Theo Martins is a songwriter & artist. A Connecticut native, he splits his time between there and Los Angeles. It’s here in LA that he founded Posture, a design studio through which he’s launched a multitude of projects and collaborations facilitating his various interests; and it’s also here that he launched Cereal & Such, a breakfast cereal line, back in 2017.
Theo Martins is a songwriter & artist. A Connecticut native, he splits his time between there and Los Angeles. It’s here in LA that he founded Posture, a design studio through which he’s launched a multitude of projects and collaborations facilitating his various interests; and it’s also here that he launched Cereal & Such, a breakfast cereal line, back in 2017.
It’s through Cereal & Such that we first learned about Theo. We love the honesty and warmth of the brand, its original approach to marketing and storytelling, and how it also serves as a vehicle, or channel, for other forms of creativity and art to emerge.
I don’t necessarily maintain a ritual, though I enjoy being up early enough to meet the Sun. It’s a wonderful feeling arising with the Sun. I enjoy taking my time with regard to everything I do, for the sake of giving everything it’s own time. I’m quiet in the mornings, but it varies depending on what the day calls.
I’m a seasonal kind of cat. Both environments offer a particular element that I enjoy and I hone in on each of them. Because of the life and experience I have had in each place there’s an understanding of how each can serve my needs. I think naturally I like to see things from various angles and my lifestyle reflects that.
It impacts it greatly. I’m highly aware of that and because of that I am generally always looking at the frame from many angles, so to speak. Always asking myself if what I believe to be true is, in fact, true. I’m aware that what my experience is like in one environment differ in another, hence my constant “movement” if you will.
Perhaps. I didn’t view what i did as creative, it was more a desperation of maintaining what I felt was my sanity. As I matured I began to understand my approach and view of things and how that was necessary for me to live within the world. It has always been personal.
My attempts at maintaining that balance were a desperation to protect my Art. The world of business is a very particular machine and it takes a particular understanding of that. Much of what the public sees is an exercise in understanding in real time. In regards to managing it, I don’t do anything else. I have no life outside of my work. It is my sole devotion.
I envision being totally immersed and engaged with an object and allowing the world to look over my shoulder. It has all been an exploration into myself and where it comes from. That orientation has taken me many places, namely back to Rhode Island. It wasn’t intentional on my part but as I glance back I can see the weaving of something far deeper than i can comprehend. It’s a story that will perhaps make sense over time.
At the moment I have finished a wonderful body of musical work, under the title of a new band, The Walking Band. It’s an extension of my vision for pure and true collaboration. The band allows anyone to join with any level of contribution. Cereal & Such has matured and there are plans to open a space this Fall.
For Mariah Nielson, the familiar is never static. Mornings begin inside the hand-built Inverness, CA home her father, sculptor JB Blunk, shaped from salvaged redwood in the 1950s. It’s where Mariah now lives, and is raising her own son amid the textures, tools, and stories of her childhood—alongside traded works from friends, artist-made artifacts, and her own growing contributions.
For painter Jereme Brian Mendez, mornings move at their own pace: ice water, meditation, and a walk through the quiet streets of the Berkeley Hills, where deer roam past and the fog hangs low. His studio hours don’t begin until the light shifts in the afternoon, but those early rituals—quiet, steady, tactile—form the architecture of his day.
Kassandra Thatcher is an LA-based artist specializing in ceramic lighting and sculpture. We recently paid a visit to her Arlington Heights studio to see her in action, and learn more about her story, life and work.