women artists of LA + marine eyes updates
marine eyes ~ february newsletter
Hello friends,
This year has started with a lot to process. All of us in LA are feeling the weight of how drastically our city has changed. Amidst it all, we've come to recognize the incredible strength and beauty of community. This month, I've decided to spotlight 10 women artists from LA who were impacted by the fires and share ways we can directly support them. ***Don’t fret, March will bring a new women of ambient + expanded ways to listen too. This just felt too important.
women artists of LA impacted by the fires + ways to help
Celia Hollander is a Los Angeles based composer, producer and performer. Combining acoustic and digital elements, her work focuses on themes such as shaping time through composition, surrendering to improvisation, and music as a natural phenomenon of dynamic systems. Her music has been a balm on women of ambient multiple times.
Support her gofundme or directly via Bandcamp.
Hailey Niswanger is a saxophonist and composer who graduated in December of 2011 with a B.A. in Jazz Performance from the prestigious Berklee College of Music in Boston, on a full scholarship. Her list of accomplishments is extensive (playing with jazz greats, indie bands and pop stars) and seeing her play live is a must if you can. I have shared her music via her project Ohma on women of ambient, and love her project MAE.SUN.
Support her gofundme or directly via Bandcamp.
Emily Elbert builds her home in between worlds. The Texas-raised, California-dwelling musician traverses wide-ranging styles, expressing both the contemplative and celebratory, fusing the Earthly with the ethereal. She’s honed her artistry on the road, playing over a thousand independent solo shows from Peru to Palestine, and opening for artists like Norah Jones and Emily King. But Elbert has also become a sought-after collaborator, playing in the touring bands of luminary artists Leon Bridges, Jacob Collier, Jenny Lewis, and Esperanza Spalding - and performing with the likes of Beyoncé, Gwen Stefani, Sara Bareilles, and Lorde. All of these experiences feed into her music today.
Support her gofundme and via her Bandcamp.
Erin Berkowitz is an artist, teacher, and certified California Naturalist. Her work primarily focuses on utilizing local plants as natural textile dyes, and inhabits the intersection of ecology and creativity, exploring forms of inspiration, connection, and care that can develop when the ancient/timeless relationships between humans and the natural world are rekindled.
Support her gofundme + head to her substack
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Morgan Young is an artist living and working in Los Angeles. With a background in sustainable fashion, her work focuses on using repurposed and deastock materials and zero-waste techniques to bring life back into discarded textiles. She finds inspiration from the materials themselves and works to create beautiful tactile textures through each piece.
Support her work here + keep up with her via Instagram.
Brijean Murphy is a percussionist/singer-songwriter (the percussive heartbeat for live bands like Mitski, Poolside, and Toro y Moi). She releases music alongside her partner Doug via Ghostly International and more. Growing up in LA’s Glassell Park, Murphy was raised by a cadre of honorary aunts and uncles – a deep bench of jazz, Latin and soul musicians in their own rites.
Support her via gofundme + via Bandcamp.
Martine Syms is an American artist residing in Los Angeles, specializing in various mediums including publishing, video, installation, and performance. Her artistic endeavors revolve around themes of identity, particularly the representation of the self, with a focus on subjects like feminism and black culture.
Help her family via their gofundme.
Qur'an Shaheed is an experimental pianist, poet, singer and songwriter based in Los Angeles, CA. Trained extensively in jazz, classical and contemporary music, her sound is innovative and personal, incorporating elements of improvisation as well as neo-classical and neo-soul techniques. Shaheed also composes film scores, focusing on projects that reflect on society, history and unifying acts. Her album Process with producer Jesse Justice was released in 2020 on Preference Records. I interviewed her on last week’s cloud collecting!
Help her family via their gofundme.
Skylar Kaplan is a Hollywood native who has been in bands since she was 13 years old. She is currently working on music with Cate Kennan and has made music with her sister for many years, including the band Puro Instinct which was signed to Mexican Summer.
Support her gofundme here.
Tara Walters is an artist and painter whose work is inspired by psychic phenomena and the ethereality of the natural world. Her paintings are created using water from the Pacific Ocean, which adds a unique and personal element to her creative process. The grit of the Pacific’s elements, mixed with paint and washes, creates an otherworldly effect, blurring the lines between the tangible and the mystical. Through her work, Walters seeks to capture the fleeting beauty of nature while exploring the unseen energies that shape our world.
Support her gofundme here.
marine eyes updates
~ I have a new song, 'centuries' included on the epic 98 song compilation Staying: Leaving Records Aid to Artists Impacted by the Los Angeles Wildfires. Every dollar of this comp goes to artists and families affected by the fires. The lineup here is wild-Andre 3000, Arushi Jain, Nailah Hunter, Rachika Nayar + Baths, Odd Nosdam + many more. Huge thanks to Matthew David for pouring so much heart into this project. Find that here:
~ Next up, I have a new collaborative song Remaining out with Antarctic Wastelands! We really enjoyed making this together and I hope you find peace in listening. I loved creating the album + singles photography for this release via Ambient Mountain House, the studio my husband and I run together. Listen here:
~ And, I finally added heart held to my personal BC and will donate all money made from this directly to fire relief. You can find that here: