OUR CREATORS
These outstanding creators have partnered with us to celebrate art, life, and the spirit of dreaming big.
Mona Bahraini
Mona Bahraini is founder and owner of The Prickly Pear. She fell in love with succulents and cacti while growing up in Phoenix, Arizona and is excited to bring these specialty plants to Sacramento. Mona is dedicated to community and creativity.
Pamela Baron
Pamela Baron dedicates her time to translating the world around her through art making. When she is not making watercolours do her bidding, she enjoys exploring the outdoors, nurturing her love of blowing glass, and finding weird things in vintage shops.
“I love the transformative nature of art.“
Eric Bear
Eric is a third-year CS major at Stanford who dabbles in music and has always been fascinated by mountains. He’s currently teaching CS remotely and pursuing app development, but when he’s not, he hopes to share a rugged lens into nature through photography of his home state of Colorado and the West.
“While it can showcase beauty, art can also inspire focus on nature and care for our lands that desperately need it.”
Rinni Bhansali
Rinni is a second-year electrical engineering and math major at Stanford. She loves to express her creativity through both art and music and has recently become inspired to combine the two by painting "album covers" of her favorite classical pieces.
“Art has given me another language with which to communicate--it lets me lose myself in my own thoughts, and subsequently share them with others.”
Jenny Brinitzer
Jenny has been painting professionally for a decade. It is her second act and one that she finds deeply gratifying. Jenny studied studio art and art history in college, and her main interest is in painting representational abstracts in saturated color. She travels and sketches and usually paints entire series from her journeys.
Laura Burkhart
Laura is a multidisciplinary visual artist, born and raised in Seattle, WA. Her work is inspired by the nature of the Pacific Northwest, the epic mountain peaks, the sparkling waters and the towering pines. She is most known for her unique geometric woodwork and her impressionistic acrylic mountain landscapes.
“Art is about celebrating the beauty of life, being the light, and spreading joy. Art is a powerful transfer of energy, a way to express emotions and communicate in a language that is universal and can remind us that we are all connected.”
Arjin Claire
Arjin is a high-school student from Sacramento. He enjoys exploring photography techniques and pushing his own creative boundaries through art.
"Art bridges the gap between the rules of the real world and the limitless possibilities of creativity."
Sunshine Cobb
Sunshine is a full-time studio artist who specializes in handmade functional pottery. Utilizing traditional techniques, her work embodies the importance of handmade pottery in an era of disposability, while representing a new model of a functional potter in the modern era. Sunshine recently authored a book: “Mastering Hand Building: Techniques, Tips, and Tricks for Slabs, Coil and More” (Voyageur Press, Feb. 2018).
"Art is a method I use to communicate my values and encourages my sense of purpose and joy."
Andy Cunningham
Andy Cunningham is an artist and art teacher who has exhibited locally, nationally and internationally and received local recognition from the Crocker Art Museum.
"Art is important to me because it allows for moments of not thinking, places to ponder, and spaces of beauty."
Sophia Danielpour
Sophia is a sophomore from Los Angeles studying economics and political science at Stanford University. She enjoys drawing and painting as a creative outlet.
"Art is important to me because it gives me the opportunity to relax and express myself creatively."
Andru Defeye
Whether sharing stages with legendary beat poets or your favorite Hip Hop emcees, Andru Defeye’s unorthodox writing and performance style has made him a fixture behind microphones around the country. 2020 saw the release of his critically acclaimed Frequency album followed shortly after by his crowning as the youngest Poet Laureate in California capitol history.
Michelle Gandhi
Michelle has been an educator in Los Angeles for the past 12 years. She believes in supporting her students not just through developing reading, writing, and speaking skills but also supporting students' developing identities as citizens of the world.
"I create lettering pieces to bring simple joy!"
Kristi Gaudio
Kristi is a UX designer who uses various art forms as a way to find creative expression away from the computer screen. She grew up with an artist for a mom, so creativity has always been an energy source in her life.
"Creative expression is the greatest therapy."
Laurel Gaudio
Laurel is a “creative." She has created elaborate parade floats, innovative stage designs, exquisite costumes, and impeccably themed charity-ball decorations. She loves to create things out of any possible material, and from any random idea. Her current interest is macro-abstract-realism.
“There is air, food, sleep . . . and then the need to create.”
Adrian Michael Green
Adrian Michael Green, an international speaker, educator and writer currently living in the San Francisco Bay Area, is a native of Northeast Denver where he started writing at the age of 10. As a 14-time self-published and bestselling author he is committed to sharing poetry and prose that spread messages of positivity, healing and love.
“art is a love language. it says: see me as is and i see you as you are. beautiful. loving. giving. a masterpiece deserving to tell its own story.”
Jessica Hartwell
Jessica is curious about nature, art, and the experience of being human in its spectrum of glory. She is a visual artist and art teacher with a love for collage, mixed media, and acrylic paint.
“After our ancient ancestors achieved food, shelter, and safety, their next step was to create art. Art is a primal need for self-expression; relating through art teaches us that we are all an interconnected part of the human family. The act of creation is a moment of flow that helps us grow, learn, and center ourselves.“
Humble the Poet
What began as reciting spoken word poetry in coffee shops to impress girls evolved into a creative adventure that has spanned the last 10 years; crossing genres, mediums and oceans.
Humble is now an author, hip-hop artist, speaker, designer, filmmaker, and creative consultant. He’s made a lot of mistakes along the way and shares the lessons he’s learned for all those looking to have a better life. There is a common thread that flows through his work, even if it's just a strand of his beard.
Cathie James-Robinson
Cathie is an artist who works in all types of media, including painting, drawing, sculpture, ceramics, photography and mixed media. Her studio is located in Davis, California and her work is available at The Artery artist cooperative at 207 G Street in Davis.
Jamie Madison
Jamie lives and works in Winters and Sausalito in Northern CA. While abstract, her paintings nod to the landscapes of her daily life: the great agricultural valley, aerial views, books she's reading, visits to the sea, birdlife in her garden, and her dismay and wonder at our rapidly changing world. Painting makes her feel alive.
“While painting, my perspectives shift to a sense of "deep time," evoking something greater than these difficult moments in human history. Play, hope, anxiety, curiosity, chance—these are the great gifts of painting, and sometimes, in the end, there is something beautiful to enjoy on your walls.”
Lyra McCarmey
Lyra is an oil and watercolor artist who was raised in Sacramento before she moved to Washington, DC and earned a degree in Music Production and Audio Technology.
"Through my art, I wish to help people awaken to a higher state of awareness by portraying scenes of both nature and the musings of my soul."
Mollie Morrison
Mollie paints large watercolor pieces; some are haphazard, some are objects and some are patterns. She cuts them into pieces and use these scraps to create the works of art. She waits for each piece to find itself and tries not to push it along.
"Experiencing art creation daily is happiness."
Grace Naify
Grace Naify was born in Sacramento, California, and is an American illustrator and painter. She currently lives and studies in Savannah, GA at theSavannah College of Art and Design. Grace specializes in watercolor painting and drawing, and her subjects include expressive architecture and stylized female portraiture.
“I can’t express myself any other way; my thoughts don’t always require words for people to understand them.”
Sophie Naylor
Sophie Naylor is currently an art student in the College of Creative Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara. She works primarily with oil paints but loves experimenting with new material.
“I find art important to me because I am able to articulate emotions, aesthetics, and stories through playful visual dynamics instead of being limited to only words.“
Karishma Nijjar
Karishma Nijjar is a senior in high school and from the Bay Area. She’s loved creating art since she was a child, and especially loves painting in watercolor and acrylic. She enjoys experimenting with art and using it as a way to express herself for others to see and enjoy.
“Art is important to me because it allows me to express myself in a way that everyone, regardless of culture or background, can understand. Art helps me connect with others.”
Janet Nuno
Janet Nuno is a second-year biological sciences major at UC Davis. She paints to relax and transfer her thoughts onto a canvas.
"The beauty of art lies in its subjectivity; the message that lies on a canvas is ours to uncover."
Jenn Ponci
Jenn Ponci is a lifelong mixed-media artist who has collaborated on large mural productions across the US from Virginia to Oakland. She studied under David Ewing for four years in Sacramento before spending time painting in Seattle, Portland, Charlotte, Boston, Philadelphia and Chicago. In 2009, she returned to California to learn a new form of art: tattooing. Ponci accomplished the first known watercolor style piece on skin. She went on to apprentice under Cory Norris at Classic Tattoo in Grass Valley and expanded her education working with female entrepreneur Char Hall of Side Show Studios. While blessed to escape the catastrophic Camp Fire of 2018, Ponci lost her home. She is now rebuilding while working from her studio gallery back in Sacramento.
Tala Powis Parker
Tala is a Shinnecock artist from the Bay Area. She specializes in beadwork and aims to uphold indigenous practices through creating urban native art.
"I make art as an opportunity to express myself as well as to bring awareness of modern Indigenous communities to greater America."
Lia Roccucci
Lia is a second-year chemistry major at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo. She's currently involved in polymers & coatings research and plans to pursue a career in the paint industry.
"Art, especially working with fluid materials, allows me to fully express my thoughts and emotions through color and composition."
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Barbara Sanford
Barbara is a sophomore at Stanford intending to major in International Relations. She enjoys hiking, baking, learning languages, writing, and being creative in any way she can.
“Art allows people to communicate their purest emotions and ideas to those around them and/or create just for the joy of creating.”
Bansari Shah
Bansari Shah has been practicing emergency medicine for the past 10 years. Her interests include global health and helping others lead their best lives. Art is her outlet to create versatile and thoughtful pieces.
Lilah Shorey
Lilah Shorey is an artist out of Sacramento. She works with most mediums including acrylic paint, watercolor, pen, colored pencil and black & white pencil. She specializes in portraits and spends most of her time doing portraits of celebrities and rockstars she likes.
“Art is important to me because it is a creative outlet for me along with being a stress reliever.“
Brooke Walker-Knoblich
Brooke is a professional artist with a passion for painting people. After her atelier training in Europe and earning a BA in Studio Art from UCSD, Brooke painted alongside many notable Sacramento artists and created several bodies of work inspired by living in Midtown.
"Portraits create a direct conduit to the heart and connect us with our humanity."
Brooke Wells
Born in Northern Italy, and raised in Pennsylvania, Brooke Wells began teaching in Greenwood, Mississippi, immediately after graduating from Haverford College. In the Mississippi Delta and the humid streets of New Orleans, he developed a deep love of education, music, and poetry. He currently lives in Sacramento, California, where he is a father, husband, English teacher, high school principal, outdoorsman, and guitar player.
“Art, music, and words define much of the world for me. My father, the sculptor, and my mother, the writer, raised me to understand the world through both the real and the abstract.”