"Gaia's Children" (2023)
Juliette Dalicano’s time at the Zoo Magnet—North Hollywood High School’s Zoo and Biological Sciences Magnet—instilled in her a deep appreciation for wildlife and a sense of environmental stewardship. Inspired by hands-on conservation projects in one of Los Angeles’ rare natural spaces, Griffith Park, she discovered a desire to one day work in wildlife conservation. It was here, while participating in Earth Day community service with her classmates, that Gaia’s Children began to take root.
Created as both a celebration of the Earth and a call to action, Gaia’s Children is a portrait series that draws on Greek mythology to personify the elements of the natural world. In myth, Gaia is the primordial goddess of the Earth—an origin point for many of nature’s forces. Her children included the Ourea (gods of the mountains) and the nymphs, minor deities who embodied forests, rivers, and meadows in feminine form. Dalicano’s work reimagines these mythic figures through a modern environmental lens.
Each portrait in the series captures the beauty and power of nature through botanical settings and symbolic styling, portraying these figures not only as visually striking, but essential to biodiversity. Through this visual mythology, Dalicano emphasizes that these natural elements must be protected—not just for their beauty, but for the ecological roles they play in sustaining life.
One central figure is Calypso, a sea nymph and granddaughter of Gaia, known for detaining Odysseus on her island for seven years in Homer’s Odyssey. Calypso ultimately helps Odysseus return home, gifting him a boat and wind at his back. Her story, like many in mythology, reflects both nature’s nurturing power and its complex relationship with humankind.
Dalicano uses this mythological framework as a reminder that stories once helped us understand and revere the natural world. As science advances, she argues, we must continue to foster that reverence—and take responsibility for minimizing our interference with Earth’s systems. By inviting viewers to see nature as sacred, Gaia’s Children hopes to cultivate greater environmental consciousness and, in turn, galvanize grassroots participation and political pressure for conservation.