Artist Profiles
World-Class Jazzman
For a jazzman of the world like saxophonist, composer and educator Jacam Manricks, it seems almost inevitable that his music would offer a fusion of influences.
Manricks grew up in Australia, and his parents played classical music at the symphony in his hometown of Brisbane. However, Manricks’ grandfather led a swing band in Sri Lanka, and Manricks fell in love with jazz through his father’s vinyl collection. Jazz and classical music come together in Manricks’ music, but he also points out influences of hip-hop and heavy metal.
Plucking Her Heartstrings
It might seem strange that an instrument as old as the harpsichord is something musician Faythe Vollrath thinks of as “new in many ways,” but the accomplished harpsichordist, based in Placerville, maintains that there’s a method to the madness.
“It’s still very much ‘create your own adventure’ with the harpsichord,” says Vollrath, who performs as a soloist and chamber musician throughout the U.S. and abroad (she recently performed a concert of new music in Serbia as part of the Belgrade Harpsichord Festival).
Brick by Brick
A poster of Wonder Woman hangs on the wall next to a colorful lamp. But look closer—these aren’t ordinary objects. They’re composed of thousands of tiny LEGO bricks and they’re the masterwork of Sacramento native David Truman Tracy.
“I couldn’t tell you how many times I built LEGO sets as a kid,” says Tracy, whose work is on display at Archival Gallery this month in “Sacramento Superheroes,” alongside work by the late Mel Ramos, Carrie Cottini, Robert Bowen, Corey Okada and GB Hettrick.
Seeing is Believing
Despite our ability to perceive three-dimensional depth, the human eye only shows us two dimensions. However, for Henry Parada, a retired chemical scientist turned optical artist, seeing in three dimensions is second nature.
When he was studying chemistry, he had to “think in 3-D all the time,” says Parada, who works out of a basement studio in his West Sacramento home. “You need to think how the atoms and molecules are moving in order to react. For me, it’s very easy to think in 3-D.”
Snap Decisions
Joe Chan brings beauty to social media with photographs that compel viewers to look deeply into the compositions captured by his lens. It’s impossible to ignore a Chan photo.
Fascinating, evocative and splashed with colors, the images produced by the Sacramento photographer represent a wayward journey to artistic success. Chan didn’t grow up with a camera. He mastered the challenges of light, shadow and composition after a successful career as a banker and mortgage broker.
Rock and Roll
Rock Bottom Clay Arts—the ceramic business owned by longtime friends Suzy Price and Linda Fall—is not named for low prices, nor for a low point in life.
“We named it Rock Bottom because the totems literally have a giant rock at the bottom that keeps them steady,” Fall explains with a chuckle.
Since last August, Fall and Price have created 2-, 3-, 4- and 5-foot ceramic structures they call totems—colorful displays of manmade rocks in all shapes, sizes and textures stacked together on a steel pole and rooted to a strong rock or welded metal base for display in the home or garden.
