Featured Artist: José Guadalupe Adonis González Rosales

​At Brushwood Center, we are responding to the COVID-19 crisis by doing what we strive to do year round: build a community around nature and the arts. To help lift up the struggling arts community during this difficult time, we are highlighting a different nature-inspired artist each week and sharing their story with you. We encourage you to reflect on the impact of art in your life, and look for ways to support artists in our community.
This week, we are featuring José Guadalupe Adonis González Rosales - an educator, environmental leader and artist who explores the connection between nature and his Latinx culture. Jose's passion for this work led him to found Latino Outdoors, a unique national Latinx-led organization, working to create and support a network of ambicultural leaders in the outdoor, conservation, and nature movement. His artwork combines traditional and modern styles and themes of nature and plants to explore his identity as a "Conservationist/Environmentalist, Chicano, and Educator."

​José González on his work:

I would like my art to serve as a tool to convey, deliver, frame, and engage with narrative in mind, combining my love for culture, environmental issues, and education. I am influenced by a range that includes the Royal Chicano Air Force (RCAF) aesthetic as well as manga, cartooning, and children's book design. Each piece tells a story in regards to a mestizo identity, whether the fullness of being Latinx, the the intersection of Latinx culture and nature, the outdoors, and conservation.

Nature inspires me because it provides abundant opportunities, invitations, and challenges for creative work with its models, metaphors, and response. My creative work is an expression and reflection of Nature as muse. ​

Check out José's collaboration with Patagonia about how nature can connect us to our roots. ​

Follow José Online:

You can learn more about José's work by visiting his website or keep up with him online by following him on Twitter or Instagram.