ALPHABETICAL ARTIST INDEX

The North Coast Open Studios volunteer steering committee is comprised of working artists and community members dedicated to opening doors to artists in our community.

Leslie Castellano

Leslie Castellano is an artist, aerialist, city councilperson, Executive Director of the Ink People, and serves on a wide range of boards and commissions. Leslie is also the founder and director of the Synapsis Performance Collective, where she works to create opportunities for emerging social practices and a wide range of performance forms. She has a deep appreciation for the roles that artists and cultural practitioners play in a vibrant and healthy community.

Leslie stands in front of a wall of participating artist Patricia Sennott’s art.

Monica Topping

Monica Topping took over coordination of North Coast Open Studios in 2014. She brings a wealth of event planning knowledge from her time on the Kinetic Universe board of directors, and networking contacts from more than 15 years of working in local media. She LIKE likes Eureka and joined the Eureka Art and Culture Commission in 2016. She won the Victor Thomas Jacoby Award in 2016, and started melting recycled glass bottles and broken glassware into lovely colored beads in 2017, then was chosen Eureka’s Artist of the Year for 2020, for creating jewelry out of recycled and repurposed materials under the name Rock Chick Designs. She’s also the Administrative Director for the Ink People Center for the Arts. Monica can’t think of a better job than being a cheerleader for Humboldt County artists.

Jenny Downs

Jenny is a poet and creative free spirit. Jenny’s most impactful artistic practice is the work she does to help system-involved young people learn to share the furious spirit of youth in poems. Jenny believes that developing an authentic and creative voice through poetry helps these young writers to recognize their own resilience and potential.

Jenny uses her poems and creative spirit as a way to heal from hardships and life challenges while simultaneously hoping to help others do the same. Whether she is sharing a healing poem, a colorful painting, wild knitted socks, or her strange and bright earrings, Jenny always hopes her art brightens someone’s day.

Jenny is always thrilled to support Open Studios in any way. More art. More joy.