Guest Blog: Illuminate Art & Light Festival Creative Mind, Monica Sanguino
Illuminate Art and Light Festival Creative Minds
Guest Blog By: Grace McGovern
The Illuminate Art and Light Festival will give the public an opportunity to explore larger-than-life projections and view temporary installations. The Cedar Valley will be lit-up with inspiring, challenging, and thought-provoking creative projects created by artists right here in the Cedar Valley. But who are these incredibly talented artists, and what inspires them to create these challenging and astonishing creative projects? Well, let me introduce you to Monica Sanguino, Indonesia Fulcher, and Taylor Hanson, three of our extremely talented artists working with the Illuminate Art and Light Festival Projects Team to bring these inspiring and thought-provoking creative projects right to your backyard on College Hill.
Monica Sanguino
Monica Sanguino was born in Mississippi and moved to Waterloo, IA at a very young age. She has been creating since she was young. “A vivid childhood memory I have is drawing all over the driveway with chalk.” Said Monica. “I created all of these images of people I knew as flowers for hours.”
At the beginning of college, Monica focused on drawing and painting, but wanted to expand her creative portrayal. She moved into performance arts and video by creating visuals using her body and the earth through video. She fell in love with creative freedom. Most recently, she has been working in soft sculptures that emulate the female body. Her main purpose behind these performances is understanding the body, while also including bigger soft sculptures as an appendage.
“I want my work to convey my own experience as a woman, while also taking up space in the earth.”
Monica has been working with the Projects Team to create an incredible creative experience for the Illuminate Art and Light Festival. She has mainly been experimenting with new media that includes different programs from a more technical aspect. Monica said, “It’s been a learning experience that I am excited to incorporate into my own style of work for this festival.” She is grateful to have the projects team bring some of her ideas to light, while also helping with the technological side of things.
“My artwork means everything to me. Art has been an important part of what makes me a sane person. It’s therapeutic, exciting, sad, disappointing, happy, and so much more. I’ve learned about myself through my art practice, while also changing the way I view the world entirely.” – Monica Sanguino
You can find Monica’s work at the Illuminate Art and Light Festival off of 23rd St. behind the UNI Bookstore.
The Illuminate Art and Light Festival will be held free to the public on May 14 and 15 between 9:30-11:00pm on College Hill. Learn more about the event and its artists at hiloartslab.com. Can’t wait to see you there!
Stay tuned for our next guest blog to learn more about artists Indonesia Fulcher, and Taylor Hanson.
Grace J. McGovern , is a student at the University of Northern Iowa with an IDS of Advertising and Visualization. She is also in Pi Sigma Epsilon and serves as their VP of PR.
“College Hill has changed dramatically since I first encountered it. People shop differently then they did back then. This has affected the businesses located on College and 23rd Streets and retail areas like it all around the country. On the residential side, increased student population has changed the face of neighborhoods through out the College Hill overlay. What will the next thirty five years bring? We cannot be sure, but I feel that it is full of promise. We have a unique opportunity, now more than ever, to shape what College Hill is and what it will become. I strongly believe that the Streetscape construction project mounted by the city of Cedar Falls is the start of a new era for all of us who live, work and play on the Hill.
