Hello, I’m Alma.
I’m a first generation immigrant from the Philippines currently living on occupied lands of the Duwamish Tribe and Coast Salish people, also called Seattle. I identify as Filipino-American and I use she/her pronouns.
I love being close to nature and creating art.
As a child growing up on the island of Oahu, I often came home (my mom says) from trips to the beach or woods with my pockets bulging with rocks, sticks, shells, and other natural items. I learned how to find edible fruits in the woods and edible seaweeds on the beach. My father grew both an edible and ornamental garden as I do today. As an elementary school teacher, I conducted classes in the school garden, took my students on walks in the woods and on the beach, taught them to keep a nature journal, and painted along-side my students during art class. As a now 20+ resident of the Pacific Northwest, I spend much of my time on our beaches and in the woods. I nature journal in the field and bring my experiences home as inspiration into my art.
But here’s a confession.
Until a major life change and a global pandemic happened, and though it seems so obvious to me now, I never considered nature walking, nature journaling, and art making as resources for wellness and joy. I also didn’t realize how a slow walk on the beach at low tide or a meander through the woods - with or without a sketchbook - could make time slow down and worries cease to exist. And though I tried to keep a nature journal off and on for many years, I never had the spaciousness of time to discover my personal approach.
I understand that at every step or stage of a new creative practice has challenges from knowing how to start, to knowing how to keep going, to knowing when and how to stop and rest!
What is A Wild Braid?
I started A Wild Braid to bring together my loves of nature, nature walking, nature journaling, art making and teaching. It came out of the need to answer the following questions:
“What is it that makes me feel alive, whole and connected? How can I both give and receive care for myself and others and our natural world? How can I continue to create positive change in the world while at the same time, doing what I love in a way that will sustain me in return?”
I facilitate introductory learning experiences on nature journaling and art making - in person or online - as well as guided nature walks in and around the Seattle area.
All workshops are an invitation to experience greater connection to nature, self, others, and community through one or a combination of the following: nature walks, nature journaling, and art making. I draw on over 25 years in the field of education and my own lived experience as naturalist, nature journaler and art maker.