Sebastopol artist lives a life of sustainability, creativity and honesty in tiny home

Artist JunJun Li sits in a hoodie and knit cap on the sand at ocean's edge, knees drawn up, arms wrapped around them, gazing at a sunset.

"My name is JunJun Li," we hear her say, in her YouTube video. "I'm an artist from China. Since I was a child, my mother told me being a woman is a shame. Our destiny is to marry a man and raise a family."

She continues, "Today, I decide to build my own tiny house, so I don't depend on a man and live in the sustainable lifestyle I have been longing for."

Through her YouTube channel, Li documents and shares her journey of making this vision come true, learning as she goes, over the course of 10 short videos. She shares her life and art in hopes the sharing will inspire people to see new possibilities. She aspires to "inspire you to breathe deeply, live lightly. To smile, dance and be."

Li, 46, said a sustainable life entails that we "downsize our living space, downsize our footprint and stuff, objects … Free ourselves for more experience, creativities. Buy less and create more. Eat less, exercise more."

Her nature-inspired abstract paintings, in earth tone palettes, range from minimalist, in her piece “Awakening,” to evocative gestures of color where lines dance and paint spots look like pebbles in the piece called, “The Seed."

Li’s paintings sell internationally and are on display at seven venues. Her art is a part of a range of public collections such as at the UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center in San Francisco and the 49ers’ Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara.

Breaking free and landing on her feet

Sixteen years ago, at 30, Li was in a very different time of life, just beginning to claim her voice as an independent woman and as an artist.

She had moved to the United States from China in 1999 to marry. In 2007, she took a leap of faith. She packed a backpack, had a month's worth of rent and left behind the traditional, stable life she'd been ensconced in. She was unhappy and "losing inspiration“ so she decided to end her marriage and try something new.

At first, she went from her Eastern, conservative past "all the way to the other side as a Western, California hippie." She attended festivals like Burning Man. She tried drugs, drinking, smoking and partying. She said she felt like a rebellious teenager.

Those first few years of independence she focused on survival, as an artist and single mom.

"In the beginning, I will do any commissions,“ Li said. ”My specialty is abstract, but I would take portraits, and dogs, and cats, or houses — anything."

She found financial stability as a graphic designer in San Francisco. She first worked for a Hong Kong publication, Ming Pao Newspaper, then worked for Safeway, Sephora and Bare Essentials.

"That's how I raise my son (and sent him to private school),“ she said.

Li said being an artist and a single mother "was a struggle. I thought I have to choose either be a full-time mother (or) a full-time artist."

Reconnecting with herself, nature

She rented a studio in the San Francisco neighborhood of Potrero Hill where everything she had experienced was coming to life on the canvas.

"My paintings, palette, back then, were pretty dark … and urban … The color is quite intense, high contrast," she said.

At 40, a life-and-death situation put her in a hospital for two years. When it passed, Li said she had "much more appreciation (for) life and health. And so, I stopped going to night clubs, and drinking … I moved out of the city to the countryside."

Her first stop was Fairfax in 2017. Then in 2019, she landed in Sebastopol, where she built the tiny house.

Recently, she purchased a second tiny house based in Santa Cruz. "One by the ocean, one in the mountains."

When she moved to Marin County and Sonoma County, she really began to connect with all that nature had to offer. She found abundance in beautiful hiking, the ocean, nature, and began to get inspired. Then, it all clicked.

“I started finding: 'Oh, wow, this is me!'" Li said, "Before, I was trying to experiment: 'Who am I?' and 'What's my path?' I say that when I was falling (from the illness), then I learn how to fly."

A life full of expression

Once things began falling into place, Li made a change — both reflected in her life and in her work.

"Without the push, I wouldn't do the art (that) I'm doing now, and so my art (transitioned) from the harsh city life to more earthy,“ she said. ”And I call it the soil of my garden. So, I was fermenting the soil of the garden."

Li began to meditate, and dove into improv dance. She dances as she paints, just as she lives life — full of expression and movement.

"They feed and nourish each other," she said of dance and painting.

In fact, she thinks dance, abstract art and live music are hand in hand.

Some of her live art performances are with a musician. These days, her performances are painting and body movement within the workshops she hosts in the Santa Cruz Mountains and around Northern California.

All the challenges and chaos Li has lived through make sense now and she feels peace flowing through her life. She adds the past is the best gift and the biggest teacher for where she is now.

It’s that appreciation of the richness chaos brings that has her prioritizing international travel. Recently, she spent three months in India, followed by some time in Australia. Chaos and "travel, definitely travel" are two things that most inspire her work today.

"I think artists would like to see different landscapes and also different humanity,“ she said. ”Not just the visual artists but also musicians and performers. When there's (the) ordinary, there's (the) already-set, but when there's chaos, change of space or change of time, that create(s) the chaos and that brings up the creativity."

Paying it forward

Although Li no longer works on commissions, she does maintain artmaking as part of her living. She finds it continues to bring value to her life.

Creating art is "like giving birth to a child. Of course, you can plan a child, but mostly you offering your love and stability and intention and the child comes to you, and you give birth to that child with love."

Now, in her mid-40s, Li curates, holds space and nurtures other artists, in addition to creating her own art.

"Usually, my students will have life and death transition, or (are) making important decisions (that) shift from their work,“ that’s when, Li said, ”They find me. They connect with the personal stories."

She also teaches a lot of workshops — expressive arts, calligraphy, meditation, body movement — both standalone and at retreats. Additionally, she also works with youth at the Juvenile Probation Department in San Francisco.

"I tell my kids, it's not about drawing a tree or a hand,“ she said. ”It's about what you learn about yourself when you (are) drawing this tree, and what do you see yourself in it?"

Recently, Li had a conversation with her son, who is now an adult with his own life, home, job and partner, and asked what he'd learned from her. He said, "your free spirit.“ She added,”that's the biggest learning he got from me. Really free spirit. And I always choose what I love and I never give up."

Reflecting on her journey as a woman, mother and artist, Li now understands how it all fits.

"It's because I'm a mother that helps me be an artist today, and because I'm an artist that my son have so much learning, seeing me, and become where he is now," she said. "It's all about balance … It's about finding that harmony."

In fifty years, when she’s sitting in a rocking chair telling the story of her life, she hopes she will have contributed more of that harmony.

"I would like to contribute more beauty and creativity and harmony," she said of the legacy she'd like to leave. "That's my vision."