Thanks to an artist's project grant from the Nevada Arts Council, I am teaching ecological art lessons in the playground of High Desert Montessori charter school over the course of February, March and April.




 Happy 2024!

New Year and Re-Newed Discoveries!

Stay tuned for more opportunities to create art together 

that is ecologically-grounded and empowering

for children and grown-ups

 Join me Saturday December 16th for a reading of my children's book 'What Amatxi Whispered' at the Churchill County Museum in Fallon, NV. I will have signed copies of the book for sale. 

This is also a chance to enjoy the temporary exhibit of Basque tree carvings in the Great Basin, 'Arboglyphs: the art of heritage'.



Support my work on Patreon and benefit of more news and insights on my art!

 Sunday November 19 2023

From 9.30am to 2pm, join me at the Idlewild Farmers' Market, in downtown Reno, NV, for a fun time  watercolor painting outside. The event is free for everyone. Art materials are provided, and I will be there to answer questions and give tips on drawing and painting from nature.


Saturday November 18 2023

Join me from 10am to 4pm at the Discovery Museum, Reno, NV, for a fun and creative workshop in making your own mini scarecrow, puppet, doll, superhero or whatever figure, from foraged sticks and leaves, Fall fruit, yarn and scraps of fabric.  Free for all visitors to the museum.



I am honored to take part in the upcoming Basque Cultural Day at San Francisco's Basque Cultural Center, organized by the Basque Educational Organization, on Saturday October 21 2023. The theme this year is 'The Impact of Basque Women in America' (Euskal Andreen Egintza Amerikan). I will be a panelist with some impressive Basque American women in one of the afternoon sessions, on 'Today's Basque Women Leaders'. 

Join us for an amazing gathering!

August 15 2023

I am thrilled to be the recipient of an Artist Project grant from the Nevada Arts Council. This grant will assist me in my creation of a new body of work incorporating both ecological and fine art. This work will be on show in two exhibits, scheduled this coming Winter and in the Spring of 2024. More info soon!

Since Spring, I am working on several projects, including writing and illustrating my second story for children in English, French and Basque (see pic below), developing my eco-art teaching curriculum, and producing a new body of work that incorporates my fine art portraiture, ceramics and ecological thinking. Stay tuned!

June 2023

One of my poems is featured with the Nevada Arts Council's poetry project Nevadan to Nevadan, launched by poet laureate Gailmarie Pahmeier.

June 19 2023

I am doing live portrait painting at the Steen Ranch in Washoe Valley, for a fundraiser for the Sierra Arts Foundation. Come watch the process of creating a fine portrait of the model, from 2 to 5pm.


Other works of mine will be on display and for sale.

Saturday April 22nd, 10.30-11.30am

Join me for story-telling and art-making at the Radical Cat independent bookstore in Reno, NV! 

It's fun and it's FREE!

 Listen to my interview on EcoArt lessons on the podcast GoGreenLocally

Photo by Noa Thauer-Bray, March 2023

Upcoming readings of my story "What Amatxi Whispered":

April 8, 11 am - Sundance Bookstore, on California Avenue, Reno, NV.

April 22, 11 am - Radical Cat Bookstore, Wells Avenue, Reno, NV.

April 29, 11 am - Humboldt Museum, Winnemucca, Reno, NV.

Reading at the Basque Cultural Center, San Francisco, CA, February 2023. Photo by Paul Thauer-Bray

Reading at the members' luncheon with the Basque club Zazpiak Bat, Reno, NV, April 1 2023. Photo by Noa Thauer-Bray

 March 9 2023

Thanks to the Basque Cultural Institute for interviewing me after my writer's residency in the nature reserve of Abbadia, in Hendaye, on the Atlantic coast in the Basque Country. Here it is in French, and in Basque on the website of Euskal Kultur Erakundea, and in English with the website of Euskal Kazeta!

 February 6 2023

My article about the last Basque sheepherding enterprise in the Washoe-Carson valley area is published in French with Mediabask and in English with Euskal Kazeta!

OurTownReno reviews and recommends my children's storybook 'What Amatxi Whispered'

 Happy 2023 to Everyone!

So many exciting news to report, including more eco art lessons, working on my second children's book, and portrait painting! 

To find out more, please follow - and support me on Patreon!

I am grateful to the Elkano Foundation for supporting me with another grant to assist in the completion of my illustrated story for children 'June ta Mundua' - Basque for 'June and the World'. This story is a continuation of my first story 'What Amatxi whispered'. It recounts the adventures of a little Basque American child living in Nevada, learning with her peers to deal with the environmental and social challenges of today.


I am writing this story in Basque and in English, and also illustrating it myself. I plan to have it completed in a few more months time, and then find a publishing house.

In the meantime, a review in French of my preparatory work for it appeared here, thanks to the writer Patrice Martin.

December 14 2022

Join me for a free nature + art lesson in a beautiful public library in south Reno, with Nevada Humanities!

1-2.30 pm

South Valleys Library, 15650A Wedge Parkway Reno, NV.

Thanks to a Project Grant for Artists from the Nevada Arts Council, I am able to focus on creation of an entirely new body of work made from natural material and objects conventionally considered trash to showcase the beauty of our natural surroundings in Northern Nevada and specifically the Truckee watershed.

My first children's book is OUT!

The book is both in English and Basque!

More info, and purchase HERE

 November 5 & 6 2022

Join me for some free nature + art lessons in a beautiful public park in downtown Reno, NV!

More info here:

https://www.nevadahumanities.org/events/2022/11/6/gathering-natural-materials-to-create-autumn-art

and here:

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/gathering-natural-materials-to-create-autumn-art-tickets-443862373307

October 31 2022

I am back home in Reno, Nevada, and hit the ground running to prepare a series of eco art workshops for children and adults. 

Part of me is of course still lulling in the bliss of the artist residency I spent in the Basque Country these past four weeks. Here is some media coverage of it:

Euskal Telebixta-Basque television, (News of October 25 2022, as of 7minutes and 42seconds): https://www.eitb.eus/eu/nahieran/iparraldearen-orena/iparraldearen-orena/osoa/583/201049


 Local e-news: https://baskulture.com/article/hendaye-elkano-et-la-nature-raconts-aux-enfants-par-la-rsidence-dartiste-de-zo-bray-5338 

French regional paper: https://www.sudouest.fr/pyrenees-atlantiques/hendaye/hendaye-en-residence-a-nekatoenea-zoe-bray-a-cree-un-conte-en-euskara-12774531.php

 October 4 - 28 2022

I am doing an artist residency in the amazing nature reserve of the CPIE Littoral Basque in Hendaye (Basque Country, France), thanks to a partnership with this organization together with the Basque Cultural Institute, the Federation of Basque Writers and the Elkano Foundation, which celebrates 500 years since the Basque explorer Juan Sebastian Elkano sailed around the world.

The story of Elkano inspired me to write a contemporary interpretation of his discoveries. During my residency, I aim to write and illustrate a story for small children. It's about a little girl, not dissimilar to my own children, who lives in northern Nevada, an area of high desert and sierras, where wildnerness still abounds, but which is steadily being encroached by urban sprawl. Unlike Elkano, this little girl knows the world is round – her parents explained it to her. Often, at the end of a day typically spent playing by the Truckee river, she likes to contemplate the sun as it sets behind the mountains, receding to the West. She also knows that the world is small – she's already taken the plane high up into the sky and flown some hours, to go visit her mother's family in the Basque Country. And she knows too that many  animals and plants are endangered because of the behavior of human beings. She feels a pinch to her heart every time she thinks about it, and often contemplates what she can do to make a difference.

In my story of this child who discovers her own place and purpose in the world, I evoke the juxtaposition of two public figures- Elkano and Greta Thunberg  - and their contrasting epistemologies. Today, with Greta Thunberg, there is not only the knowledge that the world is round but finite, and fragile. Today is also a secular age, whereby we do not necessarily believe destiny and fate are in the hand of a God – they can be in our own hands – responsibility can lie with the self – the individual and the human collective. 500 years ago, Elkano had no choice but to cross the seas on a wind-propelled ship, while Thunberg, in 2019, made the point of travelling via minimally carbon-emitting modes of transport to attend climate conferences in America and to return to Sweden. The time of Elkano was one of exploration, accomplice to efforts to discover and colonize; our time in the 21st century, with the inspiring figure of Thunberg and other young people, is one of the urgency to care and fight for social, economic and environmental justice. 

The protagonist in my story is a product of globalization, kickstarted by Elkano's achievement. She is born to parents of different origins, in a different place, has traveled across the globe by plane, feeds comfortably on food and information from all corners of the planet, and is a witness to climate collapse – the radical decrease of biodiversity with pollution and destruction by human beings. How can and how does a child today make sense of its existence and purpose in today's world ? How does it consider its impact and that of its community on the environment ? And what importance should be attached to identity? I want this story to bring up these important philosophical questions for young people growing up today, but also have this story be one of hope and empowerment. It aims to inspire a re-discovery as well as a renewed awe for beauty and adventure that can still exist in the world.