Tiburon artist laureate aims to bridge community, environment

Tiburon resident Christa Grenawalt, seen Aug. 7 at her studio at Sausalito’s Industrial Building Center, has been named the town’s newest artist laureate. Her work includes paintings inspired by local landscapes, and she says she will look to use her four-year tenure to foster conversations on the environment through art. (Francisco Martinez / The Ark)

Artist Christa Grenawalt says she draws much of her inspiration from immersing herself in her surroundings.

Whether she’s plein air painting on the beaches of the Hawaiian isle of Kauai or more locally at Ring Mountain, Mount Tiburon or Old St. Hilary’s Open Space Preserve, she says she values “dropping in and paying attention to things that might normally be unnoticed in our environment and in nature.”

As an artist, she says, she not only wants to engage with her environment but with the larger community — and she’ll have the chance to do just that over the next four years as Tiburon’s artist laureate. She was appointed to the position by a unanimous vote of the council at its Aug. 6 meeting, replacing Richard Rozen, whose term ended in May 2022. Rozen crowned Grenawalt with a laurel wreath at the meeting to mark the handoff.

Grenawalt, 51, said she was looking into fostering creativity, nature and community, listing outdoor installations and participatory art as potential public projects to explore during her term, during which she noted she hopes to help locals “see themselves as part of a living artwork rooted in place and history and in a shared hope.”

“I believe that art can act as a bridge, and in this role, I’m hoping to use it to create connection between generations and across the communities here,” she told councilmembers.

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