Artist visiting mosaic fabrication by Miotto Mosaic and Travisannutto Mosaics in Spilimbergo, Italy.
For Los Angeles County Dept. of Arts & Culture.
Mosaic installed March 2024 in La Puente, CA.
Photo by Diana Lake
Carly Lake’s first love is drawing. She creates vibrant watercolor and digital illustrations for books and print that are whimsical, surreal, and nature-centric. Her debut picture book, Waa’aka The Bird Who Fell in Love With the Sun (Heyday Books), follows the origin story of how the sun got up into the sky, by Tongva author and artist, Cindi Alvitre. Carly enjoys working in spaces where her passion for storytelling is nurtured, including storyboarding, editorial illustration, public art, and art education.
Her practice with natural dyes began in 2016 and has since been at the core of her fiber artwork. The colors in her woven and quilted textiles are the expression of dyes from her local landscape of the Los Angeles basin. She also explores traditional dyes from across the globe, seeing both unique beauty and universality in these ethnobotanical histories. Through her natural dye classes, Carly aims to share the ecological relationships that shape our environment and contemplate these connections with others.
She received her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Illustration and minor in Native American Cultures from California State University at Long Beach. Carly currently lives near the San Gabriel Mountains of Southern California.
SELECTED CLIENTS
Heyday Books, The California Native Plant Society,
The National Tropical Botanic Garden, Flora Magazine,
Beach Magazine, Gold Front, Grand Scheme Productions,
and Los Angeles County Department of Arts & Culture
In her spare time, Carly hosts a Youtube channel about illustration and natural dyes.
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS
2023 Collective Memory Installation, digital exhibition of artworks at Grand Park [ Los Angeles, CA ]
2020 Memory and Futurity in Yaangna (Public Program) with La County Arts & Culture, Grand Park
[ Los Angeles, CA ]
2020 Birthplace of the People (VR Film), CSULB World Anthropology Day [ Long Beach, CA ]
2019 Textile Show, (Group Exhibition), The Little Gallery [ San Bernardino, CA ]
2019 Rakugaki, (Group Exhibition), Giant Robot 2 [ Los Angeles, CA ]
2019 Fast Forward, (Group Exhibition), Giant Robot 2 [ Los Angeles, CA ]
2018 Wind Talk, (Art Installation), Desert Daze Music Festival [ Lake Perris, CA ]
2018 Center, (Duo Exhibition with Diego Irigoyen), The Gallery at the Downtown Center [ Pomona, CA ]
2017 Post-It Show 13, (Group Exhibition), Giant Robot 2 [ Los Angeles, CA ]
2017 Imagine II, (Group Exhibition), The Da Center for Arts [ Pomona, CA ]
2017 Of the Earth, (Group Exhibition), Apero Gallery [ Fullerton, CA ]
2016 Closer, (Duo Exhibition with May Ta), Dennis W. Dutzi Gallery [ Long Beach, CA ]
AWARDS
2021 Excellence in a Picture Book of Cultural Significance, Children’s Literature Council of Southern California
2018 American Illustration 37 Archive
COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT
2023 Natural Dye Classes with K-6 students, Westland School [Los Angeles, CA]
2022 Natural Dye with California Native Plants Workshop, with Amigos de Los Rios at Bassett High School [La Puente, CA]
2022 Natural Dye Family Workshop, with Clockshop at The Community & Unity People’s Kite Festival
[Los Angeles, CA]
2022 Nature Journaling Workshop, The Rancho Los Alamitos [Long Beach, CA]
2022 Natural Dye with California Native Plants Workshop, The Rancho Los Alamitos [Long Beach, CA]
2021 Natural Dye Workshop, with La Puente High School - Art Class [La Puente, CA]
2021 Natural Dye Workshop, The Studio at the Long Beach Public LIbrary [Long Beach, CA]
2019 Weaving Natural Colors Workshop, The Studio at the Long Beach Public Library [Long Beach, CA]
2018 Walk & Draw Meditation, Desert Daze Music Festival [Lake Perris, CA]
2018 Mural Supervisor, The Korean Resource Center [Buena Park, CA]
2017 Collage Making Workshop, Desert Daze Music Festival [Joshua Tree, CA]