Artspeak Radio with Jennifer Bricker-Pugh, Marísa Grady, Mauricio Zuñiga, and Theo Cry

Artspeak Radio, Wednesday, November 23, 2022, noon – 1pm CST, 90.1fm KKFI Kansas City Community Radio, streaming live audio www.kkfi.org

Producer/host Maria Vasquez Boyd welcomes painter Jennifer Bricker-PUgh, writer/filmmaker Marísa Grady, artist Mauricio Zuniga, and singer/songwriter Theo Cry.

JENNIFER BRICKER-PUGHis an Abstract Expressionist painter known for her vibrant and ethereal work. With the use of bright, bold color, line work and references to nature, she paints pieces that allow her to share stories largely inspired by her surroundings. Her work embodies a playful yet thought provoking quality that makes the viewer want to know and see more. She finds it important to create work that allows the audience to explore each piece and create their own narrative and story based on her imagery.
Bricker-Pugh about this body of work: “When color and line meet, the story begins.
Marigold is a collection of short stories that connect my intuitive gestural movements with the rhythm of the natural world and the melodic charm of music.
The warm and playful color palette creates a synergy of soft and vibrant hues that is intended to delight the eyes of the viewer and allow them to escape into a brilliant glow that is Marigold.”

Cerbera Gallery
2011 Baltimore Ave, Kansas City, MO, United States, 64108
www.cerberagallery.com

MARÍSA GRADY- Local production house, Colibrósa Productions, spotlights mental health through stories, Latina small business owner uses poetry and film to work against mental health taboos
Colibrósa Productions, LLC, a narrative production company, tells Vivid Stories, Beyond Boundaries. With two poetry books released and a short film in post-production, the company is thriving in the vibrant arts scene of Kansas City.

Marísa Adame Grady founded the company in Chicago in 2019, and now has a branch in her hometown of Dallas as well as KCMO. She believes that stories have the power to change perception, and therefore to change the world. Her writing themes humanize challenges such as mood disorders, su*cide, and substance abuse, and cultural dissonance.

Current endeavors:
● reconquista – released 2020, explores heritage through a mestiza lens. Asks: how can
colonized and colonizer blood coexist?
● girl becomes collateral – 2022, details loving someone living with substance abuse addiction. Discusses how loving someone with an addiction can become an addiction itself.
○ Flash Sale on both poetry books for Small Business Saturday (November 26).
● Upcoming FREE Poetry Reading (reconquista and girl becomes collateral) at Café Corazón
Crossroads on December 5, 3-5 PM. Q&A after reading, books available for sale & signing.
● In post-production of her first original short film, Penance. The film dives into grief and
forgiveness after a loved one dies by su*cide. Aiming for a festival run in 2023, with a future community showing and discussion.
● Charlotte Street Writing Studio Residency – editing 3rd & 4th poetry books (on college
experience & queerness, respectively). Writing a musical about needing support to navigate a mood disorder.

A KC transplant from Dallas, Texas, Marísa Adame Grady lives to tell stories. A firm believer that story determines its medium, Marísa houses her original projects within her small business, Colibrósa Productions. She contracts with Stellar Image Studios & is a Charlotte Street Writing Studio Resident for 2022-2024.
Social media: @ColibrosaProductions (@ColibrosaProd on Twitter)
Website: www.colibrosaproductions.com

Upcoming Events: Poetry Reading (reconquista and girl becomes collateral) at Café Corazón
Crossroads on December 5 from 3-5 PM. Poetry reading, Q&A, signing during the event.
PENANCE film festival run.

MAURICIO ZUÑIGA, born in Jalisco, moved to Chicago at the age of 13. “Mo” is a mixture of dreams and Mexican charm. Creative from an early age and with a great eye for the distinct and the beautiful, Zúñiga began to curate galleries in different parts of the United States. Due to his own life story, in his paintings he resorts to materials intentionally indicative of building construction, such as the plaster on the walls, the varnish, and the acrylics, which impregnate his pieces with a subjective symbolism and a forceful aesthetic.

Most of his paintings, which have received international acclaim, are richly textured and embossed. In fact, Mo invites people not only to visually experience his paintings, but also (however counterintuitive) to touch them thus creating an artistic experience simultaneously visual and tactile.

For 15 years, Zúñiga has participated as a volunteer in the Kansas City Arts Council organization, and has curated exhibitions at the “Fiesta Kansas City” event of the town’s Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. In 2015 he received the ArtsKC Virtuoso award, and in 2021 he received recognition of the Government of Mexico as an outstanding artist during the Second Conference of Artists Abroad, organized by the Mexican Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Exhibitions are currently held at the Mexican consulates in Tucson, Az and in December in Atlanta.

Website: www.mozuniga.com
Instagram: @mozuniga_art
Facebook: Mozuniga.art

THEO CRY I started writing music to deal with the struggles of my childhood, the government, my gender identity, and general anxieties I experience. My cats and my partner encourage me to keep doing what I love every day. My album is With Time by Theo Cry and can be found on any music streaming platform; instagram, facebook, and tiktok are @theocryofficial

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