The Urban Art Shop is all about fostering the amazing artists that we are lucky to work with. And two of our resident artists, Aimee Baca and T. Jay Santa Ana, have been in back to back shows this Fall. Both at the Deja Brew Lounge and at the La Bodega Gallery.

Sapphire: Solo art exhibition by Aimee Baca - September 21

This was Aimee's first solo show with this body of work. From the artist about the show: “I used to take eucalyptus branches and bend them into a circle and I would weave the web and put feathers underneath it,” Baca said. “I had so many dreamcatchers you couldn’t see my ceiling in my dorm room, so I put them all in a suitcase by downtown Santa Cruz and I sat on the sidewalk.

“From that experience, I learned that you are in control of the wealth that you want,” she continued. “Dreaming is the first step. Having a dream, and then setting that intention turns into action and action turns into results.

"Sapphire: An interactive art exhibition - Exploring the rhythm of truth."

Jetsam, Flotsam: A solo exhibition by T Jay Santa Ana - October 19

From the artist about the show: "The work I create is always the culmination of who I was, who I am, and where I’ve been. These moments are visual representations of time and space overlapping above the trajectory of my life, entwined with the lives of my family and our movements from one continent to another.

"In fact, I see most lives as lines. I see them in the movement of my family history, the shapes of the stories my ninang tells, and in the path that intersects with strangers on the bus, interweaving, interconnecting, with vast spaces converging to reveal the unknown.

"The intention I hold for my work is to carry on the forward motion of these lines that began long before my brushes ever touched a canvas."