collective | connection - artist bios
Meet the amazing artists, poets, writers, actors, and musicians from our collective who wrote and recorded audio experiences inspired by works of art from across the Dallas Museum of Art’s collection.
Adam S. Mahout
Adam S. Mahout writes poetry and music in Denton, Texas. He currently performs with J. Allert, Ditch Prince, and Danielle Grubb. Other works have been featured on the Dentonite, North Texas Review, and here (Spiderweb Salon!)
Alejandra Ramos Gomez
{she/her}
Alejandra is a bilingual educator and performing artist born and raised in Juarez, Mexico. She earned her BA in Political Science and Linguistics from UTEP and her Masters in Bilingual Education from SMU. Her work can be found in three anthologies with the Writers’ Association in Juarez, Mexico, and Pasos en el Norte by Rotary International. She recently delivered a TEDx talk and contributed in a chapter book with Voces Writers in Dallas, TX.
Alex Stock
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Alex Stock has been a part of Spiderweb Salon since 2012. They are a self-taught, multi-media artist with a biology Master’s from the University of North Texas. Their work focuses on the often stifling dynamics inherent in social conflicts from the macabre lens of the natural world and its parallels in animalistic predator and prey relations. Alex works in many different mediums from illustration to interactive artwork and large scale sculpture.
Anjelica Fraga
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Anjelica is a Denton based poet, advocate, and fur mama.
Bess Whitby
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Bess is a writer, cellist, and long-time Spiderwebber living in Denton. She holds an MA in creative writing from the University of North Texas and currently works as the marketing manager for UNT Press. Bess has helped organize Spiderweb shows for almost five years. Her work has appeared in dozens of the Salon's zines.
Bonnie Jo Stufflebeam
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Bonnie Jo Stufflebeam curates the annual Art & Words Show in Fort Worth. She also writes fiction and poetry both speculative and literary that has appeared in over 40 magazines such as Masters Review, Clarkesworld, Lightspeed, and Everyman's Library's Monster Verse. She has been a finalist for the Nebula Award and Selected Shorts' Stella Kupferberg Memorial Prize. She released an audio fiction-jazz collaborative album Strange Monsters with her partner Peter Brewer's Easy Brew Studio in April 2016.
Carolyn Taylor
Cher Musico
{she/her}
As a queer Filipina-American visual storyteller in DFW, my mediums are photography, painting, spoken word poetry, and video art. Most of my creative work blend emotive portraits, my Filipinx-American upbringing, adapting thru my navigation of autism, &/or aspects based on childhood nostalgia.
Christopher David Taylor / Denton Performance Lab
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Chris has been a part of the DFW theatre and arts communities for the last decade as an arts journalist (Stage Directions Blog), a freelance director (Denton Performance Lab), educator and cheerleader for artists stuck on an idea. He lives in Denton with his family and you can often see him running in large groups as a founding member of the Denton Area Running Club.
Clent Wyatt
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As all things are increasingly commodified and branded, Clent seeks to re-create the sacred in our lives.
courtney marie
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courtney marie is a writer and artist based in Denton, Texas. she enjoys working with text as an art medium and performance object and sometimes she plays music with her friends. her first poetry chapbook, don’t get your hopes up, was released in 2018 in a double publication through Thoughtcrime Press, alongside her dear friend Fatima-Ayan Malika Hirsi’s Moon Woman: Mythologies and Truths. courtney marie lives with two cats, loves to travel, and writes a lot of letters.
Edgar Derby
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Edgar Derby is a Hobo Folk musician based in Denton, TX. His music fuses acoustic, lyric-based folk with a unique songwriting style and energetic, multi-instrumental performances. Edgar Derby's debut LP, "Who we Are," was released on 03 November, 2017. Goes well with: Shakey Graves, Lou Barlow, Slobberbone, Bob Dylan
Elise Matthews
Emily Ramser
Emily Ramser is a queer activist-poet-scholar-educator living in Denton, Texas.
Emma Carnes
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Emma is an events coordinator and marketing assistant at the University of North Texas. She is also working on her MS in Applied Anthropology. Her thesis will explore polyamory and public policy and she wants to work for a dating site when she grows up. For fun, Emma likes to get creative or travel.
Erica Cole
Erica Stephens
Emmy Piercy
Francesca Framer
Isabel Crespo
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Isabel Crespo is a United States-born Costa Rican-Ecuadorian vocalist, composer, and collage artist currently living in Denton, TX. She spends her time performing, leading ensembles of varying sizes and genres, and collaborating with artists and musicians both nationally and internationally.
Isabel Deniz
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Born in East Los Angeles, rooted in Jalisco, MX, and raised in Houston, TX Isabel is a creative multifaceted being that likes to shed light on the adversities and successes of her community. Isabel received a B.A. in Radio, Television, and Film from the University of North Texas and currently works as a marketing associate at Medieval Times. She volunteers for Thin Line Fest as an Associate Music Director and proudly skates with the North Texas Roller Derby League. She has been involved with Spiderweb Salon since 2018 and is stoked to continue to collaborate with many talented individuals. Isabel's work has appeared in the Salon's zines.
J. Dallas Guill
James Jackson
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Thanks to his friends and the Denton community, James has found validation and support for not only his identity but also his creative work. A self-proclaimed reincarnation of James Dean, he’s read his non-fiction work at an open mic at Cheers for Queers co-hosted by Spiderweb Salon and at the annual Transgender Day of Remembrance memorial event. He’s currently toiling away on a novel about transgender werewolves, horror short stories and more non-fiction pieces focused around his experiences as a Latinx transman.
Jeanette Laredo
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Dr. Jeanette Laredo is a scholar of all things awful including 18th-century British Gothic literature and Victorian horror. She writes about the dark desires and unrestrained violence that lurk beneath the veneer of polite society. Most nights she can be found listening to podcasts about murder while sipping a hot cup of tea.
Joanna Lugo
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Joanna Lugo is a Puerto Rican-American director, writer, performance artist, and activist, currently serving as Associate Producer for Ensemble, an experience design firm based in Dallas. Prior to joining Ensemble, Joanna assisted in curating a season of plays and musicals at the 2017 Tony Award-Winning Dallas Theater Center as Interim Artistic Producer, performed in Kate Gilmore's exhibition, Only in Your Way, and taught as an Adjunct Professor at UNT, where she designed Performance Studies courses. Her work spans across educational and artistic institutions, where Joanna has worked as Visiting Director, Teaching Artist, Grant Writer, Literary Assistant, and more.
Kamyon Conner
Kim Nall
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Kim Nall is a musician, poet, and high school teacher based in Dallas, TX. She loves language, unfamiliar places, and negative space. Lay Your Vision Down, the debut album from her band, Kim Nall & The Fringe, was released in 2017.
Lei Lei Lashawn
{she/her}
Practicing being myself. Maintaining my health. Increasing my awareness around what is important, adapting to what can not be replaced what I must embrace. I want to make a non-violent difference in my community as I attempt to generate conscious unity. Making a positive imprint on our environmental economy.
Leoncarlo Canlas
{he/him}
Armed with his violin, North Texas based musician Leoncarlo creates sonic landscapes with a palette of harmonious textures that stretches perception of tonal aesthetics. He's been a guest collaborator and session musician on recordings and live performances for a number of diverse national and international acts, including Seryn, Botany, Polyphonic Spree, Alejandro Escovedo, Melanie Safka, and more.
Lesly Gutierrez
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Uhh. Words. Spends a lot of time with fur kids and crocheting. Makes a mean lasagna. Basically a 24 year old grandma.
Logen Cure
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Logen Cure is the author of three poetry chapbooks: Still, Letters to Petrarch, and In Keeping. She curates Inner Moonlight, a monthly reading series at The Wild Detectives in Dallas. She serves as an English faculty member at Tarrant County College.
Dahlia Knowles / Lorelei K
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Lorelei K is an alternative pop project created by Dahlia Knowles. Her third studio release, a sixteen track album recorded at Civil Audio by Michael Briggs, is currently in progress and projected for release in 2019. Dahlia Knowles participates in improv and experimental collaborations particularly with voice, guitar and synths.
Machele Johnson
{she/her}
Machele Johnson is a Dallas based poet and musician who has been sharing her words and sounds for a little over a year and a half. A melomaniac since birth, Machele's inspirations for writing are sound and music with its complexities and structure. She has a need to study, experiment, and report back on the numerous, wordless joys and sorrows one can experience while lost in sound as well as rejoice in the similarities of the human experience and harmony.
Marco Zavala
{he/him}
I'm an ill wad of energy in a dream. If it wasn't for time & base survival, I'd create in all mediums every ridiculous & serious idea I have, as well as consume everyone else's ideas with the attention it deserves. I like snowcones.
Mateo Granados
{he/him}
Mateo Granados was born in Midland only to see the town tainted with a billboard that says George W. was born there. Hate it. After graduating from UNT with a BA in Radio, TV, and Film and a minor in Spanish, Mateo immerses himself in both creative expression and civic engagement.
Morgan Larson / Morgan Lionheart
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Morgan is a nerd, weirdo, and elementary ecology teacher. They daydream of thriving native ecosystems and the fall of capitalism. You can find them reading Baldwin or eating Indian food.
Nina Chantanapumma
{she/her/they}
Nina eats cookies. And fragments sentences. When she's not teaching high schools students how to animate, she's either drawing stuff, fixing things, or hanging out with her corgi, Noodles. She’s here to help.
Rachel Renea
{she/her}
Rachel Renea received her B.A. in Economics and International Relations and completed her M.A. in Humanities-Aesthetic Studies. She is a former Poetry Editor and Fiction Editor for Reunion: The Dallas Review, and she has participated in local poetry and fiction readings at UNT, UTD, and Spiderweb Salon. She currently lives and writes in the Dallas area.
Rachel Weaver
{she/her/they/them}
Rachel Weaver is an agrarian, community organizer, and creative. She advocates for environmental health and local food resilience. She seeks to build strong community relationships and foster opportunities for growth through transdisciplinary environmental education and creative learning.
Rae Inmon
{they/them/he/him}
Trans* non-binary singer/songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and social justice advocate.
Sara Raines 881
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Sara is a Dallas-based artist and musician originally from Waco, Texas, with a BA in Interdisciplinary Art and Design from the University of North Texas.
They work in IT, have successfully tried, and continue to pursue. They enjoy composing experimental music, being specific, free samples, short walks, deep thoughts, inspiring joy, the word "endeavor", and cats.
Sarah Friday
{she/her}
Sarah is a performance artist and designer whose work centers around intersectional feminist issues utilizing the body as the primary means of expression and critique. Sarah received her M.A. from the University of North Texas in 2016 with an emphasis in Performance Studies. Her work often explores the body as both a site and sight of activity, expression, pain, and pleasure.
Sarah Ruth
{she/her/they/them}
Sarah Ruth is a diverse musician and artist – a multi-instrumentalist, she employs hammered dulcimer, harmonium, electroacoustic sound art, and extended vocal techniques. She performs frequently both solo and with multiple bands and improvisational ensembles in the North Texas area and tours nationally.
Sebastian Páramo
{he/him}
Sebastian Hasani Páramo is a poet and literary citizen based in Denton, TX.
Sethnicity
I am a traveler of both Time and Space, Observing and Reflecting, so if you share with me your soul I will share with you my own and always evolving myself to expand the consciousness of humanity one mind at a time.
Shelby Orr
{she/her}
Shelby Orr is an artist and educator based in Fort Worth, Texas. Her work concentrates on the perception of self using photography, drawing, sound, and installation. Along with her visual works, she writes and performs sound compositions and is one half of the creative collaboration KITBASHES.
Tim Hurley
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Tim wants to dissolve into his city (in the good, chemistry/Particle Man sort of way) and knows he has to make art to get there. He works slowly and can only write literally true things.
Tori Falcon
{she/her}
Tori Falcon is Denton based journalist and poet. She is the current EIC of The Dentonite, an alternative online publication and is in her final stretch of her undergrad at the University of North Texas. She wants to dedicate her life to writing and creating conversation about social issues and activism to shine light on silenced communities and silenced perspectives. email: tori@thedentonite.com
Sam Cook
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Conor Wallace
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Conor Wallace is *born and raised in Denton. He loves your creativity. He loves live performance. He loves collaboration.
Dexter
Best dog ever. Dial 420 to say hello.
