Sam Sardina w/ Alberto Kanost

Art in the cafe...

Laurel Statz


"The Spectator"


December 2025



Laurel Statz is a painter and Madison area native. Her work, while figurative, is influenced by abstraction and minimalism. The paintings often have a quick and instinctual nature, capturing just what’s needed. While she often times herself to eliminate extra details and over-precision, she has ventured into more detailed works as well. Laurel does not attach narrative to her pieces. Rather, she thinks of them like a journaling process for her scatter-brained psyche. The figures in the pieces are meant to be processing tools for the artist and the viewer. She hopes that seeing these figures helps the...
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Saturday, December 5, 2015
8:00 pm

Sam Sardina's path to becoming a musician began years ago when she taught herself the keyboard at age 7. Later on, her musical tastes and abilities expanded, enticing her to explore more instruments and musical styles. She picked up the clarinet at age 11, and finally found her love of guitar at age 15. During her second year as a film student at UW-Madison, she mastered the cajon and harmonica as well. Sam's strong love for music and songwriting can be traced to her biggest influences including Taylor Swift, Sara Bareilles, Monica Martin, and John Mayer for their impeccable songwriting skills. Sam is a curious, passionate musician on a mission to discover, learn about and create music that is unique, unusual, and lyrically driven.

Alberto Kanost, known on stage as Bear, is a singer/songwriter from Milwaukee. The world is cruel and sometimes we forget what it means to be alive. Bear combines angst with folk music and sings stories of people and living life in this strange place. He has spent the past couple years coming up in the suburbs of Milwaukee and now is trying his way in Mad Town. He hopes to launch his first EP at the end of December; It will be called Fickle Young Mind.