This Season of Giving, we’re celebrating the unsung heroes and champions of Nature.
We’re honoring those who have not only shaped their lives around Nature, but have trusted Nature to shape their lives. Two weeks into the Astral Season of Giving Giveaway, we are proud to announce the first (of four) winners.
The first $1,000 gift card goes to…
Alyssa Enriquez will receive the first of four $1000 Astral gift cards
As a brand who has always been intrigued with the intersection of creativity and Nature, we were immediately captivated by this photo-based artist and arts educator residing in Fairbanks, Alaska.
Her work investigating “social ecology in the subarctic” can be seen on her website https://www.alyssaenriquez.com/. She “create(s) vignettes of place, the sublime, and human impact on the landscape. These vignettes bear witness to the impermanence of landscape and how land becomes ‘place’ due to human presence.”
Alyssa’s recent work: Common Ground
Alyssa’s recent work: Nome as Place
Astral: First memory in Nature?
Alyssa: I wouldn’t say this is my first memory in Nature but by far the most impactful and formative. I was about 7 or 8 and clearly recall the awe of waking up surrounded by giant Sequoias. My dad beamed from ear to ear as he gently rustled my sister and me awake in the back of the car. A fog loomed between the giants. I remember grabbing my mother’s hand and sighing, her gentle nod acknowledging sometimes you just have to be still. My parents played a big role in ensuring I valued spending time in nature, I am eternally grateful to them for this.
Astral: Why investigate social ecology through art?
Alyssa: Artists are able to communicate to a broad and vast audience, to me this is powerful! My work is inspired by connection to place, respect for all living things and a great sense of urgency to protect all that binds us together in this ever changing landscape.
Astral: Where will $1,000 in Astral gear take you?
Alyssa: I sure hope it’s more paddling/hiking/fishing adventures with friends! I have been reading The Packraft Handbook by Luc Mehl and the Alaska Packraft Handbook by Jule Harle getting all the stoke. I feel so fortunate to photograph, live, work and recreate in Alaska. I would love to paddle the Hulahula in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWAR). The Arctic Refuge is part of the traditional homelands of the Gwichʼin people. The Hulahula river travels from the Romanzoff Mountains through the foothills of the Brooks Range and out onto the coastal plain. For thousands of years, the Gwich’in have called the coastal plain of the Arctic Refuge “Iizhik Gwats’an Gwandaii Goodlit” (The Sacred Place Where Life Begins).
Congratulations Alyssa!
Three more winners will be announced from now through December 20, 2022. All nominations who were not selected this time around remain eligible for consideration in the three upcoming winners selections.
To nominate someone who puts Nature First, submit either online here or on social media (by tagging #GiftofGear + @astralfootwear), and they will be entered to win a $1,000 gift card to astraldesigns.com.
