A chat with Nisa Hayden explains why she has so many successful careers. It’s about people skills.
As an actor, freelance writer, gallery director, arts consultant and garden manager, Hayden’s ability to connect led to a wildly diverse employment history.
The Alaska native grew up in the East Bay and planned to become an attorney. A summons to jury duty at age 18 “turned me off the process,” she says, and prompted her to forego a partial college scholarship.
Forget funnel cake. For me, the State Fair means horse racing. After losing my bets, I visit the barns where kids in white uniforms pamper hogs, sheep and goats. Then home.
Now there’s no horse racing. And apologies, but once you’ve seen 1,000 hogs tended by intense, apple-cheeked teenagers, there’s no need for 1,001.
Which leaves zero reasons to attend the State Fair.
Don’t blame the State Fair. Cal Expo is collateral damage, trapped in a mess of economic pressure, incompetence and indifference.
When Allison and Anthony Okumura bought their home in 2021, they claimed a piece of East Sacramento history.
The house was built in 1907 of “sister” stone, a rectangular block with a faceted face. The material came from the quarry across the street where East Portal Park stands today. Several similar homes surround the park.
The residence is perched high on 51st and M streets above the quarry site. “This was the foreman’s house so he could oversee the work going on,” Anthony says. “It also had been a sorority house for Sac State and so it was in pretty rough condition.”
If something interests Steve Kellison, he turns it into art.
For his “Lost Vincent” series, Kellison was inspired by “The Painter on the Road to Tarascon,” a Vincent van Gogh work destroyed in World War II.
The image of a painter on his way to work embedded itself in Kellison’s imagination and sparked a series of drawings and paintings. In each, the central image is recognizable but captured in various styles and mediums—some in charcoal and pastel on paper, some in oil and pigment stick on canvas. Some are abstract, others more faithful to the original.
Since we last spoke nine years ago, Jeff Myers has been busy.
“Tractor Levitation,” the outdoor sculpture he was working on in 2016, was unveiled at McKinley Village. He’s enjoyed several solo exhibitions, received good press and traveled.
Myers also added to his three series, “The Secret Life of Machines,” “The Land Series” and “Bodyen.”
His latest artistic exploration takes him back to his roots: cameras.
Foraging for drip irrigation repair parts, I glanced at my primitive gardening tools. Idling in a corner of the garage, the old-timers had weathered wooden handles and scarred cutting surfaces. The digging fork had a bent tine, courtesy of tree root vs. steel.
I was reminded of the evolution of garden maintenance. Gardening tools arrived when a human picked up a tree branch and gouged out a planting furrow. Bone, wood and stone tools were simple but effective. Replacement parts ample and free.
Today, preferred tools are cordless and powered by lithium-ion and nickel-cadmium batteries. Mowers, trimmers and leaf blowers are encased in combinations of plastic, fiberglass, metal and composites. They drain kilowatt hours, like the EVs that share many garages.
