PechaKucha Night VOL. 14 MULTIPLICITY

Raised in the Northeastern United States, Lauren Dana Smith is a painter, writer, and art therapist who lives in Taos, New Mexico. She creates textural and sculptural paintings that explore the interior spaces and exterior boundaries of physical form, the natural world, and human consciousness. A visual artist and mental health care worker, her recent series brings arts-based perspectives into the dialogue around living, dying, healing, and wellness in this country.

Lauren recently received the SURFACE: Emerging Artist of New Mexico 2021 award from the Harwood Art Center in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and was also awarded the Digital Art Award in the 2021 National Juried CCAN exhibition from the Center for Contemporary Art in Abilene, Texas. She received her M.P.S. in Creative Arts Therapy and Creativity Development from Pratt Institute.

Marcia Butler has had several creative careers: professional musician, interior designer, documentary filmmaker, and author. During her thirty-year musical career, she performed as a principal oboist and soloist on the most renowned of New York and international stages and with many high-profile musicians — including pianist Andre Watts and composer/pianist Keith Jarrett. Her interior design projects have been published in numerous shelter magazines and range up and down the East coast, from Boston to NYC to Miami. The Creative Imperative, her documentary film exploring the essence of creativity, was premiered at The New York Society Library in 2019 and is now available on YouTube. As an author, Marcia’s nationally acclaimed memoir, The Skin Above My Knee, was one of the Washington Post’s “Top ten noteworthy moments in classical music in 2017”. Her novels, Pickle’s Progress and Oslo, Maine, are out in the world living moderately happy lives. She is currently at work on her third novel, Seven Days in the Life of Peppa Ryan. But what she really wants to do is design couture clothing. After four decades in New York City, Marcia now calls Santa Fe home.
Portrait Photography by Robin Martin for Marcia Butler

Artist and philosopher Michael Garfield helps people navigate our age of accelerating weirdness and cultivate the curiosity and play we’ll need to thrive in it. As host and producer of both Future Fossils Podcast & The Santa Fe Institute’s Complexity Podcast, Michael acts as interlocutor for a worldwide community of artists, scientists, philosophers, and industry professionals — a practice fed by and and feeding back into his fifteen years of synthetic and transdisciplinary ”mind-jazz” performances in the form of essay, avant-guitar, live painting, and public speaking. Bearing the standard for a new generation of mystic-scholar-practitioners and refusing to be enslaved by a single perspective, creative medium, or community, Michael walks through the walls between academia, tech, and festival culture — speaking and performing everywhere from Moogfest to Burning Man, SXSW to Boom Festival, the Commonwealth Bank of Australia to Long Now’s Ignite Talks to The Chapel of Sacred Mirrors…all while raising two kids.

Danielle Louise Reddick grew up in Harlem, New York City, and performed in her first play in the third grade. After graduating from the High School of the Performing Arts, she apprenticed at the Academy Theater in Atlanta, Georgia.

Danielle landed in New Mexico after touring as a cast member of the International tour of STOMP. Before STOMP, she worked as an actor, solo performer, and puppeteer in New York City. In 2015, Danielle received her BFA in theater at the Santa Fe University of Art and Design. During her time in Santa Fe, Danielle became a fitness instructor and a hypnotherapist. After training in the Feldenkrais Method and the Nia Technique, Dani taught group fitness at the Santa Fe Community College and other studios in Santa Fe. After ten years of teaching, Danielle has developed an individualized somatic training for actors called SoHyp (pronounced so-hip).

Danielle is also a professional actor on both stage and screen. She is a member of the SAG/AFTRA actors union. She received the Lisa Simon Award for her participation in the Eugene O’Neill Puppetry Conference in the summer of 2019. Recent roles include “Ella Hammer” in The Cradle Will Rock at New Mexico Actor’s Lab, and “Dr. James” in The Effect at The Santa Fe Playhouse. In 2022, Danielle received MFA in Interdisciplinary Arts from Goddard College with a performance creation concentration. She is a long-standing company member of Theater Grottesco, and co-owner of RedQuyn Productions: creating original work and performance salons called The RedQuyn Experience.

Austin transplant Apolo Gomez is a visual artist based out of Albuquerque. His work has been exhibited at the Colorado Photographic Arts Center in Denver; Hamilton & Arronson Galleries, University of the Arts, in Philadelphia; and the National Hispanic Cultural Center Art Museum in Albuquerque. He is represented by Kouri + Corrao Gallery Santa Fe, and is currently working as a Studio Assistant for Judy Chicago and Donald Woodman in Belen.

Pi Luna’s art is about breaking apart limiting belief systems to create new and more empowered ways of thinking. She explores topics such as money, relationships, emotions, spirituality, and sustainability, which humans often get caught up in. By using a mixed media process of cutting up paper, Pi breaks apart the limited belief systems around these topics and reassembles the pieces in a new and more empowering way. Her work is accompanied by a written reflection about the process to inspire a new perspective.

Pi has an MFA from Goddard College in interdisciplinary arts and a BA from Prescott College in Expressive Arts.

Carlos Gemora is an urban planner facilitating creative changes in New Mexican communities. He is focused on land use, affordable housing, socio-economic justice, and education. He works for planning firm Sites Southwest and serves on the board of the Telluride Association and Friends of Architecture Santa Fe. He studied planning at Cornell University and the Evergreen State College, and has previously worked for the City of Santa Fe and in communities in Upstate New York and Washington State.

In 2012 André Kempton started Wild Leaven Bakery, after working for five years as an apprentice under Willem Malten. He enjoys the whole process of making bread, which often involves visiting local farmers and finding out what works and what doesn’t out there in the fields of the high mountain desert climate. The art of bread making often leads him to milling flour himself or buying from a local mill. Then, after hand mixing small batches of sourdough bread and letting it rise for a whole day, he delights in pulling the loaves out of the oven. When he’s not near an oven, André likes cooking, farming, hiking and traveling with his wife Jessica.

Dr. Jessica Foumena Kempton is a communication expert, an educator, a trained journalist, a mentor, and an African feminist scholar. For many years, she wrote stories about women and the African continent on her blog named “Women & Africa.” The blog played a key role in her decision to earn her doctorate degree from Texas Tech University. Her dissertation titled “Raising Her Voice Across Africa: Women’s Empowerment Through Digital Storytelling” is a case study that examines how African women have successfully used an U.S.-based feminist digital platform to improve their lives and the ones of others. She is passionate about positively changing the lives of others through education, research, volunteer work and laughter. Alongside with her husband André, she manages the operations of their family business Wild Leaven Bakery, expands her taste buds, and travels places.

Everett Pelayo is a graphic designer and creative director who has helped shape Dwell Magazine. He created an editorial channel for Herman Miller, and built a brand foundation that fostered growth for Square. He believes in human-centered design as a way to solve business, creative, and strategic problems. His process focuses on collaboration to yield unexpected and impactful results.