Jan 28, 2021
For artist Laurelin Gilmore, “being publicly yourself is revolutionary.” Whether that means embracing your physical appearance, your personality or your place in the world, being as “you” as possible takes an act of bravery.
Lucky for us, Gilmore is one of those brave people—and she hopes her art helps others feel that way too.
“Anybody who’s a little bit different feels like a little bit of an alien,” explains the artist, who was diagnosed with vitiligo (a condition in which skin loses pigment in patches) at age 9. “Looking to the natural world to see that you’re not abnormal—that you’re not outside of the natural—helped me see the beauty of (being different).”
Jan 28, 2021
It seems like a happy coincidence that Jessa Ciel’s last name means “sky” in French. The sky is truly the limit for this creative force who is a photographer, filmmaker, professor, activist, Black Artists Fund board member, and owner and founder of visual storytelling agency IAMCIEL. And she’s just getting started.
“I often feel like I’m a late bloomer,” admits Ciel, 36, who went back to school at age 30 to earn her MFA in photography from the prestigious Cranbrook Academy of Art in Michigan. “But I want to have the time to come to the choices that I come to and know that they’re mine. That I’m not doing it for somebody else. I’m doing it for me.”
Nov 27, 2020
Krystyna Taylor fell in love with the cello the way many people do—she saw world-renowned cellist Yo-Yo Ma perform. The fact that she saw him on “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood” as a child should tell you that Taylor has loved the cello for a long time (she recently turned 40).
Taylor has gone on to quite an extensive cello career of her own thanks to that early exposure. The Santa Barbara native started afterschool cello lessons in fifth grade and then joined a swing band started by her grandfather. She reports the group was composed of “me, my little sister and these 70- and 80-year-old guys.”
By middle school, she was gigging on the street and at farmers markets, hiring herself out for weddings and, by her early teens, performing with the Santa Barbara Youth Symphony. She won classical string competitions that paid for her lessons, various music camps and, eventually, a full scholarship to study cello performance at Sacramento State in 1998.
Nov 27, 2020
All the world really is a stage for Carrie Hennessey. Though you could describe Hennessey as “an opera singer,” that wouldn’t do justice to the creative mind and talent she brings to productions of all kinds—opera, musical theater, cabaret, chamber music, master classes, lectures, song cycles and more.
“I’m always about being open to whatever the inspiration is,” the Natomas resident says. “When the whim or spark of an idea comes to me, I don’t question it—I roll with it.”
Sep 27, 2020
A rodent with a remote control. A ring-tailed lemur rowing a boat. A chameleon climbing a cake. These whimsical beasties aren’t from a fairytale, but rather from the wildly talented mind of ceramist Julie Clements.
Clements’ ability to render animals in such exquisite detail is no accident. The Georgia native was exposed to art early on by her grandmother who did china painting—Clements was fascinated by the detail—and she went on to study art while an undergrad at Emory University, followed by a yearlong internship at the renowned Callanwolde Fine Arts Center in Atlanta. She even started a master’s degree in ceramics at the University of Georgia.
Aug 27, 2020
Multi-media artist Jennifer Kim Sohn understands that most people have nostalgic associations with crafts like sewing and stitching. There’s a sense of comfort connected to the medium, which Sohn uses to explore serious social and environmental issues.
“I want to bring these difficult issues through the comfortable artform so I can disarm people a little bit,” says Sohn, a South Land Park resident. In previous works, Sohn used fabric frogs to confront environmental pollution and fabric pillows to build awareness of human trafficking. “The images are not in your face. I want the viewers to arrive on their own decision, or at least give them room to reflect on these issues.”
