It was fun to receive this video of travel bloggers who visited Whidbey Island, WA where one of my pieces lives at the Price Sculpture Forest. The Lichen Series | Spore Patterns installation was created in 2021 and is among dozens of amazing sculptures embedded into the landscape of the forest – definitely plan a visit if you’re in the area! The Sculpture Forest is featured at about the 8 minute 50 second mark on the video – check it out!
This piece is inspired by the biological structures of mushroom gills and the patterns the spores leave behind. The over 300 ceramic forms are based on a type of shelf fungus that has a leathery surface and wedge shaped form that anchors itself to the side of decaying trees. This piece is a 12 foot diameter circle about 18″ high off the ground and is placed at the Price Sculpture Forest on Whidbey Island in Washington state.
Conceptually, mushrooms speak of the cycle of life and death, since mycelium begins breaking down the dead waste in nature and the fruits of the mycelium (the mushrooms) are the new growth that comes from it. The spores that are dropped from the mushroom gills, spread the growth and the cycle continues. Mycelium are some of the largest living organisms on earth stretching underground over miles of terrain creating networks of communication throughout the landscape. This network makes them a symbol of growth through connection and how we are all connected to each other and to the systems and structures of nature.
We are sharing each of the artists participating in our current exhibition H2O through our blog series, Artists Sharing Artists, so you can learn a little more about them and their artwork. If you’d like to come see the show in person, please check out our pop-up event schedule and/or book a private tour with us! If you’d like to purchase work, please contact us!
About the Artists:
Rudy Mendoza is a Mexican artist that merges sculpture and architecture. His practice explores the concept of spirituality through contemplation in everyday life.
Oso Mango is a multidisciplinary Mexican artist working across painting, sculpture, installation, and digital media. His practice explores the space between the organic and the technological.
twin mirrors | metal + water | 60,000 mxn
About the Art:
This work explores two conditions that, when brought together, quietly disrupt the familiar: the liquid state of matter and black understood as non-color. Liquid has no fixed form. It adapts to the shape that contains it, replicating without possessing, transforming without touching. Its identity is relational—it exists through response and continual adjustment. In this absence of form lies a clear lesson: what does not fix itself can perceive more, because it is not bound to a single appearance.
Black appears here not as pigment, but as an active absence. It is not a void that diminishes meaning, but a reduction that concentrates it. When the water is darkened, transparency ceases to function as a passage and becomes depth. We no longer look through it; we look into it. Within that depth, details emerge that clarity often erases: reflections of the sky, subtle vibrations, slight shifts of light that reveal movement, time, and presence.
For this reason, the work feels closely aligned with astronomy. In the universe, the most decisive forces do not always shine. Black holes cannot be observed directly; they are known through the way they bend light and affect the matter around them. In a similar way, this black liquid field does not represent the night—it renders it legible through its effects. Absence becomes an instrument. The invisible becomes perceptible not by appearing, but by leaving traces.
There is also an ancient echo in this gesture. Maya astronomers studied the cosmos through patient observation of patterns—cycles, returns, displacements. Here, darkness and fluidity form a small terrestrial observatory: a space where the cosmic scale descends into material experience, and where looking is not about consuming images, but refining attention.
At the intersection of non-form and non-color, the work proposes something both simple and demanding: that reality often becomes clearer when we stop insisting on fixed contours and definitive tones. Sometimes, to see more, one must remove. And allow the world—like water—to settle, revealing in its depth what usually goes unnoticed.
Earth Art Studio believes in supporting working artists! Purchasing art work and/or contributing a donation for your visit to the sculpture trail helps keep our creative community thriving and making more art!
Currently, the studio is only open for scheduled events and by appointment.
B CR8IV and learn a new crafty skill while enjoying the quiet of the Las Playitas desert. Basura to Baskets is a hands-on weaving workshop that transforms everyday waste into something useful, beautiful, and lasting. Using recycled and found materials—plastic bags, packaging, and more—participants will learn foundational basket-weaving techniques while rethinking what we consider “trash.” Guided step-by-step by Anapaula, we’ll explore how to prepare, shape, and weave these materials into functional vessels. All materials will be provided, though participants are encouraged to bring clean, flexible waste items of their own to incorporate into their work.
We are sharing each of the artists participating in our current exhibition H2O through our blog series, Artists Sharing Artists, so you can learn a little more about them and their artwork. If you’d like to come see the show in person, please check out our pop-up event schedule and/or book a private tour with us! If you’d like to purchase work, please contact us!
About the Artist:
Paolo was born in 1953 in Ravenna, Italy. Ravenna was the capital of the Western Roman Empire and the Byzantine Empire and was a historical city of art and cultures, so since childhood he has been attracted to colors and art. After high school he studied art, theatre and set design. This love of art continually grows and evolves throughout life experiences, travels and intense strength to be able to peel back this veil of omerta or the wall of silence that shrouds the world. Paolo currently paints and sculpts in his studio in the desert just north of Todos Santos.
About the Art:
The concept of the work, is that where there is water there is always LIFE, because it nourishes everything, heals pain and aridity, and with the help of time, everything flourishes again. Through pain, we achieve access to new feelings that allow love to generate new life.
IG: @paolomelandri53
HASTA LA ETERNIDAD | Oil on Board | 82,400 MXN
Earth Art Studio believes in supporting working artists! Purchasing art work and/or contributing a donation for your visit to the sculpture trail helps keep our creative community thriving and making more art!
Currently, the studio is only open for scheduled events and by appointment.
GLASSY SEAS: Etched Designs on Recycled Bottles with Jenni Ward
Friday April 17th | 10am – 1pm | Earth Art Studio
B CR8IV and learn a new crafty skill while enjoying the quiet of the Las Playitas desert. Students will learn how to mask and acid etch a design inspired by the sea onto recycled glass bottles. Jenni will guide you through our project to help you create a unique, personalized piece while exploring a variety of techniques, tools + materials. Includes all materials, snacks/drinks and a personalized tour of our our current exhibition H20.
B CR8IV and learn a new crafty skill while enjoying the quiet of the Las Playitas desert. Students will learn basic basket weaving skills to create a basket primarily from upcycled materials like plastic bags. Anapaula will guide you through our project to help you create a unique, personalized piece while exploring a variety of techniques, tools + materials.
Includes all materials, snacks/drinks and a personalized tour of our our current exhibition H20.
No experience needed, but space is limited. Payments may be made in person in pesos, please contact us to hold your space.
Earth Art Studio is in the middle of nowhere – Help Us Get Found!
You made the drive. You went beyond where the pavement ends, you maybe even drove through herds of cattle and you found us in the middle of the Baja desert, and hopefully experienced something a little different!
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Just click the link to Write a Review, and tell them what you found out here. What you saw. What surprised you. What you took home — in your hands or just in your memory.
