Magic Hours and Woven Together

Hillary Goidell is a photo-based artist whose work centers on the body, individual and collective, and considers the complexities of its form, incarnations, and constant recalibrations.

She collaborates with choreographers to document bodies in movement and narrate the emotional and physical labor of dance-making, extending this observational practice by writing and performing creative audiodescription. On a broader scope, her photography explores human fault lines at the intersection of strength and vulnerability like illness, end of life, and gestures of care.

She has brought image-making into her work across disciplines, from her field research in anthropology to creative production and teaching. In turn, these foundations along with decades living in France solidly inform her thinking and process.

Hillary holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Anthropology/French from Amherst College, Master’s in Anthropology from Université de Paris VII, and pursued PhD research at the Ecole des hautes études en sciences sociales (EHESS). Her work has been shown in exhibitions in California and France/Germany, and published internationally in a variety of museum catalogs and magazines. www.hillarygoidell.com

Marla Pedersen is an arts educator and visual artist based in Petaluma, California. Her works are a merging of worlds, incorporating the beauty and mystery of nature into the complex contradictions of living with Stage IV Breast Cancer. Relationships between natural organic forms, portraiture, and abstract expressionism illustrate the dichotomies of being human and our multifaceted existence, while appreciating the interconnectedness to each other through lived experiences.

Pedersen has exhibited at the UCSF Mission Bay campus, UCSF Women’s Health Center,  and is currently showcased at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art in collaboration with the UCSF Art for Recovery program. Her next exhibition will be at the Dance Palace in Point Reyes, California in May of 2026.

She holds a Bachelor of Arts Education from The Ohio State University and currently leads workshops from her home studio after a career teaching K-12 Arts Education in Sonoma County Schools. Pedersen also has a certificate in Expressive Healing Arts and End of Life Doula care.

To find out more about Marla and her work, visit her website. And to hear more about her story with Cancer and art making, watch the interview with Art for Recovery. | Photo credit: Justin Hackworth