Get In touch with sophia:

meet M Sophia :

You can picture her:  M Sophia Santiago is a stylish woman under a large umbrella of fine art and social activism. Her life’s dedication is to investment in community, reflected through her lens of photography, embrace of social diversity, romance languages, art performance, travel and ecology chronicles — all elements that form Sophia’s entrepreneurial history expressed compassionately through her authentic kind nature, walking her talk on her Life Path.

M Sophia is a California Girl with significant geographic influences shaping her warm-hearted character. She was raised since infancy outside of the US by American Diplomats in Costa Rica, Colombia, Argentina, Panama and Guatemala. (Mariana) Sophia has forever loved generating provocative good energy and style, speaking her native Spanish, fluent French and Portuguese and easily adapting to where she is to make it Home. Sophia continues to embrace empathic leadership in her independent entrepreneurial strategy. 

As a young woman Sophia integrated into the fast paced American east coast culture living for the first time in the US in the 1970’s; followed by advanced studies on the American west coast where she graduated with honors in 1981 from UC Berkeley in Art History, Latin American Studies, Textile Arts & Cultural Anthropology. She worked through her schooling as a costumer and wardrobe mistress for the Berkeley Repertory Theater, selling fine textiles at The Hand Loomed Fabric Store, hand stitcher and fabric dyer for the San Francisco Opera and American Conservatory Theater. Sophia developed her capable business acuity past post-graduate study at the Institute of Costume History, Textile Department of the Louvre Museum, living life in Paris, France. Responding and refining life survival skills, Sophia is indeed a savvy world traveler, resourceful business woman in four languages, a Citizen of the World.

Dedication defines Sophia’s life’s purpose in her work life, reliably rendering multiple roles. Over the decades, Sophia pursued mentoring in a variety of professional fields earning her status as an artist entrepreneur in her own right. A true heart’s commitment to full self-integration furthered her humanistic empathy combined with her entrepreneurial expertise, adding feathers of wisdom to the many diverse hats she wears under her bright umbrella. Sophia is an interested invested listener, sharing her generous spirit with her innate business sense and a practical global perspective: business acumen, teaching, interpreting, social advocacy, ecology of leadership have all forged a brave trailblazer who continues to blossom.

As a fine art figure model M Sophia was trained and certified in 1982 at California College of the Arts in Oakland. To this day she models at Art Institutes and in Studio for Fine Artists, co-creating Painting, Drawing, Sculpture, Fashion Illustration, on location Body Painted, even walking Runway Shows. In 1988 she married San Francisco North Beach Jazz horn player Tony V Santiago. Soon after their newborn daughter arrived, baby and mom were featured models in the centerfold story March 1990 Issue of Vogue Italy Magazine. Equally brilliant, Sophia shines to this day doing Event hosting, co-curating group art Pop Up Exhibits and producing public Photography and Community Mural Projects. Sophia’s own co-creative public projects are visibly evident in her strong social media presence since 2008 with substantive imagery in front of or from behind the camera. Essence of authentic beauty, food justice, ecology concerns and social justice are the common threads and joining themes rooted in her many lovely collaborations over the decades.

The Artist Retrospective “The Long View” 2016 Exhibition celebrates M Sophia’s 40 year fine art figure modeling career in the US and in Europe. The same year, Sophia unveiled The Food Love Mural Project with her A Team, produced from her two self-published tiny books in 2012, “Alimento Y Amor” - “Food Love”. The mural was dedicated in 2016 in the downtown farmers’ market by the Northern California Town Mayor. Since Summer 2019 internationally in the works are: a collaborative culinary-sommelier video series; exhibiting her print photography in cafe/music venues; style consulting and modeling for art and upscale unique boutiques; and continuing her travel advising for clients. M Sophia’s Portrait Photography is highlighted in the 2020 Sundance Film Festival winner and Oscar nominated Best Documentary Film entitled, “Crip Camp”. She divides her time currently between two continents, developing collaborations in Spain, France and New York. Ultimately, Sophia’s colorful, sturdy umbrella reveals a very real, unique, reliable presence motivated by serving her current and future clients; inspiring, supporting and manifesting burgeoning imaginations, goals and beautiful projects.

This website provides compelling evidence of M Sophia Santiago’s expert capacity to carry forth purposeful creative business endeavors, to coach and mentor be it language, modeling, lifestyle goals, to guide or assist original and aesthetic business proposals or finding exhibition venues for her own photography. M Sophia manifests can do leadership style combined with nuanced multi-cultural influences to inspire a keen focus on successful co-creative collaborations.

M Sophia's CV and Portfolio are available upon request.

Personal Philosophy

Mission:

My website is dedicated to lifestyle, uplifting vibrancy of life and delivering personal and professional discovery and development in a safe, nurturing space to promote and inspire your vision.  I also teach language acumen. I exhibit my photography. I believe in service to others in the ideals of community through inspiring leadership. Our capacity to truly hear one another for well informed genuinely expressed business choices can fulfill an empowered creative result together to broaden the beauty in this world one collaboration at a time.

Vision:

My passion is a vibrant world view that inspires me to share my skills with clients promoting self-empowerment, good business choices, facilitating your connection with the world with effective results offered to you with compassionate coaching to benefit your own special journey. I thrive on connecting with individuals and businesses to grow and succeed. I can help you define your business needs and fulfill your vision based on decades of my own creative and aesthetic entrepreneurial experiences and wisdom.