Laura Cesari of California - Fantasy Deco Dreamworld Artist

2024, Santa Cruz, in my original hand-drawn Scallop Maille Mermaid Paisley wrap-around dress for Caballera

2023, Invisibility series retrospective! Invisible Woman and Millenium Armchair, in my studio in the Pacific Coast Mountains.

2019, in my home in the Pacific Coast Mountains, with Antelope Woman Quilt, an old favorite piece I made in 1998 in a class with legendary artist Faith Ringgold.

2014, A work gap! Although, I confess, incubating new humans did feel a lot like work to me.

2013, Not all my cats do this, but it's an example of how amazing cats can be! This one was too wild for adoption, they said. I recommend positive reinforcement and patience. ♥

2010, with Northern Hemisphere Latitudes necklaces, an infographic jewelry series I designed to measure the distances of the Latitudes, with each bead representing 50 miles, for Chain of Being Jewelry Co.

2009, I love ridiculous, misunderstood, exotic-hybrid problem cats. I've adopted and rehabilitated four of them over the years. Don't worry, they just need cat whispering. Photo by JP Li.

2008, sittin' in a tree... with my amazing partner Jeremy Richardson.

2003, San Diego, wearing Fire Skirt! after Cyberfashion 2003. Runway makeup by Jeanette LaChappelle. Photo by Coppercat.

1997, in San Diego, with Invisibility: Millenium Table. Photo by Amanda Byer.

1978, at Laguna Seca Raceway, watching my dad race a vintage car that he and my mom restored. Super adorabeezle jumpsuit by my mom, a longtime designer for Lorrie Deb by Emma Domb of San Francisco.

I love my wild family legends! And everyone loves Cleo! Sometimes people fuss about her skin color, but I love her however she was. She has so many movies, and always the most savagely gorgeous outfits. But does she win the rap battle? ♥

My favorite family legends are the stories of Chaotic Good heroes and badass ladies. I hope to go to a Michelina-themed brigante faire one day! ♥

With this name, a sense of humor is absolutely required: I collect the memes and movie posters! It's hard to say which is my favorite but I love this classic Messalina poster. Devoradora de hombres! ♥ NSFW! ♥

My great-grandfather, Giuseppe Luccarotti, designed the terrazzo floor for the San Francisco City Hall in 1915. It's immortalized in the hilarious and adorable film 'Bedazzled' in this scene, with Elizabeth Hurley's epic eye-roll and Brendan Fraser's exuberant victory dance, where (spoiler alert!) Elliott realizes he still has his Soul. ♥ ♥ ♥

Original Lines, Feral Beauty

Inspired by decorative arts, fantasy, and folklore, my artwork is intended to be feral, unrooted, and timeless.

I love making my own original lines; reflecting on the themes I've seen and felt as a 5th-generation Californian artist: I'm an especially big fan of Cali's folk arts evolution from our early-1900's Art Deco to our 1960's-70's Psychedelic Art Nouveau resurgence, and motifs inspired by my roots in the Mediterranean, Himalayas, and South America.

In hybridizing these elements, I've made my own unique multicultural dreamworld of mythical numinae; in surreal nature-inspired landscapes, they show a harmony and connection between humans, animals, plants, and the Universe.

We grow up on tales of mermaids, angels, dragons, and fairies, and we accept these mythical creatures with a sense of imaginative childlike wonder. I hope my hybrid beings and multicultural deco drawings can inspire people to think inclusively and love each others' differences in the same way that we love mermaids, angels, dragons, and fairies. ♥

In addition to drawing pictures of mythical creatures, I also like bringing a fantasy-inspired element to decor and everyday objects. My Mermaid Paisleys, Wild Beaded Flowers, Bikini Armor, Fabulous Wallflowers, and other designs from my art shop, Caballera, are designed to infuse reality with whimsy and imagination.

Wearable arts can transform us into valkyries, mermaids, or walking gardens.

As we manifest more fantastic and mythic versions of ourselves, we open to a world of constant miraculous creative beauty.

If enough of us can take a step back from the hate and prejudice that society constsantly forces on us, realize the world is a total effing miracle, and do something beautiful, maybe we can inspire enough people to wake up and help make the world more magical for everyone. ♥

Honorable Mentions

Featured by ELLE and ELLE DECOR magazines, The Planetary Society, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), National Public Radio (NPR), Los Angeles Contemporary Museum of Art (LACMA), Museum of Contemporary Art of Western Spain (MEIAC), Museum of Modern Art (MoMA New York), and The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC).

STEAM Design and Collaborations

I confess, I'm a huge nerd! ♥ I love the intersection of art and technology, and I've also worked for many years in graphic design, animation, information design, and interface design, focusing on STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics) industry design projects.

For a few selected examples of my STEAM design work, please visit my Design Page.

Academics

I studied at the University of California, San Diego, with emphasis in Studio Arts and Computing Arts, and earned a Stewart Prize in art study and support from the Russell Grant and U.S. Grants foundations.

Magnanimity & Environmentalism

My official alignment is Chaotic Good; and it's probably also the closest thing I have to a religion. Exemplified in dynamic characters like Robin Hood and Fa Mu Lan, a Chaotic Good philosophy demands that we re-examine corrupt laws and rules, do the right thing, and consider what will actually be helpful to the common good and people as a whole.

I do my best to work with people and companies who are doing something good for the world, and to walk away from everyone else, (and it can be tricky! Even in arts, education, and sciences, there are people and companies out there who seem ok but want to use our powers for evil). And I'm lucky: I live in a land where I don't have to be an outlaw, but I may be known to break the rules of what an artist, designer, model, business owner, tech nerd, or lady should do - oops! ♥

And, I try to give back to the world to repair any damage done by anyone from my dumbass family, or by really any dumbass humans ever.

At this time, I'm mostly giving back air: I live in a so-called "tiny home" under enough Giant Redwoods to offset a minimum of approximately 450 average humans-worth of carbon emissions (yes, average car-driving, gas-guzzling, grid-dwelling, appliance-using regular humans). It will never be enough, but I do like that the air doesn't discriminate, anyone can breathe it. Go trees! ♥

I follow a bespoke "slow fashion" business model, where everything is made-to-order or handmade, keeping environmental waste to a minimum.

I also love ridiculous, misunderstood, exotic-hybrid problem cats. I've adopted and rehabilitated several of them over the years. And yes, I adopt "regular" cats too! I recommend adopting a pet from the SPCA. ♥

Family History, Legends, and Folklore

Yes, those Cesari! Like the family of legendary weirdos. And now everyone has a translator in their pocket, and these days people seem more likely to assume than ask questions, so here goes:

People can sometimes make all kinds of weird assumptions about me owning a bunch of hotels or casinos or sports arenas or pizza restaurants or spooky olde ruins; making movies and TV shows; running an Ancient-Rome-or-Brigante-themed LARP faire somewhere; or luxuriating on a lovely ancestral fortune that was miraculously saved before the empire fell.

At first this bothered me, (che casino! haha), but then I realized it was a really great way to filter out mean people and anyone who didn't pay attention in history class. And I want to be clear: it doesn't bother me if people make films or write books or name things after legends: I'm glad they like them too!

However, it can be pretty silly when people assume that I get a dollar every time someone goes to the movies or buys a pizza or visits the Colosseum (whether you're thinking of the one in Rome or the one in Oakland, both have been rumored!), because I really, really don't. ♥

And no, I'm not trying to take over the world! ♥

I'm often presented with a paradox: I can acknowledge the legends and be accused of having Delusions of Grandeur, or I can pretend they don't exist and be an Ignorant Guttersnipe. Grandeur or Guttersnipe? Which is better?

So, I'm maybe-or-maybe-not possibly related to radical freedom fighter Michelina; glorious exaggerative renaissance painters Bernardino and Cavaliere d'Arpino Giuseppe; virtuous philosopher-king Marcus Aurelius and his tragic failure meme-king Commodus; party boy Nero; hot mess Messalina; horse whisperer Caligula; any of the mysterious three Agrippinas or twelve-or-twenty-or-forty-something Caesars; or ancient Rome's controversial racially-integrated first family Julius, Cleopatra, and Cesarion. (Or Cesarion-Jesus, if you prefer! And calm down, it barely changes either retelling, I love them both! Besides, shouldn't it actually be about the things he did? As far as I can tell, if you love love, and you hate hate, you are probably doing it right.) ♥ ♥ ♥

In any case, it is my true born name, and I've had to live with it my entire life, and so I've had to discuss and speculate about these legends my entire life too.

My favorites are the stories of Chaotic Good heroes and badass ladies. ♥

In retelling and discussing these wild family legends, I confess, I've developed a severe allergy to hype and thrall, and maybe an unusual tendency to do my own thing. They are all so different, I can't possibly be like all of these legendary weirdos, but I try to understand their weird ideals and intentions, and to learn from their legendary mistakes. And I wish more people would! They're cautionary tales, not role models, for Venus' sake!

And, weirdly enough, many of the themes in their stories; Chaotic Good, creative expression, animal rights, gay rights, women's rights, matrilineal inheritance, citizenship, women standing up for themselves, support for arts and sciences, food security, racial integration, questioning autocracy, and having compassion for others; are still interesting points in conversations today.

Are their stories true or false? Accurate or exaggerated? Am I offended? Most of their stories were written two thousand of years ago and translated from dead languages: do we take them literally, or are they drenched in a heavy syrup of metaphor?

Correct or not, I love all the interpretations, from Suetonius to Shakespeare, Mel Brooks to Mary Beard. With this name, a sense of humor is absolutely required: I collect the memes and movie posters! ♥

Despite all the fun Cesari folklore and hype, my most famous ancestor who I've actually met is on my Mom's side, my great-grandfather Giuseppe Luccarotti, who designed the terrazzo floor of San Francisco City Hall in 1915, around the time when many of my ancestors came to California from the Mediterranean, Himalayas, and South America. It's immortalized in the hilarious and adorable Chaotic Good film 'Bedazzled' in the scene with Elizabeth Hurley's epic eye-roll and Brendan Fraser's exuberant victory dance, where (spoiler alert!) Elliott realizes he still has his Soul. ♥ ♥ ♥

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