About Me

Nice to meet you. I am a queer, Indigenous Mexican person (they/them). My ancestors come from Northern Mexico. I was raised in the US south, on the coast of North Carolina and currently reside in Portland, Oregon. I have a sweet service dog named Lou, who is always by my side. I have a deep love for fish and birds and plants. I am a gentle human who enjoys simple pleasures and being outside.

I began wood burning in 2020 to cope with the dark and wet winter during Covid-lockdown. Like many others, I felt disconected with myself and community. I was also navigating a lot of chronic pain that felt disruptive. In many ways learning to wood burn grounded me and brought a sense of home in my body. 

Wood burning is a slow art form and requires pause and intention. There is no erasing or going back. Each canvas, our friends the trees, have cycled through life and should never be wasted. I deeply love this medium, fire and wood. 

I am still developing my style and dirrection, but I am mostly drawn to create things inspired by the natural world. I lean into botanicals, fungi and the stars. I want to make things that make me smile and hopefully you too! 

I love earthly trasures. Looking into the moss to find micro cosomos of worlds, bugs, water, spores. I am a subsistance forager of herbs, plants and fungi spending what free time I have outside. 

Beyond In The Moss, I aspire to practice culturally ecology, community advocacy and environmental conservation. I am trained in ecology and fish and wildlife conservation. Most of my professional experience is in aquatic ecology, salmon conservation and environmental education.

It is also important to me to hold creative space that is not monotized. I sketch, paint, embroider, play with clay, tuft rugs/wall art and enjoy trying any new tactil crafts I can get my hands on.

Thanks for showing interest in myself and my creations. 

With Devotion and Gratitude, 
Zowie Blue DeLeon 

Connecting to you from the contemporary and ancestral lands of Multnomah, Wasco, Kathlamet, Clackamas, Cowlitz, bands of Chinook, Tualatin, Kalapuya, Molalla and many other Tribes who made their homes along the Columbia and Willamette Rivers and were forcibly removed from their land following the Willamette Valley treaty of 1855.

Land acknowledgments recognize the vital relationship that exists between Indigenous people and their traditional lands. Click here to find out whose land you're on.