Sarita DOUGHERTY
An up-and-coming contemporary artist in the Los Angeles art scene, Sarita Dougherty produces lively observational paintings of habitat, ecosystem, dwelling and the cultural memories of objects. Sarita is well-studied in native plant medicine and ecology, and composes her home as a site of ecosystem resilience; greywater recycling, seasonal dwellings and composting are a few systems that she generates, then paints. Her plein-air portraits of place demonstrate the ability of humans to co-create with non-human beings for sustainability and bliss. Her paintings investigate urban potentialities to meld cultures, ancestors, patterns and community with plant matter and an earth-based spirituality. With Bolivian, Cajun and Irish roots, this American painter attempts to reinvent the Western landscape without objectifying nature as other and wild, instead seeing landscape as a site of relationships.