Somewhere on the 1,000-acre Jalama Canyon Ranch, there comes a point when the oak canopy clears, giving way to manzanitas. Standing on a ridgeline among vegetation and rolling hills, the vista reveals the ocean in one direction and the Santa Ynez River in the other.
The scene at the Lompoc ranch is like a microcosm representing much of the state’s landscape. However, for artists like Angelina LaPointe, California’s beauty creates a conundrum. As much as she wants to be outdoors, she’s got to go inside and hunker down.
“When you’re a nature artist, that hits really hard because my process is very slow and labor intensive,” the block printer told the Sun. “What I’m celebrating is the landscape, but ironically I have to constantly choose between spending time outdoors and spending time in my studio making the work.”
Pressed and printed
For more information about Angelina LaPointe’s work, go to sidecar-press.com or follow on Instagram @sidecarpress. Visit whitebuffalolandtrust.org to learn about the nonprofit’s mission.
On Dec. 17, the artist will speak at the Lompoc Teen Center at 4 p.m. about what it means to be a working artist. For more information, visit lompocteencenter.org.
This fall, it was a little easier for her to do both as she became the first official artist in residence at Jalama Canyon Ranch. The program is organized by the White Buffalo Land Trust, a Santa Barbara County nonprofit that supports land stewardship. The ranch owned by White Buffalo is a laboratory where managing livestock, preserving native species, and regenerative farming intersect.
Inviting artists to live and work at Jalama helps build long-lasting relationships between art, agriculture, and the community, explained Ana Smith, the nonprofit’s director of programs and engagement. Artists in residence are expected to attend events and classes at Jalama, engage with the public in collaborative workshops, and create original work that reflects the relationship between humans and the environment.
“Artists have a critical role to play in connecting people emotionally to this work and connecting people visually to this work in a new way and really bringing this work into our cultural spaces,” Smith said.
Though LaPointe’s is the first official residency, there was a pilot version in 2023 that helped inform today’s program. Following an open call this summer, 125 artists from around the country submitted applications, Smith said. LaPointe, a native of the Santa Rita Hills, came out on top.
Her application stood out because of how connected she is to the local environment and her expertise in such a “fascinating medium,” Smith said.
As a block printer, LaPointe makes prints using the “giant stamps” she carves by hand and her letterpress manufactured circa 1896.
“This is a really special experience because I get to actually make work in the ecosystems that I’m familiar with,” the artist said.
To kick off LaPointe’s residency in mid-October, Smith gave her a tour of the canyon. It took the pair roughly two hours to drive around the 1,000-acre property on an ATV.
“It’s just so fun to be able to have an experience in such a beautiful place but also with someone who has the same kind of joy in the ecological ‘nerdage’ of it all,” LaPointe said about the ride. “I was like, ‘Oh man. This is really happening. I get to do this.’ That was the moment it became real.”
Instead of living full time at Jalama, LaPointe chose a hybrid residency, which ends in the middle of December. She spends a week at a time living in a cabin on the property and returns to her home in between.
“Golden hour” hikes in the mornings and evenings have occupied a lot of her time. She likes that the light is just right, and on those trips she has photographed and sketched the landscape, collecting ideas for future prints.
“One of the wonderful surprises about being out there on the land was being able to visit the same area, the same tree, or the same grove of trees, at different times of day, multiple days in a row,” LaPointe said.
With enough source material to sustain about a year and a half’s worth of work, she’s aiming to finish a few pieces before the residency ends. One will be a large-scale print, about 18 by 24 inches, depicting an experience during her first week watching a goat herd come through the oak grove shepherded by Great Pyrenees dogs. It could take 20 to 30 hours to carve.
“The seeds that have been planted through this residency will continue to bear fruit for quite some time, I suspect,” LaPointe said.
One of the ways she’ll engage with the community before her residency is over is speaking at the Lompoc Teen Center. On Dec. 17,
she’ll talk to students about what it means to be a working artist and try to debunk some of the glorified tropes portrayed in the media. Spoiler alert: The job requires a lot of paperwork.
Though White Buffalo’s first artistic residency is coming to an end, two more artists will start their stays in the spring. Smith feels fortunate that LaPointe is a local so that they can keep in touch.
“We’re excited to be building a creative community,” Smith said, “that can really shift the public understanding of what our future in agriculture and specifically in food and fiber production as well as our ecology can really look like.”
Reach Staff Writer Madison White at mwhite@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Dec 11 – Dec 18, 2025.