15 Jun LIVING ART

Heather Kanzaki has always made art, although she didn’t realize she was truly an artist until college. Even then, it took a professor writing her a little note and sticking it her cubby that said, “You are an artist, did you know?” 

For the artist and Rozz-Tox barista, she is immersed in creativity from the moment she wakes up until the close of business. Heather puts her imaginative ways to work and see art living around her.

The current work on display at Rozz-Tox is the Rozztox Tarot.  Most tarot decks have 78 cards, but here will be 13 hand painted cards up in June. They’re all depictions based off of the beautiful tarot deck known as the Rider-Waite tarot deck. All the cards feature members of the Rozz-Tox community. The Magician, for instance, is Benjamin, the owner. He is the magic in the space of Rozz-Tox. Heather mentions to people that Rozz-Tox is just the art installation of Benjamin’s heart. “All the wonder that is our space is due to his hand or his choosing of other hands,” she says.

“All of our customers are the most beautiful souls and we have a lot of regulars. They are a part of our space, our Rozz-Tox community, so there’s the Chariot card,” she elaborates. Chuck Knudsen, the artist who recently passed, is in the chariot. The chariot card has many meanings, but the meaning for her that she grasped of the card was a connector. “Chuck was a real people connecter. If you needed anything he “knew a guy” for it and was constantly building bridges between people.”

The Lovers card might be her favorite. “Smith’s original is breathtaking, and I tried to imitate that as well as she could with Rozz-Tox’s heart and souls, Ian Harris and Dasha Denger. They’re all heart, and they’re both constantly making the space more loving,” say Heather.

See it for yourself: The Rozztox Tarot exhibition adornes the walls of the space until July 1st.  Meet the artist at the closing reception on June 29th from 5:00-7:00p.m. 2108 3rd Avenue