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Sonoma Magazine | The Press Democrat
February 2024
‘Velvet Bandit,’ Young Women Artists Rock New Show in Santa Rosa’s Art District
Seven emerging women artists will showcase their work at the upcoming The Newcomers art show: Annabelle Anderson, Charlie Bird, Jaclyn Finkle, Amelia Ketzer-Dean, Katey Marin, Keviette Minor and Alina Nuebel, along with special guest, the Velvet Bandit. (Courtesy of Jaclyn Finkle)
Popular street artist the Velvet Bandit will join seven emerging women artists at a superhero-themed show that promises to be fun, thought-provoking and inspiring. Don’t miss the opening this Friday.
No matter how social you are as an artist, the act of painting (or sculpting or drawing) is usually a solitary pursuit.
“If you’re an artist really trying to make it happen, you spend a lot of time alone,” says painter and teacher Mary Vaughan. “And that’s really hard when you’re young.”
Like an open mic for singer-songwriters or a pop-up dinner for nomadic chefs, up-and-coming artists often need a gallery show to break out of the studio and build confidence, finally bringing the work into the light for everyone to see.
“That’s why we created the Newcomers Art Project,” says Nick Mancillas, artist and longtime high school art teacher, who is co-curating the show with Vaughan. “It’s a way for the artists to build relationships with each other and with people who appreciate art, and also a way to shine a light on this community.”
Seven emerging artists
This Friday, seven emerging artists between the ages of 22 and 37 will debut new works at Backstreet Studios and Gallery in Santa Rosa’s SOFA art district. The youngest, Annabelle Anderson, explores everyday recycled objects. One of her pieces will hang from a clothesline. A veteran of the Art Start youth public art program where Vaughan once taught, Katey Marin is experimenting with the motif of vintage 1960s album covers. A former student of Mancillas, Amelia Ketzer-Dean’s paintings often blend water imagery to explore feminine identity in a clean, graphic style.
Keviette Minor will unveil her “Beloved” series based on faith in a higher power, and the idea of treasuring people for who they are. A children’s theater artist, Charlie Bird created 30 miniature 4-by-6-inch compositions based on animals. Jaclyn Finkle is diverging from abstract painting for the first time to create portraits of young women. And Alina Nuebel is a former ecology major who paints mesmerizing nature scenes, filled with mushrooms, bees and bird nests.
“You can’t do it in a vacuum,” says Nuebel, who was also enrolled in Art Start and shares studio space with Mancillas. “What I’m learning is that it’s not just about the personal exposure you get from the show, but what’s come out of it that’s really valuable to me is getting to connect with other artists.”
Just the other night, Nuebel invited the other artists over to their studio for a feedback session where each artist presented their work and traded ideas.
Keviette Minor will unveil her “Beloved” series based on faith in a higher power, and the idea of treasuring people for who they are. A children’s theater artist, Charlie Bird created 30 miniature 4-by-6-inch compositions based on animals. Jaclyn Finkle is diverging from abstract painting for the first time to create portraits of young women. And Alina Nuebel is a former ecology major who paints mesmerizing nature scenes, filled with mushrooms, bees and bird nests.
“You can’t do it in a vacuum,” says Nuebel, who was also enrolled in Art Start and shares studio space with Mancillas. “What I’m learning is that it’s not just about the personal exposure you get from the show, but what’s come out of it that’s really valuable to me is getting to connect with other artists.”
Just the other night, Nuebel invited the other artists over to their studio for a feedback session where each artist presented their work and traded ideas.
A secret guest
There’s also an added element of surprise to the show. Enter the Velvet Bandit. A lunch lady turned popular street artist, who pastes vibrant, ponderous art on walls and utility poles all over Sonoma County, she inspired the show’s theme.
“We told each artist they had to create a vignette with words that includes an unknown comic book hero or superhero,” Vaughan says. “Each one is doing it in their own special way.”
Vaughan was inspired by several pieces the Velvet Bandit pasted in the Art Alley next to Backstreet Gallery – one was a Band-Aid that reads “Art Heals,” and another piece riffs on the all-too-predictable “Thoughts and Prayers” response to mass shootings.
Honored to be a part of the show, the Velvet Bandit says, “I hope it gives them confidence to get out there and show more work. It’s all about sharing your work with others and getting that feedback and getting pumped up to do more and hopefully selling some stuff, too.”
She’ll show up opening night in her usual disguise – a pink wig and dark sunglasses, a tongue-in-cheek ensemble that acknowledges street art is technically illegal, however ridiculous that may seem. By now it’s become a part of her mystique, not unlike a comic book character or superhero.
Wheat-pasting street art in small towns and big cities, from Willits to Los Angeles, she jokes, “I was supposed to be the surprise guest artist, but I guess now the cat’s out of the bag.”
Bringing life to Art Alley
A few weeks after opening night, the Newcomers comic book vignettes will bust out of the gallery and find new life as outdoor art on the walls of the adjacent Art Alley, a once popular street art installation given its name two decades ago by revered SOFA artist Mario Uribe.
“Unfortunately, there’s no art in the alley anymore,” Vaughan says. “So we wanted to bring it to life again.”
At 63, she looks forward to the day when this latest generation will fully find their own unique styles and maybe pass on what they’ve learned, and maybe even become caretakers of Art Alley. If there’s one thing she hopes they all pass on, it’s this:
“It’s not about sales or how much money you make or even if you’re known. What I really wish I could have known back when I was their age, is how much people want meaning and how beautiful it is to form relationships through the message of your art.”