Meet the Class of 2023

Ryan Henry

Born in West Texas and raised in the Rio Grande Valley, Ryan Henry has been painting for nearly 20 years, primarily in watercolors and oils. Today, his art is influenced by his decades-long career as a journalist, as his art captures the spirit, sensations, and scenes of South Texas. As a graphic artist and illustrator, Henry created award-winning art that appeared in daily newspapers, magazines, and more—and even penned a fishing comic called “Weekend Bait Bucket” for nearly three years on South Padre Island. Today, as a rising plein air artist, he lives in Brownsville, Texas, and has been an associate member of the Outdoor Painters Society since 2022, frequently painting at locations across the Valley, with a special emphasis on the coastal scenes along the Bahia Grande, Laguna Madre, Port Isabel, and South Padre Island. In April 2023, he is joining the Art Business Incubator South Padre Island’s art residency program, designed to nurture artists as they develop an art-related business on the Island.

“I’m beyond excited about this opportunity to partner with the incubator,” Henry said. “South Padre Island has already identified several talented artists in its mission to develop the arts locally, and that really appealed to me as a painter eager to connect with collectors, whether they are local or beyond.”

JimI keirn

Jimi Keirn is a self-taught artist from McAllen, TX. Every experience and moment in our lives elicits different feelings in different people and when you don’t understand what is happening or how to manage the feeling this becomes a great weight rather than the gift it ultimately can be. For years, Jimi suppressed and avoided those feelings because they made him uncomfortable. He was unsure what they meant, didn't like how they felt, and inevitably ran from them. Avoiding his feelings led to loneliness and isolation, stunting his emotional and spiritual growth.

Jimi paints feelings using color and motion. Art allows Jimi to set those emotions free by expressing onto canvas what he can't put into words. Jimi's hope is that his art connects to everyone on some level. What gives him the most inspiration is observing how people react to his art. Most will see various objects, people, or animals in his work. Jimi likes people to interpret his art in their own way because, at an emotional level, everyone sees different things that come through that connect to them as an individual.  

Ultimately, Jimi’s art is redemptive. His work offers a space that allows the art to speak to the soul. His own ongoing reclamation of himself also serves as a catalyst for facilitating an emotional connection with others to their own inner world of meaning and purpose.  

Priscilla Carbajal

Priscilla Carbajal, is a small commercial farmer in the Rio Grande Valley, in love with growing exceptional fresh vegetables, flowers, & herbs. Naturally dyeing with plants has been used since the beginning of time to add color to cloth, silks, leather & textiles overall. I started this journey of naturally dyeing & “imprinting” when I saw a cloth tote very simply imprinted with a Swiss Chard leaf shown to me by my very good farmHer friend Rose Matthews of Bear Claw Farm. The wonder of it left me dreaming of what other farm crops could be used to dye.

As a research chemist (in my former life), I started researching all things related to naturally dyeing – different mordant treatments; which flowers, herbs or vegetables would best leach their color; & different techniques from bath to bundle to hapazome (‘imprint’). Through much experimentation, I found that I liked most working with cotton & linen the best and treating them with one or both of my chosen mordants: aluminum acetate and/or followed with a calcium carbonate as well as with or without an iron bath for color tone change (for now….), would yield the results I was looking for. I have tried dyeing & imprinting almost everything I was growing from swiss chard to marigolds to achiote to sunflowers to beets to asparagus to mesquite to rosemary to dragon fruit & on & on. Needless to say, some flowers / herbs / vegetables / trees work better than others, but my favorites are indigo, asparagus, mesquite, moringa, thyme, parsley, coreopsis, Jamaica, achiote, butterfly pea, marigolds, sunflowers, olena/turmeric & amaranth. The process of foraging for particular flowers, herbs, vegetables, or tress that I or my farmer friends grow makes the imprinted textiles I create an Art worthy of being preserved, used & appreciated on a daily basis.

Being part of the Procured Life+Home family is one of most valued relationships I have made thus far since my relocation from Hawaii. Not only have they made me believe in my artistic ability as a true Maker but have made me realize the distinctness & uniqueness of dyeing textiles naturally. I am utterly grateful for their support and the support of the other Artists & Makers of the Procured Life+Home family.

This new journey with Art Business Incubator on South Padre Island gives me hope that these naturally dyed textiles in Art-Form reaches more people allowing me to bring everyone a little bit of Joy & Happiness that it gives me while creating.

Stephanie VILLAREAL Murray

Once upon a time there was a quiet little girl in a great big land called Texas. Her name was Stephanie and she was different from other kids. She was terribly shy and did not have many friends.

She liked animals and the beach, but what she LOVED was stories in fiction books and on big screens. It was because of a mermaid story on a big screen on this very island that her special power was first sparked. That power was art.

At age 6, Stephanie and her family moved far away to Michigan. This was a very big change. Change made her stomach feel sick and turned her thoughts into worries. In Michigan, Stephanie was even more different. Without knowing it, she often put on a “normal mask” to fit in. Art made her feel better, though, by helping put feelings and emotion onto paper.

Stephanie adjusted, but a bigger change would be coming: middle and high school. It was full of surprises and was busy and loud and, except for the learning part, she did not like it one bit. She coped by making art and wearing her “normal mask” much more often. But what she didn’t know was that wearing this mask came with sadness. In fact, as she wore her mask through college, her depression and anxiety grew so big it pushed out any special art powers she had left. She thought, if she could not make art, then maybe she could still teach it. Being a teacher was not how she imagined her future, but at least she would survive in the world.

In teaching Stephanie found that she had a knack for connecting with children. But being a school teacher wasn’t her passion and it was difficult and draining. Her “mask” was on all the time now and she couldn’t remember who she really was. She was sick often and losing her battle with depression. Stephanie was struggling to become an adult and desperately needed a break. She missed making art. But drawing, she thought, wasn’t going to pay the bills. So reluctantly she stayed with teaching.

One day a wise and trusted friend let Stephanie in on a secret: that she too wore a “mask” and struggled. This friend had searched and studied and found answers. Now she was sharing those answers with Stephanie, as she saw that Stephanie had the same secret within her and didn’t even know it. The answers explained why she always felt awkward, why it was hard to fit in, make and maintain friendships, why animals and books were the company she most liked to keep, and why she liked when it was quiet. Armed with this new knowledge, Stephanie consulted with a doctor.

In 2021 it was official - Stephanie was diagnosed as Autistic - Level 1 with ADHD-Inattentive type. She was strangely relieved; she was meant to be different! She finally recognized and took off the mask that unknowingly bogged her down. She could imagine herself in a studio - one where she could create stories to share with and help others. A place where shy kids who felt different could come to belong. She felt a long lost emotion stirring in her heart: she was happy.

Incoming Artist

VIVIANA SANGUINO

My life can be told through summers.

When I was growing up, my mom had two friends and they each had two daughters, every summer we’d go to one of their houses at the beach and spend months there. I learned how to make flower crowns and bracelets with small red flowers that were all over their garden. I learned that I was great at guessing the song people sang underwater. (It was like a charades but with songs.) And I learned that I liked drawing, I spent the summer I turned twelve drawing the Pink Panther the best I could.

After that summer I returned to Mexico City, my home, where I drew on everything I could get my hands on, all of the printer paper, my notebooks—anything and everything. I even started a small art business in class, making and selling animal drawings.
The next summer, my mom took me for the first time to South Padre Island, and that was the summer where everything changed. My mom always believed the island to be a safe place, so I was free to take a bike and “travel the world,” which usually meant biking five or six blocks to the Paragraphs Book Store, buying two books and biking back to lie down next to the pool, everyday.

That was the summer I felt truly free, like I belonged. We would go to Tuesday Mornings and she would always buy me any art related thing I liked, any sketchbook, pencils, or any media, and that’s when I met the love of my life, watercolors.

I’ve heard people say watercolors are hard and they’re unforgiving. I’d say otherwise, and to be honest, I personally think watercolors are the easiest. To this day, I still feel like I’m cheating by creating artwork with watercolors and not other mediums. I think the way watercolors can’t really be controlled and your mistakes can’t be easily covered is what I like about it. I think it helped me realize you can’t really control everything, and things might move, or change, or dry in ways you never expected, but maybe that’s part of life.

I always thought I could never make a living out of art, so I studied graphic design. I thought it was a way to be creative and not starve. Yet in the end, design wasn’t enough for me, and other artists persuaded me to apply to the incubator—and here I am.