Sierra Pete & The Art of Rest

An Creative Interview with Diné Artist & Wildlife Biologist—Sierra Pete

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Unfortunately, I couldn’t make this entire blog about sharing stunning photos of Sierra’s art, but I was able to get a couple of her incredible pieces in here. I mean…come on. Look at this!

Happy Wednesday!

Today, I am so excited to share this 25-minute conversation with my friend, fabulous artist and scientist—Sierra Pete.

When I started my substack for The Art of Rest over a year ago, the segment I was most excited to eventually grow has been the Community Wisdom segment. It has been my tender hope to start brining in as many stories from real-life people to talk about how art and rest and mastery and creative processes coalesce in their lives. These different perspectives are real stories, from real people to inspire us. I think you’ll find Sierra’s words around art and rest inspiring—I certainly did.

If you’re interested in helping her on the next part of her journey in heading to the Orion Environmental Writers’ Workshop in New York this summer by donating to her GoFundMe, the link is right here below.

Every little bit helps—no amount is too small :).

Similarly, choosing photos of Sierra to share proved to be the most difficult part of creating this article. As an accomplished seamstress, her outfits are often works-of-art in and of themselves.

A Bit About the Community Wisdom Interviews

A little over three years ago, before The Art of Rest was officially in the making, I was existentially toiling about how to bring all of my worlds together: evidence-based sleep science, creative practice and dreamwork, as well as storytelling and community wisdom. These things intrinsically made sense to me, in my own head, but as I was crushing through a million academic papers in my program, I couldn’t quite puzzle-piece the ideas together. Academics were too dismissive of my creative longings, and some of my more creative “seeker” type community members often expressed an inherent distrust in westernized science, finding it cold, prescriptive, and not useful to navigating their unique lives.

Although I could only choose a couple photos for this blog, I’m blown away by Sierra’s ability to play with different styles among her artistic pursuits.

The truth is, to flourish as a whole community, we need all ways of knowing.

Ceramics, Costume design, Painting, Fancy-Dancing, Writing…I have yet to find something this woman can’t do.

Yes, certainly, most of us tend to favor one way of knowing over others. It’s likely that each of us have inherent gifts in navigating the world around us through a particular lens. Many of us choose to lean into our inherent gifts and practice mastery where our skills lie in order to enrich the broader community. In other words, often times, my logic-based friends lean into their logic skills, and my artist friends lean into their creative practices. At the core, I think this is beautiful. The research folks I know are incredible minds, and the artists I know are brilliantly generative. I’m astounded at how similar these groups of people are, and I am frequently left feeling confused when they don’t see their own overlap in making the world a better place. I’m even more confused when they don’t seem to celebrate each other’s gifts.

I have always been of the belief that these two, seemingly disparate ways of knowing compliment each other deeply. In my own life, the most incredible, inspiring, world-changing people I know dance between the lines of the both/and. Sierra Pete is one of those people.

In addition to her “traditional” creative work—her creativity as a wildlife biologist also shines through. I can tell you from experience, she’s an incredibly fun companion in the side-country and backcountry.

I hope you give this conversation between the two of us a listen and I would love to hear what this stirs up in you as you do. Where do you see yourself in her words? Where do you feel a pull or a longing? Is it for more art? More rest? More tangible science and community engagement?

There are no wrong answers here, only great questions.

Again, if you enjoyed this interview and hearing Sierra’s words—please consider donating to her GoFundMe so she can share more of her art, words, and passions down the road.

And if you’re new here, you might not know of my obsession with magpies. Ten points on that front. I’m not sure about you all, but I want to see more of this. Go on—support more indigenous art <3

As per usual,
Thank you for being here.
I am so, so, so grateful to be pursuing the art of rest with you all—in whatever form that comes.

Yours,
Dagny Rose

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This sub-section of The Art of Rest, is all about threads that hold us together—The Community Wisdom.

Here the Art of Rest honors and acknowledges there is no “one” right way that works for everyone. There are so many valid ways of knowing, and we need each and every one.

We believe deeply that a diversity of thoughts, creative practices, and perspectives is what keeps our lives rich and evolving. In this section, “Community Wisdom” is where we post short interviews with creatives, scientists, and restful people⁴ so that we might continue to learn from each other’s inherent and earned wisdom.

1. Diné is another word for “Navajo”. Here’s a little google AI blurb about the origins of “Navajo” for those who are interested:

”The Navajo name, or "Navajo" as it's commonly known, is not a word from the Navajo language itself. Instead, it's an exonym borrowed from the Tewa language. The Tewa word "Navahu" (or "Navahū") translates to "large field". This word was then adopted by the Spanish and later by English speakers to refer to the Navajo people. The Navajo people refer to themselves as "Diné," which means "people" in their own language.”