We first met Bonnie when she moved to LA, in a meditation class led by our friends from THE BROAD PLACE. It was not long after that we received our first invite from Bonnie to attend a kick-off event that led to the creation of a community-based environmental group. An actress and filmmaker by trade, it is most often in her capacity as an environmental advocate and her commitment to live a low-impact lifestyle that we perceive Bonnie.
We first met Bonnie when she moved to LA, in a meditation class led by our friends from THE BROAD PLACE. It was not long after that we received our first invite from Bonnie to attend a kick-off event that led to the creation of a community-based environmental group. An actress and filmmaker by trade, it is most often in her capacity as an environmental advocate and her commitment to live a low-impact lifestyle that we perceive Bonnie.
As an OCEAN AMBASSADOR WITH GREENPEACE, Bonnie focuses her advocacy on the issues of single-use plastic pollution and the fossil fuel and petrochemical industry—not only the after-life of plastics and how they affect ocean health, but also the adverse effects that production facilities and oil-drilling sites have on the health of nearby communities. She recently traveled to Guatemala with RAINFOREST ALLIANCE to learn more about sustainable forest management and the important of biodiverse landscapes like rainforests.
I wake up and meditate, then take my dog Billy Blue for a walk either on the beach, the trails or to the dog park. On my walk, I usually ring my family back home in London and resist emails and Instagram till I am home boiling the water for coffee. I enjoy my cup of drip coffee with sourdough toast with a generous amount of peanut butter and homemade jam—right now it's peaches.
I have always loved taking part and showing up even from a young age. I think that comes from my curious nature and joy in being around others, as well as a part of something bigger than myself. Beyond that instinctive nature, I found myself in a public space at a young age, and got to experience and meet people that opened up my lens. I wouldn’t say there was a particular moment, but rather an accumulation of experience, compassion, anger, empowerment and inspiration.
I always refer to myself as an advocate for the environment, rather than an activist. I am incredibly motivated by the brilliant leadership of so many climate activists, who show up every day of the year. Many people have taken to the issue because they are already being directly affected by the consequences of the climate crisis. I show up to listen, understand and amplify.
When I personally experience burnout and feel despondent I refocus on the more micro issues that I can control, like shifting habits within my home to lower my impact on the planet. It makes the issue tangible in an often overwhelming situation.
WANGARI MATHAI , ALEJANDRO INARRITU, Henri Matisse and dolphins.
Instagram is definitely my news feed, I love Future Earth, Intersectional Environmentalist, Atmos and Slow Factory for my climate justice updates. For film I have subscription to Film Comment magazine that I love.
I have been drawing again, something I realized I hadn’t done frequently since high school. I went to art school for college to study film but before you know it the medium of film becomes very desk bound and technical. It's been so enjoyable to free up in a sketch book. My dad and I have been drawing over zoom, portrait studies of each other or still lives I will set up that we can both see.
I have had to let go of plans and projections I had for professional projects, but by doing so it has cleared space for new things to come through, things that I think were banging at the door but I couldn’t hear them from the bustle of being “busy”. Even amidst all of the uncertainty, this time has been helping me to cultivate better trust in the world and better trust in myself within it.
For Mariah Nielson, the familiar is never static. Mornings begin inside the hand-built Inverness, CA home her father, sculptor JB Blunk, shaped from salvaged redwood in the 1950s. It’s where Mariah now lives, and is raising her own son amid the textures, tools, and stories of her childhood—alongside traded works from friends, artist-made artifacts, and her own growing contributions.
For painter Jereme Brian Mendez, mornings move at their own pace: ice water, meditation, and a walk through the quiet streets of the Berkeley Hills, where deer roam past and the fog hangs low. His studio hours don’t begin until the light shifts in the afternoon, but those early rituals—quiet, steady, tactile—form the architecture of his day.
Kassandra Thatcher is an LA-based artist specializing in ceramic lighting and sculpture. We recently paid a visit to her Arlington Heights studio to see her in action, and learn more about her story, life and work.