Noelle Phares brings a fresh perspective into her contemporary landscape paintings through examination of the tension between organic and synthetic. As an environmental scientist by training, she allows the same topics that drove her work in the natural sciences to now guide her creative endeavors. Her body of work combines landscape elements with structural geometry to create fractured architectural landscapes that explore the ever-encroaching presence of humanity into previously pristine open spaces. Noelle exhibits regularly via fine art galleries domestically and internationally and has collaborated with outdoor brands such as Merrell, Wylder Goods, 4FRNT Skis, and Smartwool. She holds a BS in Biochemistry, and an MS in Environmental Science. She has been painting throughout the American West over the last decade, and currently lives and paints full-time out of Denver, Colorado.

This piece is from Noelle's ETA34 collection, Cardinal Spring. In Noelle's own words: "Scenes from my gardens in coastal Washington. I wrote this poem to accompany the works:"

Under the hush of firs

are my gardens

darkened and damp from

rains that plunge

out of a sky heavy with ocean

the choppy mirror clacking across the downs

baptizing the earth

again and again

the magnolia blooms

poke their callow heads out

from tangled nests of branches

as the glades try to hush them

but May will not relent

the dogwood bursting with pink billows

that will drift along soon

into needle-lined graves

the light-tangled juniper

hides festoons of greying berries

pale and prickled

my child, newborn

squirms across the lawn

what a miracle the blinks of light

through the maples are

in her cardinal spring