this together — absolutely thrilling!

But I must say that this first video, as sweet as it is, is only the beginning.  Not just of this Eleven New Moon video series we’re creating– but for our journey of creating art together for decades to come.

Both moving to Costa Rica and creating art together has been our dream for a very long time.

It truly feels like a blessing to share it with you.

Our first video: Desert Sage was created at a park very close to where we live.

We have hiked these mountains at least a million times.  When Phoenix was a baby I carried him in a carrier on my back and many times Hansel would put him in our mighty stroller and make the hike up! Now-a-days he does the big trek all on his own.

Eleven years ago, right after moving here from Cleveland, Ohio, I was mauled by a German Shepherd on these mountains — and my left thigh still has the scars to prove it.

There are many little nooks and crannies tucked away here where Phoenix and I have created earth mandala’s together. 

And I, myself come here when I simply need to be alone.  My favorite time is actually the morning — that’s when the light is perfect.

It is on these mountains that I decided to change my last name to Solera — and start a new era.

And so it only seems natural that we begin this series here — close to home.

Today I introduce to you the first of our 11 New Moon Videos: Desert Sage.  Be sure to watch it on full screen — it’s more fun that way!

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