Hello! And welcome to my first blog post for Egretta!
I want to share with you my story explaining how I came to create Egretta, where it all started, and why this is so important to me.
SO WHAT IS EGRETTA?
I was first inspired to create Egretta in 2015. I was looking for something to fulfill my creative side.
I had an epiphany one day when I was chatting with my best friend, Magda, about my struggle to find a creative outlet. She was giving me general best-friend-life-advice saying I should pursue, “something having to do with fish and an art gallery.” I reiterated her words out loud, and then it hit me…BAM!!!
Why not fuse my passions - my love for the environment AND art?
From this pivotal question, Egretta was born.
I want to be the bridge connecting people and nature, through art and design.
I see art and design as tools to connect people to the environment, but not just for the sake of bringing humanity and nature together. Art and design, when used as tools to bring people to the natural environment, will help build awareness on issues of sustainability, make people feel good by connecting emotionally to an art or design piece, and to help people realize WHY environmental issues are so important, to understand what is going on in our backyards (not literally but in our communities), and around the world.
What we do today will have an impact on what happens tomorrow, the next year, ten years from now, and so on and so forth.
So that is my mission - connecting you to nature, through art and design.
WANT THE FULL STORY ON HOW I GOT HERE?
It all started when I was a little girl. (it almost always does, right?)
Growing up, I’ve always had a love for nature and animals. Animals, especially.
(Think of Elmyra Duff - the cartoon character from the show, Tiny Toon Adventures, but on a much more introverted level and much less aggressive behavior).
As a child, my family and I would go camping a lot. In fact, camping was one of my favorite pastimes as a kid, and it still is today.
Camping in Sly Park, California
I didn’t have a mentor or a parent that “showed me the way” in terms of exploring and navigating the natural world, so camping became my path to connect with nature.
Camping in Mammoth. Taking it all in. The path to nature...
I had a wild imagination and curiosity towards the world around me, so whenever we’d go camping, I would observe everything in my vicinity: from the soil, to the plants, to the animals and bugs. I would observe with all of my senses, sitting for hours and studying the largest trees or smallest critters, taking in the smells (mostly of pine and campfire smoke), the sounds of the birds, and yeah, I was that kid that wanted to touch everything I encountered. (Not much has changed - go figure). And touch I did! So much that I would get sap all over my hands from handling bark and pine needles.
And so, camping helped me to love and appreciate nature.
NOW, FAST FORWARD TO ADULTHOOD.
Because of my love of animals and nature, I wanted to go into a career path relating to those areas. So naturally, I always thought I would become a veterinarian one day. But, while I was in college, I realized that becoming a veterinarian wasn’t the right fit for me. It was missing the conservation and sustainability piece, which was so important to me.
I discovered NOAA Fisheries (aka National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Marine Fisheries Service - yes its a mouthful!) towards the end of my college career. Because of my interests in animals, fish, and the ocean - working for NOAA Fisheries felt like such a natural fit.
Collecting data and assisting other agencies with a fish rescue. This is certainly not a typical day at the office.
This is another NOT a "typical" day at the office for me. But I love to get outside whenever I can! I'm holding a spawned out salmon. (I'm telling you - I touch everything!)
NOAA Fisheries is very policy and scientifically-driven work, and I became focused on building my career as a fisheries biologist. However, with Magda’s words, I realized I had ignored the very thing that fed my creativity: art.
Working as a fisheries biologist through the years, I learned so much about our ocean resources, water, fish, and sustainability. Although I am very passionate about those areas of work, I had ignored my creativity.
The beautiful California Pacific Coast
My appreciation for the ocean resources and the environment.
Even though I was working for a great agency (I still work for NOAA today, and very proud of the work that we do!), I was left feeling unfulfilled. So I decided to dabble into art again (I was really into art in high school and other creative arenas in my 20s). After taking an acrylics class in 2014, my love and passion for art was reignited.
Thus, I was led to my creation of Egretta.
Through Egretta, I am able to fulfill all of my passions - Nature. Environment. Conservation. Sustainability. Art. Design. Creativity.
SO, WHATS NEXT?
I plan to share periodic blog posts with you that bridge my passions of art and nature. Through these blog posts I will also be bringing awareness to issues pertaining to our environment and sustainability (through the lens of art and design, of course!)
Image by KCM Photography
Thank you for stopping by, as I share my journey with you. It has been a scary ride for this shy introvert to finally be “seen,” but I am so thankful for the support of my fishy colleagues, familia, friends, and Sacramento blogging community.
Happy New Years everyone! :)
--- Monica ---
P.S. I’ll be sharing with you a bit more on the design piece of Egretta in a future blog post and what “Egretta” means.
If you haven’t done so yet, check out my PROJECTS page to see a bit of my nature inspired art/designs projects.