Landscapes
Dai has spent thousands of nights sleeping under the stars on the land. As a wilderness guide, Dai has had the opportunity to sit around camp fires in blizzards, search for water in desert canyons, and track cougars across mountains. Dai's relationship with the land is one of reverence and deep loving connection. Through their artwork, Dai brings the viewer into this familial relationship with place.
Vestal Basin
2025
30x40"
Weminuche Wilderness, Colorado
This wilderness is rugged and remote, making it impossible for most people to ever visit it.I am grateful for my body's strength and my mentors teachings that allow me to call places like this home.
Into the Valley
36x48"
Mancos, Colorado
When the late spring snow starts to melt in southwest Colorado, the valley's erupt in color and bird song.
Into the valley depicts the moment of trudging through wet warm snow in the foothills above mancos valley and watching the world spring anew.
Sand Canyon Heading South
2025
20x30"
Cortez, Colorado
Sand Canyon is a protected area within Canyon of the Ancients, a rich historical wilderness west of Mesa Verde. Although many visitors recreate here daily, few people visit the northern end of the canyon, making the trip south along the designated trail a solitary and beautiful journey .
Arch Canyon
36x36"
West of Monument Valley, Utah
In southeast Utah, the mid day sun blares hot even in March. But where the canyon walls loom tall, shade blankets the valley floor by late afternoon. As soon as the sun tucks behind the rocks, everything comes alive.
Hesperus from Echo Basin
Echo Basin, La Platas
24x48"
Anyone who lives where aspens grow knows the way they glow golden when autumn comes. As days shorten, their shimmering leaves brighten the world. They seem to laugh as they sway and bring lightness to our hearts.
This painting is based off of a mural that I originally created for 98 year old veteran and lifelong resident of Cortez, Colorado. Now the beauty of this land he loves gets to be with him every day.
Summer Harvest
24x36"
Emerald Lake, Weminuche Wilderness
This painting was inspired and created for the Everybody Eats harvest event at the Cortez Cultural Center 2024.
In late August, the mountains in Southwest Colorado are filled with many forms of abundance. In spending time with this painting, you are invited to a feast for the eyes and to be a part of honoring the wild lands that feed us all.
Storm King
16x16"
Weminuche Wilderness, Colorado
2024
Trinities
16x16"
Weminuche Wilderness, Colorado
2024
Continental Divide
16x16"
Weminuche Wilderness, Colorado
2024
The Mountains Who Hold Us
2024
12x24"
La Platas, Mancos, CO
This painting is of the La Platas in Southwest Colorado. These are the mountains that feed the valley I live in. They hold snow for much of the year, raging creeks in the spring, and mushrooms and berries in the summer and fall. My hope in this painting is to honor these mountains that I love and that hold me and so many others so lovingly.
The Stewards of The Rio Grande
2024
12x24"
The Lower Canyons of the Rio Grande, Texas/Mexico Border
This painting is of an audad looking out over the Rio Grande, east of Big Bend National Park. Audads are sheep originally native to Africa who have been living in the US since the 1940s. For me, this painting is an honoring of the land as well as an invitation into curiosity of what it means as a non-native to cultivate relationship with land.
I was lucky enough to spend two weeks boating this stretch of the RIo Grande in 2022. It is wild beautiful country out there, and it was such a gift to get to share that land with the turtles and swallows, audads and raccoons, and so many other beings that call that land home.
East Verde Elders
2024
12x24"
Confluence of the Verde and East Verde River, Cottonwood, AZ
This painting is of the place where I first truly fell in love with the desert southwest. In 2015, a co-guide (who later became my spouse) took me to this land where he had had the privilege of guiding in 2011. I had never met a saguaro before that moment. Since then, I have spent hundreds of days exploring this land and hundreds of nights falling in love with the wild mystery that the Sonoran desert holds. I am so grateful for this land that has held me in so many ways.
Moon Lake
Weminuche Wilderness, Colorado
2024
Rock Lake
Weminuche Wilderness, Colorado
2024
West at Sunset
2025
Cortez, Colorado
Anyone who lives where aspens grow knows the way they glow golden when autumn comes. As days shorten, their shimmering leaves brighten the world. They seem to laugh as they sway and bring lightness to our hearts.
This painting was created for 98 year old veteran and lifelong resident of Cortez, Colorado. Now the beauty of this land he loves gets to be with him every day.
Full Moon's Light
2025
Mancos, Colorado
The Gallery at First Light
2024
Bug Point, Utah