Christopher Sonny Martinez

Sonny is a filmmaker and photographer born and raised in Oak Cliff, Texas. Martinez has lived and produced work in Chicago, New York, and Dallas. Martinez’s work breeds intimate moments from a Queer Chicano lens. Christopher Sonny Martinez was Art's Mission Oak Cliff's first 2021 Artist-in-Residence, ACRE’s 2018 Artist-in-Residence, a graduate of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and has exhibited nationally and internationally.

Joaquin Soto

The dream started in Guadalajara, Mexico, where I was born in a rich cultural city known for mariachi and tequila. My family immigrated to the U.S. when I was seven, and I struggled to adapt to a new language and traditions. By the end of high school, I graduated from Grand Prairie High with a clearer path ahead. I then attended Mountain View Community College, where I reignited my passion for art and entered the art world. This groundwork prepared me to make significant progress, leading to my transfer to the University of North Texas. There, I majored in Visual Arts Studies and earned my art education certification. At UNT, I focused on gaining experiences and connections, spending countless hours in the studio.

My curiosity has helped me discover my style and technique through constant experimentation. This struggle continues today. Thanks to my father, I learned how to use tools early on, spending breaks remodeling homes with him. This taught me to push my limits with the right tools. Operating various tools shown me that anything is possible with the right knowledge and equipment. My work reflects years of training and perfecting my craft. My goal is to keep learning new techniques and materials. I prefer scrap metal because welding and crafting from repurposed materials is therapeutic. I am drawn to the colors, rust, dents, and scratches on metal, as they carry history that I reshape into something new with each weld or cut.

Currently I’m fortunate to share my knowledge by teaching metal art classes at the Creative Arts Center of Dallas. A staple of East Dallas for the last 60 years.

Teddy Georgia

Georgia is a musical and textile artist whose practice runs the gamut from multimedia installations and experimental sound art, to live performance and art-pop. Her work invites audiences to be active participants in a mutually beneficial exchange, where the artwork is a vessel passing energy between viewer and environment. This ethic of exchange informs her material choices as well, favoring discarded construction remnants and found fabrics over new materials, infusing works with the cyclical spirit of reciprocity.

Georgia has composed and produced music for film and interdisciplinary projects, including immersive sound and textile installations for the Meow Wolf art collective’s permanent exhibition, and for the forest paths at the Texas-based annual art-in-situ event Midnight In Nowhere. Alongside her installation practice, she is an active touring musician, having performed across North America, Europe, and the UK since 2015, and frequently collaborates with visual and performance artists across disciplines. Through sound and texture, she creates communal art experiences with the hope of sparking reverent listening and guttural joy.