Erin Maroufkhani is honored to be an organizer and artist for the Riverside Rise Mosaic Mural. She is a teacher and community mosaic artist. Rochelle Kanatzar mentored Erin from 2013-2014, during her UC Riverside teaching credential program. Under Rochelle’s wing, Erin was introduced to Langston Hughes, Emmett Till, Harlem Renaissance writers, poets and artists, and restorative justice practices. Rochelle’s classroom not only informed but inspired Erin to expand her own anti-racist pedagogy. Erin taught English and Theatre at Wright Middle School STEAM Magnet in Los Angeles Unified School District from 2014-2020. She is the co-creator of the National Wall of Respect mosaic mural in Riverside, which celebrates individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities. She received the LAX Coastal Chamber of Commerce Teacher of the Year in 2017. Erin sends her love and deep gratitude to Shea, Rochelle, Margie, the amazing artists, extraordinary installation crew, her parents, Cathy and Greg Maxwell, her family, her husband Shane, and her beautiful children, Jimmy and Stella, all of whom inspired and made this artwork possible.
Rochelle Kanatzar is an Instructional Specialist for Targeted Supports and Community Engagement within the Curriculum and Instruction Division for Riverside Unified School District (RUSD). Prior to her work at the District Office, she served as an English teacher for 11 years at the secondary level. Over her career, Rochelle contributed to instructional leadership by providing professional development to teachers within the areas of professional learning communities, identifying best instructional practices, effective collaboration skills, and building organizational capacity as it pertains to cultural competence. She worked collaboratively to establish the district’s first cultural proficiency institute, improve the A-G completion rates for English Learners and African American students, and developed community programs targeted towards parent voice and engagement. Rochelle is a long-time Riversider who resides in the exact neighborhood she grew up in, with her husband Floyd and their daughter Edison (11). A believer that the voices of the marginalized need to be heard, she is an active member of the Inland Empire Chapter of the NAACP and is a commissioner for the Human Relations Commission for the City of Riverside.
Sheamonique Ellis Tracey is an Education Specialist for students with Mild to Severe disabilities. It was during her undergraduate studies that she learned about Black history and the contributions made in the areas of literature, and humanities. It was also here that she began her fight for marginalized people and for equity in education. Sheamonique previously taught for LAUSD and currently teaches for Riverside Unified School District in the STEP Program. Sheamonique is a wife and a mom of two amazing boys, Sean and Mason.
Edison Kanatzar is a scholar at Alcott Elementary School. Her interests keep her very busy and they include participating in art classes at the Riverside Art Museum, reading mystery novels, playing violin with the Honors Orchestra for Riverside Arts Academy, and playing golf with her grandfather. Because of the social activism of her parents and grandparents, Edison has attended many community events and marches highlighting social injustices.
Cathy Maxwell started her journey of creating mosaic art in 2003. As a professional mosaic artist and collaborative public art mosaic artist, she has created murals for schools and has taught mosaic art to children as an Independent Arts Educator for the Riverside Arts Council. Cathy has also taught mosaic classes at the Riverside Art Museum.
Some of Cathy’s inspiration includes her travels through Mexico, her family, historic sites in Riverside, and sea life.
Highlights of Cathy’s collaborative public artworks, with her husband, Greg, include, two 5-foot fiberglass oranges covered in mosaic art: “Under the Citrus Sun”, for the Riverside Art Museum, and “Riverside: Sister City Across the Sea” for the city of Sendai, Japan. Cathy also collaborated with her daughter, Erin Maroufkhani and Greg Maxwell on “The National Wall of Respect” a 43-foot by 10- foot mural, created for the Arc of Riverside to honor its clients with developmental disabilities and to bring the message of Respect, Dignity, Inclusion, Justice for people with and without disabilities. Cathy and Greg designed and created “Angela’s Wings”, a 10-foot by 10-foot memorial mural for the Gomez family of Riverside in 2019.
Cathy was very honored and excited to have been a participating artist for “The Rise! Mural”.
Her goal is to bring awareness to the beauty and importance that public art offers, as well as the important dialogue that public art brings to all people.
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Greg Maxwell, a native of Riverside, is a General Contractor specializing in residential remodeling and renovations.
His art history began 20 years ago, working with clients to create custom designs for their showers, countertops, and floors. Greg took this experience and started making mosaic art pieces for family, friends, and his customers.
He has worked with his wife, Cathy, creating mosaic art pieces for the Riverside Art Museum and the City of Riverside. As a collaborating team, Greg and Cathy, commissioned by the City of Riverside, created mosaic art on a giant orange, as a 50th-anniversary gift to Riverside’s oldest Sister City, Sendai, Japan. The art has been on permanent display at the Sendai International Center since 2007. Greg worked in collaboration with his daughter, Erin Maroufkhani, and his wife, Cathy, to create a large public mural, “The National Wall of Respect,” for the Arc of Riverside. Greg also collaborated with Cathy on a memorial mural, “Angela’s Wings” for the Gomez family in Riverside. He currently has mosaic art pieces on display in the new main library in Riverside.
Greg has been honored and proud to be one of the artists collaborating on “The Rise! Mural”.
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A multidisciplinary artist who works in several media, Adeola has a way of bringing colors together to create a visual sensation. When you look at my paintings, you feel the joy and happiness the colors convey, Adeola said. Adeola is very aware of colors and forms and how they work to captivate her audience.
Adeola's first public exhibition was at the National Orange Show where she won an honorable mention for her work “Wings of Love”. She has since won many awards for her paintings and jewelry designs. Adeola was the featured artist at the 1997 Inland Empire Alzheimer’s Association Art Auction and the Annual African- American Artist Festival. Her image “Serenity” and “Praising the Lord” were used as the poster image respectively. She has exhibited at local and national juried shows and also served as a juror for local art competitions.
Adeola is proud of her involvement with the African American Summerfest from 1992-1998 special youth exhibition called, “Tomorrow’s Masters” which honors youths from kindergarten through 12th grades. She was a member of the task force committee in formulating the County Cultural Plan for the County of San Bernardino. Her work is in both public and private collections, such as Toni Morrison, Riverside Art Museum, Chaffey Community Museum of Art, National Orange Show, Loma Linda Ronald McDonald House, and many more.
Adeola works in different mediums. Her first love is the oil and acrylic medium. For several years, she developed a love for the printmaking process. Adeola now works with both mediums to create some of her work. In addition to painting, she enjoys working with enamels and metalsmithing to create wearable art. Some of Adeola’s paintings have been shown on the set of Fox’s television drama “Time of your Life,” NBC’s drama, “The Others,” ABC’s “Greys Anatomy”, “Blackish”, most recently HBO’s “Insecure”, CBS’s “The Neighborhood”, Bob HEART Abishola and many more.
To follow her creative work follow her on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/adeolastudio_art/, https://www.instagram.com/adeolametalsmithstudio/ and like her page at https://www.facebook.com/AdeolaStudio"
Cynthia Huerta is a mixed-media Community Artist, Art Curator, and Arts Advocate that has been showing, collaborating, and servicing the many Inland Empire communities for over 16 years. She explores and works in diverse mediums including painting, watercolor, sculpture, drawing, printmaking, and wood-burning. Cynthia received her bachelor’s in Art Education/ Art Therapy from CSUSB.
She has taught Art workshops for Cal State San Bernardino, UCR Undocumented Student Programs, Teaching Residents at Teachers College through Columbia University, Google Austin, Latinas at Google, Success in Motion, RUSD, AUSD, and non-profits throughout the Inland Empire.
Cynthia is a working and teaching artist from Riverside that continues to uplift and represent her community.
To create one’s world in any of the arts takes courage. Georgia O'Keeffe
For myself, the art I create is through food. My artistic expression is through culinary arts. I'm a professional chef and baker. I have had the pleasure of presenting my expressions of fine dining to people around the world for the past six years. Art in all its forms represents freedom of ideas. These ideas are then given to the world as gifts of love. The Rise Mosaic is one of those gifts, in which people of all communities came together in hope of spreading this love and honoring those who have trailblazed and sacrificed for all people.
Creativity when expressed through art begins as a menagerie of ideas which are then folded down into an all-encompassing product that is presented to the world. My creative expression is through the world of theater arts. I have been studying theater arts since middle school. This year I will be a junior in high school and am looking forward to the upcoming theater season. My goal after high school is to continue studying theater arts at UCLA. The Rise Mosaic Project was a chance for artists from all types of genres to come together and participate in an event that uplifts the community. I am honored to be one of the artists.