Signed in as:
filler@godaddy.com
Signed in as:
filler@godaddy.com
Kimberly is “Tumelay Nisenan Miwok” a direct descendant of the Indigenous people of El Dorado County. She is a professional Native Storyteller, Chairwoman of the El Dorado
Band of Miwok, and Executive Director of Cosumnes Culture and WaterWays
Kate is the author of Secrets of the Oak Woodlands: Plants and Animals
among California’s Oaks. She will keep us spellbound with fascinating lore and true stories about plants and animals of our riparian oak woodlands––their ecological importance, anatomical marvels, and symbiotic relationships.
Jessica is a writer and author of Why We Need To Be Wild. She will speak and lead an activity about beautiful, non-toxic, regenerative art we can make in community with available natural materials and native plants, and co-create an ephemeral installation.
Chuck Kritzon is an educator and artist who loves teaching the world of today our human connections to the past through arts education, ancient living skills, and traditional environmental knowledge.
Stan Padilla is a Yaqui artist, educator and social activist who honors his ancestors by bringing to life ancient stories, myths, and legends. He'll be leading a collaborative watercolor activity using plant and mineral pigments.
Christina Almendariz is a Maidu/Wintun cultural practitioner that loves to connect and share about Tule’s many great uses and importance. She'll be teaching her craft of weaving with Tule.
Anni McCann is a lyric soprano and local Nevada City vocalist and instrumentalist, trained in opera, musical theater and dance. She's been performing since she was a child and one of her most cherished pastimes is singing to the plants in her organic garden. She'll be portraying the singing role of the Botanist.
Andie Thrams is a Sierra Nevada-based artist who uses wildcrafted materials to create paintings and artist’s books that explore mystery, reverence, and delight, while grappling with the vanishing habitats of our era. She'l lead wildcrafting and painting activities using oak gall & acorn inks and woodland journaling.
Image © 2025 Andie Thrams
Lara Gularte, Poet Laureate Emeritus, El Dorado County, conducts Ekphrastic poetry / writing workshops across community arts venues, literary circles and festivals including the Tahoe Literary Festival. She'll lead ekphrastic poetry writing using Haiku or Haibun forms and woodland themes to expand on an image or element from nature.
Angela Laws PhD, Endangered Species Conservation Biologist with The Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation, engages in habitat restoration for pollinators across CA. She'll teach and lead short pollinator walks around the gardens to help us learn to identify butterflies and other pollinators.
Colombian-born Chef René Medina and partner Farmer Rose Robertson offer farm-fresh California-crafted Colombian cuisine at Comedor in Grass Valley. He'll make us a Colombian/Indigenous-inspired lunch of black beans plantain Arepa (corn cake), peppers, squash, Fog Dog Farm salad, and a yuca corn masa dessert.
Melinda Velasco is a nature-revering musician whose work ranges from songwriting to traditional Mexican folk music. Her textured, soulful voice and lyrical approach express the many facets of human experience and a deep love for the earth. She'll be performing Spanish-language songs and guitar, and the role of Manzanita.
Corina del Carmel is an international surrealist painter and sculptor. She'll be leading a collective mural activity to experiment with textures, colors, shapes as a form of expression based in visionary storytelling integrating plants and animals and our relationship with them as inspiration.
David Yapp is a landscape artist working predominantly in oils. He often leads plein air painting at Wakamatsu Farm and will be facilitating painting with oils on the Lake Path with lovely views of Wakamatsu Pond and the surrounding woodlands as inspiration.
Sara Raskie, Anishinaabe, caretakes a two-acre Nevada City food forest with partner Tony Cervantes, Chichimeca. They'll share about processing acorns and manzanita berries as examples of the many local native foods that the local Indigenous Peoples have tended for millennia, and lessons of living seasonally, caretaking, and abundance.
Californian-born of Filipino and Spanish ancestry, Mignon Geli is a musician of native-style traditional and contemporary flute music as “indigenous fusion".
Phillip Moore (Miwok, Pomo, Chukchansi) is a Native Traditional & Contemporary singer-songwriter from the Foothills – Miwok, Nissenan & Maidu Territory – with a passion for singing, hand drum, powwow drum & dance since the age of 7.
Elizabeth Standeven has always been fascinated by the natural world and learning about the fungi we call mushrooms has only deepened that awe. She's a scientist and fiber artist who loves dyeing and eating mushrooms. She will share about their role of fungus, how to identify them, and how to make art with them.
Caitlyn Miller, trained opera singer, is the owner of For Music's Sake, where she teaches voice and various instruments to students of all ages, and serves as a dedicated vocal director for Imagination Theater and Union Mine High School. She will be portraying Blue Oak and Milkweed in The Botanist.
Grayson Howard plays solo guitar as well as being a killer drummer. He is a Placerville native, finger-style guitarist who will wow us with his gorgeous rhythms and patterns.
Marcela Tayaba is a Habitat Restoration Specialist and leads the Shingle Springs Band of Miwok Indians Environmental Department and tribal garden. She will facilitate traditional acorn processing and will be joined by the tribe's Language Department for Miwok language connections.
Nathan Kuan Salazar-Uhlmeyer is a white-presenting mestizo of Ilonggo, Sugbuanon, Azorian & Gaelic heritage. A child of the colonized and the colonizer, they will share their role as a mycelial storyteller and an ecological storycatcher, apprenticing to and with the more-than-human world.
Anne Morton, owner/farmer/teacher at Anvil Acre Farm in Garden Valley gathers and uses medicinal plants for natural healing products like salves, moisturizers, healing teas and other wellness products for improving health from the inside out. She'll be leading a few of these fun hands-on activities.
Rina Wakefield is a Literary & Media Event Producer/Host, Poetry Performer, Human Rights & Environmental Activist, and a collaborator with Myrtle Tree Arts. She's leading the Welcome & Info Booth with her vibrant connections to the arts and community.
Roxanne Meagher is a preschool teacher based in the Placerville area and an artist specializing in inspiring vibrant collaborative art. She will be leading the fun hands-on Kids Art Zone with painting projects about plants and pollination.
Marty and his group of dancers, Quezalcoatl Ocelotl, has been performing inspiring Aztec-heritage dances and ceremonies in the extended Sacramento area for many years. They will delight us with their blessing for the autumnal equinox and harvest season.
Mia Andler, author of The Sierra Forager, has been foraging since she was a little girl in Finland and has studied the regenerative practices of earth based cultures around the world. She'll be facilitating crafting activities with sustainably foraged materials from her local homestead.
Susan Hayne is an accomplished printmaker steeped in the diversity of printmaking, from woodcuts to etchings to silkscreens and embossing. She has lived in El Dorado County for 38 years and finds most of her inspiration right outsidher door. She'll be demoing printmaking techniques.
Andrew Hibben is a Placerville-based landscape architect and garden design specialist who loves growing his own food and spending time in nature. He'll be contributing to the Sound Garden
Rebecca Wilson is a teacher, homesteader, farmer, musician, nature lover, and dancer and is enjoying her life in Nevada City. She has a dancing and ensemble singing role in The Botanist.
Chris ("Crispy)" is a dancerpoetsongwriterplaywrightclownsculptorbuilderfarmerconsultantloover living in Lake Tahoe, Nevada. He'll be dancing and singing in The Botanist.
Teresa Shea brings a lifelong love of theatre and art, and design talents to the diverse worlds of theatre, dance, film, video, fashion, sculpture, photography and education. She is the costume designer for The Botanist.
Zack Dowell, Faculty Director of the Innovation Center, Folsom Lake College, is a composer/musician/ maker/inventor/expert on Community College Maker Educators. He'll be creating a sound lab installation.
Kit Veerkamp of the El Dorado Chapter of the CA Native Plants Society will be leading their autumn native plants sale at Wakamatsu Farm and providing learning and guidance on native plant clutivation.
Hither & Yon is a Placerville folk music group featuring Alex Porte, Elena DeLacy, and Dustin Koupal. They pick songs from a variety of folkways such as Celtic and Old Time music and hope to utilize music to help others connect deeper with the land. Hither & Yon plays the role of Wild Buckwheat in The Botanist as well as performs a set of their music.
Co-Founder/Artistic Director of Myrtle Tree Arts, Ameera integrates multimedia with live performance and site-specific installation to nurture community resilience and connection with the environment. She wrote and appears in The Botanist, collaborated on plant sound installations, and creative directs the RIPE AREA Festival.
Co-Founder/Executive Producer of Myrtle Tree Arts, Paul brings extensive experience with event production and music direction. From national tours with The Sippy Cups to creative management of NEWdOG Records, he lives to gather humans around art and music for expression and change. He composed The Botanist and plant sound installations.
As the development director of ARC since 2016, Melissa Lobach advocates for environmental conservation in local communities through fundraising, special event planning, donor cultivation, public outreach, marketing, and volunteer coordination. She develops the RIPE AREA Festival with MTA.
Mark Verlander is the innovative graphic designer for RIPE AREA and MTA. Verlander Design creates complete identity and brand systems. Logos, brand imagery, AI, products, print pieces, websites, art, photography, music. Their design strategy and creativity brings projects to life.
Elena DeLacy is the Executive Director of American River Conservancy, focusing on achieving ARC's goals to serve our communities by ensuring healthy ecosystems in the Upper American River and Upper Cosumnes River watersheds through conservation, stewardship, and education.
The El Dorado Chapter of the CA Native Plants Society will be offering their autumn native plants sale at Wakamatsu Farm and providing learning and guidance on native plant clutivation.
We acknowledge that the riparian ecosystems of the American, Cosumnes and Yuba Watersheds of the Sierra Foothills are located in the unceded traditional homelands of the Miwok, Nisenan, Maidu, and Washoe Peoples who have lived here for thousands of years and live here still. We recognize and mourn the painful history of genocide and devastation of the lands and waters. With our work, we are grateful for opportunities to learn from and partner with Indigenous Peoples around a shared vision for stewardship and restoration.
Myrtle Tree Arts
We use cookies to analyze website traffic and optimize your website experience. By accepting our use of cookies, your data will be aggregated with all other user data.