Participating Artists

Andrew J. O'Keefe II is a place-based media producer and public historian in Santa Cruz, California. Through film, photography, livestreaming, and archival preservation, he works from the premise that each of us is a culture bearer, and the roles we hold in our families and communities carry real power to shape what comes next in our collective experiences. His current work sits at the intersection of past and future, personal and civic memory, collective storytelling, and cultural erasure. Working alongside institutions, historians, artists, and neighbors, he connects stories across generations and traces how the past remains active in the present.

His projects have explored historic preservation, environmental conservation, cross-cultural exchange, and the communities people build for themselves, intentionally or otherwise. Local collaborators have included the Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History, Santa Cruz METRO, UC Santa Cruz's Seymour Marine Discovery Center and Institute of the Arts and Sciences, Friends of Santa Cruz State Parks, the Santa Cruz County Chamber of Commerce, New Leaf Community Markets, artist Christian Rex van Minnen, and the late mathematician Ralph Abraham. Andrew founded Amotion.video in 2018 and runs the studio from the historic Old Wrigley Building on Santa Cruz's Far Westside. Much of his work begins in archives, with audiovisual material whose significance has outlasted the moment in which it was recorded. His goal is twofold: preserving what matters and widening whose stories get kept.

Asha Tobing is a Santa Cruz-based fiber and upcycled wearable artist and the creator of liljax, one-of-a-kind clothing and adornment wearable art, rooted in transformation, resourcefulness, and connection. For the past 16 years, Asha has worked intuitively with salvaged, vintage, handwoven, and existing textiles, creating wearable pieces that honor the character, history, and possibility held within each material. Her creative process is tactile and material-led, allowing texture, movement, color, and form to guide each piece as it emerges. Influenced by textile traditions, cultural handwork, and time spent living in Southeast Asia, Asha sees clothing and adornment as more than objects to wear—they can carry memory, identity, story, and connection between maker, wearer, and material.

Her practice began with a sewing machine gifted by her mother while she was pregnant with her first son, when she transformed an old T-shirt into a pair of baby pants. What began as a personal act of making, grew into liljax and a lifelong exploration of textile transformation. Over the years, the practice has expanded my understanding of textile waste and sustainability, shaping not only what I make, but how I see materials, consumption, and the possibilities within what already exists. Asha is also a teaching artist with the Santa Cruz County Arts Council, sharing sewing, upcycling, and creative reuse with young people throughout the community. At the heart of her work is a simple invitation: to look differently at what already exists.

Camilla Hawthorne (they/she) is a writer, researcher, educator, and multidisciplinary artist. They are Associate Professor of Sociology at UC Santa Cruz, founder and co-facilitator of the UCSC Black Geographies Lab, and program director of the Black Europe Summer School in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Camilla is the author of Contesting Race and Citizenship: Youth Politics in the Black Mediterranean (Cornell University Press, 2022) and co-editor of The Black Mediterranean: Bodies, Borders, and Citizenship (Palgrave Macmillan, 2021), The Black Geographic: Praxis, Resistance, Futurity (Duke University Press, 2023), and Heartbreak and Other Geographies: Collected Works of Katherine McKittrick (University of Minnesota Press, 2026). Her research has been supported by the Mellon Foundation, the Stanford Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, the Ragusa Foundation, the Hellman Foundation, the UC Humanities Research Institute, the Ford Foundation, the Leonardo Da Vinci Society, and the Italian Scientists and Scholars in North American Foundation. Camilla is also a classically trained pianist who performs on accordion and aerial hoop...and sometimes both, at the same time! As a performer, Camilla is interested in bridging their practice as a circus artist and musician with their academic work on radical Black diasporic cultural politics—for instance, by conducting extensive research on the life of actor-singer-dancer-activist Eartha Kitt and recounting her story through burlesque and aerial dance; translating James Baldwin’s writings in The Fire Next Time into an aerial piece about revolutionary love; and exploring musical genealogies of antifascism through an experimental performance blending aerial hoop, Italian accordion music, and 1990s British anarchist punk rock. She has performed at venues such as San Francisco Circus Center, The Great Star, Motion Pacific, the Santa Cruz Museum of Art and History, the 418 Project, Santa Cruz Dancing in the Streets, Moe's Alley, and the Felton Music Hall, with companies including Circus of the Moon and Central Coast Circus. Camilla is also collaborating with Ben Leeds Carson, Perre Di Carlo, and Michael Chemers on a Star Trek opera, and with Christina Zanfagna, John Gennari, and Michael Whalen on a feature-length documentary film entitled BLACKITALIAN.

Dali Zheng 鄭大力 (aka the Chinee from Kentucky) was born and raised in the great state of Kentucky, but now blasphemes that painting and skateboarding are superior to bourbon and basketball. He is the son of a Chinese immigrant (who came over as a college student and Shaolin Grandmaster and later decided to become a movie star) and a working class Southern woman (who aspired to become a Southern Belle and ended up a financial counselor). Currently, Dali lives a beautiful, simple little life right here in Santa Cruz along with his lovely wife Heather (a Jill of all trades and academic genius) and Mishka the Meowzer (world’s greatest cat). Dali LOVES to gaze upon and create all different sorts of art. He subscribes to the old adage “Art makes life better.” Like an orangutan with a Bedazzler working on a new pair of jeans or a squirrel eating an ice cream cone up in a tree, Dali would be thrilled to learn that his art felt…Playful yet provocative. Confusing and mischievous. Wonder-filled with a hearty handful of skepticism. Or perhaps political without being know-it-all, judgy judgy McJudgerson arrogant. Dali has described his own artistic flavor as both Old Skool Heathen Chinee and High Yellow. The highest compliment Dali ever received was that his work was “not safe...took risks.”

Dean Fraser is a multidisciplinary audio-visual artist exploring the intersection of sound, technology and philosophy. Using a combination of classical instruments, field recordings, granular synthesis and Touchdesigner software, Fraser employs a novel approach to each and weaves them together with existential philosophical concepts based on the ideas of some of the greatest contemporary theorists of our time.

Taking full advantage of LIDAR technology and Touchdesigner software, Fraser scans real world natural occurring ecosystems like caves and coastal erosion patterns, and uses them to set the stage for further abstractions based on algorithms found in wildlife like L-systems, wind and gravitational force. Using these as a visual analogy for the philosophical concepts put forth in Federico Faggin's book “Irreducible”, a new Quantum Information-Based Panpsychist theory (QIP) for consciousness, and you have “The Golden Void”. An epic and dynamically novel journey through Faggin's beautiful theory, that the conscious experience resides on a quantum field, and classical matter is projected from that field as symbols to communicate, so that “One can Know Itself.”

Edward is a unique combination of prolific environmental artist, designer, serial entrepreneur, and marketing strategist with nearly 4,000 individual pieces created since 2012. His credits include featured installations at the Santa Cruz Museum of Art and History and 418 Project. He has been featured at the prestigious Palo Alto and River Art Festivals, The Tannery Arts Center as well as numerous Maker’s fairs, and Santa Cruz County art galleries. He also has major permanent works installed in commercial sites across the country, and private collections throughout the United States Canada and Europe. Edward’s work is available exclusively by commission.

Ellice Apostolos (she/her) is the founder and owner of Steel & Grace, Santa Cruz's first dance studio dedicated to pole. A longtime member of the local performing arts community, she holds a degree in Theatre Arts with a concentration in Dance from the University of California, Santa Cruz, and has spent nearly two decades studying, performing, choreographing, directing, and teaching movement throughout the region.

A certified S Factor instructor, Ellice is known for creating deeply transformative movement experiences that blend sensual expression, somatic awareness, and performance. Through her classes, workshops, and coaching, she guides students in developing a more connected, expressive, and confident relationship with their bodies.

As a female business owner and creative leader, Ellice has played a key role in expanding the presence of pole as both an athletic discipline and an expressive art form within the Santa Cruz community. Through Steel & Grace, she has cultivated a welcoming environment where dancers of all backgrounds can build strength, refine technique, and explore movement in a supportive, inclusive community.

Gay Eldest Daughter is a queer banjoist, singer, and producer from Santa Cruz. She creates in a variety of styles all built on a foundation of clawhammer banjo. Her music takes a grand, maximalist approach to bedroom recording and folk musical sounds.

Her debut album, taller than the redwoods, released in March of 2026. The album explores and celebrates plurality, lesbian love, fat liberation, anticapitalism, and the many facets of transfeminine experience.

Genoa Alma Belén is a Santa Cruz–based vocalist, multi-instrumentalist, composer, and live looping artist whose music blends jazz, neo-soul, and experimental sound. Her immersive solo performances weave original compositions with layered voice, live instrumentation, and real-time looping.

Genoa performs and tours with AZA, an internationally recognized ensemble led by Moroccan musician Fattah Abbou. She has studied under saxophonist Leo Potts and performed and collaborated with artists including SoVoSo, Del the Funky Homosapien, SPC-CDT, WaxRoof, Andy Pancakes, and more. She also co-owns and operates Everyone’s Music School in Santa Cruz.

Heejin Lee is a Korean-born artist based in Santa Cruz, California, where she has lived and worked for over two decades. She began drawing at the age of ten and has since developed a lifelong practice rooted in intuition, repetition, and deep observation. After leaving Korea, Lee immersed herself in language, culture, and art studies at the University of California, Santa Cruz and Cabrillo College. A formative experience during a trip to the Philippines shaped her understanding of art as a gift—one that extends beyond personal expression into a shared, human connection.

Lee’s work is deeply influenced by the natural landscape of Santa Cruz, whose convergence of ocean and mountains echoes her hometown of Gangneung, South Korea. This sense of familiarity within distance informs her ongoing exploration of memory, presence, and belonging. Working primarily through drawing, painting and Installation art. Lee creates abstract compositions that respond to what is often unseen: subtle emotional states, fleeting moments, and quiet inner movements. Her process is intuitive and meditative, guided by the interplay of line, color, and gesture. Lee currently lives at the Tannery Art Center and works at the Santa Cruz Art League as a exhibition & program curator also teaches abstract, conceptual mixed media class where her daily practice continues to explore the possibility of freedom, sensitivity, and connection through art.

Jase "Monk" Earl is a Santa Cruz–based DJ, curator, cultural producer, educator, and writer whose understanding of community is rooted in Hip Hop culture and shaped by his upbringing in the immigrant-rich neighborhood of Crown Heights, Brooklyn. As the founder of Afroscope Promotions and founder, curator, and resident DJ of Afrobeats Nite Santa Cruz, he creates public spaces where African and diasporic music become catalysts for connection, cultural exchange, and collective celebration.

With more than two decades of artistic practice, Earl's work spans live performance, community arts programming, youth education, and international cultural exchange. He has taught DJ workshops in Accra, Ghana through the Universal Family Network, produced large-scale cultural events throughout Santa Cruz County, and continues to mentor emerging artists by creating opportunities for collaboration and public performance.

Earl holds an MFA in Creative Writing from the California Institute of Integral Studies. He approaches DJing as a live compositional practice rooted in cultural stewardship, improvisation, and the belief that music can transform public space into a place of belonging.

Kaily Dorfman completed her MFA in poetry at UC Irvine and her PhD in English and literary arts at the University of Denver. She was a Finalist for the 2026 Anthony Hecht Poetry Prize and the 2026 Wandering Aengus Book Award. Her work has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and the Best New Poets anthology, and is published or forthcoming at journals including New England Review, The Iowa Review, and ONE ART.

My name is Miles Michelle (they/them), a queer trans-masc artist from Nevada City, CA and local to Santa Cruz since 2013. I am a lifelong student of art, creating since I was a child and sustaining a drawing practice for more than 20 years. My work has been displayed in various exhibits and businesses throughout the county and I’ve had the privilege of participating in Santa Cruz’s Open Studios art tour.

Making art is the avenue through which I express the visions and sensations of my internal reality informed by C-PTSD and Madness. My creativity has evolved as a means of survival, catharsis, healing, and spirituality. Through my art I strive to find meaning in senselessness, to embrace humor, nature, and the macabre, and to bear witness to that which has been exiled. I seek to challenge the instinct to turn away from what is perceived to be too much, too dark, or too uncomfortable - both personally and collectively. Emotional bravery is at the forefront of my work.

Olivia White is a fourth-year UCSC student double majoring in Western Art Music and Education, Democracy, & Justice, singing coloratura soprano under the instruction of Dr. Emily Sinclair since 2024. She is also a proud laureate of the San Francisco Girls Chorus and Soloist Intensive Program, and 1st place winner of the 2026 Santa Cruz Baroque Festival Youth Singing Competition. Her previous roles with UCSC Opera include the Evil Stepmother in Into the Woods, Barbarina in Le Nozze di Figaro, Papagena in The Magic Flute, and Diana: Goddess of the Hunt, in Orpheus and the Underworld, in addition to her youth roles in SF Opera’s productions of Pagliacci and Turandot. This summer, she has had the amazing opportunity of composing and performing music with the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music‘s Youth Ensemble. She looks forward to conducting the UCSC Chamber Singers in the fall and performing in UCSC’s upcoming shows of L’enfant et les Sortilèges and A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder. Olivia also sings as one of two backup vocalists for a startup band called Weirdy and the Strangels, directed by sound engineer Jeremy Bell, involving electro pop, live looping, and sound manipulation through an invention of his. At home, Olivia loves to draw, paint, and write songs for voice, piano, guitar, violin, and chamber ensembles. She hopes to release an album of her original songs some day and is excited to combine her love of music with her love of teaching in the future.

Wendy Frances is a Santa Cruz-based artist, visual storyteller, and independent content creator whose work explores the intersection of visual art, music, culture, and community. Working from her private studio at the Tannery Arts Center, Wendy develops immersive installations and imagined worlds that invite curiosity, exploration, and connection. Her artistic practice spans installation, illustration, environmental storytelling, and world-building, creating spaces where narrative and visual experience become one. Alongside her studio practice, Wendy documents and amplifies creative communities through video, writing, and digital storytelling. From intimate gallery exhibitions and local restaurants to major music festivals and large-scale productions, Wendy is passionate about capturing the people, places, and moments that shape creative culture.

Within Santa Cruz, Wendy has become a trusted voice in the arts community through her work with organizations including First Friday Santa Cruz, Ripple Effect Arts Festival, Santa Cruz Dance Week, and The Catalyst. As a writer for Santa Cruz Vibes Magazine and First Friday Santa Cruz, she profiles artists, exhibitions, culinary experiences, and cultural events, helping audiences connect more deeply with the creative community around them. She has also served as the host of Santa Cruz's Battle of the Bands for two consecutive years. Professionally, Wendy works in live event production and content creation, contributing to nationally recognized festivals and events including Bottle Rock, Electric Forest and Coachella. Whether documenting a world-class festival, highlighting a local artist, or creating an immersive installation of her own, Wendy approaches every project with the belief that storytelling can inspire curiosity, strengthen communities, and deepen our connection to the creative world.