Get to know the artist behind our LA yard sign
If you were living in LA during spring 2023, the local Ridwell yard sign might remind you of the superbloom. That’s what inspired local artist Natalie Bui to use happy, lush colors in her depiction of the area.
“One of the earlier drafts captured the LA desert terrain,” she says. “The team at Ridwell asked what would happen if we imagined what LA would look like in a sustainable future. I was so inspired by that. At the time, I was taking hikes to appreciate the superbloom, and so I incorporated a lot of what I saw in this final version.”
Natalie was excited to work with Ridwell because knowing what to do with things that don’t go in curbside recycling can be so confusing.
“We all know how important climate justice is,” she says. “Ridwell feels like a very practical solution. We all have stuff that we don’t know how to get rid of. In LA especially, it really does fill the gap.”
The superbloom wasn’t Natalie’s only inspiration for the sign. Landmarks and diverse culture also influenced her work.
“LA is known for the Hollywood sign, the Griffith Observatory, and Venice Beach, but it also felt really important to capture the diversity of LA,” she says. “So I included street vendors because they’re everywhere in LA. We have the largest Koreatown in the US, so I wanted to capture Koreatown. I wanted to capture East LA, which often gets ignored in depictions of what LA is. Depticing LA in this way made me feel so proud of the cultural diversity of LA.”
The Ridwell LA yard sign designed by Natalie Bui
Talking with Natalie, it’s no surprise that cultural diversity was on her mind when she dreamed up the Ridwell sign. She cares deeply about uplifting and centering the stories within communities, particularly marginalized communities.
“I came to art because I was craving to see myself and my communities at the center of narratives,” Natalie says. “A lot of my work centers black and brown diverse bodies advocating for the future that we want to see. Art feels so necessary for our social justice movements and how we bring people into these movements.”
Natalie stands behind multiple movements, having worked with Advancing Justice, the Democratic National Committee, 18MillionRising, United State of Women, National Women’s Law Center, Planned Parenthood, and MPowerChange.
The path to being a pro artist
Natalie is a self-taught digital illustrator who started making art only six years ago. Her bravery in putting her work out there got her off to a running start.
“I remember working a day job,” she says. “It was completely unrelated to art and I would just be doodling on my desk in my free time. Honestly, the doodles were not good but I posted them to my Instagram with no expectations and no qualms.”
Her work took off when she started drawing Asian American political figures, choosing people she felt were left out of conversations even within social justice movements.
“I worked with an Asian American organization known as 18MillionRising to share that work,” she says. “It was wild. I look back and that’s not my best work, but it wasn’t even really about the work. It was about the fact that people felt connected and felt seen in my illustrations.”
A sample of Natalie’s work for 18MillionRising
Her work with 18MillionRising was turned into stickers, then eventually sweatshirts and t-shirts to fund freedom work. She’s seen people across the country wearing her design.
From that work, Natalie attracted attention from other communities and built new connections that have allowed her to grow authentically as an artist.
What’s now and what’s next
Natalie is currently in an artist residency through Southeast Asian Resource Action Center, working on illustrations to uplift their policy work and to tell the stories of the shared history and struggle of Southeast Asian communities.
As for the direction her art is going, she says she wants to play more.
“So much of my work has been informed by anger and trauma,” she says. “I want to explore what it means to just work from a place of joy and healing. It’s challenging to operate in that way but I see the benefits, so I’m allowing myself to try to not jump into fix-it mode but just play.”
One playful part of her life centers around her pocket Pitbull, Amelia. Natalie loves dogs and their personalities, and even incorporated some of the Ridwell team’s dogs in the yard sign. She hopes to draw dogs for an animal rescue organization and is on the lookout for a partner.
On her Instagram page, Natalie illustrates stories about Amelia
We can’t wait to see Natale’s new work! To see the journey, follow her on Instagram and visit her website.
Get your yard sign
The free yard sign she designed is available to all LA-area Ridwell members. Request yours >
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