Lisa Hsia and The Manifesta Portrait Series

This post comes from Lisa Hsia, the watercolor artist behind the portraits you may have seen hanging on Manifesta’s wall.

 When I tell people I’m doing portraits at a hair salon, they’re often unsure what I mean. “Wait, you do hair?” they ask. No, I say, I am useless with hair! “So the salon lets you use their space to do portraits?” Well, yes, I say, but I paint the salon’s clients.

What really happens is this: people come in for their haircuts, and then, if they’ve requested it beforehand, I’m there to paint their portrait. It takes about a couple of hours, and when it’s done, the portrait joins the others on the wall by the door. With each portrait, the gallery grows.

 Although each session plays out more or less the same way ― I greet the sitter and ask if they have any questions, do a preliminary pencil sketch, we take a break, I paint, we break, I paint, break, paint ― I find that every one is a fresh experience. Just as every person is unique, just as every day is unique, every session feels totally new. Different people bring a different energy, and I’m never the same either from day to day. I really think of the portraits as an exchange. We offer each other our presence and our conversation, and somehow, that back-and-forth makes it into the finished painting. 

There is a reason I don’t like painting from photos, and it is that a photo isn’t a person, it’s an image. If all I wanted was an image, I could turn to the internet or any magazine. But to have a person in front of me, with their particular thoughts, responses, gestures, and way of being ― that’s a whole entity that is a challenge and a joy to try to capture. There is a mystery about it, even to me. I painted one person who fidgeted, moved their head at unexpected moments, and talked a lot, and somehow their painting came out with a quality of focused stillness. I painted another person who had vibrant, lively energy, and their portrait came out soft and gentle. And yet everyone has said they like their portraits, so I think (I hope!) I’m able to see something about them that goes deeper than just what they’re projecting on the surface.

I said at ‘Festaval that while in my day-to-day life I am as appearance-conscious as anyone ― making snap judgments about whether someone looks “good” or their outfit looks put-together ― as an artist I see everyone as beautiful. And not just beautiful aesthetically, but interesting, worthy. I have never painted someone and not felt enthralled by their face and by who they are. And maybe that’s me letting down some kind of barrier, too.

I find it such a privilege to get to spend an hour or two with another person and really try to see them, and then translate that into marks I make on a blank piece of paper. To me it’s like magic, and when I watch people’s faces when they see their portraits, that seems to be how it feels to them too.

 Find Lisa’s artwork and other writings at satsumabug.com.

Bangles, Not Bombs!

What does garbage from Hayward, CA have to do with a subsistence farming village in Laos? It's amazing the things we learn and re-learn doing community building work here at 'Festa. One such lesson of which we have recently been reminded, is that so frequently in life, despite outward appearances, two things that seem to be so separate have real connections. The story starts with metal and ends with community.


There it was, leaning against a dumpster on the side of the road in Hayward. Filthy, rusted, discarded, and through his eyes, the perfect piece of mesh metal to complete a shelving unit Billy Lutes was custom building for Manifesta Salon. He pulled his pickup truck over, donned his heavy duty gloves, and tossed the heap of junk in the back. One week later, after deep cleaning, painting, sanding and a dash of wizardry, a completely transformed piece of someone's garbage became the backing on a crafty retail unit for our stunning front desk, also hand-made with love by Billy. Little did he know that his upcycled creation would soon be home to a set of bracelets, sold by our 'Festa partner business Half Hitch Goods, that tell their own amazing story!


As the Half Hitch Goods website (www.halfhitchgoods.com) explains, "250 million bombs... were dropped on Laos by the U.S. during the Vietnam War.  It is a dangerous land because 1 in 3 bombs that were dropped did not detonate and are still land mines today.  Since 80% of Laotians are subsistence farmers... the danger of the undetonated bomb litter presents a food security issue and a barrier to economic development." The story continues that folks from Naphia Village in Laos devised a way to repurpose the metal collected from the bombs, and in collaboration with nonprofit Mine Advisory Group (www.maginternational.org) and design company Article 22, began making the "peace bomb" bracelets to sell internationally, raising awareness and funding that sustains the bomb dismantling effort.

The reason for sharing these stories is manifold. We want you to know that when you walk in our door, you are supporting 2 small local businesses, Half Hitch Goods and Manifesta. When you browse the products housed on our shelves, you are seeing the love that went into the making of our set of practical yet elegant furniture, created by hand from found and repurposed materials by Billy Lutes, life partner to Manifesta Co-Owner KC Lutes. And when you purchase a Peace Bomb Bangle from the Half Hitch Goods collection, not only are you helping to remove land mines from 3 square meters of land in Laos, but you are helping us draw our family circle wider than Oakland. In short, when you pay us a visit, you become an integral part of building our unique community. The door is always open!

HELLO! and COMING SOON: 'FESTA, FEATURING HALF HITCH GOODS

Hello Friends, Family and Community!  Welcome to the debut of the 'Festa blog! For folks who may be wondering what all the 'fest(ivities) are about, we are ecstatic to announce the upcoming launch of Manifesta's community kinship program, 'Festa. From the beginning, Manifesta was intended to be not only a salon, but a business that recognizes it's intrinsic connection to the community around us, and engages in collaborations with other small start-up businesses and neighborhood organizations in ways that help facilitate our mutual success. Particularly in working with local entrepreneurs, we think of 'Festa as a safe place in which new businesses can "test bed" their ideas.  One of the Manifesta(tions) of community kinship we imagine are pop-up retail kiosks of locally sourced artisan/craftsman products. 

On that note, it is with great enthusiasm that we are featuring... HALF HITCH GOODS as our FIRST 'FESTA RETAIL PARTNER!! There are so many reasons we are honored to collaborate with Half Hitch Goods - amazing products, fabulous people, a local business - but perhaps our favorite reasons have to do with telling stories and giving gifts. The practices of storytelling and gift giving are invaluable keystones in community building.  Not only does Half Hitch Goods, itself, have an awesome story, but story telling is a built-in part of the Half Hitch Goods experience (keep reading!).  Half Hitch Goods is also engaged in promoting the spirit of generosity, as the focus of their retail selection is gifting (and just in time for the holidays!) Here's a sneak preview of what Half Hitch Goods offers (for the whole story visit www.halfhitchgoods.com):

"The mission of Half Hitch Goods is to offer the best quality heirloom gift assortment and promote thoughtful gift giving, including impeccable presentation.  The secret to great gifting is finding personal things that have meaningful product stories, which make them significant.  Carrie and her husband (and high school sweetheart) Britton, are documenting their product stories as they travel in their old Volkswagen Vanagon "Doka" to visit artist's studios and learn about their makers." 

Thank you so much for your support. Because reciprocity with those around us is at the core of what we are striving to achieve, please let us know if you or someone you know might benefit from a partnership with 'Festa. Email K.C. Lutes, Community Collaborations, at festa.oak@gmail.com. Stay tuned for more news on 'Festa's 'fest(ivities) and manifesta(tions)!