Quick Take:
Common Roots Farm's art program began around two years ago, spearheaded by Heidi Cartan, one of the farm’s founders, and Ilana Ingber, the art teacher. It was created to provide a space for New Perspectives' clients, which are made up of adults over 22 who have aged out of special education services, to participate in organized activities outside in nature.
Saying that Jaime Torres is obsessed with peacocks would be an understatement. Each week, without fail, he arrives at his art program at Common Roots Farm and creates something in tribute to the colorful bird. He has made everything from puppets to drawings, and this Wednesday was no different.
After he and others in his program finished feeding the chickens and sheep that roamed around the farm, they made their way down a long dirt path towards four green tables set up with different art stations. The gloomy weather created a light mist, but the art supplies were unbothered, sitting under strategically hung tarps that protected the area from the elements.
Torres beelined to the table with crayons, markers, scraps of tin foil and pencils set up alongside blank pieces of paper. Although the station was technically for making “Extreme Robots,” he didn’t care; he couldn’t stray from his mission. He picked up a purple marker and began drawing a bird with large, fanned feathers, preparing to add yet another piece of peacock art to his overflowing collection.
“It’s because they’re beautiful,” Torres said in Spanish. “And because they have so many pretty colors.”
The art program began around two years ago, spearheaded by Heidi Cartan, one of the farm’s founders, and Ilana Ingber, the art teacher. Ingber teaches people who are a part of New Perspectives, an adult day program operating out of Watsonville, twice a week. New Perspectives had been coming to Common Roots for a few years before the art program was created, Cartan said, to help tend to the garden. As time went on, she noticed some of them had an interest in art over gardening, so she asked Ingber to teach art classes.
Although they are based in Watsonville, News Perspectives’ clients come from all over Santa Cruz and Monterey County, including Salinas, Prunedale and Aptos. Adult day programs are an option that people over 22-years-old who have aged out of federal special education services can participate in, and they typically offer things like recreational activities, life skills training and medical care.
The farm itself has been around since 2017, founded by Cartan and her husband. They were inspired by their son Noah Habib, who has cerebral palsy and visual impairments, and they created Common Roots so that people with all abilities could participate in organic, sustainable farming and contribute to their communities.
The farm holds everyone to high standards when it comes to growing practices, Cartan said, and if someone cannot participate in every part of an essential activity, they come up with creative solutions. For instance, her son can make germination mix with the correct amount of soil and prepare seed trays to start thousands of plants each year on the farm, but because he is legally blind, he cannot accurately categorize the seeds in the cell tray.
So, they create an assembly line of sorts, she said, starting with Habib. He mixes the soil, and then someone with good attention to detail and fine motor skills places the correct seed in the corresponding cell tray, and passes it back to Habib so he can finish covering the seed. Then, there is a third person to water the seeds and complete the task.
“Everybody does it to the high standards we want for a successful farm, and everybody therefore shares in the confidence building and the quality that results in doing it right,” Cartan said.
As the farm grew and evolved, it relied heavily on donations and grants because of its nonprofit status. In 2021, the farm applied for and received a $15,000 Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation Quality of Life grant, which they used to build a “Seed to Salad Garden” in the farm. It included a shaded structure, four ADA cafe tables, six picnic tables and garden beds that allowed a wheelchair to roll into them. This is where the art program is now held twice a week.
Shayna Horti sat at a table on the far left of the Seed to Salad Garden during one of the art programs’ Wednesday classes, painting a medium-sized gray rock in various shades of green. Forest green, sage green, pale green, fern green. She used them all.
Although it happened to be her 26th birthday, she wanted to gift the rock to her dad to use as decor in his bathroom. She makes something for him every week, she said, and his favorite color is green. Some of the pieces she made for him include a sculpture and a card, and she said he loved them and still has them at his house.
Once the rock was dry enough, she and her aide added the finishing touch: “I <3 U Dad” painted in bright red on the front.
“It’s so my dad,” Horti said about her art piece. “Picasso – he calls me that. I can’t wait to call him tonight!”
As Horti continued to talk about her birthday plans, which included picking the group’s lunch restaurant and going shopping with her dad that weekend, Ilana Ingber stood at the end of the table, listening and helping another student, Andres Ortiz, 22, who was a more recent program participant.
The station also had supplies for print making, where the students could paint on a small piece of paper and then press another piece of paper on top to create a print. Ingber, the art teacher, held a picture of the Batman logo up for Ortiz so he could paint it with a reference.
“The Batman logo is always for me, because Batman is my hero,” Ortiz said.
He was making the painting for his girlfriend, Ella Manchester, 23, who was sitting across from him and making a series of prints inspired by the famous scene in the movie “Raiders of the Lost Ark” where lead character Indiana Jones runs from a rolling boulder.
“I made it for you, so make sure you put it somewhere,” Ortiz said to Manchester as he gave her the print.
“I love you,” Manchester responded, grinning and taking the print.
Ingber met Cartan in 2017, when she was teaching art at Gateway School and had Cartan’s other son, Matthew, in one of her classes. At the end of that school year, Ingber sent out a mass email saying she wanted to teach over the summer and got a response back from Cartan inviting her to run programs for younger kids through Common Roots. She would take them on walks to Pogonip, she said, where they would frolic in the stream. They would also make tie dye clothes, and do yoga sessions where they practiced mindfulness.
Then, six years later, Cartan approached Ingber and asked her to help create the art program. Ingber was creative and open to trying new things, Cartan said, so she knew she would be the perfect fit.
“We have spontaneous dance parties out here. I’ve danced the cha cha out here. I mean, we can talk about all the benefits of being in nature and making art, and there’s plenty of science behind it, but I feel like I’m being paid a service from working here,” Ingber said. “Coming here is not just a job for me – it feeds my soul.”
Since the farm is a nonprofit, there are scrappy elements to it. Ingber said all of the art supplies are donated, and that she thinks up creative ways to incorporate parts of the farm into the art stations she creates. Many of her crafting ideas involve flowers she hand-picks, and she often gravitates towards the long stalks of lavender.
Ingber views society to be too productivity- and optimization-focused, forwarding a mentality that people should only do activities that get them somewhere faster or in a more efficient way. She said that this art program fights against those cultural norms, which is one reason why it’s so wonderful.
“I feel it’s been transformational for me to come here,” Ingber said. “Slowing down, being in nature, being in the moment, there’s so much authenticity.”
Juan Ledesma, 22, decided to sit down at the crowded pipe cleaner art station during his session. It had cardboard cutouts, boxes of oil pastels and colorful pipe cleaners strewn about the table. He picked up one red and two purple pipe cleaners and started bending them to connect them together.
Although he attends the art program every other week, he found out about Common Roots a few years ago when he participated in the Workability Program through the Pajaro Unified School District. There, he got paid to work the land for two hours twice a week. He recalled creating labels for seed trays in the greenhouse that had writing and braille, so he could fully participate and find the right tray for the seed he was sowing.
He said the Workability program used to be the highlight of his week, but now the art program has taken over that spot.
“She [Ingber] is just so happy, and she enjoys being with us, and I enjoy being with her,” Ledesma said. “Do not stop doing what you love doing – your hobbies. Even if somebody tells you, ‘Oh you can’t do this,’ ignore them.”
