Envisioning Solarpunk Potentials with Taylor Seamount: Gallery showing at the Vision Sanctuary

There’s less than a week left for you to view a collection of bright possibilities of what a more solarpunk vision of our future could look like in our local communities by artist and Liminal Space member Taylor Seamount! This show features a few paintings that have not been publicly displayed before, including Solarpunk Farms (the painting on the flyer!), a scene at Barrios Unidos, and a scene re-imagining San Francisco’s Civic Center.

So, what is solarpunk, exactly? To quote Taylor's website, it’s “an emerging culture and arts movement which envisions a regenerative future interconnected with community and nature”. It is not defined by style, medium, or a set of hyperspecific rules, but rather a collection of values and philosophies geared towards stewarding a more regenerative  world. Many of us feel how much we need to reorganize our ways of living in order to take care of that which sustains us, and art can be a way to help bridge that gap for imagining how this can possibly be done and what shapes that may take.

Taylor started to gear their art towards solarpunk after reading The Fifth Sacred Thing by Starhawk, a book which reimagines San Francisco as an eco-utopia. They also are inspired by “climate activist Ayana Elizabeth Johnson’s three pillars to action: what the world needs, what skills you have to offer and what your passion is” (from Alix Soliman’s article for Lookout Santa Cruz on Taylor’s work). Taking these things together eventually led them to their current ongoing collection of solarpunk plein air paintings that are the focus of their current showing. I asked her if there was anything that surprised them after they started to really go in this direction with their artwork, and I felt pretty inspired by her answer.

The philosophical underpinnings of solarpunk can be considered pretty radical, as they call for drastic shifts in how our societal systems function. Taylor said “If I were to lay out and explain how those systems would change, I think people would be resistant to it, but when I create it in art, people respond really well to it, even if they’re more moderate and wouldn’t maybe want to call for dramatic system change.” By creatively envisioning and portraying these solarpunk possibilities, they find that it's a gentler entry point for people to consider social transformation. I personally think that art can be a beautiful way to help inspire people to consider the true possibility we have for truly thriving in right relationships with everyone and everything around us, and Taylor's work embodies that! 

I also asked them if they had any advice on gaining or cultivating inspiration for envisioning brighter futures. One tip was a more cognitive behavioral practice of trying to take a pause when you might feel frustrated by the way the world is and to give yourself permission to brainstorm how that particular thing or issue could be different. It can be really easy to ruminate on how things might be going wrong, but those moments can be doorways for creatively considering alternatives. They also said “honestly, read some science fiction!” There are many authors out there within the realm of solarpunk and beyond that are engaging with these ideas in one way or another.

In fact, if you’d like a few places to start, their show at the Vision Sanctuary has a shelf with a collection of recommended solarpunk books that you can peruse to kickstart your reading list. Please check out their show during gallery open hours (Wed-Fri: 2-6pm and 12-4pm on Sat), as it’s up until September 20th! 

To learn more about Taylor, please visit their website, Instagram, as well as watch this wonderful video created by Soliman from Lookout Santa Cruz. Idea Fab Labs also featured them here!