Feb 26, 2020
When I catch up with artist Bryan Valenzuela on the phone, he asks if it’s OK that he’s talking to me on a headset while he paints. In San Francisco. On the side of a building. Three stories up.
Valenzuela is hard at work on a 48-foot mural in the courtyard of a renovated hotel. What should have taken only a couple of weeks is taking far longer due to unseasonal rains that halt his progress for days at a time. Valenzuela says he doesn’t mind the pauses, but he does worry that he has other projects to attend to and, more importantly, “the faster I get it done, the sooner I can see my dog.”
Jan 28, 2020
Many of us know of the Transcontinental Railroad—a significant venture in United States history when an expansive railway system was built to connect our country in ways people could only imagine. However, not all are aware of what went into constructing such a large undertaking and what it cost a specific group of people—Chinese workers.
The California State Railroad Museum has set out to expand our knowledge with an exhibit called the Chinese Railroad Workers’ Experience. Between 1865 and 1869, approximately 15,000 Chinese migrants, comprising 90 percent of the railroad workforce, labored at a grueling pace and in treacherous conditions to help construct America’s first Transcontinental Railroad.
Dec 30, 2019
When Sohail Al-Jamea first moved to Sacramento in summer 2017, one of the first things he did was form a band.
“Forming a band is the best way to meet people,” says Al-Jamea, a video animator for McClatchy Studios who “city-hopped” from his hometown of Burlingame to San Francisco to New York City to Washington, D.C., before returning to California to be closer to family. “As soon as I get to a new city, I post an ad for bandmates on Craigslist.”
Oct 29, 2019
If you take your pet to Sacramento Animal Hospital on H Street, you’re probably familiar with the adorable brightly colored animal portraits that decorate the treatment rooms.
They are the works of multi-talented East Sacramento artist Nikki Solone, who has been making art for as long as she can remember, but got turned onto her biggest creative niche—pet portraits—almost by accident.
Oct 29, 2019
The first thing you notice when you walk into Norma Lovell’s Curtis Park home is that every available wall surface is covered with stunning oil paintings. Portraits, tasteful nudes, animals—each image beautifully detailed with a liveliness that transfixes.
When you find out that Lovell painted every single one—many over the last 10 years since she fully dedicated herself to oil painting—the interior landscape becomes that much more impressive.
Sep 26, 2019
To publish one book is an accomplishment. To publish three—all at the same time—is nothing short of a miracle. But that’s exactly what David Flanagan, adman extraordinaire and Land Park-based author, did this summer.
“Ideas just started pouring out of me,” says Flanagan, whose name probably sounds familiar. He co-founded ad agency Crocker Flanagan and has since started others, including his current brand and marketing agency Misfit, which boasts clients like Old Sacramento, Visit Sacramento and Sacramento International Airport.
