Conversations with Sky Sakura

Today we’d like to introduce you to Sky Sakura.

Hi Sky, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
Let a trip change your life.

When I was an undergrad at UC Santa Cruz, I worked under the mentorship of Norman Locks- a photographer, artist, and metaphysically curious person. He would take students on field trips to various UC reserves located in wilderness areas. On one trip we drove down from Santa Cruz to the Mojave desert. Having grown up in San Diego, the only nature I knew was manicured beaches. While the trees of Santa Cruz were picturesque, I never developed a real relationship with wilderness until I stepped outside the field trip van into the desert. The brightness, the subtle hues, the soft palate, and boulders the size of desire. I was absolutely changed by this weekend trip.
After finishing my degree in art, Norman’s parting wisdom was “you know, just keep making”. I have attempted to live in response to this soft directive. After leaving Santa Cruz, I lived in Yokohama, Japan where I participated in several artist residencies and was exposed to how professional artists moved about things. I also worked as a translator for arts organizations hosting English speaking artists. Although this would have been a perfectly fine career trajectory, I knew it was time to leave when I felt working in the supportive role may limit my ability to keep making work and grow as an artist. When I got back to the states I decided that I would like to travel indefinitely for some time. My best friend and I packed up her Honda Civic and with little to no outdoor experience, we set off from San Diego and camped, couch surfed, and slept in the car to our hearts content, slowly moving across the US.
At that point I was interested in the idea of a mobile studio, digital photography offered a degree of flexibility and adaptability that appealed to me. Honestly though, I didn’t make much interesting work from that trip, despite lugging around an oversized camera, laptop, and notebooks. The images weren’t looking or feeling the way I wanted and I was happy to let that part go, because the experience of being on the road without purpose or end date was absolutely transformative. One the places we stayed longest was the Joshua Tree region I had visited in college with Norman, where I live now. Unfortunately, though our travel was absolutely splendid and queer, I got accepted into a graduate program I had applied to not really thinking I would get in. So my vagabond project ended with dropping me off in Rhode Island where I attended RISD.
The context of my work dramatically changed during that time. The audience and conversation put a lot of strange pressures on making that took many years to undo. I am still very close to some of the people I met there, it has been a pleasure to see how we have all undergone some version of that process in the years after we were in school.
During the pandemic when everything was the way it was, I was in the middle of transitioning my life out of an academic adjacent career. I asked myself, if there was anywhere I could live, without consideration of anything besides my desire, where would I go? The desert was an easy answer. Since moving here, I’ve set up a studio and work shop to make books, teach remotely, and continue exploring my work as an artist.

I am extremely grateful.

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
One of my friends described himself as “obsessed with doing hard things”. This is a sentiment that resonates loudly with me. Maybe it’s having ADHD, being the offspring of an adventurous immigrant, or just some kind of strange sadistic tendency, but things being hard is something that appeals to me. So in some ways it feels like there’s been nothing but struggles. Some practical, some personal, some societal, some existential. But you know, I’ve had a wildly good time.
Most recently, working in the field of books, there’s a lot more logistics and “businessy” kinds
of work because I’m manufacturing, although at a very small scale, as opposed to making one of a kind prints or work that functions on a wall. It’s required me to learn new skill sets and be practical in a way I had generally avoided previously. That has become the challenge: given reality, how to be practical while not losing that sense of possibility and exploration. How to write proper budgets and not think, “this is obviously not worth it”. How to project manage with care for myself and others I work with. These things might not sound too difficult, but staying human, sane, and kind in the face of real life constraints is an enlightened activity.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I am an artist, most trained in photography, branching out to writing, currently making books. I am a cofounder of a small publishing imprint called AUSTERITY PARTY PARTY.
I am most proud of the various studios and work spaces I have set up over the years. Every time I move, and even the process of moving, has contributed to honing my sensibilities for designing spaces for creative work, working with all kinds of obstacles such as limited space, being a renter, budget, or even spacelessness. I firmly believe that one must build a space to inhabit and work in to suit your needs, lest your creative practice may wither. My most recent achievement has been building a 8’x 8′ structure in my back yard to help foster AUSTERITY PARTY PARTY activities.
As an educator, I am most proud of the work I’ve done to support artists of color and queer artists. I have designed several courses that address the material reality of being an artist, such as building a working space or questions around money and worth. I have also worked with nontraditional interventions such as bridging a meditation practice to a creative practice.
I think what sets me apart from others is that I have been very fortunate to have lots of varied art exposure from childhood on. My mother is an extremely diligent and talented ceramicist, so I grew up in an artist environment. This doesn’t mean that we were especially skilled or trained in creative things, rather creative acts were taken somewhat seriously, not a lot of coloring books or children’s markers- instead my siblings and I had large Strathmore sketch pads and finer grade paints and markers. I learned a lot about craft watching my mom work. As I grew up and into my queerness, there was also a whole larger lexicon to pull from. This dimensionality has made me comfortable in the creative risks I explore.

Any big plans?
AUSTERITY PARTY PARTY, which consists of colleague friends Andre Bradely (Philadelphia) and Nic Dur (New York) is in a nascent stage and we are interested in working at a human pace. Right now we have two books and one in the works to publish this summer. This new book is one of mine, titled “HAHAHA what is it I love”— it’s a fun queer/trans project that I’m excited to share soon. It will be spiral bound-with a glow-in-the-dark spiral! Hoping to offer some online programming for POC artists interested in image/text/books later this year.

Crystal ball says more work more fun more work.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.AUSTERITYPARTYPARTY.com , archive of previous work: www.sakurakelley.com
• Other: everyone@austeritypartyparty.com

Image Credits
Sky Sakura