Today we’d like to introduce you to Cayce Hanalei.
Cayce, we’d love to hear your story and how you got to where you are today both personally and as an artist.
I’ve always been creative, but when it comes to my artistic career that part of my life is relatively new. I earned my BA in Fine Art as well as Business Administration in 2013 and moved to San Diego from New York. I got my first job here as an administrator a few months later and was not involved in the San Diego art scene at all. It wasn’t until I met my boyfriend, now husband, when he saw my work and encouraged me to pursue my art. He told me “Enter something…anything” so I did. I started entering every show that I could get my hands on. Soon enough people started noticing my work and style. One of the curators that I had started working with was Kami Farokhi, she encouraged me to keep going and to dive further into the San Diego art scene.
I kept getting accepted into the most well-known galleries in the area and even opened up my studio at La Bodega gallery. After about 10 months of showing my work, Kami had come to me and told me that she would no longer be curating at Mike Hess due to her decision to get her doctorate. I was disappointed but so happy for her and let her know that I had had some curator experience in college and would love to help if she decided to continue. And as fate would have it, she then offered the curator position at Mike Hess to me. She had been looking for someone to take over and trusted me with the responsibility. Since December 2017, my company Hanalei Artworks has organized over 10 art exhibitions in the North Park and Hillcrest area, including the monthly shows at Mike Hess, the monthly solo exhibitions during Ray at Night, and Gallery in the Street during this year’s SDCCU Festival of Arts.
We’d love to hear more about your art. What do you do you do and why and what do you hope others will take away from your work?
In additional to my art exhibition company Hanalei Artworks, I am an active studio artist and specialize mostly in portraiture. I work mostly in Oils and Acrylics and paint at my studio at La Bodega or my home studio. I enjoy painting people not only because the human figure is fascinating but no matter who you are we all have one thing in common, we are ALL human. Regardless of religion, color, race, sexual orientation, we all have something beautiful and unique within us. I find it extremely therapeutic when I try to expose that truth in each piece. It’s a revelation that I try to instill in all of my work. I want my viewers to relook at something they see every day, their human nature, and see it laced with value and beauty.
Artists face many challenges, but what do you feel is the most pressing among them?
I believe the biggest challenge right now for artists, specifically emerging artists, is just the knowledge and the availability of resources. Working with as many as 30 artists a month, I see the need for basic “Gallery Ready” knowledge for local emerging artists. Things as basic as How to wire a piece, how to communicate professionally with a gallery, how to market yourself etc. My heart has always been with the emerging artist, I’ve been there and I still am. It’s so hard to “make it” as an artist these days. Museums and Galleries are an amazing resource but often times artists have to pay a $30 application fee just to enter a show That application fee doesn’t even guarantee you will be accepted into the exhibition and they get discouraged. My plan for Hanalei Artworks is to accept the emerging artists into my shows no matter what. Give them that experience that they need as a stepping stone to more exclusive venues and to make the “Gallery ready” information more readily available for them to use.
Do you have any events or exhibitions coming up? Where would one go to see more of your work? How can people support you and your artwork?
When it comes to any Hanalei Artworks exhibitions, I mostly stick to the North Park area. I curate the monthly Mike Hess show which takes place every 1st Wednesday of every month. I also curate the Kent Karras location during Ray at Night. Ray at Night is a North Park street fair which takes place every 2nd Saturday of the month on Ray Street. I also have a few additional venues in the works which should have exhibitions coming up within the next few months. All of this information can be found on our website, Instagram, and Facebook page. You can also find out more about my personal artwork there as well. The support I would love is for everyone to just come out and see what our exhibitions are all about. There always a lot of fun with a ton of people, activities, amazing art, contests, raffles, food trucks, drinks etc.
www.HanaleiArtworks.com
Instagram – @HanaleiArtworks
Facebook – @HanaleiArtworks
Contact Info:
- Website: www.HanaleiArtworks.com
- Phone: 619-653-9776
- Email: HanaleiArtworks@gmail.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hanaleiartworks/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HanaleiArtworks/
Image Credit:
All photographs were taken by Hanalei Artworks
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