Photos by Sofia Perazzo and Samantha Hunter
1. How did you get into art and creating? Why did you choose to focus your art on environmental conservation?
I’ve been drawing and creating for as long as I can remember. I grew up in São Paulo, Brazil, and my relationship to the ocean began very unexpectedly about 20 years ago, during a trip to Boipeba Island in Bahia, Brazil.
Beatriz getting ready to dive off the coast of Miami. She lives and works there, a large source of her inspiration.
After a huge storm, I was sitting by the shore drawing algae and these intricate flowing shapes in my sketchbook. After a while, the forms started resembling reefs, although at the time I didn’t consciously realize it.
A man approached me, looked at my drawings, and said, “These look like coral reefs. Have you ever seen them?” I told him I hadn’t. About twenty minutes later, he came back with a mask, snorkel, and fins and said, “Come on, I’ll take you to see them.”
In my head, I was thinking, “Why would I follow someone I’ve never met into the ocean?” But something about him made me feel safe, so I went. We swam out to a reef, and at a certain point he stopped and said, “We’re here. Ready?” He dove underwater and motioned for me to follow him.
He pulled me through this small opening into a coral cave. There were corals surrounding the entire space, openings in the ceiling where light moved through the water, tiny fish swaying together, shrimp cleaning their stations, and at the bottom, a blue spotted ray resting on the sand. It felt completely unreal — like witnessing a perfect aqueous choreography unfolding around me.
That moment changed my life. I remember coming back to shore thinking: why isn’t everyone talking about this? I’m going to talk about this.
That happened in 2006, while I was still in art school, and ever since then, my work has revolved around the ocean and the ecosystems that sustain life underwater. The wildest part is that I never saw that man again, and I don’t even remember his name. But in many ways, he revealed the direction my life would take.
2. Art is a powerful bridge that can communicate scientific information to the public in a digestible way. How did you realize that your work could inspire people both with its beauty and its ability to educate?
At first, I wasn’t trying to educate people directly. I was trying to translate my own fascination and sense of wonder toward marine ecosystems. I spent a lot of time learning from scientists, divers, and restoration practitioners, and I realized that art could hold scientific ideas in a way that feels accessible and human.
People often enter the work through beauty, curiosity, or atmosphere, but once they are inside that experience, they become more open to engaging with the ecological realities behind it. I began noticing this especially through community workshops and installations, where conversations about coral bleaching, biodiversity, and reef loss emerged naturally through the act of making or experiencing the work together.
That’s when I understood that art can create a different kind of entry point into environmental awareness. It allows people to feel connected before they are asked to understand intellectually, and I think that connection is what stays with them.
Beatriz working on her latest show in her studio.
3. Your work often talks about reimagining humans' relationship to the ocean. What are healthy ways that humans interact with and respect the ocean, and how do we overlook the ocean's greatness?
I think healthy relationships with the ocean begin with understanding that humans are not separate from it. The ocean regulates climate, produces oxygen, feeds communities, and supports immense biodiversity, yet many people experience it only as scenery or recreation.
Respect starts with reciprocity. Supporting restoration efforts, reducing pollution, protecting coastal ecosystems, and approaching marine environments with care rather than extraction are all important. But there’s also a cultural and emotional dimension. We need to rebuild a sense of reverence for the ocean, not just see it as a resource.
I think we overlook the ocean’s greatness because so much of it exists beyond our immediate visibility. Coral reefs, deep sea ecosystems, plankton communities — these worlds sustain life quietly. My work tries to make those hidden systems feel intimate and alive again.
4. The ocean is both resilient and experiencing extreme loss/change. How do you process the grief of losing the ocean as we know it? How does this manifest in your art?
A lot of my work exists in that tension between grief and devotion. There is profound loss happening, especially in coral reef ecosystems, and I think it’s important to allow ourselves to feel that grief rather than disconnect from it.
At the same time, I’m deeply inspired by the resilience of marine life. Coral reefs are constantly adapting, regenerating, and forming relationships of interdependence. That balance between fragility and persistence appears throughout my work.
Ceramic figures, part of Beatriz's show, Rituals of Becoming on view until July 30th at Coral Gallery.
Many of my installations function as spaces for reflection, mourning, and collective care. I’m interested in creating works that acknowledge ecological collapse without becoming hopeless. Instead of illustrating disaster directly, I often focus on memory, ritual, regeneration, and the possibility of rebuilding relationships with the living world.
5. How do coral reefsinspire the way you live life on land?
Coral reefs remind me that survival depends on interdependence. Reefs are built through countless small acts of collaboration between species, organisms, currents, and time. That has deeply influenced how I think about community, care, and creative practice.
They also teach patience and attentiveness. Coral growth happens slowly, through accumulation and repetition, and I think my studio practice mirrors that rhythm. Reefs have made me more aware of how even small actions contribute to larger systems.
Most importantly, they remind me that beauty and vulnerability can exist simultaneously. That awareness shapes not only my work, but the way I move through the world.
Work from Beatriz's show Rituals of Becoming.
6. What do you hope people get out of experiencing your work?
I hope people leave with a deeper awareness of their relationship to the ocean and the ecosystems around them. Some of my works invite direct participation, asking viewers to physically engage with ideas of restoration, responsibility, and environmental impact. Others are quieter and more contemplative, unfolding through symbolism, materiality, and the relationships between objects, figures, and ecosystems.
Across all of these approaches, I’m interested in creating experiences that shift how we perceive the living world — not as something distant from us, but as something we are deeply interconnected with. If the work can inspire a sense of wonder, reflection, care, or even discomfort that lingers afterward, then it has done what I hoped it would do.
I also think that the work creates space for imagination. Sometimes we need emotional and poetic experiences in order to envision different futures.
Beatriz's pencil drawing from her show Rituals of Becoming. (Left) Offering, (right) Union.
7. How do you hope humans' relationship to the ocean will look in 10 years?
I hope that in 10 years we will already be witnessing the results of a major cultural and environmental shift in how humans relate to the ocean. I would love to see ecosystems recovering, restoration efforts expanding, and marine life thriving in places that once felt fragile or uncertain.
Beyond policy and conservation, I hope there is also a renewed sense of reverence for the ocean — an understanding that human well-being is deeply tied to the health of these ecosystems. Ideally, future generations will inherit not only awareness of what was lost, but visible examples of regeneration, coexistence, and care in action.
Thank you to Beatriz for inspiring us to look below the surface, see the wonders of the ocean, and remember that art and play are powerful tools for change!
More In the Studio With:
Oriana Poindexter - Scientist and Cyanotype artist
Joanna Fusco (Lordcowboy) - Artist
Naomi Folta - GRLSWIRL Rider, Free Diver, Graphic Artist
