(Madena Asbell) Untitled #5

glazed porcelain2.5" round Madena Asbell is a conservationist, botanist, horticulturist, and artist living and working in Joshua Tree, CA. She attended Goldsmiths College in London and has an MFA in photography from CalArts. She worked for the Mojave Desert Land Trust from 2016 to 2024 where she established their plant conservation program and Mojave Desert Seed Bank. The act of creating can take many forms. For me, it has almost always involved nature. Starting in early childhood, I explored my relationship with the natural world through drawing and illustration, creating works with graphite on paper, a medium I still love for its intimacy and immediacy. Later, I explored abstract painting and photography, which culminated in an MFA from CalArts in 1998. I’ve never felt entirely comfortable being defined as an artist, and eventually found myself working directly with nature through the worlds of horticulture, ecology, and conservation. For the past 25 years, I’ve been working with Cal