La Quinta Arts Foundation scholarship winner Sofia Enriquez (2010-2014) landed and designed the cover of October 2017 issue of DESERT Magazine.

We caught up with her about her involvement in the The Palm Springs Unified School District’s first two-week fashion camp this past summer. “It was SO fun to go and talk to some teens about fashion,” she says. “I was around their age when I started to get into it. I talked to them about the punk fashion scene from the 80s and the Harajuku fashion scene in Japan that inspired me as a kid. It was nice to show them that fashion can be interpreted by your own voice, since that’s what my fashion is all about. I think the program is such a great way to bring other forms of art to kids.”

In her collaboration with the Coachella Valley Art Scene and Revivals Stores for the ‘PS You Make It’ event at Arrive Hotel in Palm Springs, she offered “My goal is to share with people how I have found my artistic inspiration at thrift stores like Revivals and how it enables me to merge my two passions: Art and Fashion.”

Locally, she has shown her work as part of the Cathedral City Public Arts Commission’s “Latino Cultural Arts Exhibit” at the Cathedral City Cultural Museum.  In Los Angeles, she’s shown her work at Junior High, and at Subliminal Projects.

What’s next for Sofia?
“I’m thriving to get more murals, generate more buzz for my fashion line, and paintings up and out to the public.”

Enriquez paints creative designs on fabric and uses it to sew shoes, purses and clothing that she sells at pop-up shops.

Collage of the Coachella Valley Art Scene programming. Top Left: Sofia Enriquez with her creative designs.

Sofia is involved with several creative communities of the Coachella Valley.

  • Sofia is part of Lady Lead, a Palm Springs Unified School District program helmed by CVAS director Sarah Scheideman and by Art Coordinator by Louisa Nelson Castrodale, brings lunchtime craft tables to local middle schools.
  • She also teaches art with the YMCA’s after-school program and has worked as an art educator at the Palm Springs Art Museum.
  • She is a member of Wyld Womxn, a collective that believes in empowering women through the arts by creating safe spaces for collaboration and growth. They advocate for feminism and social change.

To see more of Sofia’s art, visit her website : https://sofia-enriquez-cz5m.squarespace.com/

To see her fashion, check out her Depop shop: https://www.depop.com/sofiaenri

Follow her on Instagram: @sofiaenriquez