A sunset walk among the cacti

Paintings of native plants evoke the seasonal cycles of our region’s desert landscapes.

Ocotillo Sunset—an 81-foot long mural on the back of our building— continues artist Eva Struble’s ongoing exploration of our region’s varied ecologies.

In this desert scene, afternoon light bathes rocky hillsides. Look closely and you will see a mash-up of plants native to our region, from the desert agave to the coastal Torrey Pine.

One plant, the work’s eponymous ocotillo, appears skeletal and gray for most of the year. In spring, rainfall transforms the plant’s long spines into colonies of brilliantly tiny, green leaves. Like the ocotillo itself, Ocotillo Sunset is a record of change: afternoon glow melting into luminous moonlight and seasons shifting from light to dark, reminding us of the beauty of our resilient desert landscapes.

Who Made This?

Eva Struble
born
Elsmere, Kentucky
lives in
San Diego, California
artist
www.evastruble.com

Eva Struble received her MFA in painting from Yale University in 2006 and her BA in Visual Arts in 2003 from Brown University. Her exhibit of painted prints, Emblema, was shown at the UVA’s School of Architecture in 2015, and her project, Produce, was displayed in a solo exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego in 2014. Her work has been shown at the Cleveland MOCA, at Angles Gallery in Santa Monica and the Vincent Price Art Museum in Los Angeles among others, and has received praise in Art In America, The Village Voice and other publications. Struble teaches Paint and Printmaking at San Diego State University.

Project Collaborators
Eva Struble’s Ocotillo Sunset was commissioned by The New Children’s Museum in collaboration with our friends at the Pinnacle Marina Towers, the residencies located directly behind the Museum. Together with our neighbors, we are working to invigorate shared public spaces in our vibrant corner of downtown San Diego. Special thanks go to the members of the Pinnacle Art Committee for their dedication to and support of this project.

This installation is made possible by