I was born Sonya Colomeda on March 28, 1979. Much of my early years of learning to make art came from simple observation and the TV shows, Mark Kistler's Imagination Station and Bob Ross' The Joy of Painting. My influences and admirations now include artists such as Michael Whelan, Irving Norman, Gabe Leonad, Sylvia Ji, and Chris Vanderhoof (Moonblink). I briefly dabbled with oil paints around the age of 12, but I much preferred charcoal for its dark possibilities and smudgy-finger aftermath. There were long periods where I was not creating anything and I wouldn't rediscover my passion for art and a renewed interest in oil painting until I married Russ Stratfull in 2004.
In early 2005, I decided to take an oil painting class at Sac City College taught by Fred Dalkey. Although Russ encouraged my creative spirit by giving me a camera and printer along with a table easel for Christmas, most of my beginning work came from pictures on my camera phone which gave me the opportunity to not worry about the details of a picture. Instead I could explore colors, shapes and textures of the paint. Red permeates through much of my pieces as it signifies the most extreme and intense emotions. I also love using a palette knife to create textured, more abstract images. The colors began to jump into my hair when I decided to go into a cosmetology apprenticeship offered by the state of California.
The journey to hair began simply enough as a teenager when a boyfriend needed a haircut. They would become some of my first clients. As time went on, I began cutting my own hair out of curiosity. It wasn't until my early twenties when I would play with my hair color. After many years in food service management and feeling the need for change, I made the switch to a career in hair in late 2005. Now I had total follicular freedom and my hair has cycled through a rainbow of colors like many experimentalists before me. I received my cosmetology license in the spring of 2008 and am currently an employee of Magic Salon in Sacramento, California. Now I'm creating art on canvases that walk and talk. My goal is to help people achieve their own ideas of self expression.
With two creative endeavors, the idea of a website highlighting and offering my talents soon began to hatch. If not for Russ- best friend, husband, admirer, equalizer, constant idea machine, and web designer, SonyaStratfull.com may have never come to fruition. Here I have the chance to combine and share my love of creating art and hair with the public. I thank everyone who has ever supported me.