Words by Sheryl Nonnenberg
The banner on Whitney Alyssa’s website reads “inspiration, creation and interpretation” and the impact of all three is evident in her mixed-media landscapes. She has created her own technique of collage, inspired by her life in California and with an interpretation that only an artist could produce. But being comfortable with calling herself an artist took some time.
Sitting in her light-filled home studio, with examples of her art on walls and tables as she prepares for an upcoming gallery show, it might be hard to understand her reluctance. “I always held the word ‘artist’ in high regard,” Whitney explains. As a child, she was encouraged to be creative in any way she wanted but gravitated toward working with fabric. She and her mother would browse through vintage clothing stores in her native Georgia, looking for dresses to take apart and refashion. “I viewed myself as a maker, or crafter or designer,” she says, describing those teenaged efforts.
Photo: Courtesy of Whitney Alyssa / Cover Photo: Courtesy of: Rosa Delgado
In high school, she wore her unique designs while taking a lot of photography classes. She loved the medium and prepared to major in photography and fashion design at the prestigious Savannah College of Art and Design. Like most colleges, SCAD required that students take a wide range of classes during freshman year before declaring a major. Although Whitney loved working with film and printing in the darkroom, the shift to digital photography had begun and it wasn’t something she wanted to pursue. She decided to focus solely on fashion design, which proved to be a fortuitous move.
For her senior collection project, Whitney designed six evening and bridal dresses for the annual fashion show and five were chosen to go down the runway (she wore the sixth herself). Vogue magazine editor Andre Leon Talley was in the audience and noticed her work. In a Cinderella-like moment, Whitney found herself meeting the fashion icon and being invited to New York. Once there, Talley arranged for tours of major fashion houses, including the atelier of Anna Maier, a wedding dress designer. Whitney was interviewed and hired on the spot.
Photo: Courtesy of Adam Kuehl
That lucky break kicked off Whitney’s career in the wedding dress industry. As can be imagined, moving to such a big city was exciting but also scary. “I knew not a soul and it was terrifying. I was all alone,” she recalls. Whitney persevered because she knew it was a fantastic learning experience, noting that, “I was able to be involved in every aspect of wedding dress design.”
After getting married in 2010, her life became peripatetic, with moves from New York to California, North Carolina to Pennsylvania. A final move brought them back to the Bay Area where they bought a home in Redwood City and settled with their two daughters. Whitney’s work in the wedding dress industry had disappeared due to Covid, and she began to think of other ways to use her creative skills.
“I always had a vision of having a gallery in my home,” Whitney explains. To fill those empty walls, she began to make art using paper that drew on her skills as a seamstress. She starts with a foundation of hand-colored paper (or unstretched canvas) and then layers other cut papers on top. Whitney uses paper clips to keep the layers together and to move them around as she wants before taking the final step of joining them via the sewing machine.
Photo: Courtesy of Whitney Alyssa
“I think of the sewing machine stitch lines like painting—where do I want the eye to be drawn? Where do they criss-cross?” The result is a combination of collage and quilting—but don’t refer to it as decoration. “I would never categorize my art as decorative,” Whitney says, “and I try to stay in the fine art category. I hope that my aesthetics, my eye and my finish are very refined.”
Her colorful, multi-layered landscapes capture the beauty of the California coast and mountains. “Living here has inspired me,” she says. “We can go to the beach, the wineries or the mountains in less than two hours. It’s pretty special and something I never take for granted.”
Like many pandemic-era artists, Whitney turned to Instagram to get the word out about her new business. The positive feedback was immediate, but she decided to carry on only after asking herself, “Can I see it growing, evolving?” Thanks to her photography background, Whitney was able to create her own content but was wary of online retail. “I didn’t want to get sucked into the world of social media and always wanting to be seen.”
Photo: Courtesy of Rosa Delgado
It’s obvious that Whitney has managed to strike that healthy balance of exposure while retaining her privacy and independence. Thanks to online sales and participation in local art festivals (she is a regular at Filoli, the Palo Alto Festival of the Arts and the San Carlos Art and Wine Festival), her work is getting out there. Whitney also takes on commissions, working closely with collectors to create the perfect piece for a personal space. “I was looking for serenity and a sense of calm in my own home. That is what I hope my work evokes for the viewer.”
Whitney’s work can be seen this summer in a solo show at M Stark Gallery in Half Moon Bay through August 17. The show, “California Dreamscape,” will feature her mixed-media landscapes inspired by places across the state: Carmel, Santa Barbara and San Diego. Whitney explains that she approaches her subject matter not in a literal way, but via her own personal interpretation that is both “organic and abstract.”
Whitney has come a long way from the teenager in Georgia who crafted her own prom dresses and thought that being an “artist” was a lofty and unattainable goal. Now, “I am striving to be a fine artist,” she says. And she is quick to recognize how fortuitous it was that life brought her to California, a place that continues to awe and inspire her, both personally and professionally. “How lucky am I that I get to do something I love so much?”