We Are the Watershed

In early 2024, Emily C-D began working with Ana Gómez, a Mexican visual artist that specializes in ceramics. Their shared experience of mothering while balancing an active art practice was felt to be a fertile ground for collective exploration, and together they formed the artist duo Magma. We Are the Watershed is their first significant collaboration. The project arises from their preoccupation with the critical water situation faced by the Upper Laja River Watershed where they are based, and their need to communicate the crisis to their local urban community in San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato. For this project, Emily and Ana used locally-sourced, earth-based materials (wild clay, natural mineral paints, recycled ceramic tiles) to create artworks that address the serious situation of water scarcity and contamination. The work invites people to rethink their relationships with the essential elements of their watershed and promotes dialogue around their respect and care. 

As part of a bi-national cultural exchange, in March 2025 Emily C-D traveled to San Diego, California to share Magma's work with students from Sixth College at the University of California San Diego and The Preuss High School who had, in parallel, been exploring their own local water issues thru art under the guidance of social ecologist Kristen Goodrich, art educator Tamima Noorzay and community artist Jay Wolf Schlossberg-Cohen. As well as presenting Magma's investigation and artistic process, Emily had the opportunity to teach a hands-on workshop where students learned how to take their thoughts and feelings around water and imprint them on earth using the technique of ceramic graphic transfer.

Magma thanks the following organizations for inspiring and informing the first phase of the We Are the Watershed project:

Caminos de Agua—nonprofit organization in San Miguel de Allende dedicated to improving human health and community well-being through adequate and affordable access to clean water.
Terra Cromática—sustainable architecture and design studio that crafts lime- and clay-based ecological paints in Guanajuato City.

To learn more about this project, check out the We Are the Watershed website and listen to Emily and Ana's interview on the Radioteca program on Cascabel Radio Social.

A principios de 2024, Emily C-D comenzó a trabajar con Ana Gómez, artista visual mexicana especializada en cerámica. La experiencia compartida de ser madres que mantienen una práctica artística activa, se percibió como un terreno fértil para la exploración colectiva, y juntas formaron el dúo artístico Magma. Somos la Cuenca es su primera colaboración significativa. El proyecto surge de su preocupación por la crítica situación hídrica que enfrenta la Cuenca Alta del Río Laja, donde las artistas residen, y de su necesidad de comunicar la crisis a su comunidad urbana local de San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato. Para este proyecto, Emily y Ana utilizaron materiales locales de de base tierra (arcilla silvestre, pinturas minerales, losetas recuperadas) para crear obras de arte que abordan la grave situación de escasez y contaminación del agua. La obra invita a las personas a repensar su relación con los elementos esenciales de su cuenca y promueve el diálogo en torno a su respeto y cuidado.

Como parte de un intercambio cultural bi-nacional, en marzo de 2025, Emily C-D viajó a San Diego, California, para compartir el trabajo de Magma con estudiantes de Sixth College de la Universidad de California en San Diego y la Preparatoria Preuss, quienes, en paralelo, habían estado explorando sus propios problemas locales relacionados con el agua a través del arte, bajo la guía de la ecóloga social Kristen Goodrich, la educadora Tamima Noorzay y el artista comunitario Jay Wolf Schlossberg-Cohen. Además de presentar la investigación y el proceso artístico de Magma, Emily tuvo la oportunidad de impartir un taller práctico donde lxs estudiantes aprendieron a plasmar en la tierra sus pensamientos y sentimientos en torno al agua, mediante la técnica de transferencia gráfica cerámica.

All Work © 2025 Emily C-D