Spring 2024 Space Grants Recipients
Olympia Artspace Alliance (OAA) announced the second round of space-related grants for local artists in Thurston County in the spring of 2024. As a dedicated advocate for artists, OAA recognizes the importance of providing support for artists' space-related needs and is committed to fostering a thriving creative community.
To assist artists in covering essential costs associated with their spaces, OAA awarded ten (10) Space Grants, each valued at $500. These grants are designed to alleviate financial burdens by helping artists with expenses such as rent (living/studio), rehearsal space, storage, space repairs, utilities, ADA accommodations, and more.
OAA believes in the transformative power of art and recognizes that providing artists with the necessary resources and support for their spaces is crucial for their creative growth and success. By offering these grants, OAA aims to empower artists in Thurston County to thrive and continue contributing to the vibrant arts scene in our community.
Below, we’re putting a spotlight on the ten Space Grant recipients.
FERN TALLOS
Artist Statement/Biography/Resume:
I am an artist and craftsperson living in Olympia, Washington. I paint large scale murals and on canvas, as well as working with plant dyes and textiles. I have been painting on canvas for most of my life, and have been doing murals professionally for over two years. My creative work is tied to ancestral connection through craft, painting, and work with plants. With a background in herbalism, gardening, and farming I draw significant inspiration from the natural world and plants are a common subject among my work. Creativity is a lifeway for me, and it is my biggest achievement to create meaningful work as an artist and to be supported in this.
LEAH CIPOLLA
Artist Statement/Biography/Resume:
As a multidisciplinary artist, my current focus is on creating modernist figure sculptures that integrate elements of neoclassicism to explore and express the representation of queer and transgender bodies. Through the study of the human form, I employ light, lines, shadow, form and color to convey the complex stories of unseen bodies. My medium of choice includes ceramic, polymer, oil and wax-based clays.
Weaving together historical queer diasporas, the portrayal of queerness in social media, and the broader queer culture and personas that emerge through discourse of social media influencers and mainstream media, I find inspiration. Visually, my work is influenced by lesbian and gay pulp, the iconic works of Tom of Finland, and a spectrum of sculpture from the Paleolithic era to classical Greek and Roman art, to the abstractions of modernism. The natural world, the climate, and the four seasons also play a pivotal role in shaping my artistic vision.
In a society dominated by disembodied connection and constant technological disruptions, my sculptures aim to address the fundamental human need for connection – both to each other and to the planet. In a culture which has historically erased queer representation and narrative from traditional media, my work seeks to share the stories of bodies that have been marginalized and rendered invisible. I challenge the dominant global narratives of white supremacist, patriarchal, heteronormative, colonial imperialism, by representing these often unseen bodies.
Through the use of form, line and light, I invite viewers to question what they see, engaging with the ambiguity of anatomy to evoke deeper contemplations. These works stand as invitations to witness, understand and connect with the diverse spectrum of human experience.
SYDNEY BLANCHARD
Artist Statement/Biography/Resume:
I am a choreographer and creative director of Moving Parts Dance. Moving Parts is a community centered on accessible dance education, as well as a company of performing artists who meet each week to rehearse original performance works. These contemporary dance works explore various outlets of the human experience and the richness/spiritual necessity of the living arts. I stage both live shows as well as film projects. This work lends itself well to an attitude of both collaboration and improvisation; it is an exciting process to see choreographic composition translated through a living medium (the dancers!). Our most recent performance "Mirrors Abound" was an abstract exploration of the echo chamber of self in a crowded world-- "I am every where I look, yet I cannot see me clearly". Our next work, 'CODE' offers questions unanswered regarding connection and co-dependence in the digital era. With about 25 years of professional dance training and experience, I am bringing a convergence of dance genres and cross disciplinary studies into my work on this company.
GISELLE GARCIA
Artist Statement/Biography/Resume:
I am an Olympia-based multidisciplinary working artist, coach, and performer who has been living and working in the PNW for almost 20 years. I work primarily in movement and music, including circus arts, dance, roller skating, live electronic music, composition, sound design, and photo / video, performing primarily in the PNW, but also touring, recording, and creating videos. I am also a movement coach of 7+ years and a local producer. As a movement artist, my strengths are fluidity and playfulness on the base of a strong technical and strength background, and as a performer, I bring a strong presence and embodied emotionality. My musical work tends to weave experimental and pop motifs together, and my background as a classically-trained pianist can be seen in the compositions of my work; I also often live-layer vocal harmonies, arpeggios, and synth textures. I love living and working in the PNW and a huge part of my personal practice is being a part of the circus, skate, punk, and electronic communities in the Olympia/Seattle/Bellingham area.
LINDSEY WARNER
Artist Statement/Biography/Resume:
I have been an artist all my life. I grew up in rural eastern Washington and moved to Olympia, WA to attend The Evergreen State College in 2014. In school I studied fine art and business and towards the end of my time there I fell in love with ceramics. After graduating in 2018, I got a job working as a production potter in Olympia and have been working as a potter ever since.
During this time I have continued to dabble with clay outside of work and I have focused heavily on the creation of functional pottery, mostly kitchenware. Eventually my work solidified into the small ceramics business I now run, Oly Pots.
I have completed one artist residency through Arbutus Folk school and plan to continue seeking art opportunities within our own community and abroad. My goal for the next several years is to participate in larger community art projects and establish a concise line of pottery for my business that is both beautiful and functional.
EMILIANO ESCAMILLA
Artist Statement/Biography/Resume:
Hola! My name is Emiliano Marcos Escamilla. I'm applying for the 2024 Olympia Artspace Grant on behalf of my band. We're an all Mexican-American/Chicano band raised right here in Olympia Washington. My bandmates were both born in Mexico and I was born here, but we met on the Eastside as kids in the ECEAP/Headstart program. We write and produce traditional Latin-American music so this is not only a positive project for us, but a form of cultural preservation. We are students, Queer, immigrants - and at this time our project is fully independent (grass-roots if you will).
KELLY WATSON
Artist Statement/Biography/Resume:
Kelly's work is about color, nature and the spaces we inhabit. From deep, saturated hues, to bright, playful palettes, she is a master at using color to manipulate perception of scale and space. An observer of the pattern and processes of nature and how it connects us to one another and those who came before us.
Her work is a meditation on trauma through the lens of modern motherhood and femininity: how we carry and reflect our personal and collective trauma on the world around us and further, how that is a reflection of the natural process of growth and decay. Textiles, fibers, and wood, woven or sewn together, bring nature into human spaces and soften the divide between our urban existence and nature just outside our doors.
RENE WESTBROOK
Artist Statement/Biography/Resume:
This submission of two portraits of James Baldwin in honor of his 100 year centennial, 1924-2024. Jimmy became an important friend to me, teaching about how and why artists are the oracle and advocate for change. My life as an artist has been steeped in the acid rain of racism and activism. As a black woman of 74, I learned early on that my visual intelligence had to be used to confront the beauty and the beast of ordinary life. To that end, my artwork is gleaned from the social constructs of war and peace, justice and truth, then molded around the precepts of artistic beatifications. I love exploiting the range of color, design and the conflagrations of chaos to create a dynamic tableaux for the viewer. My frequent artistic narratives seek to puncture the silence of complacency with white hot imagery painted in stark relief on any surface that will get the job done.
I have worked professionally as a painter, photographer, and multimedia artist for 50 years. I am an award-winning recipient in painting, sculpture, and photography. My artwork has been exhibited on both coasts and my eclectic use of various techniques has created a diverse portfolio that lends itself to a variety of creative innovations over my long years of finding any avenue to express myself.
KATIE HARMON
Artist Statement/Biography/Resume:
Katie Harmon Artist Statement: I love capturing movement & grace - a moment in time just before it becomes something new. It’s a challenge to interpret form & texture into the stark contrasts of black & white, then reimagine it into the brilliant hues of watercolor.
Katie Harmon Bio: Due to her dyslexia Katie looks at her work in new and wonderful ways. Through this view she tackles themes of personal growth, finding beauty in challenging times, as well as often creates whimsical moments with magical creatures.
Although she loves to dabble in new mediums, her favorite mediums to work with are watercolor and ink. You can see that combination on many of her illustrations. Her work has been featured in Gallery Boom, Splash Gallery, Olyphant, as well as published in Beautiful Bizarre Magazine and awarded both a Olympia traffic box wrap and Love Oly Poster. Most recently she has opened a studio with the Boom Studios project.
KAVEH JAVAHERI
Artist Statement/Biography/Resume:
I am a tattoo apprentice at Electric Rose Tattoo, Olympia’s first and oldest tattoo shop. Full of history, talent, and reputation, it is a very sought after and privileged career path that I have worked extremely hard to have been granted.
Please tell us why you are applying for this grant and how you would use this funding:
My apprenticeship is largely unpaid, so on top of my full time commitment to the shop, I work full time in the food and bar industry, often pulling extra shifts to keep up with life’s unforgiving expenses. My personal life outside of tattooing has fallen on some hard luck and sacrifice. This grant would help me afford artist materials & tools as well as actualize my ‘studio space’ (a dedicated part of my small apartment where I spend my very few hours not at a job painting and studying the art of tattooing) I also love incorporating my affinity of tattoo art into other ventures, making miniatures and painting/ drawing separate from tattoo specific subject matter. Some of the funds would also be allocated towards day trips to visit and speak with other people in the industry who would foster my mentorship.