This is Flores’ first solo show after apprenticing with Mestizo founder Ruby Chacon since 2007, right out of high school. Flores has worked with Chacon on a mural for the University of Utah Tanner Humanities building as well as other projects. This emerging artist already has an accomplished style that shows confidence and imagination.

“I’m figuring out that I can create the surreal image by creating strange caricatures and making them familiar to my audience by giving them familiar details,” she explains. “Even if those details are in the wrong place, people will still familiarize with them and it almost jump-starts their imagination.” Desert scenery in her work evokes local Utah environs, yet bizarre, sometimes extraterrestrial-looking characters create a dramatic sense of narrative and excitement (“Conquer” is pictured). Art itself doesn’t grow on trees, but this kind of work makes it seem like imagination does, as well as making the process of purchasing art feel a lot less … artificial.

What Grows on Trees: Brittney Flores @ Mestizo Coffeehouse, 631 W. North Temple Suite 700, 801-596-0500. Opening Nov. 19, 6-9 p.m., exhibit through Nov 30. MestizoArts.org