Dew Glow

Aimée van Drimmelen is a multidisciplinary artist, musician, and arts programmer based in Victoria, B.C. Canada. Working in diverse media—from painting and drawing to film, sound, and animation—her work explores rhythms of the natural world, interconnection, and what lies beyond.

For her Zócalo Sketchbook, van Drimmelen combined the look of watercolor painting, woodcuts, crayon etchings, and fabric painting. Remixing them into her own brand of illustrative digital magic, she’s immortalized for us a northern flicker, a starling, sword ferns, broad-leaf maple seeds turned into weird moths, and Strobilurus trullisatus—a tiny mushroom …

California’s Beauty Doesn’t Love You Back | Zocalo Public Square • Arizona State University • Smithsonian

California’s Beauty Doesn’t Love You Back

The Stunning Hillside Homes, Epic Mountains, and Gnarly Waves That Draw Us Here Also Threaten Our Existence

Early in the film Chinatown, a Southern California coroner named Morty chuckles after examining the dead body of the city’s water department chief.

“Isn’t that something?” Morty says. “Middle of a …

Cybernetic Flowers

Sofia Pusa is a multidisciplinary creative director and illustrator based in London.

For her Zócalo Sketchbook, Pusa gives us an array of crisp, cybernetic flowers to herald the arrival of spring. Note her …

| Zocalo Public Square • Arizona State University • Smithsonian

Butterfly Vacation

Mercedes Padró is a graphic designer and illustrator based in Illinois. With a paintbrush in hand, she creates whimsical and vivid pieces that visualize the world as she sees it. …

tktk | Zocalo Public Square • Arizona State University • Smithsonian

Squirreled Away

Artist and illustrator Giulia Donati works under the moniker Pennepasta. Born in Italy and now based in London, she creates her pieces with calligraphy brush and India ink. For her …

Tropical Divine | Zocalo Public Square • Arizona State University • Smithsonian

Tropical Divine

Miriam Castillo is an illustrator, graphic designer, and muralist who divides her time between New York City and the Mexican Caribbean.

Castillo draws upon her favorite climate—the tropics—for this month’s Sketchbook. …