Carlos Rene Castro
Born in El Progreso, Yoro, Honduras, Carlos Rene Castro and his family criss-crossed from Salinas to Florida, and back to Salinas again. Growing up, Rene Castro feared living in East Salinas, but found beauty in his neighborhood too, centering people and everyday scenes of the working class in his photography. He graduated from Alisal High School in 2016 and then studied photography and media at California Institute of the Arts in Valencia. His photography has developed since moving to Southern California, but his older works show his roots are firmly inspired by East Salinas. carlosrenecastro.com.
Cherie Stock
At first glance, the forms that Cherie Stock paints look fairly traditional. A landscape, a ballerina, a vase of flowers. But take a closer look and you see the movement and liquidity. The colors don’t just stay in their designated place, demarcating the edge of a petal or the hem of a dress; the colors and shadows bleed into one another. That’s because for a while now, she’s been painting with alcohol inks and acrylics. The acrylics offer shape, a rigidity of traditional fine art, but the alcohol inks provide spontaneity and pops of color that can’t be controlled, as if she just painted with the former. mixedmedia-artist.com.