Born in San Diego CA, a preschool teacher and a love child of two parents who were art lovers. Kizzy has been singing ever since the age of 6 years old. From girls’ choir, to show choir, to writing songs and recording them. Kizzy has sang with different roots & culture reggae bands in San Diego. “Music has been instrumental in any healing processes that I have gone through from childhood into adulthood. It still is to this day. Providing a musical worldly curriculum for the children in my class gave them a sense of what the music is like around the globe, while developing other key cognitive skills. “
Artist
Vanessa Rishel /
Vanessa Rishel is an oil painter and conceptual artist based in South Bay San Diego. Her art practice examines the formation of identity and the exploration of liminal spaces. Rishel's career includes notable residencies and exhibitions, such as at Teros Gallery, Phorm Studio, and Bread & Salt, and her work has been featured in various group shows across San Diego and beyond. Rishel is also recognized for her contributions as a writer, muralist, and live painter.
Christian Garcia-Olivo /
Christian Garcia-Olivo (b. 1988, Santa Barbara, CA) is a San Diego-based artist known for his innovative exploration of acrylic paint as a sculptural medium. In December 2020, he debuted his first solo show, Untitled 2020, at Bread & Salt in San Diego, setting the stage for a dynamic artistic journey. Christian’s work is featured in the San Diego Civic Art Collection and the Mesa College Library, and he has exhibited his art internationally in Italy and Spain, as well as across Southern California at the San Diego Art Institute, San Diego Central Library Art Gallery, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Santa Barbara and at Permanent Storage Projects in Los Angeles. Christian has received recognition for his contributions to the art world, including an Honorable Mention at the Athenaeum’s 28th Annual Juried Exhibition.
TARA CENTYBEAR /
Tara Centybear, a San Diego native, attended the School of the Art Institute of Chicago where she got her BFA, and Goldsmiths College, University London where she attained her MFA, graduating with Distinction. In addition to her work as a contemporary artist Centybear has worked as a fine arts curator throughout San Diego for the past decade. Currently she holds the position of Collections Manager/Curator at the San Diego History Center and is an adjunct teacher in the art department at MiraCosta College.
Q & A with artist Tara Smith
Why dead birds?
They encapsulate a balance of serenity and loss that I am looking to discuss. Birds, coated in their feathers are almost packaged, presents wrapped in nice colorful paper. I have chosen to work with dead birds, but birds that through their physical form do not reveal or concentrate on the way they died. This is to celebrate the life, not the death of the animal. They are each a symbol of the little deaths we all have throughout our days, weeks, months, years, and decades. From childhood to when our own end comes. The trauma of being picked on in school, of living through horrid world events, abusive encounters, loss of loved ones, of all the things that happen to us all that inform who we are, and who we become. The paintings are sad to grieve for those traumas, but in their beauty they pay homage to how important each struggle we all go through is. We need those traumas to become our most interesting, strong, and gorgeous selves.
The juxtaposition of the perished birds with the other inanimate objects is a way to discuss the clashing of experiences, hiding of pieces of ourselves and so forth. In all my works, for some reason I am not quite sure of I always cover things with other things, put things inside things so that they visually disrupt each other
What is it about birds dead that is so much more beautiful than say a dead squirrel. Why do we identify with that?
Birds have been symbols of ‘other worlds’, the heavens, love, loss, freedom and so much to us humans for centuries. We are drawn to them at times, afraid of them too. To me, the dead birds are precious and vulnerable to their surroundings, just as we are. Maybe other animals might work, but for me at this time, birds were the only option.
Birds are a symbol of freedom. Is death also freedom or is it just about the contrast of stillness and flight?
Painting flight would be so boring. A painting of a bird in flight is about that one split second in its entire life, whereas painting a dead bird is about its entire life. It is universal and talks about the whole being, the soul, the end, the mortality and shortness of life.
What is the role of death in your work - or is that secondary?
It is almost more about finding peace, whether living or dead. The still object means such a different thing, than one in motion. So even though I paint dead things it is not about death at all. Each bird is a symbol for one person’s suffering. The paintings are about life and living it to its fullest, it is acknowledging the complexity of what trauma brings to a person. That there are good things that come from that trauma, whatever your personal trauma(s) is, and that makes the hatred of that trauma hard… when you know it is a part of you now. If you hated the horrid things you went through you would hate part of yourself. We can’t hate ourselves and thrive.
What role does art play in the community and what type public art would like to see more of?
Art has the ability to communicate things that language on its own often fails at. It is a means to discuss and question sometimes incredibly difficult subjects. Art gives us an entry point, a joining link of communication between different demographics, social, and political groups.
As far as public art, the more site-specific, conceptual, interactive and time specific work in our city the better. Through these vehicles, artists can inspire new conversations in the community, ask people to question the world around them, and give the public a chance to experience art on their terms. Public art steps out of the museum and gallery walls and has a strength in that it can reach those that still feel, much due to the elitism of the past (and still present to a degree), that museums are not a space for ‘them’.
JULIA HILL | HYPNAGOGIA /
What inspires you?
I find myself having constant inspiration from several different aspects of life. Nature, space and the universe, the mind and how we perceive things, energies that are inside all human beings and how we are connected through this. Also several creative outlet like film, music, paintings, installation and sculpture. In down to random discoveries like going to a thrift shop and seeing the artwork sold there or seeing a child create something purely out of their imagination.
What inspirited this piece/idea?
The show is heavily inspired by how the mind perceives different stages of sleep, how the subconscious controls every facet of our lives and how you can start to find answers to things in your life by going through your subconscious in certain stages of sleep.
Is there an element of art you enjoy working with most? Why?
Lately I’ve been working with this idea of allowing my subconscious to create the images instead of going about creating artwork in a very structured way. I make a mark on paper or canvas and allow myself to sit with the piece until the piece itself tells me what to do next. I’m finding myself constantly thrilled to see what images arise out of it. Whether abstract or figurative I’m constantly maintaining a level of interest and intrigue and I think it’s the happiest I’ve been while making an image. It’s unstructured and a really put way of creating an image.
Is there an artwork you are most proud of? Why?
I really enjoy my sculpture, installation and a couple of my abstract ratings. i feel like these really capture what it is to create work from the subconscious. I’m really invested in these works and its been really fun creating them.
What are most of your dreams about?
My dreams vary. A lot of them were nightmares and night terrors which actually propelled this subject matter in the beginning. I was curious as to why I was having so many of these nights terrors and so I started to create images that were based on them; maybe using it as a therapeutic outlet for these dreams. I’ve been really trying to hone down that act of lucid dreaming lately and those dream can be anything from flying and test the limits of music dream to trying to talk to people and connect with them in the dream world.
Do any of your artwork reflect your fears and how does this fear present itself in your dreams?
I think it does. I don’t know if I’ve really tapped into what these nightmares reflect just yet. Maybe I haven’t come to terms with it, but I would say mostly fear of loss, companionship and death.
What’s your next project?
I have a few I would like to explore. I’m really interested in expanding this subconscious painting method I’ve been working with. I also want to create an apparel line that is basically a non profit where I donate the majority of profits to a charity or foundation that helps the environment, women’s rights etc.
Does every person, place and thing in your dream represents you, the dreamer, communal and universal connection? How do you relate?
I think dream always have a connection to me the dream in some way. Some are more prevalent as to why they are connected to this world of dreaming and i think there is something interesting about becoming connected through this subconscious world. I think we take i so much as human beings, constantly inundated with information that during sleep is a time for your brain to process this information and distingush the sense from nonsense in a way. It’s like a filtering process and I think it helps to see and understand things that you may not have really understood normally.
What are you listening while painting?
I’ve really been into podcasts lately so I’ve been listening to a lot of Artist Decoded, StarTalk, My Favorite Murder, Astonishing Legends and the Paranormal Podcast.
Do you ever catch yourself overthinking your artwork?
Constantly. That’s actually what propelled me to start this subconscious art making idea. I’m so weird to make images a certain way because of my school training that I started to feel like it was too structured and too formulaic. Now that I’m stating to create images in this subconscious way I’m starting to fall in love with my pieces again.