Pigments + Place: Natural Pigments Workshop

Daniela Naomi Molnar is an artist, poet, and pigment worker collaborating with the mediums of language, image, paint, pigment, and place. She is also a wilderness guide, educator, and eternal student. An entry in the Oregon Encyclopedia states, “Molnar pioneered the notion that art can speak to climate change.” Her large-scale, abstract, color-driven paintings speak to this and other thorny issues by inviting the viewer to sense and feel. Using colors she makes herself, her work creates contemplative spaces in which we can re-engage our senses in order to arrive at new, better questions about what it means to be human at a time of crisis. Her work aims to shift us from despair to creative possibility, from trauma to wonder, from isolation to collective purpose. Her work is the subject of a front- page feature in the Los Angeles Times, an Oregon Art Beat profile, and a feature in Poetry Daily. Her visual work has been shown nationally, is in public and private collections internationally, and has been recognized by numerous grants, fellowships, and residencies. Her debut book CHORUS is a finalist for the 2024 Oregon Book Award and was selected by Kazim Ali as the winner of Omnidawn’s 1st/2nd Book Award. Forthcoming books include: PROTOCOLS (Ayin Press, 2025), The Ecopoetry Anthology (Trinity University Press, 2025), and Light / Remains (Bored Wolves, 2026). She founded the Art + Ecology program at the Pacific Northwest College of Art and helped start and run the backcountry artist residency Signal Fire. Her work often occurs outdoors, in collaboration with global public wildlands.