CREATIVES

Entrepreneurs. Innovators. Interpreters of life’s jagged edges and silken pathways. Soothsayers and sorcerers. These words and more define the creative individuals who have chosen Sonoma as their home. Explore their methods and mediums in these pages and be inspired.

Are you a creative professional in Sonoma County working to satisfy your artistic expression and make a living with your work? Register HERE to have your own page included on CreativeSonoma.org.

Leslie Ihrig Functional Art, Furniture, Illustration, Painting, Teacher/Instructor, Teaching Artist for Youth, Visual Arts I am an artist living in Petaluma, CA. I taught in Petaluma schools for 23 years. I am, currently, on the Board at the Petaluma Arts Center. My passion is painting and finding ways to connect arts to education. Years ago, I was a furniture design coordinator and a visual merchandising manager for Macy's California. I have a BA in Art from San Jose State University and a teaching credential from Dominican University (San Rafael). I always worked art into the curriculum, using integrated strategies in my classroom in all subject areas - ELA, math, science, history, and, of course, fine art. I incorporated VTS (Visual Thinking Strategies) throughout my curriculum, as well. My work has been sold at Studio Gallery in San Francisco and at the Petaluma Arts Center. I have also shown my work at the Cabrillo College Gallery, Aqus Cafe, and I have greeting cards available at Vibe Gallery in Petaluma. I painted a piano for the Friends of Petaluma River Project (Petaluma Pete) and participated in the Black Lives Matter street mural in Petaluma. My work includes portraits of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Alexandria Ocasio Cortes, Greta Thunberg, and other important figures as well as commissioned portraits. Please visit my website to view my work.

Matthew Isais Bowker Composition, Instrumental, Music, Teacher/Instructor Matthew Isais Bowker is a Mexican-Italian- American Saxophonist, composer and educator. He holds a Bachelor of Music degree in Music Education and California Teaching Credential from Sonoma State University. Matthew’s mission in music is to bridge the gap between classical music and music of the Latinx/ Hispanic communities. Many members of the Latinx community don’t feel welcome in a concert hall because of the Western European traditions which have excluded them. His hope is to welcome people into classical music by playing music they’re used to hearing but set for a classical ensemble. There are many classical works written by Latinx composers that are never heard because classical ensembles don’t program them. Matthew is actively trying to change that by personally performing those works, as well as folk/ Mariachi, and arranging them for saxophone and piano to get them heard. As an educator, he feels it is important to have representation in the classroom and have children play music they can relate to instead of the same music that has been used for years. He is arranging Mexican folk music, mariachi music and many other traditional Latinx music for school ensembles like concert bands, wind ensembles, string orchestras, and symphony orchestras. He hopes that these arrangements can act as an avenue to diversity the classroom and teach about Latinx culture and traditions. If we want to see real change in our community, we have to start within the classroom.

C.K. Itamura Creative Sonoma Grantee

C.K. is a Yonsei, Nikkei interdisciplinary artist based in California. Her conceptual, interactive and performance art serves to engage intergenerational audiences in the exploration of observation, contemplation and expressive imagination.

C.K. is a recipient of the Discovered Award for Emerging Visual Artists of Sonoma County, the founder and publisher of Kanreki Press, the editor of Chottohon magazine, a co-founder of Book Arts Roadshow, an artist/director on the board of Berkeley Commonplace, and a former director of San Francisco Center for the Book.

C.K. is an Artist-in-Residence of San Francisco Unified School District Library Department, an Artist Mentor of San Francisco Arts Education Project, a Teaching Artist-Lead of Luther Burbank Center for the Arts, and works with schools, libraries, organizations and museums to to create and provide: professional development art-making workshops for educators; hands-on art-making workshops for students; and to make art-making accessible to the general public.