Serena Fisher pulls from threads of folk art, justice and liberation movements, storytelling, plant wisdom, somatic movement, kinship worldviews, and her relationship to the Northern California coastline. Originally from Oakland (Xučyun, Ohlone land) in the bay area, she currently resides on a small organic farm in Mendocino county (Northern Pomo land).

Her mosaic collages are invitations into world building, radical imagination, dreamtime, visual odes to other beings, and altars of resistance. Each piece consists of small pieces of paper, re-pieced together to create one, unifying image.

Traversing the rivers of myth and meaning-making, she is inspired by ever-changing external and internal landscapes, as well as the connection between dreams, stories, archetypes and the Earth. Her composition draws from quilting patterns, art deco, folk art, and non-human/plant relatives. Invoking a sense of textured surrealism and mythic magical realism, her collages invite the viewer to explore the depths of place-based relationship and how it shows up in our dreams, psyche, spirituality and over-culture.

:: Process ::

Nearly 10 years ago, the practice of mosaic collaging emerged as a way for her to process grief during a difficult period of her life. This creative outlet became an ontological mapping, labyrinth—a pathway of exploration back to herself. The tedious piecing together of each image is deeply meditative and utilizes a wide spectrum of colors and tones which are both endless, and limited—depending on the material she has access to. The use of recycled, national geographic magazines from the 60s and 70s provides film imagery from all over the world. In many ways, this practice is a reclamation of the past into works shaped by contemporary cosmologies.

:: Mediums ::

Illustration, vintage magazines, acrylic, water color, foraged recycled paper

:: LOOM ::

In the ongoing pursuit of life as ritual, she occasionally offers herbal teas and salves (LOOM). These integrate plant wisdom and intentional creative process into medicine. As an herbal apprentice, she is learning the process of sustainably starting plants from seed, tending to their growth, seasonally harvesting, medicine making, and medicine/clinical practice. This also coincides with learning how to be in reciprocity and right relation with each plant and the land they come from. A deeply humbling process—these offerings are usually for the local community.