Carly Creley is a professional educator and Certified Naturalist from Los Angeles, California. She uses art to share her experiences in the natural world with others. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Agribusiness Management, and master’s degrees in Environmental Science and in Education. This combination gives her an intense interest in environmental justice, which is the focus of her current artistic work and scholarship, Imperial Geographies: How Pollution, Labor, and Border Policy Create the Modern Salton Sea and Imperial Valley.
Imperial Geographies has been presented at Imperial Valley Desert Museum and the Pacific Ancient and Modern Language Association Conference in Los Angeles, California and exhibited at L.A. Artcore, Steppling Gallery at San Diego State University-Imperial Valley, and Nervous Ghost Press’s Community Art Space. Her artwork has also been exhibited at Art Share L.A. in the downtown Los Angeles Arts District, the Fine Arts Gallery at California State University, Los Angeles, and throughout the state. Her art has been published in Spectrum, the Sand Canyon Review, and the East Jasmine Review. Her scientific research has been published in the Bulletin of the Southern California Academy of Sciences.
In addition to her career teaching science, Carly leads Drawing Inspiration from the Parks, an annual weeklong volunteer trip to Sequoia National Park where participants engage in writing, visual arts, and science activities.
She hopes that her work draws others to venture out on their own journeys to places that will become just as important to them as they are to her.
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I want my work to bring people into the natural world. I try to capture the feeling of standing on the beach in Monterey – of feeling the breeze that flows through cypress as it makes its way to the crashing ocean waves, and the tingle of sunlight turning the Sierran peaks orange and pink in the freezing morning air– so that others can feel the tranquility of those moments as well. I want people to see the life that pikas bring to the Beartooth Summit, so high and cold that only they and the mountain goats, who lick salt from the frozen road, can survive. I hope that my work draws others to venture out on their own journeys, to places that will become just as important to them.
I have painted with acrylic for many years to capture the nuances of the landscape, but recently began experimenting with gouache and watercolor. I love how I can work with gouache in the field, to capture the changing day as the sun moves across the sky.
carlycreley@gmail.com
@carlycreley