Green Foothills’ annual celebration, Nature’s Inspiration, brings us together to recognize the achievements of those who have dedicated their lives to protecting and connecting people to the natural environment. We are thrilled to celebrate our 60th anniversary in person at Mountain Terrace in Woodside on Sunday, September 25 from 10:30 a.m. – 1:30 p.m.
This year’s Nature’s Inspiration returns us to this celebration’s roots as an art-focused event, and honors local artists. Members of the Green Foothills community nominated dozens of inspiring candidates, but two truly stood out.
We are pleased to announce our 19th annual Nature’s Inspiration honorees: Linda Gass and Jane Kim. Both accomplished artists, these local creators and environmental champions are uniquely talented and blend their passion for nature into all that they do. Their work is displayed around the world and ranges from textiles, to multistory murals, to landscape installations.
We hope you will join and support this community celebration to pay tribute to Jane and Linda and celebrate the 60th anniversary of Green Foothills. Please pledge your sponsorship today. Sponsorship benefits and early bird tickets will be available soon.
About Jane Kim
Jane is a visual artist, scientific illustrator, and the founder of Ink Dwell studio. Her art career started when she was a little girl obsessively painting flowers and bears on the walls of her bedroom. She still enjoys painting flowers and bears, though nowadays she doesn’t get in trouble for painting on the walls.
“Every day I am inspired by how much of herself she gives to the world. Her generosity of spirit is remarkable,” says Thayer Walker, Jane’s husband and Ink Dwell co-founder. “Jane has dedicated her prolific talents to helping humanity understand the wonders of the natural world and our need to protect it.”
Jane is the creator of the Migrating Mural campaign, started in 2012. This is a series of public installations painted along migration corridors shared by people and endangered animals. To date this project has featured Sierra Nevada bighorn sheep and the Monarch Butterfly. Next she plans to create murals of endangered coho salmon, possibly stretching all the way from the Pacific Northwest to South Korea. She has created other large-scale public art across the country, including the Wall of Birds at The Cornell Lab of Ornithology, and produced works for the National Aquarium, the de Young Museum, Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum, and more.
“For me, the natural world is my ultimate inspiration, offering endless threads to pursue and get tangled in,” says Jane. “I see nature as the original artist from whom I aspire to understand and reinterpret. I aim to inspire curiosity for the natural world that in turn allows people to learn about themselves and their important connection to it.”
“In fall 2018 during a ten-day residency, Jane undertook a mural project for our museum, exploring how birds get their color,” explained Kathy Kelsey Foley, director of the Wausau, Wisconsin, Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum. “Jane’s enthusiasm for art making and for the natural world encouraged all those whom she came in contact with to experiment with making art and also to champion our planet.”
Based in Half Moon Bay, Ink Dwell studio creates art that explores the beauty and complexity of nature. Merging classical techniques of science illustration with modern fine art, Ink Dwell makes everyday places special and enhances iconic locations with wondrous imagery. Visit Inkdwell.com to view her portfolio.
“Jane’s work is so generous,” says Ash Ferlito, a friend of Jane’s. ”There is always more beyond the beautiful animals and organisms. Her thoughtful and provocative work has so many layers, extensive research, color sensitivity, clever wordplay, and often a wink of humor riding along with the serious themes she explores.”
During the pandemic shutdown in 2020, Jane completed a mural entitled Southern California: From Sea to Sky that stretches six walls and includes over fifty species at the Moore Laboratory of Zoology at Occidental College in Los Angeles. “Jane’s work is so evocative because she creates these incredibly realistic paintings of species, but she often places them in stylized scenes. It’s a modern take on the old museum exhibit, where the animals seem poised to jump out at you, says John McCormack the Director and Curator of the Moore Laboratory of Zoology.
Artist Residencies include the de Young Museum, Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum, Weber State University, Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute Fellowship, Bartels Science Illustration Program Fellowship, Recology, and the Sierra Nevada Research Institute Science Visualization Fellowship. Additionally, the City Council and Mayor of Ogden, Utah presented Jane with an award for her Monarch Migrating Mural.
Jane received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Printmaking from Rhode Island School of Design and then attended California State University Monterey Bay, where she received a certificate in Science Illustration.
When she’s not creating, you can find her out in nature or watching her favorite TV show, Futurama.
Green Foothills is pleased to honor Jane Kim.
About Linda Gass
Linda is best known for her intricately stitched paintings about climate change, water, and land use. Linda has been making art since she was old enough to hold a crayon and began making art full-time after a decade-long career in the software industry. She learned to love textiles at an early age when her grandmother taught her to sew and embroider.
“Linda’s work is stunning, incredibly well-made, and shares an important message about how climate change has shaped and is shaping our environment,” says Karen Kienzle, Director of the Palo Alto Art Center, “Her work draws us in through its beauty and then encourages us to consider its content and our own personal impact on climate change.”
In 2015, Linda created a land art installation at Cooley Landing, an artificial peninsula of land in East Palo Alto formed by garbage landfill. Using historical maps, Linda approximated where the historic shoreline of the bay once was on the present landscape of Cooley Landing. She then invited the community to participate in creating a temporary land art installation marking that historic shoreline using over 2,000 blue plastic survey whiskers.
“Linda has a deep and hard-earned appreciation of the natural world. Experiencing her thoughtful energy and her unique way of seeing nature inspires me to continue engaging to protect our local lands and waters,” says local environmental leader and long-time educator Jerry Hearn. “Her art is far more than just self-expression – it is educational and a call to action to explore our world and create positive change.”
Linda maintains a studio at The Alameda Artworks in San Jose. Her bird’s-eye-view landscapes blend painting on silk with quilting and embroidery techniques to highlight the human marks on the landscape. She also works in public art, community engaged land art installation, and glass. Visit LindaGass.com to view her portfolio.
“The aesthetic of beauty is important to my work; it helps make the serious nature of the subject matter I’m addressing more approachable” says Linda. “It’s my hope to inspire awareness and action through my “artivism.” My creativity is fed by the beauty of nature and the wonders of the natural world and I feel driven to preserve them for future generations.”
Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally, including the Museum of Craft and Design, Oakland Museum, Bellevue Art Museum, and the US Embassy in Moscow. Linda’s work has been written about in American Craft, The San Francisco Chronicle, KQED, National Geographic’s All Over the Map: A Cartographic Odyssey, 500 Art Quilts, The Map as Art: Contemporary Artists Explore Cartography, and Why We Quilt: Contemporary Makers Speak Out about the Power of Art, Activism, Community and Creativity. Her work is in several public and private collections including the International Quilt Museum, Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital, UCSF Hospital, Kaiser Permanente, San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles, and the Kapor Center for Social Impact.
“Much of her art has a lesson or narrative behind it about humans and the earth and the toll we are taking on it – but delivered in a manner where we see and feel the changes we need to understand the consequences of and work to mitigate,” reflects Jane Woodward, Founder of The Foster Museum in Palo Alto. “Linda calls out changes to the earth we need to notice in a manner we can see, feel, and hear.”
Awards include the prestigious Fleishhacker Foundation Eureka Fellowship, the Silicon Valley Creates Artist Laureate, the Belle Foundation Artist Grant, and the Creative Ecology Art and Science Residency through the Palo Alto Art Center and Junior Museum and Zoo.
Although her true love has always been art, Linda earned a Bachelors of Science in Mathematical Sciences and a Masters of Science in Computer Science from Stanford University.
When she’s not making art or championing environmental causes, you can find her backpacking, camping, and hiking in the wilderness areas of the West where she finds much of the inspiration for her work.
Green Foothills is pleased to honor Linda Gass.
What You Can Do
Nature’s Inspiration underwrites 30% of Green Foothills’ annual expenses and we depend on funds raised from this event. Please fill out this sponsorship form to let us know you will sponsor our 2022 Nature’s Inspiration. Tickets will be available for purchase in July.
We can’t wait to celebrate Linda Gass and Jane Kim with you this fall. Thank you for your support of Green Foothills’ annual celebration, Nature’s Inspiration!
About Green Foothills
Green Foothills is a local environmental nonprofit organization dedicated to protecting open space, farmland, and natural resources in San Mateo and Santa Clara Counties. Since 1962, we have protected nearly 200,000 acres, advocating on more than 900 land use issues and 60 ballot measures. All this is to support our vision of a resilient region where wildlife thrives, everyone has natural beauty to enjoy, and communities live in balance with nature. For more information, visit www.greenfoothills.org.
Nature’s Inspiration is Green Foothills’ annual celebration that brings our community together to recognize the achievements of those who have dedicated their lives to protecting the natural environment and connecting people to the outdoors. Past Nature’s Inspiration honorees include Congressman Pete McCloskey, Congresswoman Anna Eshoo, Congresswoman Jackie Speier, musician and activist Joan Baez, Chairman Valentin Lopez of the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band, artist John Muir Laws, National Park Ranger Shelton Johnson, CEO Rue Mapp of Outdoor Afro, and our own Legislative Advocate Lennie Roberts.
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