nicole shaffer

It’sssss Hadley’ssss BIRTHDAYYYYYY!!! “I wonder what hat I should wear today…” they said 🫀🫀🫀 Freak of my heart, love of my life, Hadley Raysor Smith was born on this day 42 years ago. Thank the gods it is so, because Hadley lights up the lives of everyone they meet. Double glasses wearing, naked flute playing, transexual Snow White to the creatures of the woods. Hadley will bring a pack of dogs to cheer you up at the hospital or nursing home. They will encourage you to sing. Quick witted and hilarious. A true freak in the best of ways. Athleisure enthusiast, coach gender by day, autograph gathering, consistently excited by life and by you, pleated pants, tidy home, business minded, enormously loving and caring, creature whispering, action oriented, talented, powerful, intuitive, courageous, and eccentric weirdo, gay homosexual pervert of the stars, hottest person to ever walk the earth. Hadley can’t hide who they are if they tried, and they never would. True blue and a delight to be around. Hadley Raysor Smith, my greatest love, enjoys all the little details of being alive. They grieved big losses and understand what it takes to love yourself when the community around you growing up couldn’t see you. Hadley will get thru anything life throws at them with love and softness and presence. They don’t tolerate shitty behavior and know how to protect their peace. They are affectionate and warm and sweet I adore them so much!! Hadley is also a birthday diva so pls go show them some love today!!! @sharpbiscuits So in love with you, sir! Rose petals at your feet forevermore 💋💋💋🌌🌌🌌❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥🫀🫀🫀🌊🌊🌊

Our sweet and bright friend, family, and community member, Tosha Stimage died on March 3 or heart complications. Some of her dear loved ones, Matt, Chris, Angela, Bloodstone, and Rachel organized a fundraiser to take care of her end of life expenses. The money will pay for things like the cost of bringing her body back to her family in Ohio, and bringing her Ohio family of origin out her to meet her Bay Area family as we celebrate the life of our adored and beloved friend. 🫀🫀🫀🌌🌌🌌 Link in bio. I have so much more to say, but for now will keep it at this. Tosha would share the last of her $$$ to help her friends and family survive and experience some sweetness, I can attest to that! Let’s do right by her and honor her life with celebrations and actions that bring warmth and beauty and deeper connection to her grieving community. From the go fund me page: “Tosha showed us how to engage in practices of solidarity rather than charity. This mutual aid fundraiser is for us to join in financial solidarity to cover all funeral and related expenses including: -medical and coroner bills -funeral home costs in Oakland -transport Tosha’s body from Oakland to her family in Columbus, Ohio -funeral and burial costs in Columbus -support family traveling to Columbus for the funeral and to the Bay for Tosha’s memorials in late May -pay rent on Tosha’s studio until her belongings can be gifted -cover related expenses we have not anticipated yet If additional funds remain after reimbursements, a trust will be established for Tosha’s youngest family members. Efforts are underway to plan a series of memorial activities in the Bay the week of May 23-31, 2026.” Love you Tosha. 🫀🫀🫀

[FUNDRAISER NOW CLOSED — We raised $5,300 and have donated 100% of it evenly amongst these three organizations!!] Valentine’s Day, but make it about migrant justice & community care! A fundraiser by Bay Area Florists ❤️‍🔥 TLDR; Win a 13-month subscription of floral arrangements! Each month you’ll receive a flower delivery from one of the participating Bay Area florists/ artists/ creatives 🫶🏽 •$20 per raffle ticket, enter as many times as you’d like. Venmo to @VLLAVE •Raffle will close next week February 13th, winner contacted February 14th •Winner must provide delivery address located in Bay Area to redeem prize •All proceeds will be evenly distributed to: — Alameda County Immigration Legal Education Partnership — Hijas del Campo — Sogorea Te’ Land Trust •Participating florists: @bloomwellandco @flowerandforage @aamberlu @villageno7 @lelaquiros @nicolekshaffer @p_e_a__rl @pquinnnnn @lambertfloralstudio @saintfloraco @misterleedesigns @unwrittenflorals @llavefloral Grateful for this offering, where a majority of us ARE immigrants or children of immigrants, and grateful for what we can accomplish together in community.

The @kalaartinstitute fellowship exhibition closes in just over one week! The show closes on Sat Oct 25th, with a closing reception on the 25th from 2 - 4. Gallery hours are Tuesdays - Fridays, 12-5 pm & Saturdays, 12-4 pm. I made two new pieces during my fellowship at Kala. The work pictured above touches on themes of protection, ghosts/ancestors, and the experience of mutual recognition between trans/gender variant and mad/neurodiverse people.. or anyone who experiences living in a non-normative body. It’s an altar to protect our ability/means to know who we are, and be surrounded in soft spaces to recognize our radiance, together. The two-person hand held mirror sits on top a quilted fabric stitched together with silver embroidery that was created by tracing a collection of Luther Burbank’s photographic records of fruits and flowers he deemed “unfit”. The strength and structure for building a soft and protective space comes from the “unfit fruits” that came/went before us. The mirror is cut glass that I silvered to create the reflective surface. When I visited Luther Burbank’s estate, I saw it was adorned with Victorian era cut glass. When thinking about dismembering the hospital grounds or Burbank’s research grounds and taking back the orchard (as I do with this body of work), I imagined repurposing the starburst cut glass and turning it into a mirror to reflect our own radiance. The wood is carved out from old oak furniture.

Starts today! (Friday) come check it out! 🩵

Last week to see the privacy curtain, up now in the group exhibition “Lay of the Land” @rootdivision , alongside the work of some wonderful Bay Area artists. Curated by @julianna_heller @_naomialessandra_ and @instaeleanor Exhibition Dates: June 11 - July 26, 2025 Featuring work by: Jeremiah Barber (@_jeremiahbarber_ ) Alicia Escott (@alicia_escott ) Emily Gui (@blueprints ) Jada Simone Haynes (@blkvangOgh ) Shao-Feng Hsu (@shaofenghsu ) Phil McGaughy (@philmcgaughy ) Joshua Moreno (@stopjoshgo ) Eleanor Scholz O’Leary (@instaeleanor ) Sun Park (@sunparkparksun ) Callan Porter-Romero (@hands4yomama ) Tricia Rainwater (@triciarainwaterart ) Naomi Alessandra Schultz (@_naomialessandra_ ) Nicole Shaffer (@nicolekshaffer ) Catherine Wang McMahon (@catherinewangmcmahon ) Thank you for the beautiful photos @hunterthegatherersf and @chancecutrano @hadleyraysorphotography

This Monday, June 30 @obviously_tma and I will be talking about the art we make @realtimeandspace There’s a quote from sculptor Beatriz Cortez that helps me describe what I’m doing with art, “our love is filled with gaps…and the gaps are filled with the speculative dimensions of our love.” That’s pretty much what I’m going to be talking about. I’m looking forward to this conversation because 1. I like to hear Tamara talk, and 2. I need more spaces to be with creative people to talk through how we keep loving and creating amongst all the loss. There will be pizza, but feel free to bring a drink or snack you like. Let’s make it feel comfortable and warm with treats. Feel free to come a little early, like 6:30 for snacks and hanging out. ❤️💛🩵

I’m really happy to share that I work at Creativity Explored now as a teaching artist specializing in ceramics!!!!!! I now spend half of my work week at CE and half as a sculpture tech assistant at Stanford. I couldn’t be happier about the balance. It’s my first time working in a space that centers disability justice, both structurally and sort of naturally through the lived experience of the staff and artists. It already has been life-alteringly affirming to feel what’s possible in such a space. It’s been healing for me in ways I didn’t expect. I’m lucky to witness the brilliance of the artists who work there. Scroll thru to see some highlights from my first month on the job. There’s so much amazing artwork, this is just a small sample. Please come by the gallery and say hi and visit us at all the openings :) Image descriptions: 1. Nicole in front of a colorful Creativity Explored “gallery is open” sign 2. Intricate ceramic dinosaur treehouse sculpture by artist, Andrew Wong 3. Creature-like ceramic sculptures from the CE archives. Artist unknown to Nicole (pls tag if you know) 4. A blue ceramic dragon ready for glaze firing by artist, Richard Estella 5. A live parrot in the studio beside a ceramic bird and a ceramic snake made by Gerald Wiggins 6. Black ink line drawing by Roland Record. Beside the drawing is a small study that Roland made of Nicole and Roland’s names. 7. A ceramic reptile in a suit by Gerald Wiggins 8. A drawing of Nicole’s brain, by Loren King 9. Miniature Bay Area historic sign sculptures by Isaac Haney-Owen’s 10. Artists for Accessibility poster up in kitchen area. Artist unknown to Nicole 11. Gallery wall filled with watermelon artworks created by CE artists

We are excited to announce our latest cohort of fellowship artists. Kala will support the six artists with a $3,000 stipend, unlimited access to Kala’s facilities for one to nine months, one month of free housing (artists living outside of the 9 San Francisco Bay Area counties), free Kala class, and a culminating group exhibition in the Kala Gallery! Simone Bailey (San Francisco, California) Cristine Blanco (Oakland, California)* Mahwish Chishty (Springfield, Massachusetts) Leonard Reidelbach (San Francisco, California) Javier Enrique Piñero (Long Island City, New York) Nicole K. Shaffer (Oakland, California) *A special thanks to the Sustainable Arts Foundation for supporting Cristine Blanco as a Parent Fellow! Additional thanks to funders including the National Endowment for the Arts and the Bernard Osher Foundation for supporting Kala’s Fellowship Program. First Slide: Images (top row left to right) Javier Enrique Piñero, Mahwish Chishty, Nicole K. Shaffer; (bottom row left to right) Leonard Reidelbach, Simone Bailey, Cristine Blanco (portrait credit @_momo_chang ).

This ceramic fruit trio is up for auction this weekend to raise funds for @berkeleyartcenter and @500cappstreet Both arts orgs have curators that are pushing towards more equitable arts spaces in the Bay that fund artists’ projects that I, personally, have really enjoyed experiencing. I cast these fruits from those I gathered from hundred year old trees that survive in an overgrown orchard that was once the property of Sonoma State Hospital - national leader of the forced sterilization of neurodivergent, queer, trans, mad, and immigrant people. The potential for sweetness from these trees was twisted into a distorted project of financing the state of CA in their attempt to eradicate the world of non-normative bodies and ways of being. My recent work imagines an alternate time and space where the fruits from the orchard could be enjoyed instead for the pleasure and care of queer, trans, mad, and neurodivergent bodies. The original fruits themselves are neutral; but we as individuals as structural forces, and as communities determine what to make of them. Opening bid is $250. I get 40%. Go high if you can! I thought I’d share some of what went into making them, so u can really understand them as priceless little breakable figurine treasures: Each ceramic fruit once existed (think of all that entails), I hiked for an hour over thousands of unmarked graves of former patients to arrive at the orchard, I sobbed feeling a depth of sorrow and loneliness that I don’t think was mine, carried the fruit back with me, made plaster molds, slip cast the forms in clay, fired them, glazed them with minerals from the earth, then hand painted and adorned them with the crafty techniques my mom and her mom taught me, all to become the tiny unique treasures that they are. If budget is an issue, you can also go in on them together with two other ppl and split the trio up! Thank you for funding art and artists. 🫀🫀🫀

@nicolekshaffer ’s works in #BayAreaNow9 transport viewers to an alternative space where queer, Trans, disabled, and immigrant people committed to Sonoma State Hospital can find solace and healing. Watch our latest video to see how they recreate the hospital’s orchard to provide a place that celebrates the variance Luther Burbank’s eugenics-based work attempted to erase. Hear more from Shaffer at this year’s @fogfair when they join Michael Arcega, José Figueroa, #YBCA Director of Curatorial Initiatives Martin Strickland and Headlands Center for the Arts Senior Fellowships Manager Ileana Tejada on Thursday, January 18 at 1 pm. for a conversation on how we can sustain the Bay Area’s creative community. Video produced by Corey Marsau #ArtInSF #ContemporaryArt #BayAreaArtists

See you Friday!!!! 🩵🩵🩵🩵🩵 Repost from @ybca • 🥂Raise a glass and celebrate the opening of #BayAreaNow9 on Friday, October 6 from 7:30-11pm! Get the first look at dynamic new works from local artists and party with @clutchthepearlssf   and local DJs @smartbomb_oakland .  For this event, we’re excited to announce a unique ticket pricing structure that ensures you don’t miss out: 🆓 September 18–21: FREE tickets!  🐦September 22–28: $9 for early birds 🎫 September 29–October 6: Standard price of $20 Don’t wait! Reserve your spot to celebrate with us today.