Visible Magazine | Issue 007

VISIBLE MAGAZINE

Created by Sammy Noelle

Photography by Sammy Noelle

Written Pieces by Des Dare Barragan & Sammy Noelle

Rehumanizing your city through the art of storytelling

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page 04

About Visible

Page 08

Part Of The Process featuring Marissa Saucedo of Sifted and Sugared

Page 017

Being Human featuring Ben Parks

Page 026

Loves Me, Loves Me Not featuring San Diego Made Factory, DALL, and more

Page 034

Common Strangers featuring Chelsea Constatino

What is Visible?

a locally based magazine intended to highlight the human beings that live, love, create, and work in the city.

Why Visible?

we all crave to be seen by others as a way to find real and tangible connection, where one is known deeply and fully.

Visible Magazine started to rehumanize a city, to breathe life back into a city by shedding light on stories of the human beings we pass by every single day.

Who is Visible?

a team of individuals who really love their city and really love people.

THE VISIBLE TEAM INCLUDES

SAMMY NOELLE

Editor-In-Chief/Photographer

Instagram | @sammynoelle

SABRINA ROUNDS

Communications/Events

Instagram | @sabroonds

DES DARE BARRAGAN

Lead Writer

Instagram | @desdare

MITA AQUINO

Communications/Brand Liasion Instagram | @aquinomita

The Visible Team (from left to right): Mita Aquino, Sammy Noelle, Sabrina Rounds, Des Dare Barragan

NICE TO MEET YOU

AND THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT

To stay connected, follow us on Instagram @thevisiblemag and share your Visible moments with us #VisibleSD

PART OF THE PROCESS

MARISSA SAUCEDO of SIFTED AND SUGARED

Written by Des Dare Barragan

You may have heard that a house says a lot about the person who calls it home, and this is definitely the case for Marissa Saucedo.

We met Marissa on a Monday evening at her cozy one-story unit off Adams Avenue in central San Diego. As she opened the door, we were welcomed with warm peach-painted walls, thrifted items on every shelf, Pintereststatus decor like a spice rack hanging just right from the fridge door, and plant babies living their best lives in an airy layout which all centered around sparkling countertops prepped for cookie decorating.

At age 21, Marissa is a professional home baker & cookie decorator with an established business called Sifted and Sugared. She was introduced to cookie decorating towards the end of her senior year of high school while working as a cashier at a local bakery. The bakers taught her how to decorate during the slow hours at the shop, and she thought it was amazing. It made sense; once graduation came around, she chose to work as a full-time baker instead of going to college. She enjoyed the work and loved her co-workers, but Marissa tells us the bakery had its own vibe & particular style, and every time she tried to reign her own expression in, she kept “going out of the lines.” After committing for two years, Marissa began thinking about bringing her skills to a different bakery. Still, she quickly found that no one was interested in hiring specifically for custom cookie art.

“The only way to do what I do now, to continue decorating cookies, was to do it on my own.” Marissa laughingly exclaimed, “I didn’t actually want to own my own business. I wanted to work for somebody. I was 18! It’s so much responsibility, but I really wanted to do it; that’s how passionate I am about it.”

Marissa recalls that she’s always been interested in creative arts, “I was the kid that would color forever.” As she grew older, she went through phases of different art mediums, but things like watercolor, baking, and reimagining Pinterest pins stuck. Now, the uniqueness of transfiguring cookies into art drew her in.

Though she is the only member of her family with this innate creativity, Marissa tells us that her parents have been her biggest advocates. Having had children at a young age, there are admittedly individual dreams that her parents wish they had more time to pursue. But instead of turning to bitterness or control, her parents have used their experience to fuel their full support of Marissa in all her life’s passions.

So it was with their encouragement that Marissa put in her two weeks at the bakery and immediately started making cookies for everyone her family knew.

And she wouldn’t stop there.

“I took a lot of cookies to San Diego businesses that I really liked. All my favorite San Diego businesses got cookies. They all got custommade cookies to their business, and I was like, ‘Hi, look at me, look at what I can do, remember me!’”

Marissa decorating sugar cookies

Marissa’s personalization & calculated risks were indeed remembered. The word about her cookies spread fast, and by May of 2021, at age 19, Marissa officially launched Sifted and Sugared.

That’s the process she brings to each customer. She starts with their vision or concepts and uses social media research plus her style to bring it to life. “The first thing I ask them for is a mood board. I love when it’s just random pictures, like, ‘This is the vibe I’m going for.’ I can feel like, ‘Okay, I get that. I see what you’re looking for.’”

Still, how did Marissa sustain such deep confidence at a young age?

Marissa explains that she was like all of us in high school, trying to find her place in life and the people in it. “It was really hard for me. I was back and forth between different friend groups because I couldn’t find the vibe that I fit in. I had a falling out with some friends my sophomore year, so going into senior year, I was like, ‘It’s just kinda me, so I’m just gonna do me.’ It was hard at the time, but I’m so glad that it happened because now I’m me.”

Marissa chose to carry out the work of selfacceptance and learning to love herself truly. This remains evident in her approach to the art and the business of Sifted and Sugared.

Marissa explains that she initially went into decorating cookies the way her old bakery did, using many of the same methods and cookie cutters she was familiar with. “I realized when I was doing it, ‘I don’t actually like this. Why am I doing this? This is not me.’ So I got rid of everything and got stuff that I like.”

Marissa found that from her sugar cookie recipe to the design inspiration, she has to stay true to who she is and how she creates, but that doesn’t always mean creating an idea or style from scratch.

“For the most part, I am looking for the medium that someone else has used that I could use.”

Marissa models the humility to celebrate the creative strength of another and the confidence to learn from their idea and throw her spin on it

During Marissa’s photoshoot that took place right before this interview, Sammy was snapping shots, and the Visible team was standing by while Marissa did her thing. There was this quiet silence and just a need for some music! Marissa immediately sensed it, and without needing recommendations, she put on a fitting playlist that suited each of our musical tastes. A small act that showcased her gift of quickly sensing what other people need and like, and jumping to meet that.

From shooting a short film on her business story with the UPS media team, hosting workshops with Communal Coffee, making cookies for businesses like Native Poppy or movements like the Make A Wish foundation, to having her custom sugar cookie on the menu of McGregor’s Ale House in Mission Valley. The 7 am starts, 12-hour bake days, and decorating all-nighters have brought Marissa here, being able to celebrate the second anniversary of her business, Sifted and Sugared.

We asked Marissa what advice she would give her younger self, and she responded,

“I’ve always had the personality to where I’m like, ‘This is what I want to do, so I’m gonna do it.’”

“Just to be true to myself. Or just stop being scared. I feel like growing up, I was so scared of what everybody thought, and then one day, I just wasn’t. That’s how I became me! I was running so much by wanting to fit in, and now I just fit in where I fit in, and I don’t fit in where I don’t fit in, and it just is.”

Follow Marissa & Sifted and Sugared

Sifted and Sugared’s Instagram | @siftedandsugared

Sifted and Sugared’s Website | siftedandsugared.com

wherever

BEING HUMAN

Written by Sammy Noelle

FEATURING BEN PARKS

Ec o tone

noun a transition region between two biological communities.

Born just outside of Birmingham, a graduate of The University of Alabama, who found his musical roots in his childhood church’s gospel choir, Ben Parks now calls San Diego home after relocating six years ago. While Ben’s respect, gratitude, and fondness for his hometown are crystal clear from even a brief conversation with him, he doesn’t exactly exude the energy of Rolltide. Rather, with one look at him, Ben carries a delicate edge in a West Coast kind of way.

The juxtaposition of Ben Parks doesn’t end there. In fact, Ben’s life, and in tandem, his art, have always seemed to contain a tension between the roots of his upbringing and the person he’s found himself becoming day by day.

Being a pastor’s kid in the South, Ben’s journey with music began within the walls of his family’s church, and he began releasing music in his college years. In June of 2018, Be released his debut EP, Dwelling Place. Being a worship and solely faith-based record, Dwelling Place gives us a picture of the world of thought and artistry that 2018 Ben Parks held and shared with the world. And while his musical projects take a different form and identity now, Ben, in his beautifully and authentically nostalgic manner, holds that season and project near to his heart.

In a recent Instagram post celebrating the fiveyear anniversary of Dwelling Place, Ben shares, “While life and faith look a lot different for me now, I’m so grateful for the starting point that was DP [Dwelling Place]. I can remember how excited and happy I was to put music out for the first time. And, I’m proud of what younger Benny needed to say in that time and place and for sharing it.”

Ben has no shortage of gratitude for his past experiences. From talking about the spiritual experience that playing piano gives him to his exposure to pop music through his mom’s aerobic classes in the early 2000s, Ben speaks with an appreciation for how these little moments have formed him into who he is now as an artist and a person.

But looking at his personal history with fondness does not come without the ache and work of rediscovery. It wasn’t until the pandemic that Ben began to discover parts of himself that he had never allowed himself to acknowledge.

“When COVID hit, it just started unlocking so much of my life, personally.”

Years of untouched mental avenues showed themselves to Ben as the world shut down.

“The biggest thing was unlocking a lot of my past and what I hadn’t dealt with. Sexuality was a big thing for me.”

It was through the time the pandemic provided that Ben Parks opened up a part of himself and came out as gay.

As he shares about that season of his life, Ben highlights how the support of the community he found in San Diego was a huge factor not only in uncovering this piece of himself but being ready to share it with the world around him.

This was just a piece of the self-discovery that inspired Ben in his artistic journey over the past few years.

“Artists, we’re always writing about our lives, or intentionally not. For me, I’ve always had to write about what’s going on in my life.”

With so much unfolding in his life, Ben shares that it became cathartic to write about his life.

Over the past few years, Ben has found a new voice in the non-worship genre of music. With the release of his most recent singles, Skipping Stones (feat. Shua) and WDEL (Why Does Everybody Leave?), a new era of Ben Parks is being debuted.

Enter Ecotone Pt. 1, Ben’s latest record, releasing on July 7, 2023.

As we talked through the themes of Ectone Pt. 1, Ben makes it clear that this album is one of rediscovery, a colliding of his worlds - past and present, and asking the questions that hold the future in balance.

“A lot of these songs serve as snapshots along the way of, like, ‘What is life going to look like for me from now on? What do my relationships look like?

What does family look like?

What does belonging look like?’”

Through his desire for authenticity and growth, Ben chooses to bring these questions to light, even when he’s still in the process of finding the answers. And when asked how he’s gotten to that level of comfortability with the unknown, he brings it back to community.

“I was brought to this community that was helping me really rediscover and dig into those parts of me that I just never gave myself permission to.”

“A big part of getting to where I am now is having the support, care, and love of the people around me.” He elaborates, “I think it took safe people in my life to give me the confidence to be like, ‘Oh, I can share my story, and I don’t have to hide this part of me anymore.’” He sums it up simply: “I’m very grateful for the community and the relationships I have out here.”

As our time together neared a close, we took one last dive into the heart of Ectone Pt. 1.

“It’s not a coming out album, but like internally it’s like, ‘Here I am!’” Ben exclaims, filling the room with laughs.

He explains that so many people have responded to the album name with a, “Cool!” but not really understanding the meaning behind it. Ben shares that the lack of explanation upfront is something that isn’t without purpose.

“I want people to think and have some curiosity around it.”

He kindly unraveled the definition and story for us, explaining how it’s an ecological term where two different communities collide. That collision point is the ecotone. And with elaboration, Ben paints a beautiful picture of what this means for him, but also what it could mean for others who experience the sonics of Ecotone Pt. 1

“Normally the ecotone is very rich in species and has very fertile soil that is rich for new life to grow. Obviously, there’s the huge metaphor there of the journey I’ve been on integrating my faith and sexuality, but I think underneath that these are just stories about life.”

If you need any more motivation to support Ben Parks and Ecotone Pt. 1 upon its release, we leave you with the final piece of Ben’s words to us about this project.

are

stories of

snapshot has looked like [for me] over the past five years. Experiencing loneliness and depression and rage and resentment and passion and desire. All these human experiences that we all face. While, at the same time, finding that there’s a lot of hope and beauty in the questions. It feels like a wandering space, but it also feels like something very definitive and secure at the same time.”

What

Ecotone Pt. 1 on all streaming platforms, starting July 7, 2023.

Join us for Ben’s album release show on July 25, 2023, at 6 PM.

“These

the

being human.

that

Follow Ben

Instagram | @benparksandrec

Listen to Ben Parks on all streaming platforms

LOVES ME, LOVES ME NOT

FEATURING SAN DIEGO MADE FACTORY, DALL, AND MORE

Written by Des Dare Barragan

Let’s daydream together for a moment.

Can you recall your most unhealthy relationship? Whether it be with an ex, a sibling, a co-worker, or yourself. What did it look like? How did you feel?

Okay, okay.

Now visualize your most loving relationship, whether past, present, or still to come. Keep that blissful smile on your face, and think about what those experiences have in common.

From hate to love, & every stage in between, all humans encounter relationships and the need for them.

With that in mind, we planned our first Valentine’s themed event.

On the brisk evening of Saturday, February 25th, Visible Creative Co. presented the Loves Me, Loves Me Not event hosted by San Diego Made Factory.

San Diego Made Factory is a downtown creative and coworking space that houses private offices, makers studios, remote-work desks, conference rooms, and an event stage. The event space is open to the public for rent, and Factory Access Memberships are available for those looking for a place to grow their brand & business and build community while doing it.

Backtrack to the brainstorming of this event. Visible partnered with DALL, a feature from Issue 006, and a friend of San Diego Made Factory. DALL envisioned welcoming all stages of love and giving people a different take on how we celebrate the American February holiday. She knew that SD Made was the perfect place to gather local vendors, artists, musicians, and art installations woven together by the playful theme of love & hate.

We saw it all come to life that night.

As you walked in, you were greeted by Mita, me, and Valentine’s colored balloons. We asked what brought you to LMLMN, checked your ticket reservation, or took your entry fee and marked your left wrist with a heart. You’d pass a wall with hanging vines of hand-cut hearts by Sabrina that led to the bartender serving up custom cocktails. Option one on the menu was the “Loves Me” drink consisting of 1 raw sugar cube, simple syrup, angostura bitters, Campari, and brut rose, all accompanied by a lemon twist. The Second was the “Loves Me Not,” made of tequila, watermelon, lime, grapefruit juices, and a little agave.

From the bar with your love or hate drink selection in hand were high-top tables on your right, comfy couches, and a stage prepped for the entertainment acts. On your left was a hallway lined with SD Made Factory creators with various art on display and available for purchase.

As you walked in, you were greeted by Mita, me, and Valentine’s colored balloons. We asked what brought you to LMLMN, checked your ticket reservation, or took your entry fee and marked your left wrist with a heart. You’d pass a wall with hanging vines of hand-cut hearts by Sabrina that led to the bartender serving up custom cocktails. Option one on the menu was the “Loves Me” drink consisting of 1 raw sugar cube, simple syrup, angostura bitters, Campari, and brut rose, all accompanied by a lemon twist. The Second was the “Loves Me Not,” made of tequila, watermelon, lime, grapefruit juices, and a little agave.

From the bar with your love or hate drink selection in hand were high-top tables on your right, comfy couches, and a stage prepped for the entertainment acts. On your left was a hallway lined with SD Made Factory creators with various art on display and available for purchase. Not to mention, Marissa Saucedo was selling her delectable sugar cookies decorated specially for this event.

At the end of the hallway was our first art installation, an interactive painting by Katherine Peterson from Issue 006. The goal was to write out your stories of love & hate and pin them to the painting. It was a place to leave your brokenness and meet stories to be encouraged by.

On the opposite end of the walkway was a good ol’ confession booth made for people to record their stories of love & hate.

Leaving the confession booth and back down the hallway to your left stood the Surje Coffee Co. cart; the perfect pick-me-up of coffee mocktails by Chris & Val forever changed how we drink our favorite beverage!

Coffee in hand, Sammy took the stage with a genuine welcome, and the live performances began.

First up was amm and her band that filled our ears with delectable tones and intentionally placed runs on lyrics that made us say, “Yup, I can relate to that.”

Next was Ben Parks. A man, his guitar, and songs that tugged at questions our hearts have asked but hadn’t expressed.

Enter intermission to grab a plate of taste tantalizing tacos from Taquizas Jose of Chula Vista.

A final transition to a surprise performance by artists from The Table Art Society, Leah Camille, Matt Jennings, & Sophia Elizabeth. The trio took us back to songs like Justin Timberlake’s Cry Me a River (oh yes, they did!).

DALL closed our night, introducing songs that marked a new era for her and our love stories.

We walked away feeling embraced, supported, and, most of all, hopeful. It’s moments like these that make us want to continue the pursuit of building community & make humans feel seen & valued in San Diego.

To those of you who joined us for this event, thank you, we definitely love you.

Here’s to trailblazing many more events like this.

Follow the LMLMN Vendors

San Diego Made Factory’s Instagram | @sandiegomadefactory

DALL’s Instagram | @what.a.dall

amm’s Instagram | @ammchambs

Ben Park’s Instagram | @benparksandrec

Sifted and Sugared’s Instagram | @siftedandsugared

Surje Coffee Co.’s Instagram | @surjecoffee

The Table Art Society’s Instagram | @thetableartsociety

COMMON STRANGERS

FEATURING CHELSEA CONSTANTINO

Written by Sammy Noelle and Des Dare Barragan

own.”

Flash back an hour earlier, prior to hearing these words for the first time.

Sunshine. Yes, an accurate depiction of the weather on a Sunday afternoon as we walk up to Park Social. But, even more so, accurate of the spirit that Chelsea Constantino exudes as we approach her for the first time in this Kearny Mesa, 163-adjacent community.

She wore a summery blue dress and sunhat, waiting for us with her husband, Justin.

Chelsea exudes an unwaveringly contagious assurance, the kind that couldn’t possibly pull anything but confidence out of you with each smile, intentionally worded sentence, & step she takes.

After our initial introductions, we begin shooting, and with each movement and location change, she shifts into a new pose that results in a perfect shot. Unlike many of us, Chelsea doesn’t let the camera phase her.

We wrap up at location one and head to the next spot, Chelsea’s place of work, CrossFit 1904.

Yes, you heard that right. Chelsea works at a San Diego CrossFit gym as a coach.

This is just one of the titles that Chelsea holds in her life.

She grew up in Holmes, Wisconsin, but attended school in Iowa. Her family was quite musically inclined, as was she.

“I could read music before I could read a book.”

From a young age to adulthood, her dream was to be a Broadway star. In what we began to understand as classic Chelsea style, she dove all in, getting involved with any musical area she could. She was a drum major in high school, section leader in multiple musical projects, and when it came time to decide what to pursue in her years at Drake University, she majored in Vocal Performance. Chelsea elaborates, “It’s pretty much a fancy way of saying I studied opera in undergrad.”

Music wasn’t the only extracurricular activity Chelsea was involved in for practically her whole upbringing. She also grew up in the world of pageantry.

“It’s not what everybody thinks. It’s not necessarily a beauty pageant. There’s that element of it, for sure. If you think about it this way, we as humans are generally drawn to beautiful people. That’s innate in us from a reproductive standpoint. So, if you’re going to be a leader in your community, you kind of have to look the part, too, right? You need to be someone that people are drawn to and can gravitate to. So that’s where the beauty element comes into play.”

When we asked if she had always valued fitness and health to the extent she does now, Chelsea laughed and replied, “No! Which I think is really funny.” But to get to the root of her heart for physical health and wellness, we need to jump toward the end of her time at Drake University.

In her last year of college, Chelsea decided she wanted to be a singer on a cruise ship.

“I loved to travel; there are no living expenses. You pretty much get paid to sing on vacation, honestly! That’s a great setup.”

“It was in the middle of winter. I drove through the Rockies in a snowstorm. My four-door sedan with everything I

She auditioned for, as she says, “every cruise ship known to man” and got one callback for Norwegian Cruise lines. After a brilliant audition and being told she should think about clearing her upcoming schedule for the next 6 - 12 months, she never heard from them again.

Not only was there the disappointment from not hearing back from a promising audition experience, but in the same six month period, Chelsea experienced two break ups, one romantic and one with her best friend, a loss in the family, her first experience with skin cancer, and her closest professor, who she expresses she went to Drake for, taking a sabbatical in her final college semester.

“Once I realized that, I was all in on taking care of this vessel.”

whether it was through borrowing friend’s student IDs to use Drake’s gym or utilizing every free seven-day trial that was offered around Des Moines, Chelsea found a way to continue pursuing a life of fitness postgraduation. Eventually, she hired a personal trainer, and at around the age of 22, she got certified as a personal trainer herself. “As soon as I was certified, I walked into a gym, and they hired me on the spot.”

“All of that kind of compounded, and in the midst of that, I was so depressed and calling my mom crying every day, and I realized, ‘When all of life gets super chaotic and it just feels like it’s crumbling around you and you can’t control anything, the only thing that you have complete control over is how well you take care of your body.’”

This post-college life ended up spurring Chelsea on to get back into pageantry and compete for Miss Iowa. “And then I won,” she states matter of factly.

Contrary to what many of us may understand, becoming a title holder in the Miss America pageant world is more than just a title. Chelsea explains, “The thing about being a state title holder is that everything else in life pauses. That becomes your full-time job throughout the year. So, I had to quit my job as a personal trainer and give all my clients to other trainers.”

So, the back and forth between Chelsea’s realms of life continued.

“Passing that off was hard, but I was also super burnt out.”

Throughout her year of service as Miss Iowa, Chelsea became a nutritionist. “I just loved nutrition, I found it very fascinating, and I just knew that you can’t out workout a poor diet. And that is the thing that really changed the game for me in my own journey.”

Not only was her new-found knowledge of nutrition providing her with results on how her body looked, but Chelsea explains how life-changing it was with her energy during workouts and recovery.

“At the end of my year as Miss Iowa, I started my own business and became a nutrition coach.”

In addition to her nutrition coaching business, Chelsea began coaching again at multiple Crossfit gyms across Des Moines. When she would travel, Chelsea found herself visiting and scoping out CrossFit gyms wherever she would go. On one of her trips out to California, she found herself at a smaller CrossFit gym that ended up being extremely receptive to the idea of her becoming a coach with them.

“I walked into a job in San Diego, living at the Airbnb I had rented out before.” She continues on about how this gym community had a lasting impact on her, “The members at that gym ended up being my family here. They just accepted me and loved me.”

Now, to bring it back to how Chelsea moved to San Diego in the first place.

Chelsea had dreamt of living in California with one of her childhood friends. They would talk about it on the bus to school with they were in Kindergarten. And one day, when she was in her 20s, Chelsea took her first trip out to San Diego on that same friend’s flight voucher. Instantly, Chelsea knew there was something for here in California.

“This was such a God moment. I sobbed on the flight leaving because I felt like my heart was being ripped out of my chest. I was like, ‘This is my home. I need to be here.’ I felt so called.”

In March of 2019, a month after that initial trip, Chelsea made her way back to San Diego with another friend of hers, both of them planning on staying in Southern California. While that living situation didn’t end up panning out, Chelsea instantly connected with the host of their Airbnb and left her second time in California with a different potential living situation. The day after Christmas in 2019, Chelsea began her solo drive from Wisconsin to San Diego.

Her week-long move was one that she wasn’t sure she was going to make it through. She recalls one of the toughest but most eyeopening moments of her trip, “It was a whiteout blizzard, and I had to press forth and go through this storm. This is one of three times in my life where I can confidently say I’ve heard the voice of God. It was an audible moment of, ‘You’re going to be okay.’”

Fifteen minutes and ten white knuckles later, she was surrounded by blue skies.

She drove in silence for the entirety of her trek halfway across the country.

“I didn’t have the radio on at all. It was just me and God on this drive.”

It’s clear from Chelsea’s retelling of this story how vastly life-changing it was. In fact, in her words, she shares, “The Chelsea who left Wisconsin versus the Chelsea who showed up in California were two completely different people. It was a spiritual transformation.”

On New Year’s Eve, Chelsea finally pulled up in San Diego and lived with the Airbnb host from her previous March trip.

“It was pretty wild,” she recounts.

Story after story that Chelsea shares about her life speak to the character she’s grabbed hold of without letting go. The resilience and drive we witnessed through hearing her life story leave us with nothing but inspiration and motivation to live our own lives.

You can find Chelsea coaching almost every weekday morning at CrossFit 1904.

We see you, we value you, we thank you -

It’s because of humans like you that Visible & its mission to rehumanize San Diego have become a reality. We hope you enjoy your Mag! -

Don’t forget to use your voice to make others VISIBLE.