New People w/ Vanessa Tortolano - $6

Art in the cafe...

Tamara Lea Kaufman


"pretty ~ ugly"


February 2026



Artist Statement Tamara Lea Kaufman’s personal artwork ranges from serious to quirky, dark, adult-themed humor. She creates multimedia assemblage, collage, and dioramas made from HO-scale railroad hobby miniatures, preserved insects, paint, embroidery, found objects, and typically discarded materials such as candy wrappers and the overlooked debris of everyday life. Her work explores topics of consumption, waste, desire, relationships, psychology, politics, societal pressures and the levity of humor needed to survive it all. It gives her joy to repurpose materials into something new, useful, or...
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Saturday, August 22, 2009

New People is a Madison band that plays original, peppy, thoughtful rock music with two singer/songwriters and lots of nice harmonies on top of spiky guitar hooks.

Vanessa was raised in Hawaii where she studied musical theatre and vocals from the age of 5-18. She then moved to L.A. to "make it" soon realizing it wasn't all that it was cracked up to be. Then there was that whole baby making thing....Moving to Madison to raise her family she met Mark Adkins of Subvocal and developed her vocal tecnique that sets her apart. Six years later she finally picks up the guitar that has sat in a corner most of her adult life and learned to play. The result is simple guitar to accompany a strong voice and inspired words.

Music