Written by Andra Belknap | Photography by Marc Alt

“Welcome to Nature” proclaims the neon yellow lettering of a polyester sign on Highway 150, beckoning visitors to Lake Casitas. I smile, refusing the turnoff to nature. Instead, I choose the winding road to Ojai’s Taft Gardens & Nature Preserve: 264 acres of open space bordering the Los Padres National Forest. The occasion? A visit to Taft Gardens’ Art in Nature Residency.

Ojai artist Cassandra C. Jones began the program in 2020. Like many parents of young children, she began losing her mind during the lockdown. She asked for access to the gardens and found out President and CEO Jaide Whitman was interested in starting an artist-in-residency program but didn’t know where to begin. “I do!” Jones exclaimed.

This year, it’s Jane Mulfinger and Stephanie Washburn’s turn. Mulfinger, a Professor of Art at UC Santa Barbara, met Washburn as a student. The nine-month residency represents their first work together. In their shared studio, with a shared objective to explore the human relationship with the environment, both women’s work has transformed.

When the residency began last November, both Mulfinger and Washburn were inspired to return to artwork once abandoned. Washburn, an Ojai resident, fled the valley when the 2017 Thomas Fire threatened her home. The event changed her. “I watched myself rally from a lifetime of modern convenience to flee with a three-year-old son who may well become a man in something closer to my vision of Hades,” she said.

The event, the largest fire in California history at the time, changed Washburn’s work just as it altered her understanding of the climate crisis. Something that was once abstract became concrete, visceral, and deeply emotional.

That's where Washburn's work, on display at Taft Gardens, began. Washburn's "sky drawings" are just that, "imagined memories" of the forever-changing skies over the Ojai Valley. The drawings begin with graphite, replicating the image and texture of a sky full of clouds. Washburn then "makes and unmakes" the drawings using her fingers, an eraser, make-up sponges, and an Exacto knife. The result is an image containing subtle cuts, which animate the image by allowing air to flow through it. The work is suspended from the rafters with little support: a representation of the beauty and impermanence of the natural world.

And while Washburn is making and unmaking her drawings, some ten feet away, Mulfinger paints.

“I don’t normally paint,” she explains as we examine her works in progress. “I’ve been wanting the immediacy of color on paper. I painted as a kid and then I thought, well, I’m just going to do it and see what happens.”

What happened is a collection of small landscape paintings, ranging from abstract to representational. “I’ve been thinking a lot about the tradition of landscape painting and drawing and trying to think about that in the context of climate change,” Mulfinger said. Layered into each painting are words and phrases Mulfinger has collected, like “extreme turbulence,” “atmospheric tumult,” or “creeping chill.” “I had this collection of texts from descriptions of the weather, either from literature or weather reports, and there are some phrases that would just stick with me,” she explained. Text, Mulfinger said, is a kind of “human artifact.” 

As Washburn and Mulfinger’s work developed, Ojai vocalist Rebecca Comerford, a friend of Washburn’s, was moved to add a sonic element. Comerford will perform an original song cycle at the show’s June 4 opening reception, inspired by the gardens. There’s a duality to the music, an attempt to capture the emotional experience of the idyllic Taft Gardens coupled with a logical understanding of the frailty of nature and the severity of the climate crisis. “It’s there right now,” she said, birds chirping in trees above us, “and then there’s this kind of foreboding awareness that it’s ephemeral and it might not last.”

As the exhibition approaches, Jones is thinking about next year’s artist-in-residence (the application deadline is June 15). “We really would like to cycle through every artist in Ojai,” she said.

“Why do you feel so dedicated to this project?” I ask.

“I want cool things to happen in Ojai,” she said.

Girl, same.

The Taft Garden’s Art in Nature Residency opening will be free and open to the public from 11 am to 3 pm on June 4 (which also happens to be the author’s 35th birthday). The evening opening, featuring Comerford’s performance, will begin at 5 pm. Tickets are required for both events.

P.S. The extraction and burning of fossil fuels are an existential threat to people and the planet: we’re voting YES on Measures A & B June 7th 👍🏼