2018 Instructors

Artful Gathering Instructor's are creative educators who share a passion for living and loving art. Colorful threads of their life's work and practice are woven into everything they teach.

There are years of self-taught experience, trial and error and formal training behind every artist. In every life of every artist there comes a mentor, a teacher, a friend or even a stranger who inspires them to believe in their art.

Encouragement is as valuable as learning a technique or a process. Without that encouragement, some children will grow up and lose their imagination. As adults they will forget that all human beings are born to create from their imagination.  Maybe, without someone to inspire them, the greatest artists of all time would have become shop keepers or dentists. 

It's never too late to find your passion.

The world needs artists to guide us, encourage us, teach us, and to set free our wings, because the world is a better place when it is filled with the fruits of our imagination.

We hope you will enjoy meeting this year's Artful Instructors!

Keith Lo Bue is a jeweler, sculptor, teacher and self-described 'stuffsmith' who has work in many major collections, including the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC and the Museum of Arts & Design (MADMuseum) in New York. Since 1990 his work has been exhibited all around the US and in Germany, Australia, New Zealand, France, Ireland and England.

Dozens of books feature Lo Bue's work, including One of a Kind: American Art Jewelry Today, 1000 Rings, On Body and Soul: Contemporary Armor to Amulets and The Compendium Finale Of Contemporary Jewellery Makers (Germany) as well as Metalsmith, American Craft, Ornament and Belle Armoire Jewelry magazines (US). His workshops have been presented to enthusiastic reviews at Haystack, Penland and scores of other art and craft institutions across the United States, Canada, France and Australia, as well as online worldwide. Lo Bue lives and works in Sydney, Australia.

Lyn Belisle is an award-winning teacher, artist, designer and writer. As an undergraduate, Lyn studied art with Phillip John Evett and Bill Bristow at Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas.  She taught art in public schools after graduation and was a finalist for Texas Teacher of the Year for her work as an art teacher with at-risk students.

Lyn is a studio artist who also teaches workshops nationally, most recently in Santa Fe, Provincetown MA, and Washington State. Her favorite media are earthenware, beeswax, paper and fiber. She has authored two articles for Cloth Paper Scissors magazine as well as a coloring book on the Folk Art of Mexico.

About her work, Lyn says, “The practice of art means looking at the world through thoughtful, curious eyes – finding joy in colors and patterns, musing on the textures of a dried leaf of the surface of a stream. Practicing artists pull together ideas from these visual messages, creating things that never existed before, even if it remains just an idea.

My own art practice is based on the idea of ‘shards’, or flashes of recognition that I pull from experience and observation. Whether in clay, collage, fiber, or wax, I fashion new messages from old clues, combining these archetypal shards into a new whole, mending them with gold like a kintsugi vessel, or veiling them with layers of beeswax to unite them.”

Her work is included in the San Antonio Art League & Museum, The Museum of Encaustic Art in Santa Fe, Marta Stafford Fine Arts in Marble Falls, La Vida Gallery in San Antonio, Studio C Gallery in Corpus Christi and Dan Pfeiffer Gallery in Fredericksburg, Texas.

Please visit her website, www.lynbelisle.com to learn more about her art and her workshops.

“My work is real… It is energetic, sometimes figurative and always about real life."

As a silversmith and artist of 20 years, I create pieces that reference history, as well as contemporary urban life. My work tells stories of real people living real life through the use of silver, metal, glass, resin, wood and other mixed-media materials. I create expressive pieces that come from heartwarming memories of my own or my collector’s lives, or from re-purposing objects and components in a manner that aid the owners of my pieces to take desired risks in their lives, or attract more abundance such as harmony, love and laughter into their world. These components can be raw in their authenticity, but always beautiful in their uniqueness.

Susan’s early hand made collection began at Henry Bendell, Banana Republic, Nordstrom as well as numerous galleries around the United States including museum exhibits. Author of her second book, RESIN ALCHEMY, and an Amazon 2013 best seller list, It includes a pioneering ten year body of work combining metal and resin.

Susan Lenart Kazmer is an internationally-recognized mixed-media jewlery artist, silversmith and teacher.  She’s developed many “cold-join” techniques over the years to transform found objects into Talisman works of fine art.

Griselda Tello began her formal training under the guidance of her mother, Kasandra Martell. Griselda's art represents over 45 years of painting and teaching experience.

"Although painting is my first love, assemblage art figures have become an essential spiritual practice. I love the process of sculpting with polymer clay and working with textiles, yarn, fibers and found objects; creating a context where magic begins."
-Griselda Tello

The Art Spirit Gallery www.Griselda.com

Michelle Belto. Known internationally for her work as an artist, author and educator, Belto has a former life in theater and dance. The relationship between her work and performance are best described in her own words: My best work has always had components of image, story and dance. Without the immediacy of live performance, I’ve had to wrestle with the limits of the visual form. How was I to incorporate narrative in my work or provide a sense of movement in what is basically a two-dimensional static image?

My questions and my ensuing study led me to paper and wax as mediums of choice. Paper, as an organic material, is useable only after it has been transformed from grass into pulp which becomes canvas. Wax, in its molten state, incorporates movement as an essential quality in both application and process.

Michelle Belto is a full-time studio artist and international instructor. She authored a book about her signature process, encaustic and oil on custom handmade paper forms, Wax and Paper Workshop (North Light Press, 2012) and two instructional videos demonstrating encaustic painting process. (North Light Press, 2013) She has exhibited widely, most recently in Sydney, Australia, and her work is included in numerous private and corporate collections. She currently lives in the Texas hill country with her husband and a menagerie of furry creatures. www.MichelleBelto.com

Book artist Leslie Marsh is driven by her love of nature and a fascination for cultural and family history. Using metal, stones and vintage findings, she forges relic-like book covers that call to mind medieval treasure bindings created during the Middle Ages. Leslie also spends a lot of time experimenting with the marks left by leaves on paper by steeping the two together. The resulting ecoprints form signature wrappers used in most of her work.

Sandra Duran Wilson comes from a family of artists and scientists. She grew up in a world where everything was possible, where she would look through the microscope in her father’s office and then draw what she saw. Sandra’s early years were spent on the border of Mexico where the people, animals, landscape, drama of the religious rituals, and stories of the curanderas shaped her reality. Years later she would return frequently to Mexico and South America to absorb the culture, traditions, and art. Her cultural studies combined with her scientific explorations has directed her work from realism to abstract mixed media.

Her work is influenced by abstract scientific concepts in physics, biology and chemistry. The pure fun of exploring what paint can do and her natural curiosity keeps the work fresh and lively. She focused on traditional print-making while in art school; and later developed her own techniques to achieve the same results using natural non-toxic methods. Her painting style has developed along the lines of the Abstract Expressionists, but she is most influenced by the materials, and she continues to experiment with all the new mediums and methods that come along. She states that, "I hope in the future to be able to create a world of art that you can enter into and experience on all sensory levels". www.sandraduranwilson.com

Julie Ryen is a mixed media jewelry artist with a passion for creating unique jewelry designs that incorporate vintage found objects - giving these pieces a new life.   Julie has studied and collected vintage and antique jewelry for over 20 years and has been creating her own jewelry designs for the past 8.  When not working on new jewelry designs she enjoys spending time with her husband going to flea markets, antique malls and estate sales searching for vintage treasures.  Julie spends her time between Washington State during the summer months and enjoying the warm sunshine weather of Arizona during the winter months.  Many of Julie’s unique jewelry designs have been published in the Stampington Jewelry Affaire publication.   You will find her jewelry designs in her Etsy shop jryendesigns.etsy.com

Jean Van Brederode. I was trained as a teacher, but art has always been a part of my life.  I feel fortunate to have found an art form, enameling, that brings excitement into my life each and every day.  I have been enameling for nearly ten years and share the art in-person across the country and also in online workshops.  My work is always changing, always a surprise!  Having been seduced, empowered, enriched, & invigorated by metals & glass, I happily dedicate myself to creating and teaching others the joys of enameling!

My work has been featured in several prominant magazines and publications. 

As many as eight weeks a year, I am teaching at major art retreats across the country.  

When I’m not teaching workshops or hosting other instructors at Charmed I’m Sure Studio in south-central PA, I am tending to three Etsy shops – Enamel Warehouse – www.EnamelWarehouse.etsy.com, Art Girls’ Tools –ArtGirlsStudio.com,  and Charmed I’m Sure Studio - CharmdImSur.etsy.com 

Penny McDonald was born in the Heights, Houston, Texas. She has been an artist all her life, with formal studies in both commercial art and interior design.  She left formal studies to marry the love of her life, Rob, in 1980.

Penny is a firm believer in lifelong learning and many of her skills are self taught. She believes strongly in using found objects, cast offs and recycled materials. Her art has been displayed in many exhibitions in the Houston area.  She also teaches classes locally. In addition, Penny’s work has been published in Art Doll Quarterly and in The Regretsy Tarot. She lives and works in Houston, Texas. Her work is visible at www.penniesfromheavendesigns.com.

Kim Beller, native of Wilmington, North Carolina, is a mixed media artist, inspired by the sea and all of nature. A peaceful activist, she combines her love for the ocean, and her constant work to protect it, through her intuitive process, in the many layers of her work. Using different mediums, her paintings are filled with secret message, memories, mantras, and prayers, for the oceans, the Earth, and all of it’s creatures.

Kim’s passion for art in it’s many forms began in her early years while growing up on the coast with her artist mother, and adventure loving dad. She was introduced to her own creativity as a child through exploring the marsh and sound with her dad, and making art and crafts with her mother.

She has a contagious enthusiasm for creating, and enjoys leading workshops, and guiding others to unleash their creative spirit, while finding their own style and voice. For many years, she has kept “visual journals,” and shares this love and practice with others during her workshops. She teaches in her home studio, at museum schools, the Outer Banks, North Carolina mountains, and anywhere she is invited to teach! Living on the coast in Topsail Beach, North Carolina, there is constant inspiration from the sea and an abundance of nature.

Roxan O' Brien is the author of “Colored Pencil on Copper Jewelry”, a self-taught bead artist who has a background in oil painting, silversmithing, enameling, and chasing and repoussé with over 30 years of experience in the jewelry field. She studied jewelry design and metal work at Harrisburg Area Community College Harrisburg, Pennsylvania and Touchstone Center for Crafts in Farmington, Pennsylvania. 

As founder of the Central Pa. Bead and Jewelry Society a nonprofit organization, she has created a place where jewelry artist can find workshops and support for their craft.  She is the first bead embroider to reach juried status from the Pennsylvania Guild of Craftsmen.  She sells her work in galleries, and art and craft shows throughout the east coast. She teaches jewelry classes in Pennsylvania and east coast.

Roxan lives and works from her studio in Shiremanstown, Pennsylvania where she produces original designs. Her style is an elegant example of unique design, color and texture in the form of wearable art. Her sense of color combinations, depth of design, space, and attention to details makes her one of the leading artist in her field. She takes from nature, tries to improve on it and has a passion to create beauty through her work. She finds creating jewelry a transcendent experience which fills her soul like no other.

www.Designsbyroxan.com

Eva Sherman began beading as a way to spend time with her daughters but soon became hopelessly addicted. In 2005 she traded in her architectural career for the opportunity to spend all her time among beads, and opened Grand River Bead Studio in Cleveland, Ohio.

Eva now happily spends most days in the studio creating, writing and teaching, but has been know to take her show on the road. She has discovered an affinity for working with wire and metals, and prefers to design in an organic and unstructured style. Eva has authored two books on jewelry design: "Organic Wire & Metal Jewelry" and "Cool Copper Cuffs."

Kevin Brunner. The first memory of making art was when I was a child of about five and I drew our family dog back in Missouri.

I found great joy in painting and drawing, so much so, that when I started college I declared as an art major at Northwest Missouri State University. But, I only remained an art major for one semester when I switched to broadcasting and eventually earned my degree in that field.

In the early 1980s I moved to New York City and was soon cast as an actor/singer with a light opera company Off-Broadway which earned me my acting union card. I also took acting classes and made a few appearances in small roles on the soap opera, The Guiding Light.

I didn't paint or draw for a few years, but then a friend invited me to accompany her to a non-instructor figure drawing class that met on Friday nights at the Art's Student's League. It re-awakened my love of drawing and painting. It became a weekly routine for us and each week brought me more joy.

A card company in Portland, Oregon (Allport Editions) approached me to sell my images on some of their greeting cards after seeing my paintings in The Artist's Magazine. We continue to have a great business relationship and they still sell cards with my images.

 I moved to Beverly Hills in 2005 and have lived here since. I enjoy working in both fields, acting and art. I work in oil, acrylic, watercolor, pastel and have also tried casein. I work in different styles and with different subject matter. I also take the occasional acting job when offered. I enjoy both. www.BrunnerKevin.com

Art Bending concept was created by Paul Cristian Cordos, self taught wire bender based in Cluj-Napoca, Romania.

He bent his first wire art works in 2001 – 2002 and in 2011 founded Art Bending Studio. Started as a street wire performer on the streets of Cluj-Napoca, Sibiu, Vienna and Paris, many years later his works gained international appreciation.

Concept is about minimalism, fusion between art and object.

Pat Stacy would say "The tip of my brush is the tip of my soul." Springing from an interior well, her work contains symbols attesting to a belief in life beyond what she sees and gratitude for life itself. Several of the symbols she uses are uniquely hers, while others are taken from a variety of cultures. Pat works in acrylic and mixed media on canvas and wood. In 2008, Pat was at a crossroads in her life due to ill health when she picked up a brush, immersed herself in color daily, and found her passion for art. A native Arizonan, Pat’s work reflects her love of her Arizona heritage. Her unique Quadruvium series unites wood panels, heavy texture, fine line work, and her symbols. Pat is a juried, award-winning artist whose work may be seen in galleries in Arizona and Utah, as well as in the Arizona Fine Art Expo in the spring of each year. See more of Pat's work on her website: www.patstacy.com

Kim Williams. “Salvage from the past to make life richer in the present” is my mantra. A BA in Theatre Education and 30 years in the classroom has provided me with a profound appreciation for creative design. Transitioning from teaching to retirement came with challenges. With a desire to channel creative energy, mix in a little inspiration for the love of collecting antiques, and an over zealous appreciation for historical clothing all came together like a blinding bolt of lightening when I discovered how to repurpose old jewelry.

My skills as a prop maker have led me to love mixed media as well as jewelry arts. In 2013, I found Artful Gathering while searching for classes that I could take to gain more knowledge. After a few gratifying classes with AG, my goal was to develop some classes of my own and join the faculty. This is year three for me as a faculty member! I earned a position as a member of the creative team for ICE Resin in 2014 and I have taught in person classes. I love teaching and it would be my pleasure to have you join me this year in my Artful Gathering class.

Hi I'm Pam Gracia. I started "Soft in the Head" back in 1997 as a way to keep myself busy and out of trouble, and it was cheaper than a shrink. What started out as a hobby due to my love of all things primitive and rag dolls has turned into a booming pattern business and the home of some pretty hilarious characters.

"Soft in the Head" has been published in such magazines as "Better Homes and Gardens", "Art Doll Quarterly", "Prims", "Doll Collector", "A Primitive Place" and "Country Sampler". Through the years "Soft in the Head" has become a member in juried groups such as EHAG and PFATT and also an artist for the amazing Halloween event "Ghoultide Gathering". Recently my husband and I have had the honor of becoming the new owners of the online market "PFATT Marketplace" which has been running strong for 14 years.

I love "Primitive" soft sculpture and over the years I have discovered my own unique style by combining whimsical with primitive...like to call it "Primsical". I hope by taking my class I can share this with each one of you and help you find that "primsical" spirit inside. Mice are one of my favorite characters to create since they seem to thrive on whimsy! www.softinthehead.com