Artist Profiles
Storytelling on Canvas
Jill Estroff will say her art career “just sort of happened.” But the truth is, the Curtis Park painter has worked very hard to make that career happen.
She started as a writer, editing a weekly paper in Florida, traveling for PBS, then freelancing for local publications when she moved to Sacramento so her husband could take a job at the Bee.
Chateau d’Art
Imagine a stunning chateau on 40 acres three hours east of Paris. Now imagine long walks along miles of nature trails through undisturbed pastoral land, followed by hours of uninterrupted time for artistic expression. Cassie Berube doesn’t have to imagine it—she’s lived it.
Berube recently returned from an artist residency at Chateau d’Orquevaux in Champagne-Ardenne, France, after receiving the prestigious Denis Diderot Grant, which helps offset the cost of room and board. (Residency fees go toward restoring the historic chateau, which traces its artistic roots back to Denis Diderot, an art critic and philosopher in the 1700s.)
Pushing Boundaries
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.”
Lost But Not Forgotten
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.
Sounds Of Hope
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.”
Doggone Good
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.
