Hey! Don’t Eat My Art!

Why My Husband and I Turned Our Living Room Into the Museum of Donuts

I’m used to the reaction now: a snicker, a raised eyebrow, and a pause, as they wait for the punch line. My husband, Jan, and I couldn’t possibly run something called the Museum of Donuts in Ontario, California, could we?

In fact, we could and we do. We turn donuts into art and hang them from the walls on the downstairs floor of our apartment, which doubles as an “open studio.” We also let the public in to see the donuts as part of the Ontario Art Walk.

Why do we do …

How Our Church Music Became Merengue, Gospel, and Spanish-Christian Pop

Tastes and People Changed at My Church In Modesto. I Learned To Change With Them.

My path to becoming a choir director and Christian recording artist began with a move from Guatemala to Modesto, California. It was 1992, I was 9 years old, and my …

Can Art Save My City?

Downtown Merced Isn’t Known for Anything Good. I Founded an Art Hop to Start Changing That.

Merced in California’s San Joaquin Valley has a population of 80,000 and a reputation for crime, unemployment, and teen pregnancy. But I want my hometown to be known for something …

How Modesto Revived My Acting Career

I Was 14 When Stage Fright During a New York Audition Foiled My Plans For the Future. A Thriving Arts Scene In California’s Central Valley Came To My Rescue.

As a child, I was always singing. I’d walk up and down my street in New Rochelle, New York, singing the crooner songs I heard at home: Tom Jones, Engelbert …

Playing My Country Song in a Cineplex

How Life, Career, and Injury Led Me to Songwriting, and Gigs in Unusual Inland Empire Spaces

Have you been to the movies in Corona? If so, you may have heard me—performing not on the screen, but in the lobby of the Dos Lagos Stadium 15.

The crowds …

I’d Like Pepperoni and Poetry on That

How a Community College Student Started a Poetry Slam at a Visalia Pizzeria

If you want to hear poetry on a Friday night in the San Joaquin Valley, stop by Howie & Son’s Pizza Parlor in Visalia.

You’ll find us in the back room, …