Learn About the Artists
A heartfelt thank you to all of the incredible artists that have participated in Visibility Through Art. Some artists have been with us since year one, while others just joined us last year. CHIRP is grateful for the collaboration that took place between artists and Tribal Members, as well as, very grateful for artists donation of time and art pieces. CHIRP asked artists to make a short video explaining why they chose to be a part of Visibility Through Art, and how it has impacted them.
Artist: Alyssa Walz
Contributions: The Matriarch With Her Daughters (2017), Carmel (2018), Carmel Rose Jackson - Restored (2019)
Bio: Art has always been an essential element to understanding and enjoying life. Walz is fascinated by art, particularly with precise attention to detail found in surrealism, as well as in photorealistic portraits. The artists she is most influenced by are Hieronymus Bosch and Salvador Dalí. With a degree in Arts and Cultures, Alyssa has studied in Madrid, Spain, visiting The El Prado Museum and the Dalí Theatre-Museum in Figueres. Alyssa’s style of art is a mixture of photorealism and abstract imagery.
Artist: Mira Clark
Contributions: Ritual (2017), Mother Earth | Tek Tek (2018), Home|Recognition (2019)
For the past three years Mira has been the art coordinator for the Visibility Through Art Initiative.
Bio: Mira’s motivation to create stems from a desire to share certain experiences and inspirations in her life. She has a deep love of fantasy and her pieces are intended to relate a story. She is a firm believer in the power of narrative and in sharing story through mixed-media works to impart stories that our culture needs to grow. She has a Bachelor of Arts with a focus in Social Justice from The California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS). As an avid traveler she have studied art all around the world. Her style combines the techniques of photorealism with the imagination and the whimsical elements of fantasy surrealism. Her primary purpose is to inspire inquiry, beauty, social, and environmental justice and awareness through her art.
A MORE IN-DEPTH VIDEO ABOUT THIS PROJECT
Nisenan Mineral Paint Workshop
Each year for the last three years, I enjoy working and creating art for the Nisenan Heritage Days. In 2019 I wanted to do something different for my project. I am an earth artist, someone who works with earth elements and earth friendly products to create works of art. My hope was to engage interested Nisenan members in the process of using natural mineral paints to compose art pieces. For several years I have studied possible techniques used by ancient peoples, the collecting as well as applications of natural minerals from the land to make ochres for paintings. Along with this study I also research ancient languages and their roots in signs and pictographs. I offered to teach how to use natural minerals in art works, share my process and encourage individual approaches to exploring their own ideas with mineral paints in art.
Four women participated in learning to use natural mineral paints. We spent a day preparing wooden panels and mixing our own mineral paints then painting individual pieces that expressed our stories. It was a wonderful and joyful experience as each one of us explored beyond our own boundaries to create artworks. It was inspiring to see how everyone responded from the preparations of canvas surfaces to mixing paints, applying these, and watching stories emerge before us. I am grateful for the beauty, the wonder and the joy these women brought to the art space and the mutual sharing of the art experience.
Artist: Jennifer Rugge
Contributions: Hidden Voices (2017), Stories from the Nisenan (2018), kapa & pekun (2019)
Bio: I create works that reflect Nature and the communities evolving from this awareness through the use of organic materials and natural mineral pigments on paper, wood, and large stone. My work engages a presence of life straight from the land. Living in Northern California, I enjoy the study and influence of ancient art and languages. These interests have taken me to the outback of Australia, Europe and the Northwest as well as the Southwest of the USA. What generates creativity are the love of research and discovering new but old things and ideas. My hope is to inspire others to seek environmentally friendly approaches to creating and evolving art and art techniques.
Artist: Andy Cerrona
Contributions: Mother With The Key | Yuba Alive (2017), Angkula Seo (2018), Transmission (2019)
Bio: I am an illustrator with a love of shapes and textures. One of my personal goals is to help people enjoy life, and I hope my art is an extension of that process. Influenced by nature, human movement, exploration, music, dance, strange expressions from strangers, and the everyday movement of life, I strive to produce art that tells a story: energy and interest, contentment and dissatisfaction, yogurt and yoga, rock climbs and ice falls, National Parks and out-of-the-way kindness.
Artist: Jarod Kane
Contributions: Identity (2018), Birdie (2019)
Bio: Jarod Kane was born and raised in San Diego, California. He came from a family of artists; his uncle, a sculptor, and his older sister, a painter, encouraged him from a young age. He had a love for cartoons and comic books early on and found himself trying to draw the characters he enjoyed. The graphic style of comics can still be seen in his work today whether in his painting, printmaking, drawings, or stencils. He has created works about a variety of concepts sometimes concentrating on the mundane while other times trying to capture the awesome beauty of nature. He is motivated to explore and discover new landscapes of the artistic world.
Artist: Victoria Moran
Contributions: Replica of Nisenan Ceremonial Dance Belt (2018)
Bio: Victoria Moran is a licensed psychotherapist who specializes in trauma work in her private practice located in Nevada City, California. She works from an integrative and holistic approach, treating clients as a whole being, including their mental, physical, spiritual and cultural bodies. Victoria is also a creative artist as a means to express herself and further integrate her life way. She plays a variety of musical instruments, is an adept fashion designer and seamstress, a skilled leather worker and beader, a multi-lingual dancer, a writer of prose and poetry, and a mixed media visual artist.
Artist: Jose Dominguez
Contributions: Portrait of Tribal Chairman Richard B. Johnson (2017)
Bio: Jose is from Dallas Texas, and has lived in Nevada City for the last 5 years. He studied art in San Francisco where he received a full art scholarship to the San Francisco Art Institute. He primarily works with oil, sculpture and installation art.
NOTE: Ruth worked with CHIRP and the Nevada City Rancheria Nisenan through a different local project call Belonging. She also collaborated with the Visibility Through Art Initiative in 2019 through a project called Home. Belonging was generously funded in part by California Arts Council through Nevada County Arts Council.
Artist: Ruth Chase
Contributions: Where Do We Go From Here (2018)
Bio: My work documents the human spirit and the powerful insights that allow people to find a sense of belonging within their community. The public plays a vital role in the outcome of my work, taking a journey with me that can last up to two years. I produce multi-media installations that include paintings, audio, social media, sideshows, video, and social engagement. Self-aware subjects with strong belief systems fascinate me and draw me in. Ruth is a graduate of the San Francisco Art Institute. She is an Artist in Residence with the Nevada County Arts Council.
Artist: Bo Blain
Contributions: True Names (2018 & 2019)
Bio: Bo, originally from west Marin County, has been living in the Nevada City area for the past six years and works as a health coach and educator out of offices in Grass Valley and Sacramento. As a youth Bo’s love of hip-hop culture drew him to graffiti art which has been a hobby of his ever since. His “True Names” project was created to support the Nisenan people in reclaiming the real names of the lands currently occupied by the municipalities of Nevada County. The 2018 Nisenan Heritage Day Art Reception was the first time his work had been shown publicly and he is a contributing artist again this year.
Artist: Ron Kenedi
Contributions: Action Caused by Love (2019)
Bio: Ron Kenedi’s work is a personal, vibrant reflection of the many eclectic places and times he’s lived in. Born and raised in New York City, Ron came of age during the volatile and seminal 1960s. He attended Stony Brook University where he studied Fine Arts. After college, Ron practiced stone lithography at the Art Students League in New York and taught figure drawing at the Mediterranean Institute in Deya, Majorca, Spain. As Ron’s technique evolved, his artwork began to take on a look and feel that was representative of his life’s diverse influences. It’s a style that is mostly figurative, focusing on presenting the essence of the subject. The goal of each piece is to set a mood and tell a story that requires the viewer to participate on a visceral and intellectual level. “I want the artwork to be a catalyst for the viewer’s own interpretation and provide meaning beyond the work itself,” he says. Kenedi works in pencil, charcoal, pen/brush and ink, pastels, watercolors, acrylics and oil paint. He uses bold lines, adventurous colors and dramatic shading. For the last 30 years he has been a pioneer and innovator of solar electric energy.
Artist: Rama Cryer
Contributions: Estom Yanim Yamanan (2018), Family Roots (2019)
Bio: Rama was born in Nevada County and has lived here for most of his life. He has always been a lover of creative expression and art. He works mostly with acrylic painting, mixed media, as well as sculpture.
Artist: Miles Toland
Contributions: Remembering and Ravens (2019)
Bio: Miles Toland’s surreal paintings capture the mysterious places we visit between sleeping and waking. He invites the viewer into this liminal space by blending familiar elements of our objective world with ethereal textures and geometric patterns. The mandalas and the organic fluidity of wood grain suggest the subjects’ energy extending beyond their physical bodies and into the realm of spirit. Miles approaches his art as a practice of bringing resistance into resonance, honoring the beauty in decay, and finding wisdom in nature’s forms.Miles grew his roots in the artistic city of Santa Fe and is currently making art in the woods of Nevada City. His creative juices have been squeezed from the fruits of graffiti culture, a BFA at Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle, live painting at festivals, and traveling around the world creating street art. His mural series at the Beatles Ashram in Rishikesh has been published in the Smithsonian Magazine and The New York Times blog. Another one of his murals in India was readapted to be featured as the artwork in the second season of the AMC show Better Call Saul. Miles’ work finds an even split between studio art and street art.
Artist: Jenny Hale
Contributions: I Still Live Here (2018), Guardians of The Dance, Series (2018), Earth Abides (2019)
Bio: Jenny Hale is a public artist based in Northern California. After a 15-year career as a producer/director in TV production, she transitioned from electronic media to sculpture. Motivated by the directive that public art is a powerful community building tool, she has created permanent public artworks that are installed in schools, parks, and community centers in Northern California. Her multi-media works are site-specific, related to environmental and social justice themes, and often involve diverse, underserved, multi-generational populations in the design and execution phases. Her deepest inquiry is the question “What does the future hold for our culture that has destroyed people, animals, and the planet?” She is currently using the medium of light, shadow, and projected images, with digital collages of original paintings and photographs, to explore the intersection of nature and technology and the common force that drives all forms of life.
Artist: Nikila Badua
Contributions: Babe, (2018)
Bio: Nikila is also known as MamaWisdom. Born on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, Nikila is a self-taught multimedia artist, designer, and performer inspired by an earth-based wisdom of Roots and Culture. Mother and community organizer, her work as an advocate for youth, indigenous, environmental, and women's rights has played an influential role within shaping the foundation of her creative path. Weaving underlying stories, traditions, and elements of the sacred indigenous with modern influences of the urban underground, her art is dedicated to honoring the maternal personifications of Life; thus birthing the alias "MamaWisdom".
Artist: Jessa Hurst
Contributions: Plant Medicine (2018), I Heard Their Stories (2019)
Bio: Jessa is a multi-media artist, specializing in music, movement, and dabbling in painting and mixed media works.
Artist: Anthony West
Contributions: Virtual Reality Piece, 2017 (not available on this site at this time)
A collaboration with Shelly Covert the Tribal Council spokesperson
Bio: Anthony Sirios West “Asirios” is a creator whose works mirror the journey of self. He believes deeply in the value of myth in building and maintaining culture. From his home in the foothills of Northern California, he creates work that represents the natural ebb and flow of our Collective Experience. His work is not a creation of the mind but a manifestation of spirit into the physical realm. He seeks to inspire spiritual awareness within his audience allowing them to access their own ability as co creators and beings of unlimited potential. He aims to use our collective mythos to inspire change and create a new paradigm.
Artist: Shelly Covert
Contributions: First Death (2017)
Bio: Shelly Covert is a Nevada City Rancheria Tribal Member, and the Tribal Council spokesperson and secretary, as well as the Executive Director of the California Heritage Indigenous Research Project (CHIRP). Shelly has been guiding this project and working with artist and Tribal Members to facilitate collaborative art creation since the inception of this project.
Artist: Teighlor Anderson
Contributions: Nisenan Inspired Skirt Replica (2018), Look Around (2019)
Bio: I grew up near the headwaters of the Mississippi River and after following a calling to SE Alaska, Kauai, and the coastal Redwoods I decided to settle near the Yuba River in Nisenan Territory. My passions in life have always revolved around art and nature. From a young age I’d spend my days sewing, painting, hunting, fishing, popping sap bubbles on trees and gardening. Things are still pretty similar in my life today. I aim to empower those around me by hosting workshops and growing/making plant based medicines and making art while raising my young daughter on our farm and I hope to show my gratitude to those who tended to the land before me.
Artist: Indigo Donaldson
Contributions: Finding Our Way Back Home (2019)
Bio: Indigo’s pieces are primarily inspired by her love of and deep connection to nature and unseen forces. Bringing them to tangible form to tell a story through visual art, poetry, gardening, permaculture landcape design, and herbal alchemy is her passion in this life. Working on community projects and inspiring awareness through social and environmental activism are also driving forces of her art. For many years she was part of group called Art & Revolution, making huge puppets and performing theatre at big anti-globalization actions around the world. She received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from William Paterson University and Art Institute of Philadelphia. As well a degrees from Rocky Mountain Center for Botanical Studies, Occidental Arts and Ecology Center, and Regenerative Design Institute.
Artist: Ashley Forman
Contributions: Invisible (2017)
Bio: Art has become a method for hacking my inner firewall, helping me to feel normal and process the experience of being both human and spirit. Making my art has granted me gradual access to a more integrated and multidimensional reality. I think the most powerful thing we can accomplish with our work is to inspire each other to accept responsibility for the liberation of oneself from the social conditioning of previous generations and the prevailing ignorance of our cultural story; to dismantle who we were falsely taught that we are and find the unique creative identity within. My intention for my work, beyond personal healing, is to reflect a simple Truth -- That the Universe is made of a profound Love beyond human categories, and that inter-collectively, we are One Being, One Consciousness.
Artist: Tracy Parker
Contributions: Oppression and The Return to Innocence (2018)
Bio: Tracy Parker is the Founder, CEO and Visionary of LIGHT DWELLINGS, a Holistic Healing + Cultural R-Evolutionary Design/Build Company devoted to birthing and guiding individual and collective healing and transformation for communities across the globe through a uniquely designed network of regenerative living sanctuaries for modern day women healers, Mothers, conscious communities and cultural creatives. An Architect, Environmental Designer, Visionary Artist and Spiritual Healer, Shaman & Teacher, Tracy’s vision serves to heal and transform the blueprint of the soul, our communities and our earth ecosystems. Utilizing both form and the formless, matter and energy, her sacred sites and shamanic energy medicine guides and holds space for people who are transitioning from the old paradigm of living individualistically and in isolation with dis-ease, into abundant, collective, community-based, feminine and regenerative models for living in right relationship with the earth. Each sanctuary is a model for living that answers directly to the voices and needs of our children’s children and our next seven future generations.
Artist: Bishop Randall
Contributions: 'eyi nik • pulu • baj (Grinding Stone) 2018
Bio: Living in the Yuba watershed, at 3000', just above the South fork of the Yuba River, in a mix of Blue and Black Oak, Madrone, Ponderosa Pine, Incense Cedar, and Manzanita. My work is rooted in this place, poetics, ecology, Buddhism, and the old ways.
Artist: Alex Dita
Contributions: Four Generations Photo Portraits (2017)
Artist: Lori Lachman
Contributions: Photos on Wood (2018), Sacred Mountain (2019)
Bio: Lori has a degree from SFSU and Studio Art Center International in Firenze, Italia in Fine Arts – Photography.She has been shooting since her dad gave her a camera at the age of 13. Lori's specialty is landscape and abstract nature and loves to be outdoors searching for the perfect moment or image that coveys the soul of nature. She strives to create a dreamlike and painterly quality through many editing processes which she used to do in the darkroom but she now prefers not working with toxic chemicals.
Artist: Chloe Young
Contributions: Woman of Truth (2018), Loud Silence (2019)
Artist: Leilani Web
Contributions: Putting Together the Pieces (2019)
Artist: Gavrila Nikhila
Contributions: Spoken Word “How can I call this home” (2018)