Artspeak Radio with Vania Soto, José Faus, & Chico Sierra

Artspeak Radio, Wednesday, May 22, 2024, 9am -10am CST, 90.1fm KKFI Kansas City Community Radio, streaming live audio www.kkfi.org

Producer/host Maria Vasquez Boyd welcomes artists Vania Soto, José Faus, and Chico Sierra.

VANIA SOTO, Kansas City Artist/Muralist/Art Instructor – Vania Soto was born in Juarez, Mexico and began selling paintings at age 13. Vania describes her style as realism with a pop of surrealism.She was named Best Local Artist in 2021 by Pitch Magazine.

“Mis raíces is a tribute to my past, present, and future. The lady in the painting represents me. Her braid serves as a connection to my roots, linking me to my ancestors who played a crucial role in shaping who I am today. My matriarchal lineage traces back to Durango, Mexico, where all my ancestors were born except for my mother. By representing my family five generations back, I honor the women who have made me who I am today.”

JOSE FAUS is a visual artist, performer, writer, independent teacher/mentor with an interest in the role of artists as creative catalysts for community building. He is a founder of the Latino Writers Collective and sits on the boards of The Latino Writers Collective, The Full Frame Initiative, UMKC Board of Governors Alumni Assn, and Charlotte Street Foundation. His chapbook This Town Like That was released by Spartan Press. His book The Life and Times of Jose Calderon was published by West 39 Press.

“I was exposed to dance at an early age as my mother was a practicing dancer and teacher. I have always been intrigued by the idea of movement within the confines of the space. Figures and gestures are composed of a series of forms reminiscent of shells or other organic forms, undulating across the surface seemingly entwined but separated by a thin line. They are in a constant state of motion, about to escape the limits of the surface.”

CHICO SIERRA, Originally from El Paso Texas, visual artist Chico Sierra now resides in the midwest. Having relocated from his familial homeland, Chico attempts to connect the dots of his cultural history and create new stories based around humanism, class structures and social justice. Influenced by his interests in varying social sciences and spiritual iconography he is attempting to create new narratives using symbolism that has been previously clouded by colonialism and more recently appropriated by euro-centric new age spiritualism.

“Mama gave me soul, not that fairy tale soul but SOUL. The kinda SOUL that cracks your DNA wide open, takes out all that conquest all that greed.
My mama’s magic, your mama’s magic not that bedtime story magic live to live kinda magic.
Beans and rice magic, tortilla MAGIC. In my DNA is color magic, light, darkness, nature. I’m free. Free from belief in anything but us. Us, like you and me.


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