Often traveling to far-off wilderness areas, Kuria Jorissen does most of her work from midnight to 4am. Growing up, Kuria was constantly absorbed in exploring, discovering, and learning new things. She is passionate about sharing her knowledge and stories of her adventures every chance she gets, from long talks at art shows to short stories to occupy the in-between moments in everyday places. She teaches astrophotography workshops in the national parks and does an average of 25 art shows a year across the states.

Kuria graduated with a bachelor’s degree in photography with a thesis in astrophotography. She has over a decade of astrophotography experience under her belt. Graduating was just the start of Kuria’s journey. Keeping the momentum going, she won the 2nd place award at Art Through the Lens from Yeiser Art Center in 2020, and in 2021 she got an honorable mention from Edmonds Arts Festival and 3rd place at CVG’s 30 under 30. Kuria has also been featured in Seattle Refined and was a guest on the Meet Star Gazers podcast as well as the Behind the Print Podcast. Alongside many solo shows, Kuria has hung at the Pacific Science Center in Seattle on 50 feet of wall in 2014.

What started as an interest in the outdoors and the night sky above us evolved into something much more. It became a way to share the beautiful night landscapes with the stars painted above, a way to communicate and tell lesser-known stories of the stars. That spark of interest turned into a medium to encourage people to fight to preserve our national and state parks, protect our climate and natural lands, and push back against light pollution to preserve the dark skies.