Holiday Celebration Highlighted by Young Local Artists By Gloria Yost
Nearly 40 members of the AAUW Sacramento branch shared the holiday spirit on Dec. 12 at our annual holiday meeting. Activities included music from the Sac State clarinet quartet Connect Four, who shared a number of Christmas songs that were interspersed throughout the morning. Members also modeled their ugly holiday sweaters in an “Ugliest” competition. Winners were Diane Petersen, Angela Scarlett and Karen Burley.
The highlights of the morning were three local artists who told us about their artistic journeys 
and shared photos of their work. Caiti Chan is a current resident artist at the Verge Center for the Arts in downtown Sacramento. Her large-scale atmospheric abstractions can be found at http://www.caitichan.com/.
Franceska Gamez works with large murals and has done many pieces in the Bay Area and greater Sacramento. Two that we can view easily are in the SEA Bowl restaurant in Elk Grove and on 24th Street in Midtown Sacramento. She is associated with the Trust Your Struggle Collective, a group of visual artists and others dedicated to social justice and community activism. Franceska’s work can be seen at http://www.franceskagamez.com/.
Omonivie Okade is a jewelry designer who owns her own business, Tula in Bloom, and shared some of the joys and trials of being an entrepreneur. Omonivie’s work can be purchased at https://www.tulainbloom.com/. She also does custom work and writes a blog.
An enjoyable morning was had by all.