Open Access: Inside the Lucas Artists Program
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Picture
Home to formal gardens, oak and redwood forests, and various exotic plantings, Montalvo's horticultural diversity serves as inspiration for a series of new works created by Lucas Artist Fellows Kija Lucas, Monica Lundy, Hector Dionicio Mendoza, and Fieldworks Collaborative (Trena Noval and Ann Wettrich). 

Identifying, collecting, and documenting various specimens of plant life discovered while exploring Montalvo's 175-acre public park, these artists have adopted creative processes that resemble the activities of the backyard naturalist. Through sculpture, painting, photography, and works on paper, viewers are invited to reflect on the ill-defined boundary between the natural and unnatural, and the intimate entanglement between human history and the landscapes that surround us. 

Image Gallery

Meet the Artists
Fieldworks Collective
Kija Lucas
Monica Lundy
Hector Dionicio Mendoza

Related Blog Posts
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Curatorial Statement: Botanica Poetica 
The works created for Botanica Poetica recall and critique the pictorial conventions of botanical illustration, plein air painting, and the herbarium—as well as earlier antecedents like the Wunderkammer and botanical photography. Seen together, these  works critically explore the ways in which natural and cultural ecologies and discourses intersect, overlap, and sometimes collide. 
​Read More >>

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Pop Up Plein Air: Art Escapists
On Sunday, September 27, amateur and professional artists from around the Bay Area gathered together on Montalvo’s grounds for an afternoon of interdisciplinary plein air art-making. This album, created by San Francisco photographer Airyka Rockefeller, captures some highlights from the special afternoon when Montalvo became an outdoor artist studio. 
Read More >>

Watch and Listen
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VIDEO
​Botanica Poetica
: Hector Mendoza & White Wilderness

On Friday, September 25, we open a new exhibition in our Project Space Gallery: Botanica Poetica, which showcases new work by Lucas Artist Fellows inspired by the varied and diverse plant life found in Montalvo Arts Center’s 175-acre public park. Among the featured artists is Mexico-born Hector Dionicio Mendoza, currently based in Monterey, California.
​Read More >>

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VIDEO
Monica Lundy: Portrait of an Oak Tree 

​The botanical theme of Lundy’s newest body of work, created while she was a Fellow at the Lucas Artists Program, seems at first glance to be a radical departure for the artist. Indeed, the artist has talked at length about how exchanging her normal studio space in urban Oakland for the natural setting of Montalvo served as a creative stimulus.
Read More >>

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VIDEO
A Ramble with Fieldworks 

Fieldworks Collaborative was founded in 2012 by Trena Noval and Ann Wettrich to invent new approaches to creative inquiry and collaborative systems that explore the world we live in. Informed by place, we are interested in stimulating curiosity by creating inclusive, interdisciplinary, and multidimensional experiences. 
Read More >>

In the News
  • Saratoga: Montalvo's Horticultural Diversity is on Display
    By Khalida Sarwari, The Mercury News
Who we Are
Housed within Montalvo Arts Center, a 175 acre public park in the Santa Cruz foothills, and in the heart of the Silicon Valley, the Sally and Don Lucas Artists Residency Program (LAP) is a creative incubator dedicated to supporting the creative process for artists from all creative disciplines and geographical locations. 
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Contact
15400 Montalvo Road 
Saratoga, CA 95071
(408) 961-5800
​Contact us
  • About
    • Overview
    • Contact Us
    • Jury Selections
    • Commissions
  • Events
  • Program Archive
    • 2021 Programs
    • 2020 Programs
    • 2019 Programs
    • 2018 Programs
    • 2017 Programs
    • 2016 Programs
    • 2015 Programs
    • 2014 Programs
    • 2013 Programs
  • Artists at Work
    • Behind the Scenes
    • Around the Table
    • This Week In my Studio
    • Art Practical Partnership
  • In the News
    • Fellows in the News
    • Press Releases
    • LAP Updates
    • Call for Proposals (RFP)
  • Watch & Listen
    • Audio
    • Video
  • Blog