A couple of ideas were rolling around for Lia Strell when she was a young girl — one was she would become a marine biologist and the other was she would be an artist. She became that artist who’s also intrigued by environmental science and finding ways to improve the health of the planet.
“I have always resonated (with) nature, whether it’s walking along the beach as the dolphins swim by, or hiking under the canopy of the giant redwoods toward a waterfall. My happy place is in pristine, natural surroundings,” she says. “We have so much nature around us, including the farms and gardens where we are nourished. It was way back in the early 2000s when I realized that we need to protect our inherited natural resources. EcoFest is my way of sharing climate awareness.”
EcoFest Encinitas is an annual environmental fair founded in the early 2000s to promote contributing to a cleaner and healthier environment. This year, the festival is from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. June 1 at Encinitas Community Park. Strell has been involved since 2014 and is currently serving as creative director of the festival, assembling the climate action show on the community stage and sharing current climate action strategies that come from within the surrounding community. She’s also a sculptor, filmmaker, and climate activist whose work has been part of the Port of San Diego’s Urban Trees exhibition and her “Ribbon of Hope” sculpture is on permanent display, in memory of her father, in the Wolfstein Sculpture Park at Scripps Memorial Hospital in La Jolla.
Strell, 64, lives at Lake San Marcos with her husband, Richie, and they have a daughter, Cori Ana. She took some time to talk about taking better care of the planet, and the ways that she’s begun using her art to express her activism.
Q: What can people expect to see at EcoFest Encinitas this year?
A: Experiences include a free bike valet, and an electric vehicle showcase, children’s climate art displays, a raffle, and a scavenger hunt. The “Bubble Man” from Moonlight Beach will be stopping by in the morning, and we have over 70 exhibitors ready to share interesting and current ecological, climate-related solutions and practices. Visitors can talk with climate action leaders who will share anecdotes, community actions, and answer questions. People can also listen to live music on the community stage with the Coral Bells Band and a have a beverage at the libations lounge, or find healthy, organic food by the hillside.
Q: On your website, you describe yourself as “an artist, filmmaker and eco activist.” How did your interest in environmental activism first begin?
A: Back in 1979 at Cal State Northridge, I took a class called, “Man’s Impact on the Environment” and I listened intently. At the time, my friends from high school were protesting the Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant. We all knew that PG&E did not know what to do with what would eventually become expired nuclear waste. Sadly, we are still there. We have the same story locally. When the San Onofre nuclear power plant closed in (2013), they buried the (radioactive waste) next to the beach, about 35 miles from where I live. What happens if or when there is a big earthquake or tsunami?
What I love about Lake San Marcos…
I live in a garden environment and wake up to the song of birds and a blooming garden with herbs, flowers, and vegetables. I appreciate our central location in North County—I definitely relish swimming in the pool seven months a year. I also enjoy taking late afternoon walks with my lake friends.
Q: What are some examples of the ways that you’ve put your activism into practice over the years?
A: I have found that getting involved in community gardens and farms are positive ways to escape into nature and to make new friends along the way. Abundance grows in the garden and bartering, or trading homegrown ionfruit and artichokes is thrilling. Placing a box of lemons or oranges out on the sidewalk is a positive, easy step to sharing. It all comes back in ways you cannot imagine.
Q: What are some ways in which you use your work as an artist in your environmental work?
A: Last year at EcoFest, another climate action friend, Janis Jones of Shoresweep, and I collaborated on an art installation. Janis walks the Carlsbad shoreline and collects washed up plastic debris, creating floor mandalas made of this eroded beach plastic. There is way too much plastic in our oceans—our fish eat the plastic then we eat the fish. Since I am forager of nature’s treasures, my mandala was a river serpent made from compost, lemons, orange calendula, purple statice, and seedpods. I believe that our collective statement had a sensory impact, from petroleum to sweet and sour lemons.
Q: How would you describe your style, and your point of view, as an artist?
A: Over the years, I have done plenty of research on alchemy, energy, and the creative process. Albert Einstein has a famous quote that stays with me as I have begun teaching: “Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited, whereas imagination embraces the entire world, stimulating progress, giving birth to evolution.”
In 2018, along with a few other eco people from San Diego, I trained with Al Gore’s The Climate Reality Project (which trains people of all backgrounds in working toward climate justice solutions). My favorite takeaways from the training include that it’s up to creative people to think of new possibilities for tomorrow, to make some noise, and that we cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.
Q: What do you find yourself wanting to say about nature in the artwork that you create?
A: My recent creative artform are my “Nature’s Treasures” sculptures, which I’m teaching in my foraged sculpture class at the Pacific View Art Center in Encinitas. This class is for those who walk the shoreline at low tide and for those who meander along rivers and streams under the canopy of the ancient trees. You look down and find a precious item to put into your pocket or bag, and I teach how to make personal sculptures of these foraged “nature’s treasures.” I also supply all of the wonderful, foraged materials and tools.
Q: Do you have favorite local spots that you like to visit when you want to be in nature?
A: One of my favorite beach walks is between Seaside Reef and Cardiff Reef. This area was recently restored with sand- and vegetation-reinforced dunes. On special days, I visit Coastal Roots Farm, which is a regenerative private property in Encinitas. This is a lovely restored and reimagined property where the balance between nature and human is harmonious and sacred.
Q: What is the best advice you’ve ever received?
A: My father, Stanley M. Gilbert, was the founder of Soundelux in Hollywood, Calif. During a visit many years after retiring, he looked so dapper and fresh after a shower, and I asked him where he was going. He said, “Oh, I’m just sitting on ready!” I use this as a philosophy to this day. And, of course, Al Gore’s statement that “if you’re creative, make some noise” was great advise.
Q: What is one thing people would be surprised to find out about you?
A: I have a pontoon boat, and I take friends out on fantastical nature safaris on Lake San Marcos. Even though the lake is not swimmable, it’s a beautiful bird sanctuary. The variety of birds and wildlife thrive there. We even spot the shiny turtles basking in the sun. I think of these animals as my neighbors.
Q: Please describe your ideal San Diego weekend.
A: Preparing a delicious morning brunch with my husband, then taking a slow drive north on Pacific Coast Highway toward Oceanside, with a few stops along the way. Then, taking a stroll on the pier, followed by an early sushi dinner in Carlsbad. On a late summer Sunday, taking the boat out on the lake just before sunset, as the birds fly by to find their treetop sleeping spots, then returning to the dock just as night falls and the full moon rises.
