Finished mural installed outside Matthisson Winery’s tasting room

The Secret Life of Vineyards

An ode to biodiversity, this ceramic mosaic mural reflects the ecosystem within and around an organic vineyard. Imagery centers on a Cabernet Sauvignon vine from its first bud to harvest time. The artwork tells the story of how insects, spiders, centipedes, snakes, birds, mammals and soil organisms interact to create a sustainable growing system and environment.

This installation was a collaboration between UC Davis ENT 001 students and instructors, community members, Matthiasson Winery and the UC Davis Art/Science Fusion Program. The mural was created in Spring 2023 and installed in June 2023.

The image above shows the completed mural, and the images below demonstrate the creative process.

Led by: Emily Meineke, Gale Okumura, Diane Ullman

(Text above by Diane Ullman)

Original mockup of the mural

Matthiasson's vineyard rows

Vineyard cover crop referenced for creation of mural

Final piece on mural prior to cementing

Title — Symbiotic Serenade: The Ecological Significance of the Pipevine Swallowtail

By student Zhengyi Zhang

Students learning about how to install their pieces on mural

Class led by Diane Ullman

Community event at Matthiasson - Napa families building mural pieces

Transfer of mural in 4 pieces from UC Davis Campus to Matthiasson Winery for installation

Pieces of the mural that were installed onsite

Finishing up mural onsite at Matthiasson Winery

Initial transfer of the mural from onsite workspace to its new home

Installation by Amanda Larson

Lifting mural into place

Steve Matthiasson drove the forklift

part of mural (photo by Gale Okumura)

Species interactions inside and outside the hive (under construction)

Final mural created by ENT001 students, teaching staff, and volunteers. From right to left: Life inside the honey bee hive, species interactions outside the hive and in the northern California landscape, species interactions in agriculture. Click image to Zoom in.

Insect in the Anthropocene (under construction)

student wearing a sweatshirt screen printed with her artwork

volunteers helping community members print student designs on their shirts

LEA Design Studio

Artist Leah Sobsey, textile designer Anne Schroth, and I collaborate to create art that features natural history collections under the name LEA Design Studio. The art we create is all anchored in sharing scientific findings about plants, intersections between botany and the humanities, and the effects of climate change on biodiversity. This work is fueled by the recent digitization of natural history collections by the NSF and other organizations worldwide. Please see the video below about how our work started and visit https://www.lea-studios.com/ to see our latest items.

Exploring Thoreau’s Woods: Meditations on Life and Loss

I’m collaborating with Leah Sobsey, Robin Vuchnich, and Dr. Marsha Gordon in the development of a multimedia installation at The Harvard Museum of Natural History that leverages Henry David Thoreau’s pressed plant specimens, housed at Harvard University Herbaria. Thoreau’s collection is a botanical time machine that lives in combination with the naturalist’s extensive notes about when and where his specimens were collected, which our installation draws from to provide insight into environmental change.

In “Exploring Thoreau’s Woods,” digitized selections of Thoreau’s pressed plants will literally come to life off of the page through motion art, data visualization, soundscapes, and projected augmented reality experiences. The centerpiece will be the projection of photographic images from Thoreau’s collection onto liquids (evocative of Walden Pond, see the second video below), fabric, and onto what we envision as a forest floor inside of a large-scale meditation tent that visitors will experience.