About Erika R.

aka Miss Teal

Erika ‘Teal’ Rosendale was raised in the redwoods and sandy seas of the southern Santa Cruz County, developing an art practice at an early age inspired by comic books, and a superhero complex to save the world with art. This grew into a love for painting, which she took to study on the east coast, earning a BFA from Boston University's College of Fine Art. 

Teal has dozens of public art pieces in the counties of Monterey, San Benito, Sacramento, and Santa Cruz, with a handful of ‘Best Of’ awards in local publications. In the last seven years has worked with multiple schools, the Rotary Club of Freedom, local and neighboring fairgrounds, Cal-Trans, Watsonville Wetlands Watch, Pajaro Valley Arts, Sand Cruz City Arts, the City of Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz Equity Collab, the Youth Science Institute, Housing Matters, the City of Watsonville, Made Fresh Crew, the Tim Brauch Foundation, and the River Birchall Foundation, which was inspired by her memorial mural painted for River at the legendary Bill’s Wheel’s SkateShop in Santa Cruz. 

Recently she joined The Method Makers: A Global Artist Network and was accepted into Muros: A Global Art Activation Agency, both based out of the Bay Area. In 2022 she painted in the Sand City Mural Festival with WE.create Art, the Noisy Waters Mural Festival with Paper Whale Arts in Bellingham, WA in 2023 - awarded 1st Place Voters Choice Award, leading to a 2200 square foot two-sided mural facing the Port of Bellingham earlier this year. In the Fall of 2023 she received both the Judges and Voters Choice Award at the Talking Walls Art Battle in Sand City, CA.

This last summer she started a mural tour in Sacramento with Wide Open Walls at the Growers District, then went international and painted for the Cheltenham Paint Festival in the UK followed by SurFest Colombia tour, putting up work in Bogotá, Medellín, and Calí. In Medellín, she received first place for her character piece. Upon returning to the states she was invited to participate in a record-breaking collaboration with Few and Far women at Paint Louis in St. Louis, MO, with the most women and most artists on one production. Following this was a third place award for Live Art Walls in Eureka, CA during Cannafest. Capping off the summer tour were invitations to paint again for Wide Open Walls in the North Highlands of Sacramento, and then for DOMO Walls in Modesto.

With a style dubbed ‘elemental surrealism’, often depicting large-scale wildlife and figurative narratives combined with atmospheric effects using mostly aerosol, she seeks to bring fine art to the streets, fusing art and activism with site-specificity to inspire others in finding and fostering their creativity. Our world needs to shift, and it will take many hands working together to change it for the better.