Corinne Okada Takara is the lead artist for BioQuilts. She is a San Jose Area artist/STEAM educator who works with museums, libraries and after school programs to create workshops that elevate and empower community voices in conversations centered on civic spaces, identity, science, and technology. She conducts workshops on sustainability design and biomaterial design that celebrate existing cultural and community knowledge. Takara is a 2020 National Public Interest Technology Community Innovation Fellow representing Xinampa. She is a board member of the Salinas community biolab, Xinampa, and is on the Arts Advisory Panel of the Alliance for Youth Achievement in East San Jose, California. She has won local and national awards for innovative community STEAM programs. Takara develops programming out of her garage makerspace and is co-founder of BioJam, a teen camp of the Stanford Bioengineering Department.
www.okadadesign.com/ & nestmakerspace.weebly.com/ What Biodesign Means to me instagram: @corinnetakara twitter: @corinnetakara |
Callie Chappell (she/her)
PhD Candidate, Department of Biology Callie Chappell is the Expert Scientific Consultant for BioQuilts. She is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Biology at Stanford University. She studies how genetic variation influences how organisms interact; specifically, she studies the microbes (bacteria and yeast) that live in the nectar of native California plants. In addition to her research, Callie co-leads BioJam, an academic program for middle and high school students that centers culture in bioengineering, biomaking, and art explorations. Callie collaborates with other scientists as a professional scientific illustrator and her work has been published in scientific journal articles. Callie also leads workshops across the country that teach scientists how use art to communicate their research. Website: www.calliechappell.com/ |
Cynthia Cao is a Vietnamese American artist who works as a printmaker and painter. Her work explores the cyclical nature of memory. She earned her BFA in Pictorial Arts with a Minor in Art History from San José State University. She is the Exhibit Designer and Lead Teaching Artist for Chopsticks Alley Art, a non profit dedicated to promoting Southeast Asian arts and culture. She has taught at the San Jose Museum of Art and other private art studios in the Bay Area. Her favorite subjects to teach are woodblock printing and watercolor painting because the process is fun and messy. She lives and works in the Bay Area.
Photo credit: Qian Wang |
Addi Miyako is an illustrator born and raised in San Jose. She explores themes of folklore, story-telling, spirituality, and identity through watercolor, with a portfolio that ranges from Ghibli-esque animal portraits to tarot cards influenced by her Japanese heritage. Addi strives to make her art playful, emotive, and accessible for a broad audience.
amiyakom.com/ Support on Patreon!: /www.patreon.com/amiyakom Instagram: @amiyakom Facebook: www.facebook.com/amiyakom/ |
Patty Botello was born in Los Ángeles, California. At the age of three she learned how Piñatas were created from her next door neighbor and babysitter. She studied art at San Jose State University where she earned her Bachelor of Arts, Concentration in Studio Practice. While being immersed in studio art classes she fell in love with the creation of three dimensional art. Before graduating, she began Fuzzy Lollipop, a small online business in 2009 where she sells her piñata sculptures.
Patty has been making piñata sculptures in her own unique style for over a decade. She hopes to elevate the piñata to be viewed as art. They are high quality piñatas that blur the boundary between piñata and paper sculpture. Her recent work is made primarily with paper-mache, paper and upcycled materials. Patty is a current recipient of MACLA’s Cultura Power Fellowship as well as a past recipient of a grant from The Center for Cultural Innovation, Creative Industry Incentive Fund. Patty’s work has been featured in various group art exhibitions in the Bay Area, Content Magazine and at a temporary gallery at the Sweets and Snacks Expo in Chicago, Illinois. www.pattybotello.com/ and instagram.com/pbotelloart/ |
Rob Morrill is a maker educator who has helped first graders through high schoolers explore materials, technologies, and skills to express ideas and tackle challenges. He has a particular love of CAD and 3D printing, and he consults for Autodesk to help teachers utilize Tinkercad. He is the 4-8th grade Innovation Lab teacher at Woodland School.
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