Left: Evaporated, Ink on Paper. Right: Vision: Rain water, Lens on Wall.
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Sonya McAlister is a visual artist currently based in Texas.
McAlister holds the position of Assistant Professor of Painting and Drawing at Victoria College.
Her current drawings reflect the idea that the understanding and healing at the heart of connection has the ability to guide us to answers that will support the health and longevity of nature and humanity. Her work is rooted in themes of connection, temporality, perception and experience.
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Cicada Exoskeleton Drawings
“Cicada Drawing #9” is created using legs from cicada exoskeletons. The work reflects environmental sound and seasonal transformation through direct, process-oriented engagement with natural materials.
(Summer 2025)
Pine Needle Drawings
Pine Needle Drawings are created by using pine needles collected at the location: 34°50.784'N 119°09.577'W, Elevation 5593’.
(Click on image to view selected Pine Needle Drawings.)
Arched Branch Drawings
Arched Branch Drawings are created by using branches as mark making tools. The arched branches were collected at the location:34°49'55"N 119°09'50"W Los Padres National Forest in California.
(Click on image to view selected Arched Branch Drawings.)
Sea Grass Drawings: Border Field State Park
Sea Grass Drawings are created by using sea grass as a mark making tool. Grass was collected from the Tijuana and San Diego border.
(Click on image to view selected Sea Grass Drawings.)
Mojave Desert Drawings
Mojave Desert Drawings are drawn with white twigs collected from the Northern Mojave Desert floor.
(Click on image to view selected Mojave Desert Drawings.)
Ash Paintings
Created using collected ash and soot from burned trees and plant life within the landscape’s burn scar during CA wildfires.
(Click on image to view selected Ash Paintings.)
Creek Water Drawings
Creek Water Drawings are created by drawing on glass with creek water. The image is created by lighting the glass so the viewer observes refracted light and shadow created by the water and mineral deposits.
(Click on image to view selected Creek Water Drawings.)
Untitled: Ink Drawings
Drawings were created by manipulating the flow of water and evaporation times. The artist balanced the conscious manipulation of marks with what happens naturally through evaporation and water flow patterns.
(Click on image to view selected Ink Drawings.)
Tea Paintings
In this series the artist explored the tension between man made constructs such as language and architecture with natural elements.
(Click on image to view selected Tea Paintings.)
Temporal Vision: Sight
The works created in Sight - Liquid on Lenses, is a part of a larger series called Temporal Vision. In these works, the artist explored visual perception and how it relates to the tangible and intangible.
(Click on image to view selected Lens works)
Temporal Vision: Test Tubes - Medicine I
Temporal Vision: Test Tubes reflects the artist interest in visual perception and how it relates to the tangible and intangible.
(Under construction: Coming soon…)
Temporal Vision: Microscope Slides - Medicine II
In the slide series the artist explores microscopic anatomy and how the unseen relates to the tangible and intangible.
(Under construction: Coming soon…)
Temporal Vision: Medicine III
Temporal Vision object arrangements.
(Under construction: Coming soon…)
Temporal Vision: Spines
(Under construction: Coming soon…)
