Art is at the core of being human. We create as a way to make tools and survive, and we make art as an expression of beauty and love. While some have dismissed art and its significance to society, deeming it “unproductive,” I interviewed local artists and an art collective who are sure to challenge that idea. These creatives use art in vital ways to express, heal, and forge change.
Maria Sylvester Teaches Passion for Art
Maria Sylvester, an art and art history teacher at Del Oro High School, has an artistic teaching philosophy that encourages students to never stop creating, no matter their artwork’s purpose. As a former student of hers, I reached out to her and interviewed her over the phone on April 7th, 2025 to discuss her artistic philosophy.
Sylvester was a graphic designer prior to getting her teaching credentials. Thanks to this experience, she understands that art can be a practical means of communication— but it’s also an act that she loves to do. She said, “I think at some point as I’ve gotten older, painting and art becomes less about someone else saying ‘oh wow, that’s really cool, I wanna buy that,’ to saying…
“The greatest joy I have in my life is when I’m doing art.”
Sylvester came to this realization over time, “When I was younger, I wanted to make it big and end up in galleries, and I have done that and been featured in magazines like Pastel Journal… but ultimately the real reason I paint is because I love to do it.” When I asked her why, she said,
“Being creative… we do it cause we have to. It’s not a ‘have to’ as in it’s a burden, but it’s who we are. It’s as important as breathing.”
Sylvester has a way of pushing students to build passion for art, and pushing those who already are passionate even further. She has encouraged her students on creative paths to explore their options and stay determined in the face of adversity.
When I was a student of hers, I was given detailed feedback on my artwork. She critiqued it in a way that didn’t leave me feeling defeated. Instead, I felt encouraged and motivated to push my art skills. She balanced out the things I needed to improve on with positive comments. Thanks to Sylvester, I finally believed a career in art was achievable.
One of my clearest memories of Sylvester’s classroom is a poster that lists out a plethora of art careers that most of us wouldn’t even think about. When I mentioned it to her, she said she has kept it up to this day. Whenever I glanced over at it, I left the room feeling confident in my potential. On making a career out of art, Sylvester said,
“I think the big thing is as an artist, be prepared to be resilient, be prepared to be persistent and go where you want to go.”
For those who don’t plan to go into art as a career, Sylvester still believes artistic expression is important. She said, “As I tell most of my students, whether you go into art or not, if you can keep being creative it will be really good for your soul.” She supports her student artists no matter what kind of work they make. Whether they use their art for design, social issues or to express their inner world, she is there to help them become the best artists they can be.
Sylvester’s artwork centers on the beauty she finds in the real world around her, working primarily in pastel and watercolor. For the last several years, she has particularly enjoyed painting botanicals.
When I graduated from high school, I was honored to receive a handcrafted card from Sylvester featuring her floral artwork, and an inspiring message to cherish along with it.
Samantha Shady Heals through Art
Samantha Shady is a Sierra College student and community healthcare worker based in Nevada City. During a phone interview I had with Shady on April 11th, 2025, we discussed how art therapy has changed the course of her life. Shady has been going to art therapy for years, and she is currently in the process of becoming an art therapist herself.
After discovering the world of self-exploration it has opened up for her, it has inspired her to help those around her start this path of creative healing as well. In the future, she hopes to start her own nonprofit business which will focus on healing through art counseling and support groups.
She emphasizes involving all five senses in the artistic process, viewing art itself as an extension of our human senses. According to Shady, it gives us the ability to connect with ourselves and others in deep, spiritual ways we wouldn’t be able to otherwise. She said:
“It’s an instinct. It’s instinctual to want to express ourselves and communicate, it’s just another avenue that we have.”
Shady prioritizes the journey of creating and expressing oneself over the idea of an artistic product. She said:
“My type of art is abstract art, and I really am an abstractor of feeling. It really is all about feelings and emotions for me.”
Shady said she has always had a creative spirit, playing music all throughout her school years. She has used it as her primary creative outlet for most of her life.
While she still plays music, she’s found a new home in painting, turning to it as a way to deconstruct trauma.
“It’s like another language really, and a way to get to know yourself. When you have to deal with what would be some really big, scary issues you don’t want to deal with, or memories, it can be a safe space to do that,” Shady said.
In her view, the things we create interact emotionally with their maker:
“[Your art] belongs just to you, it’s between you and the paper… there’s this dialogue, this flow of energy going back-and-forth between yourself and these materials.”
Shady also has experience using her artwork for political purposes as well, making signs advocating for reproductive healthcare that are just as bright and colorful as her inner psyche. She said:
“Art can make movements more meaningful and more personal. It’s like… a doorway to connect.”
With her caring heart and emotion-forward creative process, Shady is making strides for herself and her community of fellow survivors. She will continue to heal not only her own battle wounds and scars, but the ones of those around her as well.
The Sacramento Poderosas Do Artivism
The Sacramento Poderosas are a Chicana art collective based in Sacramento, CA. I had the pleasure of interviewing executive board members Dr. Rhonda Rios Kravitz, Ruby Chacon, Isabel Martinez, and Cristavel Camacho-Gutierrez over Zoom about their purpose and process on April 16th, 2025.
The Poderosas work together as multi-media creatives to make projects that champion social justice. They use the portmanteau “artivists” (artists + activists) to describe themselves, and it is the perfect description— their projects are unapologetically political.
They place emphasis on sharing Chicano history and identity, uplifting the historically silenced voices of their people. Resilience against oppression is a common theme in their work. The organization seeks out justice for not just their own people, but for all marginalized groups, embracing intersectionality.
Inclusion comes first and foremost for The Poderosas. The collective does not have a hierarchical power structure. Instead, their emphasis on building community also lends to how the collective itself is run. Every person on the team, no matter their expertise in a certain subject, their skill, age, or life experience, is given the opportunity to share their voice. Kravitz said,
“It’s our time to talk, to have these difficult conversations, and to heal… to really try to persevere… and to have hope… a just world [is] possible!”
The Poderosas biggest project, the Sacramento Poderosas Mural, painted by Ruby Chacon and Isabel Martinez, is a mural of nine Latina women who have dedicated their lives to social change and justice here in the Sacramento valley. It is accompanied by iconography representative of their culture and struggles. For example, the nopal cactus symbolizes hope and resistance, and corn is a symbol of indigenous culture persevering despite colonial oppression.
The concept of the mural is adjacent to the works of the Great Mexican Muralists such as Diego Rivera and José Clemente Orozco. These muralists used their paintings to share the culture and history of their country in an accessible way. This meant no matter one’s education or background, you could “read” the stories in their paintings.
These murals were so visually and narratively impactful that words weren’t needed to understand the stories they were telling. The Sacramento Poderosas mural accomplishes a similar feat, and it has now been shown all across the country. You can see the mural on display at American River College’s Writing Center from April 4 until August 29, 2025.
During the interview, muralist and artist Ruby Chacon described her family’s hardships as she was growing up in Utah in the 1970’s and 80’s. They faced racial discrimination and lived through arduous poverty. These circumstances influenced her artistic career. When asked how the creative process helps her process difficult emotions, she said:
“Art saved my life in so many ways… it helped me get through school and be the first person in my family to graduate from high school and go to college.”
Chacon continued and said, “Later, it helped me process death… it helped me speak out against racism instead of internalizing it. It gave me a way to say ‘this is not okay.’” In response to the same question, Isabel Martinez said, “For me it was, and has been since [high school], a way to process my roots and my experiences, my connection to family, to land as well.” She continued:
“I use it as a way to explore different parts of my identity, and how it relates to social issues or things that are currently going on in the world.”
The collective is currently working on a new project: a typography-centered “Know Your Rights” piece that provides resources and information for immigrants. They plan on making the work easily accessible in an online format in order to be printed out. The goal is to spread their activist work to communities all over the country. The Sacramento Poderosas impact is sure to go above and beyond their local valley.
Brushstrokes of Beauty & Change
Art can be a joyful journey as we lay the first brushstrokes onto a canvas. It can be a channel for healing, transforming our thoughts and feelings into something real and outside of us. It can also be a way to connect with our experiences and cultures on a deeper level, leading us toward empowerment and community change. These artists’ perspectives and lives committing themselves to art encourage everyone to get involved with art in ways that are uniquely important to each of us.
Written and Reported by Esmeralda Garcia
