“I’m always learning,” quips Jacque Rupp, a lifelong photographer who has deepened her craft over the past several years. With a robust career as an executive in Silicon Valley, including working for Apple, photography has been her through-line to navigate life, death, grief, aging, and womanhood. Jacque recalls, “Photography has always brought me so much joy. Particularly when I’ve gone through a tough time in my life, such as people dying, I find that photography is a great escape.”
Growing up, Jacque moved around the country, which channeled her ability to change, grow, and connect with people. “I’ve had to rebuild many, many times in my life, and I hope I’ve gotten better over time. But I also realize that’s also a gift, because I can connect with people easily,” she shares. Always in a new situation—whether leading recruitment teams, partaking in photography expeditions around the world, or continuing to grow her photography practice by attending lectures, workshops, and residencies—Jacque strives to build deep connections with the people she encounters. This search for depth is omnipresent in Jacque’s work. Whether as a photojournalist, capturing migrant workers along the central coast or exploring grief, aging, and femininity through her fine art project, The Red Purse: A Story of Grief and Desire—Jacque’s ultimate goal is to build an emotional connection through the lens of her camera.
Red Petals, image from The Red Purse: A Story of Grief and Desire
Intention, purpose, and curiosity drive Jacque’s creativity: “I’ve always looked for purpose in photography. I want to do it for a reason; it’s not just to be pretty. And through traveling, I want to tell stories about people. It’s always about the people. I’m incredibly curious, and it’s a way for me to share what I see, how I see it, and tell that story.” This depth is palpable in her photographs—the intense contrast, moody, noir aesthetic, and affinity for night photography are all evidence of Jacque’s intention to build an emotional connection with the viewer. Her commitment to using the photographer’s eye to build that connection creates magic.
Her creative inspiration often comes from film, particularly the late David Lynch and Alfred Hitchcock: “What motivates and inspires me as a photographer is film. I refer to a lot of David Lynch films in my work. I love noir, Hitchcock. I think I’m definitely more inspired by movies than photographers.” Jacque sees herself as a visual storyteller, and film inspires her to add depth and meaning to her photography, “Film is just a moving image and I’m a storyteller. Film is a stream of moving images and the emotion that comes with it. Often when I’m watching a film, I’ll freeze a moment and take a picture of it as inspiration. It’s the storytelling factor, the cinematography that I love.”
Jacque’s quest for depth is heavily influenced by loss. In her thirties, her first experience of deep grief was the loss of her father, which shifted the way she saw the world. Shortly thereafter, she lost her sister, and then her husband, an insurmountable loss that completely shifted the ground from under her. Grief—a universal emotion we all must face sooner or later in life—shaped the way Jacque sees, interacts, and engages with the world. “Once you lose someone you love, how you engage with the world around you is forever changed,” Jacque proclaims, adding, “Death definitely takes you to a place, which I think is a gift in a way, because you appreciate and see things on such a deeper level. And you find that you need to be around people who have that greater depth. I don’t have the patience for surface level anymore.”
“Once you lose someone you love, how you engage with the world around you is forever changed.”
Through grief, photography remained a constant. As a widow with two young boys, Jacque’s hunger to connect with others and to share her experiences of grief, continued. Losing her husband forced her to shift her identity—but succumbing to despair wasn’t an option. She recalls, “I remember I was hungry to be normal again. You didn’t want to be pitied, you didn’t want to be treated differently, you don’t know what you’re supposed to do—do I have to wait a year to be happy?”
At the time of her husband’s death, there were limited resources for Jacque and her children to navigate their loss. Jacque was in her forties, her prime of life, and although her husband was gone, she still wanted what she lost. Insignificant at the time, purchasing a red purse gave Jacque permission to seek connection, feel desirable, and embrace her new identity. Reminiscing, “At that time I was reclaiming my own space, changing the house, making things more feminine and everything was different. I wanted to embrace that it was different. I realized later that the purse embodied everything I needed as a woman, and it gave me permission to be feminine, sexual. I was in my forties so I still wanted what I lost.” In addition, the purse gave Jacque the permission to explore life beyond the identity she built. “The purse became this reminder that it was okay to do all of these things—try on different persona, and at the time, there weren’t any resources, nothing that I found that resonated with my age group.”
Although the purse remained in Jacque’s possession for years, it wasn’t until the pandemic—twenty years after her husband’s passing—that Jacque began to use it as a prop to explore grief through her photography. Culminating in a small, red velvet book that emulates the purse she purchased, The Red Purse depicts a visual story exploring grief, aging, femininity, and sexuality. The Red Purse is Jacque’s way of embracing the loss she’s experienced and how she grew, lived, and honored herself in the process: “The Red Purse is about grief, and what I want [from the viewer] is for them to get comfortable opening up a conversation that we normally don’t talk about.” Through the lens of self-portraiture, The Red Purse permits Jacque to navigate her own desire and grasp on aging—aging in a society that seeks eternal youth by any means necessary. She proclaims, “I wasn’t going to do ‘widowhood’ like other people were going to do it. I don’t want to do ‘aging’ the way other people do it. I don’t want to succumb to what we think we have to do. I wanted to find a more authentic experience.”
Jacque’s quest for deeper meaning, to explore her own femininity and emotions, and how society perceives women, aging, and widowhood, is held through the lens of her camera. Always searching for deeper meaning, to emotionally connect with those around her, and to deepen her understanding of her own emotions, Jacque has shaped loss into art—a story that connects the viewer to their own emotional journey. Jacque hopes her photography shows the viewer that embracing grief and aging is a part of life, and in turn, beautiful. “I’m getting older, and to be able to embrace it I think comes from within. I think having the wisdom to embrace aging, just like embracing grief, is real. And aging is real, but it is beautiful too.”
If you are lucky enough to connect with mixed-media artist Maddy McBirney, she may be inspired to create an art piece for you. McBirney explains, “I was always the kind of artist that just made things for other people. I didn’t sell or market my work. If I visited someone abroad and connected with them, I would make them a painting and ship it to them. Same with family. I do things like that. It’s kind of an emotional, inspirational way to work.”
Born and raised in Los Angeles, McBirney became interested in printmaking during high school and later studied graphic design at the University of California, Davis. Inspired by teachers she encountered throughout school, McBirney pursued teaching for a short time before professionally practicing graphic design and settling in Los Altos to raise her family. During that time, her passion for art never faltered, and much like with her personal art, she became inspired to bring art to the community with which she felt a deep connection.
As a long-time resident of Los Altos, McBirney has been a persistent arts advocate for the city, volunteering as an arts educator with the Los Altos Art Docents, collaborating on grants to secure specialized arts education in elementary schools, and serving on the art commission for seven years. During her tenure, she facilitated the implementation of artistic bicycle racks downtown despite falling short on percent-for-art initiatives and systemic funding for public art. While progress within city government was slow going, her time in the arts commission connected her to the community and local business and taught her much about public art. She explains, “I started attending public art conventions in cities like Chicago and Nashville, and it was enlightening to see people creating spaces and public art and placemaking.”
“I started attending public art conventions in cities like Chicago and Nashville, and it was enlightening to see people creating spaces and public art and placemaking.” -Maddy McBirney
After resigning from the art commission, feeling like she could only achieve her goals related to public art with legislation, McBirney was determined to spend more time in the studio.
However, it took only a short time before friends and members of a newly formed downtown coalition encouraged her to attend meetings, citing her enthusiasm for public art. In her first meeting, members inquired about what it would take to bring art downtown. McBirney forged ahead, working with that coalition to devise a plan to use private property and private funding to facilitate public art installations. She recalls, “I asked my friend, Karen Zucker, who was on the commission and now codirects with me, if she would be interested in starting a nonprofit to create public art and placemaking on private property with private funding. It was inspiring because there was interest, and it was something we were asked to do. It wasn’t like we were looking for these projects ourselves.”
The tree-lined village of Los Altos has served as a residential community in the heart of Silicon Valley since its incorporation in 1952. While Los Altos may not be the first city that comes to mind when considering a destination for arts and culture, there has long been an undercurrent of art appreciation exemplified by institutions such as the Los Altos Art Docents, Gallery 9, and the city’s Art Without Walls, a sculpture loan program. Volunteer-led Arts Los Altos, co-directed by McBirney and Zucker, was formed in 2020 to elevate the cultural identity of Los Altos to the front of mind. The arts nonprofit is working to implement public art that creates connections among diverse community members and local businesses while creating space and drawing visitors.
In the three years since Arts Los Altos was founded, the organization has facilitated over 12 public art projects, including the California Birds, Stewards of the Environment mural by Roan Victor on the Comerica Bank on 3rd Street and the HYBYCOZO Mandahlia sculpture located on the corner of State and 3rd Streets. Arts Los Altos hosts public art walking tours on the first Friday of every month, meeting at the Mandahlia sculpture and leaving at 5pm sharp. When asked what the future holds for Arts Los Altos, McBirney immediately discusses plans to transform a small private plaza and recalls a separate augmented reality project. McBirney hopes to balance volunteering and spending time creating her own art by keeping public art projects to a manageable one to two per year. She recently held her first solo art exhibition at the Los Altos Library, and when asked how her work with Arts Los Altos has impacted her artwork, she shares, “It’s not changed my work, but it’s made me realize that I want to do more of it. I work with other artists, and seeing their work inspires me to create my own.”
Images: 1 – (L to R) Maddy McBirney and Karen Zucker 2 – 200 Main Street [An Inventory of Time and Place] by Martha Sakellariou 3 – Apricot Blossoms by Roan Victor 4 – Main Street Movie Theater Remembered by Emily Fromm
Japanese Pastry and Desserts
IKUKA pastry and dessert shop at State Street Market in Los Altos takes its name from the first syllables of the Japanese words imo (sweet potato), kuri (chestnut), and kabocha (pumpkin). The goal of its creator and general manager, Miyuki Ozawa, is to bring the namesake flavors popular in Japanese baking to the South Bay.
Miyuki created the idea of IKUKA alongside her mother, Kuniko Ozawa, a prolific Bay Area restauranteur. In addition to Kuniko’s five other South Bay Japanese American restaurants, including Orenchi Ramen (also at State Street Market), Sumika Grill, & Ogiku Kaiseki, Miyuki is putting her stamp on Japanese cuisine in the Bay. IKUKA offers the deliciously starchy and subtle sweetness of imo,kuri, and kabocha as well as other favorite deserts from Japan such as the beloved Mont Blanc, burnt basque cheesecake, mini croissants, and mochi bread in hopes that patrons can experience delicate texture and sweetness of authentic Japanese pastries that bring out the natural flavors of the ingredients.
Try IKUKA at Pick-Up Party 16.1 This Thursday, November 30th, 6p-9p at State Street Market. Content members will receive a complimentary taste as a toast to their support of South Bay Creatives.
Founder and CEO of The Good Salad, Sanad Al Souz, is on a mission to shake up mealtime by offering healthy and delicious signature chef-crafted salads.
Coming from high-tech engineering, Sanad noticed his colleagues’ interest in nutritious lunches in a corporate cafeteria setting and got to work on an online salad offering that allowed the public to order custom salads. Since scaling to 3 brick and mortar locations in Santa Clara, Los Altos, and Palo Alto, Sanad has formed a team that reflects the values of making good food for good people so that they can feel good. But they don’t stop there; they make it taste good, too.
Try @the.good.salad at Pick-Up Party 16.1 on Thursday, November 30th, 6p-9p at the State Street Market. Content members will receive a complimentary taste as a toast to their support of South Bay Creatives.
Look out for our next video mini-profile on @I.ku.ka, which will drop next week.
