Artist in Residency Program: Fresh A.I.R.

Raven has most recently been transitioning their energy to a ceramics practice and co-founding a theater collective producing all new work on Lopez Island. They have previously worked as a miniaturist for television/film, and a scenic painter and designer for the stage, and spent many years connecting their art with farming & agriculture, activism, and education.

In their work they love to explore the relationship between space and expectations. They like to challenge – challenge people to look at things in a new way, to relate to space differently, to expand their perspectives. They are drawn to experimental and devised work that is collective driven, exploring things such as layers, dreams, and the intersection of the natural and man-made world.

Jessica Velo is a painter living and working on Lopez Island. Her figurative paintings range from alla prima still life and local landscapes to works combining multiple elements and styles to tell a story or pose a question. Decades after dropping out of art school and ceasing to make art, she began learning to paint in mid-life and is self-taught. Velo is inspired by seeing metaphor in nature, and exploring emotional states through subjects both real and imagined in oil paints. She is a member of the Lopez Island Artist Guild and Chimera Gallery. Her work currently resides in private collections.

Pedro Augusto Leite Costa, a former Brazilian diplomat, began a new chapter in his life when he moved to Lopez Island in 2018. After years representing Brazil abroad, he chose a quieter, more introspective path, immersing himself in the island’s natural beauty and strong sense of community. Today, he has also embraced storytelling as a documentarian, focusing on a remarkable local practice known as The Plunging.

This unique activity takes place at Odlin Park, where a dedicated group of around 20 people gathers every Monday, Tuesday, and Friday. Together, they step into the icy waters and remain there for anywhere between five and fifteen minutes. While the temperatures can be shockingly cold, participants describe the experience as deeply energizing and transformative. For them, plunging is more than a physical act—it is a way to confront discomfort, overcome personal limits, and cultivate resilience.

The practice is part of a broader culture on Lopez Island, where cold-water immersion has become a meaningful ritual for many residents. Some practitioners go even further, swimming for up to half an hour in the frigid waters while taking in the stunning surroundings of the Salish Sea. In these moments, the sea becomes both a challenge and a source of calm, offering a rare combination of intensity and serenity.

Beyond the physical benefits, The Plunging fosters a deep sense of community. Participants support and encourage one another, sharing not only the cold but also a collective spirit of perseverance. The repeated ritual creates bonds that extend beyond the water, strengthening connections between people and reinforcing their relationship with nature.

Pedro’s documentary captures this intersection of endurance, connection, and beauty. Through intimate storytelling, he explores why individuals willingly embrace such extreme conditions and what they gain in return—whether it is renewed energy, mental clarity, or a stronger sense of belonging. His work reflects his own personal transformation, shifting from diplomacy to creative expression while continuing to explore human experiences in meaningful ways.

This small documentary is part of the Artist in Residence program at the island’s beloved library, further rooting the project in the local community. Ultimately, Pedro Augusto Leite Costa’s story mirrors the essence of The Plunging itself: stepping into discomfort, discovering inner strength, and emerging with a renewed perspective on life.

Yarely Torres Reynoso is a Mexican-American traditional and experimental animator from the Pacific Northwest. She practiced visual arts and media production at The Evergreen State College, where she created her first few animated short films. Yarely is a scholarship recipient at Community Print, a print making studio located in Olympia WA. As a multimedia artist, she plans to incorporate printing practices into her current animation work. Yarely’s work is defined by their ever lasting relationship to exploring and witnessing the multitudes that can be, the human experience and memory. Her curiosity leads her to play with, and expand, the vulnerabilities of life through animation. She searches for gentleness, humanity, and connection to accompany the tellings of the narratives found inside each creation.

Project: “ The Earth Swallows Whole”

This mixed-media animated short film will explore the nonlinear and often unpredictable way that life evolves our sense of the authentic self. Once we separate ourselves from external information, structure, or routine, what is left? You will follow a character who experiences this journey by going through a mismatch of architectural spaces and environments that warp, and aren’t quite fully there… while hanging on, only by a thread. Rendered into animation through a delicate clash of fine line visuals and collage aesthetics, this character will explore the many variations of false and true self until reaching the end of their line.

In this project, I look forward to working with the Lopez Island community to share the beauty, wonder, and excitement that comes with learning animation. In a lecture setting, I plan to engage with my audience by screening this short film and teaching how to create life with moving squiggles, lines, and shapes. Animation should be thought of as an accessible art form that anyone can learn to do, and be as accessible as pen and paper. I want people to feel capable of creating with animation and grasp an expressive, yet complex, way of giving life to images and characters.