Tell us about how you found your distinguished style and how you honed your skills.

The style I’m currently working in was developed during my recent time in grad school at UCSD. I’ve always been fascinated by branding and advertising, and my earlier work explored this very overtly through painting brands and products representationally.

During my time experimenting in school, I was challenged to think of new ways to explore these themes, and I had the idea of very literally covering up the products and brands I was painting with fabric so that their form was obscured. I began painting these covered forms as a way of critiquing how value is represented. This led to my current obsession of covering everything—including the human form. 

I’ve always been really into pattern and detail since I was a kid, and now I’ve found ways to incorporate all the patterns I’m attracted to into my work through this act of covering the form in fabric. I’ve honed my skills over the years through countless hours of painting, and I continue to do so by painting pretty much everyday. Painting never ceases to challenge me, and I love working through the process slowly and methodically and learning more as I go. 

What artists do you admire or look up to?

There’s so many artists I look up to. I’m currently really inspired by the work of Amy Adler, she was one of my advisors in grad school. I’m also really into the work of Jean Lowe, Hilary Pecis, Ken Gun Min, and Ilana Savdie, to name a few.

How do you think your art reflects the Southern California lifestyle or plays a role in the way your art comes to life?

To me, Southern California has such a specific color palette and aesthetic associated with it. I think my palette of bright and contrasting colors is very much inspired by Southern California. I also think my interest in consumption and consumerism is related to my observations and experience of living in Southern California, because it is a capital for conspicuous consumption, entertainment, and the performance of wealth and beauty. I think being in such close proximity to this type of display has heightened my fascination with our culture of consumption.  

What was your big break?

I was in a group show in 2018 at Hill Street Country Club, a nonprofit arts space in Oceanside. Dinah Pollenitz, the cofounder and curator at Hill Street, subsequently offered me a solo show there in 2019. This first solo show has led to so many other amazing opportunities throughout San Diego, and I am forever grateful to Dinah for supporting my work and providing me with one of my first opportunities to show my work in an art space in San Diego. 

What do you have on the horizon workwise?

I have a solo show with Quint Gallery in La Jolla in March of 2024 that I’m currently working on. I will also be doing a public mural in Pacific Beach next year, and I have a few other projects that are currently in their early stages of development.  

Where can people find your work to admire or hire you?

People can check out my work on my website. I have a show up at ICA North through the end of this year. I also have a few murals around San Diego including one on the side of Warren Hall at UCSD, an indoor mural at Corner Pizza in Oceanside, and one on the south-facing side of the Leucadia Donut Shoppe. I am available for hire via the contact form on my website. 

The post Behind the Cover: Q&A With Artist Taylor Chapin appeared first on San Diego Magazine.

The San Diego arts struck gold in 1965 with the debut of the new Civic Theatre, designed by famed modernist architect Lloyd Ruocco.

SDM’s January ’65 cover celebrated opening night with a glam-filled illustration by artist D. Wayne “Bunky” Millsap. A packed house, all diamonds, tuxedos, and fur.

In that issue, San Diego Magazine’s Associate Editor Roberta Ridgely captured the feeling of being in SD’s newest home for the performing arts. “A theatre is the shiver of excitement that tingles through the audience at the precise moment when the curtains part,” she wrote.

To celebrate SDM’s 75th birthday, we’ve collaborated with local artists and creatives to recreate classic covers with a contemporary twist in each month of 2023. For our finale, we asked Encinitas artist Taylor Chapin for her unique translation.

“I was interested in doing something in the style of the work that I already do, but updating the music and the space for 2023,” Chapin says. “[In] this age we live in … it’s so important to be closely linked to your identity and brand, so I was really interested in this idea of covering the figure up as a playful critique of this social media age.”

Instead of opera at the Civic Theatre, Chapin’s recreation—a real 32-by-24-inch oil painting entitled Sonic Shift—features a silhouette rock band at the new Epstein Family Amphitheater at UCSD. In place of look-at-me formalwear are anonymous patterned figures, perhaps talking about the shiver of excitement they’re feeling as the curtain lifts.

The post Covering 75: December 2023 appeared first on San Diego Magazine.

This cover from 1956 marries all these values. Bali Hai opened in 1952 at the dawn of tiki culture. Four years later, photographer Paul Oxley shot the three-wheeled Messerschmitt KR200 outside its doors. Designed by a German aircraft engineer, the sleek microcar broke 22 international speed records in 1955. It’s a promise of the auto technology to come, plopped in the middle of San Diegans’ favorite haunt for tiny umbrellas.

In honor of our 75th anniversary, we’re recreating iconic covers from our past. The new cover stars the same beloved Bali Hai and another futuristic, three-wheeled vehicle, the SD-grown, battery-and-sun powered Aptera.

The original cover featured an uncredited model. This time, we chose two unforgettable
locals pushing our city into the future: Shavone Charles, head of global diversity and inclusion communications at TikTok, and chef Claudia Sandoval of cookbook and Master Chef fame.

They (and the other movers and shakers sprinkled throughout this issue) are proof that San Diegans are always headed towards the next big thing—we’re just doing it in better weather than most.

The post Covering 75: November 2023 appeared first on San Diego Magazine.

In honor of our 75th anniversary, we’re asking local artists for fresh takes on retro covers. To remind us all of doctors’ daily heroics, we asked Keithan Jones, a local comic book artist and founder/owner of independent publishing company KID Comics, to recreate this past Top Docs cover, touching on many of the medical advancements and STEM-related news happening in San Diego.

You’ll spot references to the Human Milk Institute, which studies how medications impact breast milk; Orchyd, a period-tracking and telemedicine app offering confidential access to healthcare; new scientific research in outer space; the much-discussed Ozempic craze; and groundbreaking lab-grown fish at San Diego company BlueNalu.

San Diego is a hub for science and technology, with companies like Illumina, Erasca, Gilead Sciences, Thermo Fisher Scientific, and Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute (to name just a few) calling this city home. If you look close enough, the future of medicine is unfolding before our very eyes. And the doctors, scientists, and researchers leading the charge are actual superheroes.

The post Covering 75: October 2023 appeared first on San Diego Magazine.

Nobody takes it all in quite like San Diego’s slow-rolling, suntanned philosopher, John Kitchin, aka SloMo, who you can generally find floating one rollerblade at a time down the Pacific Beach Boardwalk. A neurologist and psychiatrist, SloMo took up skating in retirement as a way to mellow out.

“Since then, I’ve been living freely,” he says. “And skating literally everyday on the boardwalk for 24 years.”

As we celebrate San Diego Magazine’s 75th anniversary, we’re reflecting on our history—blading the boardwalk down memory lane, ontology. (Though we’re doubtful that pipe will looking to past covers for inspiration and putting a modern shine on them. This month, we peek back at our August 1972 cover, an homage itself to Lippencott Magazine’s 1895 cover, dubbed “Tennis.” Here, a stately gentleman finds a moment of repose on his way to a friendly game. We assume he’s mulling over his own thoughts on the state of being, how to unravel his personal elevate his tennis skills.)

In our new version, SloMo pauses in his garden—reading, daydreaming, hidden away like the San Diego treasure he is.

“There are two things that we all have,” he says. “One is the world of objectivity. What’s back in the other world, that of subjectivity, is where dreams are.”

The post Covering 75: September 2023 appeared first on San Diego Magazine.

What does being part of this cover recreation mean to you?

Being part of this cover recreation is an honor. The cover is iconic and I’m grateful that I’m a part of a historic recreation in my hometown of San Diego. Not everyone gets that opportunity, especially at my age.

What was it like growing up playing soccer in San Diego? What does it mean to you to play for your hometown team?

Growing up playing soccer in San Diego is special. There’s a special fútbol culture here in every part of San Diego and that culture brings out the best in everybody and unites everyone. I’m excited to continue to see soccer/futbol grow here in San Diego and feel lucky to be part of that.

Who are your soccer idols and why?

My soccer idols have always been Neymar and Alex Morgan. I’ve always loved the way Neymar has played, his creativeness on the ball is something I want my game to replicate, and his skill set is amazing. I’ve also always looked up to Alex as she is a female athlete and has accomplished some amazing things in her career. I also admire the off-the-field things she has done for communities and young girls. I hope I can inspire and be someone for young athletes to look up to, like how Alex was for me.

What’s next for you with the Wave?

Things have been going really well with Wave. I made my debut back in April and have been getting more playing time and even got my first start recently. I’m looking forward to the rest of the season with the team. I’m loving every second of it.

How was the shoot and wearing your wave jersey in the pool?

The shoot was very fun, I had a blast in the pool! It felt a little more relaxed and comfortable since I love being in the pool in the summer. It was super cool to wear the jersey in the pool, I mean anytime I wear the jersey it’s an amazing feeling. I’m proud to represent my home, San Diego.

The post Behind the Artist: Covering 75’s Melanie Barcenas appeared first on San Diego Magazine.

Tell us about how you found your distinguished style and how you honed your skills. 

It developed just as I did, quietly waiting to be found. Growing up during the ’80s-’90s with Gen X around me I, was exposed to weird MTV cartoons quite young as well as having frequent visits to museums in Mexico City when we would visit family. Films from the golden era of cinema in México with my parents very-much influenced me as well.My life came to a cathartic point where I was forced to look inward and I realized it was the one constant thing I really enjoyed and I could express myself with much more clarity and depth, it clicked. Once I accepted that my style was weird, imperfect, and raw, I was able to accept it as my own so it was easier to lean into it. It felt right. The environment I was in was quite bizarre so it allowed me to mirror my surroundings. It gave me the same comfort I longed for as a bored child surrounded by adults. Now as an adult myself I realize it’s part of many things much deeper than my personality, so I am happy to embrace it. Style is everything.

What artists do you admire or look up to?

I really admire artists who chase their dreams with genuine love. I’m devoted to being present and being supportive of them. I’m in awe of women confronting stigma related to dealing with generational trauma and also cultural or social dynamics. Some female artists that I constantly refer to creatively are Susan Sontag, Patti Smith, Diane Arbus—she went there; she saw a side that was also beautiful but not photographed, and she made it poetic and raw. It inspired my “Los Perdidos” series. Éric Rohmer; these films feed my soul. Lady Pink, Maya Hayuk, Miss Van, Mab Graves, Camille Rosé Garcia.

Panca

Well, these women made me think, “Wow, such strength,” and they inspired me greatly. Representation matters. When I started it was a boys club so I have nothing but respect. Goya! David Alfaro Siqueiros has always been a master as well as that generation of painters during that time in Mexico. Sofia Coppola, I saw her films during my teens and it was really impactful to me. It allowed me to see that pain could be made into something quite brilliant and beautiful.Nina Simone (I mean wow), Amy Winehouse (I feel you), Flor Garduño…a photographer that has work [that is] so dreamlike and ahead of her time. Mr. Rogers, I mean this list could be epic and never ending. The Golden Girls. But Keith Haring was an artist I was able to learn about before his death and it really spoke to me. The more I grew up, I really have just learned that I follow the same idea that the art is for everyone and along with Jean-Michel Basquiat. I also saw that grit was the secret ingredient.

How do you think your art reflects the southern California lifestyle? 

I think that my art strongly reflects the Southern California experience but also that of a binational person living, creating, working between the border or frontera. I grew up here, went to surf camps as a kid, had skateboarding posters all over my walls and especially the colors, raw in your face images from skateboard culture totally influenced my style. The color palette alone from then is very much in my work. Those neons pop out and the fact that I grew up close to IB and now that I am back and I live closer to Barrio Logan-Sherman Heights, it’s a very different experience and don’t have a specific style that can be categorized. Yet the people of the community spill into my work and it’s the same as when I was in Tijuana. I just embrace it. It’s real and beautiful.

What do you have on the horizon work-wise?

Right now I am doing a pop up with Modelo beer and that will happen this summer. That is a big one! I am going to be finishing the new phase of El Más Allá which will open this summer to kids and complete my installation there which is a big deal because I started during the pandemic and it’s been a hard process for me.

Where do you like to go to get away and relax? 

At one point I had this ritual of after a show or big mural taking the red eye from Tijuana to Yucatán-Quintana Roo and just disconnecting for a week but it’s just a whole thing nowadays and I am enjoying going to Valle de Guadalupe for a nice day or weekend trip. I miss living in Baja, but I am reconnecting with San Diego and finding a nice day at Lafayette or just the beach is relaxing. I’m walking the harbor and enjoying that.I’m a fan of taking the train to LA to just have a museum day or go see a show and then come back. It’s close and I get to relax seeing the ocean along the way. Also, home. I am a big hermit who really enjoys being home and I get to be with my senior pets and recharge by watching a film, gardening or going for a walk. It’s the little things.

Where can people find your work?

Right now mostly around San Diego and the Tijuana/Baja region. Places like The New Children’s museum. Bread and Salt, Mujeres Brew House, Holy Paleta, La Dona in OB, The new MCASD shop, Mortis Studio in Golden hill and a solo pop up show at Mi Vida Logan this summer. I’m excited that this summer I’m working with Modelo beer on several pop-up events in the community.

The post Behind the Artist: Covering 75’s Panca appeared first on San Diego Magazine.

June 1959 San Diego Magazine Cover

Have you heard? We’ve got oceans. In June 1959, SDM heralded the arrival of waterfront developments in Point Loma and Mission Bay, citing “San Diegans’ growing consciousness of the sea” as a driving force behind the builds.On the cover, a woman floats blissfully in a stretch of clear water—perhaps discovering for the first time the pleasure of perching weightless in an inlet and imagining what it’s like to be an otter.

Covering 75 August 2023 Melanie Barcenas Wave FC

Photo by Stacy Keck

San Diego’s been a beach town for a while now. But, this year, it’s settling into its status as a focal point of women’s soccer since the 2022 arrival of the National Women’s Soccer League team, Wave FC. So, in celebration of our 75th anniversary, we recreated this retro cover with one of the newest icons making a splash in SD: 15-year-old Melanie Barcenas, a Wave FC forward and the youngest player ever signed to the league. The San Diego native started training at age five with her dad and brother. She grew up scoring goals on local club teams and watching her idols play, including Wave FC captain Alex Morgan. She snagged Morgan’s jersey while spectating a Qualcomm Stadium game five years ago—and now they wear matching ones.Melanie’s got no regrets about going pro while most of her peers are studying for their permit tests. “I knew this is what I wanted to do for the rest of my life,” she says. “When it’s something you love, it’s like, ‘What’s next?’”The future is bright, Melanie. Good thing you’ve got shades.

The post Covering 75: August 2023 appeared first on San Diego Magazine.

Each month in 2023, we’re asking a local artist to recreate one of our iconic covers from the past 75 years. For June, we tapped local photographer Hannah Bernabe and drag performer Paris Max reimagine San Diego Mag‘s July 1977 cover. Check out the recreation here and learn more about Paris in the Q&A below:

Tell us about how you found your distinguished style and how you honed your skills in creating your own style and designing pieces for performing.

Initially I did this thing where I tried really hard to fit in with the other entertainers I was working with that in the beginning I did look like a mini me of all of them. I don’t fault myself too much for that because I think in any field, you look at what works and you go that direction but I definitely cringe when I look back at some of my style and performance choices from when I began. There were attempts at being camp, glamour and sexy, but not in the direction that fit my stage personality. Eventually I found a great balance of being fabulous but more on the whimsical side and comedy, but not crass and more towards silly.

My costumes reflect that today. I also made the rule of a costume not looking “standard.” If we’re gong to dress like a flower, we’re going to be a flower that’s seven-feet-wide. If we’re going to be a mermaid, our tail is going to be attached to strings so that it can have movement like a puppet. Yes, we will have a dress with carousel horses all around the skirt, yes we will have a five-minute song have seven costume changes. I rarely will go on stage wearing a slip-on outfit and I do this more for me so I’m constantly challenged and not bored. I hope the audience takes notice after the fact.

What other artists and entertainers do you admire or look up to? What makes their art or creations so special to you?

I have always looked up to San Diego Entertainers like Babette Schwartz and Chad Michaels. They are both extremely professional entertainers but also are such great community leaders. Babette to me is one of the most hilarious drag queens on the microphone, but she does it in such a way that her audience feels like they’re also a part of her show. She makes adult jokes but delivers it in a way where it’s corky and not vulgar. Don’t get me wrong, I love a vulgar joke in adult environments like the next person but I admire her for her style.

Chad can literally make any character come alive. Their attention to detail with their costumes and music mixes is so crazy I’m often sitting in the audience wondering “where the heck do they find the time?!” Chad is also such an artist that when I’m watching their shows, I constantly step away from seeing them as my good friend Chad. I’ll sit there so sure that I am in fact watching Maleficent. And then I come to and I think “Wow, no that wasn’t, that’s my friend.” That’s how great they are with their attention to detail. Down to the way the character blinks or points their finger. Such an art.

How do you think your work reflects the southern California lifestyle? How does living in San Diego play a role in the way your performance comes to life?

We are so surrounded by art and entertainment in California, it’s almost criminal not to take all that in and apply it to our art. We also have access to materials and sellers from Tijuana to Los Angeles, that it gives very little excuse to not being able to do something costume, performance, or set design wise. As for living in San Diego, we are such a melting pot, I’m constantly inspired by the different cultures I am surrounded by.

San Diego for me is also a great example of balance. We can have casual days but we also love to be glamorous. We have the beach but we also get to strut through the city that evening. Much like my stage life, I love that we can have it all. I also love that about folks from San Diego. For the most part, someone’s background rarely matters. We’re surrounded by such diversity, even the most closed minded (and I use that word very lightly) can still feel welcomed to try something new out for the first time. My audience on one night might not be surrounded by drag or may have never seen drag and then the next night my audience is full of regulars who watch my shows every week, and everyone comes with an open mind and with the goal of being entertained.

What are some of the organizations you have enjoyed working with the most?

I really love working with San Diego Pride as well as North County and South County Pride. A lot of folks don’t know this but organizations like them aren’t just working on Pride celebrations that happen once a year. They have year-long programs that those Pride festivals raise funds for that go back into supporting the LGBTQ community.

The San Diego Family Justice Center Foundation is also a great organization that deals with victims of domestic violence. The hard work their organization does to provide legal services, housing and job placement (to name a few) is remarkable. A lot of us shy away from these issues because at times it may feel uncomfortable to approach such delicate situations and here they come in and provide that help and do so with dignity and grace.

The LGBT Center was where my mom found support for our family and myself when I came out at such a young age. The work they do and the programs they provide is such a vital tool for not only our LGBTQ Community but for anyone seeking help and resources.

Where do you like to go to get away and relax?

I don’t! I think the closest I get to a getaway is when I go to Palm Springs but I usually go their to do one of my shows but I usually will stay an extra day so I can get in some pool and restaurant time. Don’t feel bad for me. I literally made a living out of having a blast and I get to work with my friends and chosen family while I am at it. If I’m crying myself to sleep, it’s because I’m happy.

Where can people find your work to admire you?

You can find me on Instagram under my stage name Paris Sukomi Max. From there you will get to see my weekly schedule for my shows or events, what crazy costume shenanigans I’m currently up to, my restaurant life or you can meet my alter ego known as the overzealous aunt.

The post Behind the Artist: Covering 75’s Paris Max appeared first on San Diego Magazine.

Panca July Covering 75

Illustration by Paola Villaseñor aka Panca

The cover of San Diego Magazine’s February 1965 issue pointed readers towards the pristine, “unplundered” beaches in Baja, boasting of potential undiscovered gems to be found by “intrepid” visitors.

“On this beach,” reads the cover description, “a ‘mystique’ is made possible by the fortuitous lack of too many people and intrepid campers can find Nirvana in the cool breezes of that more southerly Pacific as well as a trove of cast-off treasures.”

Nearly 60 years later, San Diegans’ relationship with Baja has grown more complex, but we’re as enchanted by the peninsula as ever.

February 1965 San Diego Magazine Cover

In celebration of SDM’s 75th birthday this year, we’re asking contemporary artists we love to recreate classic covers. This month’s cover is a modern depiction of Baja from celebrated binational artist Panca. In her illustration, a solo female traveler races in a convertible towards Baja’s newest hot spot—the wine country of Valle de Guadalupe— seemingly without a care in the world, windswept hair and all.

“The Valle has developed big time. You can go to the Valle and you’ll run into somebody from San Diego. Before, it was kind of hush-hush,” Panca says.

“I think, like everything, it can get burned. But I also think there’s a lot going on and it’s very much worthy of [exploring] and preserving at the same time. There has to be a balance of acknowledging this beautiful area, but …. not just using it up until it’s gone.” —JI

The post Covering 75: July 2023 appeared first on San Diego Magazine.