Ema Sweetz is a dope artist who paints artistic images. She recently painted a picture in memory of her goldfish. Her painting was a tribute to who she called “Stone Cold Steve Austin” because he got sick. She also has a talent for painting live animals with holiday themes. She illustrated a Texas, Spring, Summertime, and Easter Bunny-vibe painting recently.
For someone who has only been doing this for a little over a year, her talent and development has increased exponentially in a short amount of time. One of the tell signs she has that lets the community know how serious she is, would be her focus on conveying realism inside of her work.
Not all artists think in this way, and for that, she gets a lot of credit and praise from her fans as well as from MAP Digital Magazine. Ema initially had painting as an interest, but after putting hard work into it she was able to perfect her craft. She has had her work in Stay Classy, at the Chalk Walk, and other smaller projects throughout the city.
Her parents weren’t artists but her and her siblings were the only ones that took up the artistry.
She started with cartoons and anime illustrations, then elevated to the point where she is now doing murals and things of that nature.
Make sure to seek out, and bookmark everything you can find on the talented Ema Sweetz.
Eric Huggins is a very dynamic lead vocalist for two talented bands called Fenix Theory and Eric and Thomas Unplugged. Collaboration is something especially important to him and the sound that his bands produce collectively is unique. Naturally, Eric is versatile, but he definitely has a warm place in his heart for Old School R&B and Neo-Soul type music. An awesome aspect of Eric’s creativity is that he understands the therapeutic benefits of music and sends that out into the world.
One goal he has is to put out a record that is inspired by his wife’s father who passed away when she was 13 years old. He genuinely believes it would be a wonderful gift for her to be able to take a record off the wall and play it to hear songs that her father wrote in the 50’s and 60’s. Eric believes music is about connection and expression. A fun fact about him is that he does not make music with intentions to make it big in the music business. Instead, he does it strictly for the art. One of the things that reminded him of this was going from doing a couple of shows a year to just 6 shows during the Covid-19 outbreak. The ability to have that same level of expression, release, and satisfaction was not there as it once was prior to vaccinations and business shutdowns. MAP Digital Magazine agreed with Eric in every way possible. Art is inside of each and every one of us. Eric said, “I fell into a depression.” Nevertheless, now that he has been doing music professionally for the last 15 years, he has tasted the absence of music depression and experienced a level of freedom of expression we all wish we had. Eric says men are usually raised to suck it up, man up, and don’t cry, but music and art give us that outlet to have a positive release of our emotions.
One goal he has is to put out a record that is inspired by his wife’s father who passed away when she was 13 years old. He genuinely believes it would be a wonderful gift for her to be able to take a record off the wall and play it to hear songs that her father wrote in the 50’s and 60’s. Eric believes music is about connection and expression. A fun fact about him is that he does not make music with intentions to make it big in the music business. Instead, he does it strictly for the art. One of the things that reminded him of this was going from doing a couple of shows a year to just 6 shows during the Covid-19 outbreak. The ability to have that same level of expression, release, and satisfaction was not there as it once was prior to vaccinations and business shutdowns.
Abbi Garcia is a rare and artistic talent who possesses many skills. She works at a hospital in the emergency room, she is a nursing student, and she is a music director at a church in town. In addition to all of that, she has a music ministry outside of church as well. Original music is something she strives to create. Abbi records at Direct Resonance Recording Studio with Steve and Kayla Rosas. Her mother was a pianist, and her dad played the guitar and taught her how to play. Abbi’s mother was thoughtful enough to enroll her in piano lessons at the age of five years old. She began learning classical music. She had lessons for 12 years straight, and that was a big help with her getting her foundation. Eventually she got a full ride scholarship to MCC for their music program. She had the pleasure of teaching piano, vocals, and being the praise and worship leader at multiple churches. Abbi is currently working on a 2nd album that is all Spanish and aimed to be finished and released in September. At the same time, she does enjoy Jazz and would like to have a future 3rd album and focus on that style of music. DRS Studio has been a place where she could really dive into her creativity. Aside from the chemistry that she has with the producers in the studio, she believes that the chemistry with her band is even more important. The beautiful thing about collaborating is that you can find and sync with like-minded people. Her husband Cruz works on sound connection and has always been involved in music in some form or fashion. Abbi’s support system has been well established for a long time, and her fan base is increasing rapidly within the community. Make sure to check out her music and be on the lookout for her on stage soon.
This new music ensemble was forged and based in Waco, Texas. They strive to express themselves and reach out to a larger range of community and introduce a form of music that many haven’t heard before. Quincy and Max met at Baylor University. One day, Max was asked to listen to some music that Quincy produced. Soon after, the idea of becoming a powerful duo was thought of and embraced by both of them. The name Waveform Collective came out of nowhere, but it was very suitable. While this is true, their desire for artistic collaboration was evident in with the inclusion of “Collective” as these artists look forward to expanding as a great group in the future. The idea of a fully mature collective could include additional members who are spread out and not necessarily confined to one central location. Reaching out and connecting with other artists is one of their main goals.
Waveform Collective has only been around for a year, but they have managed to perform between 8 and 10 times together for the viewing audience. Max plays the double bass instrument. Quincy has a wide range of percussion instruments that he plays including the vibraphone, that help make them a diverse pair. He believes their unique team makes them stand out among other groups. Waveform Collective recently had an opportunity to expand for a 25-minute performance piece called Arkhe which included Quincy, Max, Caroline, and Kyle. It was a magnificent show that was a sight to see, as well as a treat to hear. The city of Waco is fortunate enough to have another scheduled performance from Waveform Collective this Friday on May 19th, at Cultivate 7twelve. This will be a unique collaboration with several local composers participating in a commissions concert. The range of music will be bright, dark, energetic, and exciting!
C Rayy is a videographer and artist who has focused on football and women’s basketball. The motivation behind him putting a focus on women’s basketball is because it doesn’t seem to get that much shine compared to other sports, and specifically men’s sports. He also enjoys shooting promo videos for barbers and barbershops. C Rayy feeds off the energy of his clients and he believes that the passion he brings to the projects he participates in only causes people to want to work with him more.
His inspiration came from seeing his uncle do graphic design and be creative. Another inspiration for him was a close friend who he played football with and hung out with. Without having any discrimination towards graphic design, he gravitated more towards videography because of the ability to capture more emotions and tone through the camera. Expressing himself is particularly important. A few things he likes to do are snap pictures and record videos at night.
C Rayy has plans on putting together a whole content creating team within the next year or two once he has polished his skills and meets the high standard, he has set for himself.
Audio and visual classes in school proved to be very beneficial for him. He favors close ups on a particular subject. Spontaneous is his style of filming. Being insecure at times, C Rayy says he locks in on the task at hand amid large crowds, but he believes that nervous energy is still good energy. For short videos, he will tend to use CapCut for all his editing. When it comes to larger videos and bigger projects, he will use the Adobe suite. He is in the process of building a website to showcase his portfolio, but as of right now he uses social media. You can find him on Instagram with the username, ShotByC. Rayy.
One piece of advice he has for aspiring videographers is to remember you won’t be the best at everything you attempt to do, but you should be persistent and consistent. Lastly, the biggest lesson he learned was that the answers are freely out there on Google and YouTube. We just need to be diligent and go out there and grab it.
Matt Garcia has been a musician his whole life. A big part of his influence was his parents bringing him on the tour bus with them when they would perform. He was surrounded by sound, music, and vocals heavily. He eventually got involved in the orchestra and band programs in his school. Violin was one of his favorites. Matt happened to learn the clarinet, flute, and saxophone among other instruments. He actually spent the whole summer of his 8th grade year practicing and learning how to play instruments. Rather than just practicing for 15 to 20 minutes each day, he took things to a high level and studied for hours. Matt took guitar lessons from Albert Rodriquez and picked up the concept quickly. His jazz director was a man by the name of Cameron Akin, and he was taught Matt a lot about jazz music. These contributions helped Matt get as far as placing top 10 and top 15 in the state. Surprisingly, the constant lessons, practicing, and competing caused Matt to feel burned out, so he stopped playing music altogether for a while and went into the military. He ended up finding himself in the marines. Matt always possessed an insane work ethic. He would wake up early and read books and soak up knowledge. What brought him back to Waco and back to music was a music festival he went to while he was on leave from the military. He fell in love with electronic music and didn’t see it coming. He watched the DJ at the festival perform and control the mood of the crowd. At that point he was motivated to become a DJ because he saw himself in that spot. Before he knew it, he bought a program called Ableton Live and took off with his music once more. Matt started making beats and expanding his skillset even more. Some of the regular places he plays at are popular bars and lounges like True Love and Stay Classy. Matt says the main goal that he wants to reach is the ability to consistently make people dance. He says if you’re dancing, you feel good. That productivity and constant time at home honing his skills ended up helping him discover his name. Matt Garcia claimed and embraced his DJ name “Matt at Home.”
Jessica is a multi-talented artist who is both a singer, songwriter, and actress. She grew up listening to records that her parents had and alphabetizing the collection of music that was in the house. She would sing along to music as it played, and thanks to her musical activity inside of school and church, she started to sing professionally. Her parents mainly listened to classic rock. Some favorites were Tom Petty, The Eagles, The Rolling Stones, as well as country music which became the main genre that Jessica gravitated to in her professional career. At the age of 9, she got on stage during a talent show performance that was supposed to be a duet that ended up being a solo one. She grew up in Arlington Texas and had a chance to play at a hot spot called Johnnie High’s Country Music Revue. She did a lot of covers with a great band and was gaining a lot of experience and exposure within the city. Jessica later moved to Waco Texas after the passing of her grandfather in the early 2000’s. After settling down in the city, she got back into doing gigs and gracing the stage. Jessica has a few things in the works with a full band that does rock, country, and blues covers and original music. Along her music journey, she was asked by a friend to participate in a short film because of her improvisation skills. She participated in the project, did well, and enjoyed it to the point where she would do it again.
One thing about the film that she found interesting was the behindthe-scenes work that goes into it. Being the hard worker that she is, Jessica desires to focus on any areas she could improve on, that way she gets better with each public showing. A goal of hers is to put more original music out this summer.
