Earlier this year I had been asked to help judge the 2016 Orange County Fair's photography contest.
After winning Best In Show in 2009 at the OC Fair Photo Competition, it is quite an honor to participate in this distinguished community event!  Over the last couple of weeks I have been judging the photos and WOW there are so many entries!  I'm eager to get to the next few rounds.  There are some great pieces in the sets, best of luck to everyone!

I'll post up some photos from the judging days at the fairgrounds!


​💞💕💞,
Steady J
​

I am extremely excited & humbled to announce that I have been asked to judge the photography contest at the OC Fair this summer!!! 
After winning Best in Show in 2009 at the OC Fair Photo Competition, it is quite an honor to participate in this distinguished community event & I am very excited to be back at the Fair, this time in the judges seat!!!  Can't wait to see all of the amazing work that Orange County has been creating this year! 

Below is the shot that earned me Best in Show, ✨ "Meadow in Wonderland."  The Orange County Fair liked it so much they bought it and added it to their Permanent Collection!  It was even published on the cover of the Local section of the OC Register (also linked below)!
Winning this award was an awesome moment & it feels amazing to help someone else reach this accomplishment this summer!!! 🏆🏆🏆

Shoutout to OCC School of Photography, I was still a photo student when I submitted this series to the Fair, & I owe a lot of this accomplishment to my photography professors & community at OCC Photo.


💞💕💞
SteadyJ

Happy to say I have been published in OC Weekly again!  This time it's for a DJ duo called BOOTLEG! They have a new twice monthly residency at Casa in Costa Mesa, and are committed to create a dance party that's free from pretense.
Check them outdoin' the thang!

Saturday Dec. 6th during the Art Walk at Plaza Santa Ana in the historic Arts District of Downtown Santa Ana, the Free Foundations Family threw an event entitled “Warm Up the Night - Coat Drive, Music, and Art”. In an effort to help those in need, the event is centered around collecting warm, gently worn and/or unused garments that will be distributed by their street team to less fortunate members of the surrounding community.  Free Foundations, along with it’s sponsors, are looking to keep the local homeless population warm throughout the cold winter months with the clothing gathered from this event.

Donors receives raffle tickets enabling them to win great prizes gracefully donated to Free Foundations by the areas favorite local businesses including: Diego’s Downtown Restaurant, Bowers Museum, Black Flys, Bespoke, Hastamuerte, Left of the Dial Records, Chipotle, Taqueria Guadalajara, Boldo Bol, Proof Bar, Crave, American Barbershop, Steady Jenny Photography, Wursthaus, and more. Graffiti artists Thanks One & Rickster with UTI Crew, and Michael Petow and Highsun painted some live graff on site, all of their valuable and unique work produced that night was donated to families who won on the raffle!

Live entertainment was provided by 2mex, Cal1fa (Formerly Known as Badfish), ITALIX, Modern Day Soulja, Tha Locust, Rec Room, Mr. Good Day and Johnny Love. DJ’s Cancun Joey and Abztrakt provided music between performances.

We are in awe of how wonderfully everything and everyone flowed together to help make this vision a reality. Every single person involved helped make this a success, in big part because every single dedicated soul worked hard at doing their part and helping out others!

We are deeply indebted to both our ‪Free Foundations Family‬ & our new friends and volunteers. Without this assistance, ‪Warm Up The Night‬ would have not been remotely possible... we want to thank you all for helping to uplift and improve our community!  The best is yet to come!!!

Hemp Radio mentioned Warm Up The Night in their podcast the other day!!! Love it so much thank you Patti & Kandace with OC Norml for helping to spread the word! 

The Yost Theater - DTSA - August 2014

[The atmosphere] is like a rock show, but there's something for everyone. Everybody's there to have a good time."

Each incarnation of Music For Humanity aids a new cause, and this year's event for Syria raises awareness and funds for people impacted by the war torn region. All of the proceeds from ticket and merch sales will go directly to Islamic Relief USA, a non-profit organization that will assist Syrians in need of food and medical supplies. Eshanzada and Rockn note that a recent shift in border conditions will allow Islamic Relief to take supplies directly into Syria, versus aiding refugees in neighboring countries. The duo chose Islamic Relief because of their positive interactions working with them in the past, and the organizations ratings from non-profit watchdog site Charity Navigator.

Rockn and Eshanzada currently operate as a fundraising team, but hope to gain enough support and attention to register Music For Humanity as an official non-profit organization. Support for merchandise and various costs for their events come courtesy of private donors, and both men express gratitude towards the artists on their bill for rallying behind their cause and performing pro bono. The ultimate goal for Music For Humanity is to raise awareness and funds, but in an environment where people want to come back and do it again.

Diego's - DTSA

This was overall a very successful show,  so many of my closest friends and family came out for the evening, I felt so blessed and surrounded by love.  Here's a few messages from when the show was in the works: 

I've been hustlin' & I miss everyone SO much; I'd love to be blessed with your presence at my solo show of 2014! 
Can't wait to see all of you loveys!!! I'm workin fast to get everything ready for the show, it's goin to be so nice to finally be able to just CHILL & talk with all of you!

We all have so much going on in our lives and many of us are doing some really amazing and life changing things!
I want to hear about all of our journeys so please, if I am busy talking to someone when I first see you next Saturday, know that I will make it a point to catch up with you at some point in the evening! 

Not to worry, Diego's Downtown is generously providing appetizers, and I quote: "an Agua Fresca with booze for the first hour."

Peep the Facebook Event Page!
Once again, was way too busy runnin' the show to take any photos myself, luckily I have a little help from my friends to make sure I have a way to document the night! <3

The first BOX SOCIAL went down on Saturday, October 5th & also doubled as my BORN DAY celebration!  I turned 29 that year and it marked a few momentous milestones in my life that made the day extra special.

Located in a 4,600 sq ft gallery directly next to The Yost Theatre in Downtown Santa Ana, this was originally a ONE NIGHT ONLY show that featured work from artists, photographers and musicians from Santa Ana, along with their peers from LA, NY and D.C.

I was invited to help curate this event by my good friend and fellow artist Michael Ziobrowski, AKA X is the Weapon, and brought a few of my graff artist friends to come throw some pieces up.  Because the first BOX SOCIAL was so successful, we were invited to do a second BOX SOCIAL, on Nov. 2nd, 2013 during Downtown Santa Ana's Art Walk & Santa Ana's annual Dia De Los Muertos festival.

This art show and art sale was artist driven, allowing all participants to break the mold and take total control of this large blank canvas.  Guests experienced a variety of murals, installations, fine art, graff art, photography, film and music from some of the areas leading creative minds.  Our goal was to bring the spotlight to Santa Ana and cultivate the imagination of the community.

I will throw up a few images here but the full collection of images from both shows can be found on my Facebook page.

Read an AWESOME article Santanero Zine wrote about the show & interviews with myself and some of the artists!

Yours Truly,
SteadyJ

So after such a perfect & crazy night, I have (almost) recovered from the incredible evening that was the Steady Jenny Photography & The Yemen Peace Project Photo show! 
My Instagram & FB newsfeeds have been swarming with photos and well wishes from Saturday and let me tell you, it feels AMAZING!!! It's better than my Born Day!

I would be NOWHERE without the undying support of my friends, admirers & family!!!  I have been told many times over the past few days that I inspire people, but the truth is, when I grabbed everyones attention to say a few words that evening, seeing all of YOU there in one room listening to my ramblings was the most inspiring feeling in the WORLD, and reminded me why I'm doing this and how FUN it is to throw these events and connect everyone to a world that seems so far away, but isn't really..

Everyone commented on how positive the vibe was and how chill my peeps are!  This is so important to me because no matter how good my work is, if I am not able to help create a welcoming vibe, no one will want to spend their Saturday night with me! ♥ So THANK YOU for being so darn legit!

It also must be said that I know it's not everyones priority to spend their Saturday night looking at the not-so-carefree realities of far away lands that seem to bear no relation to our culture.  And whether I guilted you into attending my show or you came because you are truly interested and concerned about a society other than our own, the fact that you decided to take a look into my life's work MEANS THE WORLD to me. 
With that said, we had about 250 people come visit and were able to raise enough money to cover the cost of the show!

Thank you ENDLESSLY for attending and supporting, please stay tuned for more updates of the next show and my fundraising efforts to fund my trip to Gaza!
 ♥ ♥ ♥

Steady Jenny Photography and The Yemen Peace Project teamed together to share their stories and photos of the Middle East. Portions of the proceeds went to their respective charitable causes. There were snacks and wine and live music and lots of fun people to mingle with at a unique indoor/outdoor venue, perfect for a June summer night!

Steady Jenny is a documentary photographer who has been covering various social and political issues for over a decade. She will be sharing her award winning photos she took in The West Bank, Israel and Jordan. 


"The Yemen Peace Project was created by a group of students and activists with the aim of working for peaceful solutions to the crises facing the people of Yemen. We believe that any US involvement in Yemen's affairs should be aimed at improving the lives of Yemeni citizens, rather than augmenting the Yemeni regime's capacity for violence. Most importantly, we believe that all people, whether in Yemen or the United States, deserve the same rights and freedoms, including freedom from war.