In The Art Scene. Show about artists, their journeys, art business, successes, failures, inspiration

Delve into the heart of the San Diego art scene with our conversation with Sonia Sparks of Sparks Gallery.

Sonia Sparks is the owner and chief curator of the successful Sparks Gallery in San Diego's historic Gaslamp Quarter. Celebrating 11 years in business, Sonia shares the secrets to her gallery's longevity, her client-focused approach to curation, and her perspective on the vital role galleries still play for artists today. 

Learn about her unique business model, her deep connection with her clients, and her passionate belief in the essential partnership between artists and galleries.

Discover the unique history of her stunning space, her innovative "artist activation" events, and a hint at her exciting new program designed to further support the local art community. A must-listen for artists, collectors, and anyone passionate about the San Diego art scene!

Links 

Tokeli Baker is a multidimensional artist who works across various creative fields, including painting, music composition, theatre, and writing. She has a background in musical theatre and dramatic literature, having studied at UC San Diego and Tufts University. Her artistic journey took a profound turn after experiencing a paranormal psi phenomenon following a traumatic accident, which led her to explore themes of consciousness and meditation in her work.

She is also involved in the Escondido Art Association, serving as Co-President, and has exhibited her work in various venues, including the Poway Center for the Arts. One of her notable pieces, the "Intelligence" mural, is part of a series called "The Orbs," which visually represents meditative states beyond space-time.

If you're interested in learning more about her work, you can visit her official website down below.

Tokeli’s Website:

Marti Gobel is a nationally recognized actor, director and teaching artist. Upon graduating from UW-Whitewater in 2008 with a degree in Performance Theatre and Philosophy (with an emphasis in Religious Studies), Ms. Gobel began a rich career in both theatre and television and film. Her need to add to the tapestry of the mid-west professional theatre scene led to the founding of the now defunct UPROOTED theatre. As Producing Artistic Director (from 2009-2015)  worked tirelessly to diversify the arts through her efforts. Ms. Gobel is a current member of both Actors Equity Association and SAG-AFTRA.

Selected Stage Credits include: Milwaukee Shakespeare (Henry IV, part 2), Milwaukee Chamber Theatre (Well, Around The World In 80 Days, Broken and Entered, Fires In the Mirror) Renaissance Theaterworks’ (NEAT: Milwaukee, Sheboygan and South Africa, The Persians, Crumbs From the Table of Joy, The Violet Hour, Still, Sex With Strangers, The Roommate, Witch and a reading of Tanya Saracho’s El Nogular and Gwendolyn Rice’s The Griots), First Stage Children's Theatre (The Neverendingstory and readings of Jackie and Me, The Promised Land), The Milwaukee Repertory Theater (Clybourne Park, A Christmas Carol:2012-2014, Yankee Tavern, Trouble In Mind), Forward Theater (In The Next Room, Mr. Burns, Skeleton Crew, Mom, How Did You Meet The Beatles) and UPROOTED theatre (Beauty’s Daughter: Milwaukee, Chicago and Memphis, A Streetcar Named Desire, Yellowman, Crumbs From the Table of Joy, *Pink Champagne, Jack and Jill, Hoo Doo Love, Oleanna, I Have Before Me A Remarkable Document Given To Me By A Young Lady From Rwanda, The Philadelphia Story, *Man From Madisonville, The Sunset Limited, Suddenly Last Summer), Next Act Theatre (Perfect Mendacity, No Child, Twilight: Los Angles, The Taming, The Christians), and Theatre Lila (No Child). Marti plays an ongoing role as the Civil Rights suffragist, Ida B. Wells for the Kenosha Civil War Museum in Kenosha, Wisconsin, and is often featured in local and regional commercials and voice-overs. She appeared in the short film, Spare Change, as well as the web-series Gettin’ Grown; both directed by the award-winning film director Aaron Greer and Faith Flix’s Come Follow Me, Mary, Mother of Jesus and the feature film Game Day produced by Chicago Studio City. National television credits include NBC’s Chicago PD in addition to several regional commercials.

University Productions include: Airness (Hendrix College), Wine In the Wilderness, Crumbs From the Table of Joy, The Light (Marquette University), Trojan Women (UW-Milwaukee).

Marti has served as a lead teacher at First Stage Theatre Academy in Milwaukee as well as a lead teacher and program designer for UPROOTED theatre’s education department. Past adjunct professor assignments at Marquette University, UW-Milwaukee and Carthage College. She is a JF Kennedy Center trained Teaching Artist who worked closely with Master Educator, Randy Barron for 6 months developing her residency which is now offered through The Young Auditorium and The Overture Center. She currently serves as Artistc Consultant for Black Arts MKE. Ms. Gobel will serve for a third term as a KCACTF adjudicator for Region III.

Ms. Gobel is a Jeff Nominated Director for her work on Is God Is with A Red Orchid Theatre and the recipient of 2024 Black Excellence Award for Outstanding Director.

She currently serves as Producing Artistic Director and Education Coordinator for OnWord Theatre in San Diego, CA. *Indicates World Premiere’s

I was introduced to Ksenia Luki by a mutual artist friend when I was looking for a Russian-speaking musician and singer to collaborate on a song adaptation for the October Project who you might remember from previous episodes. Not only did I enjoy collaborating with Ksenia, but I also discovered an absolutely unique approach to exploring, creating, and performing music. We talk about the challenges of being a bilingual artist, creating most work not in your native language. We also talk about the healing power of music and Ksenia’s sound healing practice.

Today, two universes collide as our guest is Galina herself!! Well, kinda… Season 10 of *In the Art Scene* is over, and we are posting a bonus episode with our last guest, Jenny Dempsey. This time, Galina is a guest on Jenny’s podcast, *Career Flipper*. Galina talks about her career change from a marketing professional in Russia to a new career in art in sunny San Diego. Check out Jenny’s podcast and social media linked below!

We are currently restructuring both the ITAS podcast and the San Diego Art Directory, and we appreciate your love, support, and interest in what we do. Please stay with us as we work things out and continue to provide valuable information in all things art!

By the way, have any comments, questions, or interview requests? Please leave them in the comments—we appreciate the feedback!

This episode is different from my regular conversations on the podcast because my guest, Jenny Dempsey, with all her creativity and talent, is not necessarily a professional artist. Jenny’s journey took her through the ins and outs of corporate work and employment challenges until she created the career of her dreams as a furniture flipper and podcaster. And all of that she’s done with the music in her heart <3

In this episode, I talk to a person of one of coolest professions I’ve ever heard of - a painting conservator Lisa Capano, about her professional journey. How does anyone choose to become an art conservator and what does it take to become one? Lisa is sharing her story and insights into the industry, and the market of being an independent art restorer. How cool is that!

In this episode, I talk to two wonderful women artists and dear friends of mine whom you might remember from the previous episodes on the Podcast: Michelle Lubin (aka MD Ferrera) and Galina Semenova. The reason we got together is to talk about the collaborative exhibition we are having in March 2025 to showcase our womanly experiences from three different perspectives. Our mediums and styles are vastly different, but they complement each other on the visceral, emotional level of expressing and processing emotions we are dealing with. The show will run through the month of March in person at the Artist & Craftsman Supply in San Diego, CA, and the virtual reality gallery space. Most work has never been shown before, and we have a couple of interactive surprises for our visitors.

Art Through The Glass is a unique community project in the South Bay area of San Diego County run by local artists Julio Martha and Evette Roman, who I am happy to have as guests in this episode. Art Through The Glass utilizes unoccupied retail spaces at the shopping mall in downtown Chula Vista, CA, to showcase the works of local visual artists and create a beautiful atmosphere of art and creativity for the visitors of the mall.

In this episode, I’m talking to Blanca Bergman, a founder of Art Unites and Mental Wellness For Artists - the two very active and impactful community projects in San Diego, CA.

Bea Gold, a 97-year-old working artist, writer, and a great friend of mine, invited me to be a part of the exciting project. She wrote and illustrated her second memoir and asked me to help her with designing, publishing, and promoting it. How could I say no?

In this episode, Bea and I share our experience as amateurs in the book publishing world and talk about her inspiration and the process of creating this book.

Jen Brown is another extraordinary artist from San Diego who seems to have an open channel with the Universe itself. A portrait photographer, Jen decided to venture into the new paradigm and became a host of the live drawing sessions -- and that's when the magic happened.

Listen to my conversation with Jen on this episode and learn more about her mystical adventures.

Surfing Madonna Oceans Project is a community who are inspired by Mark Patterson’s Surfing Madonna mosaic which started as an illegal public art project, and was almost torn down but was saved by a local community.

Cathy Carey, a local San Diego artist and the President and Executive Director of the Surfing Madonna Project tells a full story of how this mosaic and an organization came to be in this episode of our art podcast.

As an artist advisor and representative, Erin places a strong emphasis on helping artists not only with career support and business development but also in discovering their authentic artistic practice and enhancing the quality of their work. Her candid approach has empowered numerous artists to discover better ideas, refine their practices, and achieve remarkable success in their artistic journeys.

Jane Bellante is an expert at helping people let go of negative thought patterns to create the art and personal brands they have always wanted with joy, confidence, and ease. She has been a mixed media artist for 30 years, is an International Best Selling Author, a 3 time published artist, and has a Masters Degree in Adult Education. She is a founder of the 5 Day Letting Go Workshop, the Creating Confidently (ArtFusion) course, IGNITE mastermind leader, and is a married mother of 2 kids and 2 pets.

Kyrstin and Bryce Nihill are a creative couple with an extensive background in advertisement and graphic design. After moving to California from New York, they both reconnected with their art practice and created a conjoint show called Form & Flow.

Colorado-based textile artist from Bree Angela shares the story about her journey to becoming a creator of magical world interractive museum installations for children.

"My overall goal in all that I do is to help spark a sense of wonder and play in exploring imagination and the world around us" - Bree Angela.

Bloom exhibit is opening at the Children's Museum of Denver October 11th, 2023

Jay Bell is a businessman, artist, printmaker, a founder of Campana Studios art non-profit, and a newly appointed Commissioner for Arts and Culture in San Diego County. This man is a whole orchestra of different roles and he is successful in every one of them. I love bringing guests like this on the show because we can learn so much from them!

Jay's biggest goal is to create as many economic opportunities for local artists as possible and change the narrative of making artists volunteer their time and talent because their work should be valued and compensated! It's a huge undertaking, and as a San Diego artist myself, I am the most curious to follow Jay's journey.

Jump on this episode to learn more about Jay's vision for the local Arts and Culture and how he applies his philosophy to his own non-profit work.

This episode is different because my guest has very little to do with art besides opening his company's office for local artists as an alternative space for art shows and workshops. This unique choice is the result of changing work style after the pandemic. What else would you do with your underutilized facilities when 2/3 of the time you and your team work remotely? You might as well help out a local art community. Johnathan Hanwit, CEO of THINK Parallax did exactly that.

Photographer from Australia Tania Malkin spends most of what she makes at her day job to hire a plane and travel to inhabitable places only to take pictures from thousands of miles above the earth. And if you think that this is too much, I've got a surprise for you - this is only a tiny part of what goes into making this kind of photography! Listen to Tania explain her entire process in this episode!

Corinne Whitaker, aka the Digital Giraffe, has been acclaimed for 45 years as a pioneering artist in digital imaging and digital sculpture. Her journey as a woman artist exploring completely new media for that time is fascinating! Join us for a full conversation and learn more about Corinne, the Digital Giraffe, and more!

In this episode, I'm chatting with Morgan Hancock, a US Army veteran, mother of two, and founder of a unique art non-profit in Kentucky. Morgan decided to bond two things Kentuckians love - bourbon and art and created a truly fun and purposeful community-based organization that is shaping the arts and culture scene in the state. And the best thing is that Morgan is trying to make this model scalable so every state can have its own version of Bourbon With Heart!

In this episode, I'm venturing away from traditional visual media. My guest Susan Hensel has found a way to use industrial embroidery machines with their complicated software to create some amazing works of art! We are geeking on the details of her process because I actually have some experience with such machines as well. She is telling the story of her entire journey from being a traditional artist to discovering and developing her current art practice. We are also talking a bit about running an art studio and a gallery, getting grants, and other interesting things.

Join us!

My today's guest Sylvia Becker-Hill is a successful executive coach by trade and an artist by heart. After years of coaching, she realized that creativity is a missing component in helping her clients with their transformation. She successfully incorporated intentional creativity into her coaching practice. What it looks like? Listen to my conversation with Sylvia to learn more.

Fine art photographer Kristina Varaksina has traveled from Russia to California, to New York, and then to London to create an environment and opportunities for pursuing her creative career. Kristina's work is internationally recognized and awarded by professional art and photography organizations. In her portraiture, Kristina is telling vulnerable stories about the personal struggles of her subjects, social injustice, and lack of communication about various issues of our times.

Multimedia artist and former therapist Ingrid Hoffmeister on how the Jungian concept of dreams and active imagination changed the way she creates and took her art to a new level.

Watercolor artist, photographer, and grassroots activist Jena Olson found her passion in non-profit operations and is working hard on making the world a better place one artist at a time. She started as a teaching artist at AjA Project and now is a Director of Operations at WIA (Women in Animation), an organization that helps women-identified folks find jobs in the Animation industry.

Listen to the full episode and learn more!

My guest, an educator, and youth advocate Dr. Michael Bitz is a founder of a Comic Book Project, a literacy and creativity initiative that has engaged young people in planning, writing, designing, and publishing original comic books since 2001! Comic Book Project is one of those rare gems that are not shining on social media but have spread their influence all over the country and abroad and inspired hundreds if not thousands of kids to explore their creativity.

I am a huge fan of Sarah Stieber's colorful art, her vibrant personality, positive attitude, and strong confidence in all the great things. She works hard to make her way as an artist, although it may look on the outside like things are just happening in the best possible way. I'm honored to live in the same town with Sarah! And I really appreciate her time to tell her story and how much it takes to live a truly authentic, integrated art life.

Soon after this episode is out, Sarah is opening a pop-up gallery in the heart of San Diego. So, if you are local or planning to visit at the end of April - May, 2023 I highly encourage you to check out her event page

Keeley Miller is a San Diego based photographer specializing in boudoir portraits for women.

Her studio combines contemporary black and white boudoir photography with an empowering experience that will change the way you see yourself. Her mission as a photographer is more than just photography — it’s about creating an entire self love experience that shows her clients as the works of art that they are, at all ages, all shapes, and all sizes.

Japanese calligraphy artist Rie Takeda who mainly resides in Europe is telling a story of her discovery of the traditional art of Shodo (Japanese calligraphy) when she was just a child and how it transformed her life. Rie is so beautifully describing her relationships with her art, and the way she is bringing it to the new century.

A photographer from California Allison Davis took a leap of faith and traveled the entire Pacific coast by herself in 30 days while documenting everything along the way. She turned her adventure into a stunning art book called "Revealed at the edge". These days, Allison is planning a trip along the East Coast and many other brave things she wants to do as an artist. 

Australian-born multimedia artist Cybele Rowe lives on two and a half acres in Joshua Tree where she feels unconstrained to oursue whatever art ideas she wants. In her words, it's better to invest 100% of your time to strive to make good art than be spending 50% of your time making money for someone else. 

Her abstract work includes scuplture, painting, tufting and many other mediums. She is inspired by the scientific discoveries, litrature on psycology and phisics.