Former Studio Artists

These former Studio Artists crossed paths on a daily basis with other painters, writers, musicians, sculptors and photographers, which built strong connections that still extend over the island’s creative community.

KYLA PISCOPINK
Dancer, Choreographer

Kyla is the founder/artistic director of Dance Key West. Kyla has danced and shown her work at Dixon Place, Lincoln Center, Triskelion Arts and throughout Key West. She has also performed with Erin Rehberg’s Core Project Chicago, Paradise Ballet Theatre, The Buffalo Jills NFL Cheerleaders, Daniel Gwirtzman, The Love Show, and for artist Manuel Mendive at TSKW during the first US-Cuba museum exchange in 5 decades. Favorite projects include: The ReMARCable Dance Project, a program she created for adults with developmental disabilities, and choreography for ‘Ok, Toilet Bowl’ (a children’s music project by STEVENSTEVEN. Most recently, Kyla choreographed for StylePointe, a New York Fashion Week event which was featured on The Harry Connick Jr. Show.

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MIGUEL PEREZ
Musician, Producer

Miguel Perez is a musician and producer from Key West, Florida and the creator of MC COUSCOUS and the Con Leche Band. Growing up in Key West in the 1980’s surrounded by mysterious packages, “jewelry scales”, Cuban extended family and a colorful cast of Key West characters, Miguel experienced a childhood that was anything but ordinary. Drawing inspiration from a life like no other and an imagination that matches its absurdity, Miguel creates music accessible to all.

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JUDI BRADFORD
Painter, Designer, Milliner

Judi Bradford is an ink and fabric artist living in Key West. She designs one-of-a-Kind hats and lighthearted ink and watercolor drawings. Her hat designs are flirty, dramatic, sophisticated, and feminine with a “Noir” tone. She also turns her hand to ink and watercolor drawings, available as originals, prints and notecards. “It’s surprising how similar sewing and drawing are.”

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CRICKET DESMARAIS
Artist

Cricket Desmarais is a visual and performing artist, yoga, art, and dance instructor, media consultant, and creative and commercial writer who received an MFA in Creative Writing/Poetry with Dance Education studies from NYU. Her work explores order and space within the narratives of the human psyche and the natural world, especially in the macro & micro of the island’s flora, fauna, and marine life. Most of her art-making efforts give way to improvisation and Wabi-sabi, a Japanese world view that centers of three simple realities: nothing lasts, nothing is finished, and nothing is perfect. She lives in Key West, Florida with her two daughters, cat, & dog, and loves mango season best of all.

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SARAH PLAIA DAVIDSON
Yogi, Medicine Woman, Artist

Sarah Plaia Davidson is a yogi, medicine woman and working artist, in both 2D media and 3D. She received her MFA from Louisiana Tech in Ruston, LA, her home state. After a 13 year walk about in New Mexico, during which she enjoyed many extended stays in Key West, she has finally made Key West her permanent home along with her husband Andy Davidson and two border collies, Banjo and Buddha. On some evenings you can find her in the kitchen of Date & Thyme, creating delicious food as a part of her medicine path, in her studio, at The Studios Of Key West creating “the work,” or at home, brewing her medicine oils and tinctures as Maestra of Two Wind Bear. Her work is derived from a strong narrative, often installation based, process oriented, and minimal in depiction. The editing or winnowing process supports the whole in her work, and repeats the heart sutra throughout each body of work…form is emptiness, emptiness is form.

Photo of a female reporter in a bright red shirt and sunglasses with a press lanyard and recording equipment around her neck

NANCY KLINGENER
Southernmost Reporter/Producer for WLRN News

A native of western Massachusetts, Nancy has lived in South Florida since 1989. She came to Key West in 1991 as a staff writer for The Miami Herald and since then has been editor of Solares Hill, library assistant at the Monroe County Public Library in Key West and briefly, front desk clerk at a local guesthouse. She serves on the board of the Key West Literary Seminar and reviews books for The Miami Herald. Her stories run regularly on WLRN and have also been distributed on NPR and Here & Now, a nationally distributed public radio show. Nancy is the Southernmost Reporter/Producer for WLRN News, South Florida’s public radio station broadcasting from Key West to the Palm Beaches.

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