The Vinyl-Wrapped Worlds Of Artist Nassem Navab
-by Julia Dixon Evans, KPBS | May 21, 2020

San Diego emerging artist focuses on the inherited habits and needs of children of Islamic and Middle Eastern immigrants during her Art Produce residency.

"Visual artist Nassem Navab recently moved back to San Diego from Tucson after studying at University of Arizona. She’d built up some connections here, worked as an artist assistant, began applying for teaching jobs, residences and exhibitions and was accepted into the 2020 group of artists-in-residence at North Park's Art Produce gallery.

And then, before her 7-week residency even began, the pandemic struck.

Art Produce, with its doors closed to the public, has continued its residency program as creatively as possible. The building is divided into several segments, so two artists can work in a studio and never interact with the other artist.

​Navab's residency is in the gallery’s "Cooler Room," in the back and away from any University Avenue passersby. Under ordinary circumstances, the space is a dream: High ceilings, south-facing windows flooded with light throughout the day and access directly into Art Produce's lovely garden space, which encourages visitors to mingle and dwell in any exhibitions. But with galleries closed, the gardens are inaccessible, and Navab's in-studio residence is largely cut off.

Artist and educator Lynn Susholtz, a mainstay of North Park for decades, sees the neighborhood as her canvas - by Martina Schimitschek, San Diego Union Tribune  November 16, 2018

Lynn Susholtz has a citizen artist logo with a raised fist holding a paint brush. But for Susholtz, who embodies the term citizen artist, a superhero would also be an apt symbol.

For decades, the artist, educator and activist has been a fixture in North Park, a place she calls home, where she has her studio and runs a non-profit community space, which includes a gallery and sustainable urban garden. She also consults at schools, mentors artists and college students and is on the North Park Main Street board of directors.

For Susholtz, it’s all part of being an artist.
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"I think being an artist is probably the most encompassing part of my work,” she says. “I employ educational and learning opportunities in my art. I see that as an art form. Community engagement work can also be considered an art form."

The irresistibly curious art of Carrie Minikel 
By Cynthia Zanone, San Diego Union Tribune  May 25, 2018

"Thoroughly inspired by nature, Oceanside artist Carrie Minikel has an instinct for transforming common objects into quizzical pieces of art that are at once representative and abstract, familiar yet wholly new.

While she holds a bachelor of science degree in fine art from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a master’s in fine art from California College of the Arts in San Francisco, it is the “making” — foraging, building, assembling, creating — that she finds fulfilling. 

​Minikel’s most recent work, “Curious Objects,” on display at Art Produce gallery from May 26 through July 14, is a curious collection of creations from the mind and hands of a collector of … curious objects."
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