Der­ren estab­lished  DNA Imagery  in 2006 with Ana Car­de­nas. They pro­vide graph­ics, web design, screen print­ing, pho­tog­ra­phy and video ser­vices to Deck­ers, LVMH Moet Hen­nessy & Col­lec­tive Effort Events, UCSB, as well as sup­port­ing local groups includ­ing Out of  the Box The­ater Com­pany and Santa Bar­bara Earth Day.

DNA Imagery uses the mantra Dont Hate, Cre­ate to pro­vide high qual­ity ser­vices and gives back to the com­mu­nity by work­ing with youth, empow­er­ing cre­atives and help­ing to lead the new wave of Santa Bar­bara culture.

Our Mis­sion Statement

Art With­out Lim­its cre­ates inten­sive one-on-one men­tor­ships for aspir­ing Santa Bar­bara County artists by pair­ing them with pro­fes­sional artists and busi­ness experts to help them suc­ceed in their cho­sen art form. We encour­age emerg­ing art orga­ni­za­tions by act­ing as their fis­cal spon­sor until they acquire their own not-for-profit certification.

Men­tor­ship

Men­tor­ship is usu­ally a one-on-one process where an expe­ri­enced per­son takes some­one under their wing to help train them to fly on their own.

Men­tor­ship is hav­ing some­one who believes in you so you can believe in yourself.

Men­tors say “You can!” not “You can’t.”

Men­tors are a shoul­der to cry on when the going gets rough and some­one to hug when the going gets good!

Men­tors guide you, they don’t do it for you.

Art schools teach the skills and tech­nique of art forms, but gen­er­ally they don’t teach what to do when the stu­dent has grad­u­ated. That’s where we come in.

What­ever Hap­pened to…

Schools have reduced art classes in our eco­nomic crunch. Most of what remains are pri­mar­ily “test-able” sub­jects, and many chil­dren are dis­cour­aged from look­ing into cre­ative careers because they are not con­sid­ered “prof­itable”. Stu­dents with a real eye for the art world are at a major dis­ad­van­tage. Before, artists used to learn their trade by appren­tic­ing to mas­ters. Today, the world is dif­fer­ent, and we have to do some­thing about it.

We Believe…

We believe that within the artists lie the cre­ative solu­tions to the world’s prob­lems. Cre­ativ­ity bal­ances the tech­no­log­i­cal world we live in.

So…

We pro­vide one-on-one men­tor­ships in any art form. Each men­tor­ship is unique, trust­ing the cre­ative path that evolves with the rela­tion­ship. Our goals include increas­ing the indi­vid­ual art skills of the artists and help­ing them gain knowl­edge of the busi­ness skills in order to lead to a suc­cess­ful career. We lis­ten to our artists and adjust our pro­grams as the needs arise. The process has far exceeded our wildest dreams.  We are so proud of what our artists and men­tors have accom­plished so far, and we know that they are on the road to success!

Rod Rolle lead­ing a break­out ses­sion on pho­tog­ra­phy at the 2012 Art Career Day Conference. Photo Cour­tesy of Shan­non Jor­dan (one of our Mentees!)