Alayna Winter

Acrylic and Gouache, Handmade Paper, Paper Mache, Collage, Clay Jewelry, Digital Illustration

Bluesky: @poppyinthesea.bsky.social

Living on Lopez I’ll often catch a glimpse of birds surfing waves of air without flapping their wings for prolonged durations, just soaring. While they’re seemingly not trying to go anywhere in those moments, it’s hard to imagine they’re doing it for any other reason than out of pure pleasure. This is the closest to how I feel while in creative flow. Making things has become a necessary expressive meditation for me.

Every time there is a thing suddenly in existence that wasn’t before, I’m dumbfounded. Whether it’s watching flowers bloom from seed or a painting I’ve made, all of it reminds me of the mysteries of being alive and connects me to whatever source is the root of all life. I feel whole again.

Sort of like a mood ring, I work on arranging and radiating colors that have the most impact on me. I aspire to magnify what I love and wish to see more of. Nature is a constant moving force behind what inspires me, but too like nature, change is ever present and I cycle through a variety of mediums as they fit the season I’m in.

I am beyond grateful to live full-time on Lopez, where we have an incredible privilege to be in such natural beauty and peace, a place where making art has thankfully become more possible in my life. I juggle multiple part-time jobs to make this happen, fitting in creative work at every opportunity I get with the hope that those moments will become endless waves of flight.