Alisyn J. Palla is a metal artist and sculptor, working since 2012, and the founder of Meraki Metal Works (public art, private commissions, and museum exhibitions) and Meraki Creative Works (MCW), a community welding and creative-innovation studio in Bakersfield, Kern County. Her mission is to make creative practice — especially the metal arts — welcoming, inspiring, and empowering for everyone, with a special focus on inviting youth and women into welding and the metal arts. Through MCW she offers hands-on workshops in welding, ceramics, and a growing range of mediums, while giving other creatives a platform to share their craft and building a community hub where people of every age and background discover they can make.