Meet the Artist Angela Solis: Courage, Color, and the Creative Spirit of the Sonoran Desert

🎨 Angela Solis shares how returning to Tucson helped her reconnect with her roots, her creativity, and the energy of the Sonoran Desert.

🌵 The conversation explores how the desert’s resilience, expansiveness, and hidden vibrancy shape Angela’s artistic voice and worldview.

🌈 Angela talks about color as more than a visual choice—it becomes a language of emotion, intuition, and personal expression in her work.

🖌️ Listeners get an inside look at Angela’s intuitive painting process, where she begins without a fixed plan and follows feeling, movement, and curiosity.

🧭 The episode reveals how Angela balances her background in graphic design with a freer, more instinctive approach to painting.

💪 Courage emerges as a central theme, as Angela reflects on what it takes to face a blank canvas and fully step into life as an artist.

🧗 Angela draws a powerful parallel between painting and rock climbing, showing how both practices have taught her to trust herself and move forward through uncertainty.

🌙 The discussion touches on recurring imagery in her work—desert forms, celestial bodies, light, shadow, and the idea that opposites can exist together.

👵 Angela reflects on her family history and artistic lineage, including the influence of her grandmother and the creative gifts carried through generations.

🎥 The episode also highlights Angela’s feature in the documentary series Inspiration Point, which explores how artists draw inspiration from place.

What does it take to become the artist you were always meant to be?

In this episode of Life Along the Streetcar, we sit down with Tucson artist Angela Solis for a conversation that is as thoughtful as it is inspiring. What begins as a discussion about painting quickly opens into something deeper: a reflection on courage, identity, intuition, and the powerful pull of home. Angela shares how returning to Tucson helped her reconnect with her roots, her creativity, and a version of herself that had been waiting patiently to come fully into view.

Set against the beauty and intensity of the Sonoran Desert, this episode explores the forces that shape an artist from the inside out. Angela talks about family history, artistic inheritance, the emotional power of color, and the vulnerability required to face a blank canvas without a fixed plan. The result is a conversation that feels personal, grounded, and full of momentum—especially for anyone who has ever wondered how creativity and courage grow together.

Rooted in Tucson: How the Sonoran Desert Shapes Angela Solis’ Creative Voice

Angela Solis is not simply an artist who lives in Tucson. She is an artist whose voice has been shaped by the land itself. In the episode, she speaks beautifully about growing up in the Sonoran Desert, leaving for years to live and travel elsewhere, and ultimately returning to Tucson because the desert called her back. For Angela, the desert is more than scenery. It is a place of grounding, expansiveness, and memory—a landscape that helped her recenter and reconnect with who she is.

That perspective gives the conversation a rich emotional core. Angela describes the desert not as empty or lifeless, but as vibrant, resilient, and full of subtle beauty. It is a place where life persists through extremes, where color blooms against harsh conditions, and where strength and softness coexist. That idea becomes one of the most compelling backdrops of the episode: the desert is not just where her art happens. It is part of how her art thinks, breathes, and feels.

There is also a deeper story of heritage woven through the conversation. Angela reflects on her family’s roots, their migration history, and the way artistic ability lived in earlier generations, even when those family members did not have the same opportunities to pursue art publicly or professionally. That gives this episode an added layer of meaning. Angela’s work is not only contemporary and personal—it is also connected to family, lineage, and the quiet persistence of creative identity across generations.

Painting by Intuition: Angela Solis on Flow, Feeling, and the Language of Color

One of the most fascinating parts of this episode is Angela’s description of her creative process. She explains that she is an intuitive painter, which means she does not begin with a rigid plan or fully mapped-out image. Instead, she starts with a blank canvas, a set of colors that feel alive in the moment, and a willingness to listen to what the work seems to be asking for next. She follows feeling, movement, contrast, curiosity, and joy.

That approach gives her paintings an energy that feels both personal and expansive. Angela talks about choosing colors based on what is speaking to her, selecting brushes based on what feels exciting, and allowing the painting to unfold through a series of intuitive decisions. It is a process rooted in trust—trust in the body, trust in the eye, and trust in the unknown. Rather than forcing the artwork into existence, she collaborates with it as it emerges.

Color, in particular, plays a starring role in this conversation. Angela describes color not just as a design element, but as a kind of language—something emotional, psychological, and deeply expressive. Long before she fully claimed the title of artist for herself, she was already in relationship with color. That idea gives this episode a special spark. It is not only about what her paintings look like; it is about how they communicate, how they hold emotion, and how color can say things words sometimes cannot.

There is also an interesting creative tension in her story: Angela has a strong background in graphic design, and that training still informs her work through balance, proportion, harmony, and contrast. But painting invites something different from her. It asks her to loosen control, step into uncertainty, and let instinct lead. That intersection between formal design knowledge and open-ended intuitive practice makes her artistic process especially compelling.

Courage on the Canvas: Art, Rock Climbing, and Becoming Who You Are

If one theme rises above all others in this episode, it is courage.

Angela speaks openly about courage as something she has had to cultivate in her life and in her art. She talks about the courage it takes to face a blank canvas, to claim the identity of artist, and to fully own who you are meant to be in the world. That honesty gives the conversation real emotional weight. This is not a polished success story told from a distance. It is a living, breathing account of what it means to move toward your calling even when vulnerability comes with it.

One of the most memorable threads in the episode is the connection Angela draws between painting and rock climbing. For her, climbing has become a practice of building courage, and she sees a clear parallel between standing at the base of a rock face and standing in front of a blank canvas. In both cases, there is uncertainty. In both cases, there is risk. In both cases, the only way forward is to begin.

That metaphor is part of what makes this conversation so engaging. Angela is not just talking about art in technical terms. She is talking about the internal experience of becoming brave enough to trust yourself. As she moves from a successful design career into painting more fully under her own name, the episode captures an artist in a meaningful season of transition—one marked by visibility, growth, and a deeper alignment with her purpose. Her recent solo shows, her connection with the Tucson Gallery, and her feature in the Inspiration Point documentary all add to the sense that this is a moment of real emergence.

Listen to Angela Solis on Life Along the Streetcar

This episode of Life Along the Streetcar is a thoughtful and energizing conversation about what happens when place, identity, intuition, and courage all meet in one creative life. Angela Solis offers more than insight into her artwork—she offers a perspective on how artists are shaped, how creative trust is built, and how beauty can come from listening closely to both the world around us and the voice within.

Whether you are an artist yourself, someone navigating a big life transition, or simply curious about the stories behind Tucson’s creative community, this episode is well worth your time. Listen to the full conversation, explore Angela’s work through the Tucson Gallery, and follow her journey as she continues stepping boldly into this next chapter. Then, if this story leaves you inspired, take the next step: share the episode, pass it along to a fellow creative, and spend some time with the art itself. Sometimes courage begins with a single conversation—and sometimes it begins with color on a canvas.

Tom Heath
Welcome back to another episode of Life Along the Streetcar in a collaboration with the Tucson Gallery, as we have the opportunity to feature some of the fabulous local artists we have here in Tucson and on display in the Tucson Gallery. All the information regarding their work can be found on the Tucson Gallery.

Com and past episodes of Lifelong Streetcar available on life along the streetcar.

Tom Heath
And we are excited to welcome in a fairly new artist to the gallery, Angela Solis.

Angela Soliz
Hey Tom, so excited to be here. Really grateful for the gallery and grateful to be here today.

Tom Heath
Fantastic. Well, we’re I want to talk about your art and a lot of your inspiration and where this explosion of color comes from. But I first need to know about you. Are you, uh, are you from Tucson? Like, how did you get here?

Angela Soliz
Yeah. Yeah, I am from Tucson. I was born here. Um. I love the desert. It’s. You know, it’s been my home for a long time. Um, I graduated from the U of a, uh. My family is first generation here. They’re migrant farm workers. So my family’s originally from Zacatecas and Mexico. Okay. Uh, I have family all over the west.

You know, this displacement happens with a migrant family. So I have Diaz and Theos and New Mexico, Texas, Colorado, Arizona, California, Washington, even Hawaii.

Tom Heath
So you always have a place to stay?

Angela Soliz
I always have a.

Tom Heath
Place.

Angela Soliz
To stay. A lot of travel. Um, a lot of family. A lot of family. Uh, but I got to grow up here in the desert, and I’ve done a lot of traveling. I moved away for about a decade. I came back in 2018.

Tom Heath
Where did you.

Angela Soliz
Move? Uh, I was I was in Phoenix. I was in the state of Maine, across the country. Uh, I’ve also traveled. I’ve lived and worked in Italy. In Australia. Oh, goodness. And I backpacked through Central America. Um, so I’ve been through Guatemala, El Salvador and Nicaragua.

Tom Heath
Goodness. So what? Why? Tucson. What is it here that draws you back?

Angela Soliz
Um, what called me back was the desert. I needed a place to. To recenter. And the desert has always been a place that feels like home to me. There’s something about the energy here. And for some reason, it feels a lot like the ocean does. There’s an expansiveness here. Mm. Um, there’s a history here, and there’s.

For me, there’s a reminder here of just just how big our world is. Yeah. Um, there’s a lot of life that thrives in the desert. Even though most people don’t think of a desert as, uh, teeming with life or vibrant. And, um, it was just. It was just a place that I knew I could really center myself and. And come back to my roots and who I am.

Tom Heath
Oh, I’m. I’m. I can relate to so much of what you said there. And when I moved here from the Midwest in the 90s, I looked to the desert and I thought everything was constantly dead. And then as you, you you’re here for a while, you realize that. No, it’s just it’s it’s very vibrant, just in a different way than what I’m used to seeing.

And then I’m just amazed at the the ruggedness and the beauty then that comes from the desert because it is such a harsh environment. And yet this, this, this color and beauty can just sort of and bloom anywhere. And, uh, and sometimes the I see things growing in concrete, like we’re, we have some very determined vegetation out here in the desert.

Angela Soliz
Yes. Resilience is just it’s in the DNA out here. And it is a very harsh climate. It’s a climate of extremes. Yeah. And I think that creates so much beauty. Yeah. There’s just nothing like the Sonoran Desert anywhere else in the world.

Tom Heath
Well, speaking of DNA art? Is that in your DNA or is this a recent discovery? Have you always been involved with art?

Angela Soliz
I have I it is in my DNA. My, my. Boileau was an artist. My. There’s lots of history of artists in my family. Although, um, no well-known artists. Nobody else ever had the opportunity to to be in galleries, to show their work, to really focus on art. Um, so I’m really, really grateful for this. And I feel my willow with me when I paint.

Tom Heath
Did you did you spend time with her? Like, did you?

Angela Soliz
I did, I got to know her as a child. Um, she’s where I first started to learn Spanish. She only spoke Spanish when I knew her. She learned English by playing Scrabble. Okay. Um, so Scrabble is a is a game in our family, and, um, you know, she she raised and had 14 kids go through high school and get high school diploma certificates.

That was her. That was a huge accomplishment for sure her, but her artistic talent was, uh. Was known as just as something that she could do something special about her. And so, from a very young age, um, I was called an artist. My family recognized something in me. Something that took me over 20 years to recognize in myself.

But art has just always been a language. I think I was speaking the language of color before I was speaking, um, a verbal language. Color speaks to me in a way that, um, is emotional and and psychological. I love color.

Tom Heath
Um, was your grandmother was her was her work colorful and in the way yours is, or was it more was? What was.

Angela Soliz
Her question? She always did florals and botanicals. Okay. Like, I lean into, um, she usually used marker or pen. So her access to mediums was different than mine as well. Um, and so I always knew there was this artistic ability in the family. Some of my Theo’s are very artistic as well. Um, and for me, though, growing up, it was something it was a great trait to have.

But in the family, it was not considered a viable career option or something real. You know, it was important to get a degree that could take me places, find stability in my life.

Tom Heath
It’s nice, but you got to get yourself a job. That was.

Angela Soliz
That was the reigning thought. Growing up. Yes, and I did my you know, my artistic career has been very full of twists and turns. I, I tried to follow that, but art is really the only thing that’s ever worked for me. And when I finally decided to just fully own that and lean into it is when things have really started to.

Tom Heath
When was that? When did you fully lean into it?

Angela Soliz
Uh, when I came back in 2018, I went full time as a freelance and graphic designer. Okay. Um, fully in the design world, and I was self-employed. Running a design studio for eight years, did over 40 brands there, and it allowed me to start painting more, um, more consistently and really develop my artistic practice in a lot of ways.

And I love graphic design. I think you can see how I use design in my paintings. I play with design principles a lot. Um, you know, balance, scale, unity, harmony, contrast, proportion.

Tom Heath
Oh, that’s in your paintings. These are. I just thought it were pretty colors. Are you your style? Um, because if you head over if you’re listening or watching and go over the Tucson gallery.com and look at some of your work there. Um, but the, the style, it’s very colorful. It’s, I mean, it’s desert. Um, you usually have like, the, the moon or the sun or something in your work, like there’s always some celestial body in there.

Yes. Um,

Tom Heath
and that reflects where you are right now. When you were in Maine, were you painting differently or were you painting in Maine or were you.

Angela Soliz
I was, I was I’ve always painted. Um, yeah. It’s just always, you know, art has always been something I do with my free time. Um, when I was in Maine, I leaned very heavily into desert flora and fauna. I think I missed the desert, even out there.

Tom Heath
So it wasn’t just what was around you. It’s really what was in your soul.

Angela Soliz
Yes.

Tom Heath
Yes. Okay.

Angela Soliz
Yes. Um, yeah. Celestial bodies. This idea that all things exist at once. You know, right now the sun is up for us. It’s morning somewhere on Earth. It’s the middle of the night. There is this reality. If we think about the bigger universe, where the moon and the sun are always existing at the same time, you know, summer and winter are always existing at the same time.

Um, shadow and light are always existing at the same time. You need them both. You need that wholeness. And that’s something that comes out in my work. Um, the other thing is I paint. I’m an intuitive painter, so I don’t plan my paintings. I start with a blank canvas and I follow the colors. I follow the feelings.

I follow the joy. I follow what what my intuition is, is guiding me to do. It’s a really fun process. It takes a lot of courage, uh, because you don’t know where you’re going to go with it.

Tom Heath
Right. And do you have any sense because some, like some of yours, focus on water or rain or thunder and like, do you, you go in there and say, okay, I kind of want to focus on the monsoon and that, or you just go. And so I go to blank. And what’s the first step? Then you just draw a.

Angela Soliz
It’s a great question. Yeah. I don’t I usually don’t when I go into the studio, it’s really about all right let’s see what happens today. It’s a it’s a practice of getting into flow and curiosity and staying really deeply open minded. Um, the first step for me is always setting up. I start with a set of colors that are feeling good to me, and when I’m working with colors, I usually lay out a base that has some contrast built into the 5 or 6 that I choose to start with.

So I’m assessing from the beginning. Just do I have, um, do I have a variety that’s going to work together? Are they going to speak to each other? And then I start with the brush that feels the most fun to use in that moment, and the color that’s speaking to me the most? Wow. And I’m asking myself what what feels good right now?

Do I want to start with a giant stroke across the canvas? Do I want to start with a little corner? And it’s a constant process of asking myself, what’s next? What feels good? What would be interesting? What does it need? What is it calling for? And it becomes, um, it becomes a it’s a really fun practice. It’s very much I’m in my body and out of my mind, in a sense.

Tom Heath
And and I might be wrong on this because I’m wrong in lots of things, but it seems like we’re talking a lot about the universe, the world, the nature. But you don’t have people in your work.

Angela Soliz
I don’t do a lot of figurative stuff. Um, I am classically trained. I can do figure drawing. I can do faces. Uh, they don’t call to me that often to to paint with people I do animals. Um, I’ll do and I do a lot of flora and fauna and mountains. Yeah.

Tom Heath
Well, you are, you know, for me, the exposure was when you got into the Tucson gallery. But you’ve been doing this for a while, and, uh, um, I, you know, the airing date of this will be somewhere in line with with the documentary that’s coming up about you. I mean, what how does that happen?

Angela Soliz
Yeah, I know right? Um, yeah. That was a wonderful opportunity that came through the Tucson gallery. Such a synchronistic moment. Um, Colin Hare is the producer of a documentary series called Inspiration Point. He traveled around the country and met with and interviewed artists that have significant connection to the place, and really wanted to explore how artists find inspiration from place and how they use that to feed their creativity.

So he had reached out to the Tucson Gallery, uh, and the Tucson Gallery connected me with Colin, and, um, he ended up coming out here. I took him rock climbing out in Cochise Stronghold in the Dragoon Mountains, about an hour and a half south of Tucson. And we spent the day talking about inspiration and creativity.

Um, and it’s a it was a wonderful day. It was really fun. Um, and so that is featured in episode two of his series. Um, that has just come out in March and it’s on YouTube and it’s getting some beautiful attention. All six artists that he talks to are really different and have really wonderful things to say.

Uh, there’s some beautiful things to learn about inspiration.

Tom Heath
And as your episode out. Or is it.

Angela Soliz
It is.

Tom Heath
Okay.

Angela Soliz
It is.

Tom Heath
Oh, fantastic. So we can find that on on YouTube a little bit more about about you in a different light. Yes you can. You interviewed the whole time on a rock.

Angela Soliz
Yeah. Yes. Yeah we did. So if you if you Google Inspiration Point and my name Angela Solis, it’ll come right up. Episode two. Um, we he did we did do a two hour interview sitting on some rocks out in Cochise Stronghold. Nice. Um, I also climbed some roots for him, and I set up a route, and he climbed, um, which he’s afraid of.

Heights. So that was a real good for him. Yes. Wow.

Tom Heath
Yeah, that’s. That’s dedication. Just. You know, James, I’m not climbing any mountains for our podcast. Just. Just just so you know. Well.

Angela Soliz
It’s out there. Have you ever changed your mind? Um.

Tom Heath
Are there elevators? I’m good with elevators.

Angela Soliz
Fair? Yes. Yeah.

Tom Heath
Yeah. So you’re you’re you’re connected. And now this documentary is out there. You’re you’re coming in to a different stage in your career now, right?

Angela Soliz
I am, I am, you know, moving through the the design studio, starting to be a painter in my own name. And I’ve had three solo shows. Um, which led to the connection with the Tucson Gallery, which has been wonderful. Um, and starting to paint really consistently and shift into that space. Um, and also get to talk about courage.

Um, for me, courage is something I’ve struggled with my whole life. I think it takes a lot of courage to be an artist, to to own who you’re meant to be in this world, to face the blank canvas. All of these things.

Tom Heath
Yes, absolutely.

Angela Soliz
And that’s where rock climbing comes in for me. Rock climbing has been a practice that has helped me cultivate courage, and now I’m getting to talk about painting and courage together. And it’s been just one of the greatest gifts.

Tom Heath
I’m wondering what’s more daunting looking at that, that first mountain face and trying to find the way up, or looking at the blank canvas and trying to find a way forward.

Angela Soliz
Oh my gosh. I mean, it’s high. It’s really a tie for me. Yes. And for me, they’re very there’s very much a similarity and a parallel in those two things. 100%.

Tom Heath
Well, we certainly the Tucson Gallery has some of your art available, but how do people follow you kind of keeping up to date with what’s happening to you? Are you in the social media world? What are your handles?

Angela Soliz
And I am I do an Instagram page. Um, Angela Solis.

Angela Soliz
Uh, is where I put all the painting, all the climbing, all the design, all the teaching, all the speaking, whatever’s happening for me, uh, and I dip in and out of there. If I’m on a creative binge, I may be a little quiet on there for a couple of weeks, but then, you know, I’ll show you what I’ve been up to. So.

Tom Heath
And, um, do you have a website that you have personally?

Angela Soliz
Excuse me?

Tom Heath
That’s okay.

Angela Soliz
It’s spring in Tucson. These allergies.

Tom Heath
Yes, that’s that’s part of the nature. Right?

Angela Soliz
That’s it is it is the wonderful joy. Uh, yeah. My website is Angela Solis.

Angela Soliz
Um, the design studio is under a different website. That’s Gela.

Angela Soliz
Gela road.com. Um, for those of you that are interested, I do that very sporadically these days. Um, but for the painting and for everything else.

Tom Heath
Okay. I’m out of time here, but what’s Gela Road? What does that mean?

Angela Soliz
Um, well. Angela. Gela.

Tom Heath
Oh. All right. See, I was I was never I was so, uh, I was going down like, some location, like, this is a special place. But yeah. So I don’t think very, very quickly on the fly. Um, well, we’ll make sure people can link to those. Um, and, uh, we’ll put some information out, of course, about the podcast or about the, uh, the documentary.

Looking forward to seeing that. I, I wasn’t sure if it was out, but I personally didn’t go look for it because I don’t I didn’t want up too much information about you in advance. I like the I like learning through these, this process. For me, this is my blank canvas. I really like to start a show with with knowing very little about the guest.

Um, enough to get the conversation started and seeing where it’s going. And, and, um, I really appreciate you taking the time today. This is an a 15 minute conversation. I’ve learned so much about you, and I’m excited to learn more.

Angela Soliz
Oh, I’m so excited to be here. Thank you so much, Tom. It’s been a real pleasure today.

Tom Heath
Oh, thanks. We we are, uh, with Angela Solis, part of the Tucson Gallery Meet the Artist series collaboration we do here with life along the streetcar. And again, if you want more information on Angela the Gallery, head over to the Tucson gallery.com. Uh. Work is available for viewing and for purchase, uh, both originals and reproductions through the gallery.

Lifelong streetcar happens every week, and we talk about the social, cultural and economic impacts and Tucson’s urban core focus on a mountain, the University of Arizona. And we are lucky each week to have the privilege of using Ryan Hood’s music, Dillinger Days, to begin and end our podcast. James Portis is our executive producer and I looked it up.

Executive producer means does everything. So James is amazing. We don’t have a show without him, so we’re so thankful for him. Probably need to get him on the show at some point and have him sit on this side of the camera so you can see him. Um, my name, of course, is Tom. I’m your host. I appreciate your time today, and I hope you tune in each week for more episodes of Life Along the Streetcar.

And until next time, stay curious. Tucson.