Serena Barton lives in Portland, Oregon, where she makes art, has a part-time counseling practice, teaches art workshops and provides individual art coaching. She exhibits and sells her work in galleries and online. She teaches at national art retreats and other venues. With artist Leighanna Light, she offers an annual mini-retreat in Taos, New Mexico. Her articles have appeared in Cloth Paper Scissors magazine, Somerset Apprentice and Studios magazine. Her book Wabi-Sabi Art Workshop: Mixed Media Techniques for Embracing Imperfection and Celebrating Happy Accidents was published in 2013 by North Light Books. She is currently working on a book about oil and cold wax painting to be published by North Light in 2015.
Once a corporate go-getter in Silicon Valley, Traci Bautista left a successful marketing and graphic design career in 2001 to pursue her passion for art and share her love of creativity with people worldwide. Focusing her artistic energy into treiC designs, Traci has become an accomplished mixed-media artist, creative entrepreneur and instructor and is the author of Collage Unleashed, Doodles Unleashed and Printingmaking Unleashed. She has been a regular guest on DIY/HGTV’s Craft Lab, and her art has been featured in more than fifteen art and mixed-media books, numerous blogs and more than forty magazines.
Traci contributes her success as an artist to her past experiences and innate drive to explore and create without boundaries. She has taught workshops in handmade books, art journaling, creative business and surface design. Traci has been a close collaborator with iLoveToCreate throughout the years, developing successful product lines such as Collage Pauge Instant Decoupage. She designs digital art journaling products and e-courses for her own digital shop, treiCdesignsdigitals.com. Her latest venture is the opening of {studio 323*7}, her art studio and boutique in Danville, California. To follow her creative musings, visit her at treicdesigns.com.
Sunny Carvalho is a mixed-media artist living in Alabama amid the chaos of too many art supplies. Focusing on hand-sculpted ceramic dolls and pendants and mixed-media paintings, her quirky characters have found their way into many of the mixed-media magazines. She is an instructor with Artfest (Seattle), Art is You (Petaluma and Benecia, California, and Nashville and Memphis, Tennessee), and Art Unraveled (Phoenix), as well as various individual studios. According to her husband, she lives in a world where everything is happy and squirrels iron her pants.
Contact Sunny at sunnycdolls@aol.com or visit her at facebook.com/sunny.carvalho.5 or sunnycarvalho.blogspot.com.
Violette is an artist, author and an idea factory. She has a passion for art journaling and helping women nurture their creativity. As a free spirit, she shares her funky outside-the-box life with her blog readers and Facebook friends. Her art has been featured in a number of publications as well as in her own book, Journal Bliss. Violette teaches workshops and gives Mojo Sessions to women who need to get their mojo going. You can find her hugging trees or happily creating in her purple magic cottage in White Rock, British Columbia. Visit her at violette.ca and purplejuice.ca.
Jane “Danger” Davenport is an internationally recognized artist and prize-winning author. Faces feature strongly in Jane’s whimsical work, often with somewhat wistful or melancholy expressions and surrounded by interacting color and nature. Her online art school is home to thousands of creatives from all around the world, and her Whimsical Face DVD has been hugely popular. Through her online art school, publications and Escape Artist Retreats, Jane has enabled tens of thousands of creative people from around the world to embrace their innate artistic selves and accelerate their own progression. She is based at “The Nest” overlooking Byron Bay, Australia, and has koalas in her garden. Visit her at janedavenport.com.
Andrea Matus deMeng is a visual artist living in Vancouver, British Columbia, who exhibits as well as teaches her unique combination of painting, collage and sculpture.
As an art instructor, Andrea conducts workshops from coast to coast across North America and is including workshops in Europe and Australia in the upcoming months.
Her most recent project involves co-authoring a book with her artist-husband Michael deMeng. The book, titled The Art Abandonment Project, was released in spring 2014. Visit her at andreamatus.com.
Michael deMeng is an assemblage artist from Vancouver, British Columbia, who exhibits throughout the United States. As an educator, he has been actively involved with VSA Montana, providing art education and encouraging participation in the arts to people with disabilities. Through these activities, as well as his artwork, Michael fosters community awareness and offers creative methods to explore the human experience.
In his art, he addresses issues of transformation. Discarded materials find new and unexpected uses in his work; they are reassembled and conjoined with unlikely components, a form of rebirth from the ashes into new life and new meaning.
These assemblages are metaphors for the evolutions and revolutions of existence: from life to death to rebirth, from new to old to renewed, from construction to destruction to reconstruction. These forms are examinations of the world in perpetual flux, where meaning and function are ever changing. Visit him at michaeldemeng.com.
Katie Kendrick lives along the banks of the Tahuya River in western Washington. The peaceful beauty of her natural surroundings is a constant source of inspiration and nourishment for her creative spirit. She finds art making to be one of the most powerful ways to connect with her innermost essence, while at the same time discovering her authentic voice. She enjoys the experimental and intuitive layers of creating, where she can explore inner and outer worlds simultaneously. She has a passion for sharing her love of creating with others and teaches mixed-media workshops across the United States and internationally. Her first book, Layered Impressions: A Poetic Approach to Mixed-Media Painting was released in 2012.
Mindy Lacefield is a mixed-media artist who draws inspiration from the nostalgia and rainy days of her childhood. Creating from the heart of a seven-year-old, Mindy cherishes the tactile process of painting. As the layers and colors evolve, decisions are made in the moment. Mistakes are applauded and accidents cherished. Only the process of making mistakes fosters growth. Surrendering to the outcome of the finished work allows her to be one with the process.
Mindy is a full-time artist living in central Arkansas with her husband and two poodles, Merlin and Sammy. She teaches around the country and online at timssally.ning.com. You can read more about her journey through her blog at timssally.com.
Misty Mawn is a full-time artist, mother and workshop instructor. She spends every single day possible creating, playing, exploring, learning and constantly being inspired and intrigued by everything around her. Her passion to create continues to bless her life with purposeful work and fulfilling adventures. When not in the studio, she can be found amusing and being amused by her two darling children, cooking up some creative concoction in the kitchen or strolling the back trails with her beloved camera in hand. She has been published in several mixed-media art books and magazines, and is the author and photographer of Unfurling, a Mixed-Media Workshop. She teaches mixed-media art workshops internationally, locally and online. Visit her at mistymawn.typepad.com.
Cindy Silverstein is a mixed-media painter. Working with layers of acrylic paint, ink and collage papers on canvas, she combines the power of positive words and phrases with her images of people, animals and the beauty of nature.
“I like to say that I paint beautiful thoughts. I want my paintings and words to inspire, uplift and empower people with the understanding that inside of them is an abundance of love and creativity that is available to help them manifest the life they want.”
Cindy has illustrated for children’s books, magazines, greeting cards and giftware companies. Her paintings and prints have sold in galleries and gift shops, and she has worked as a designer in the advertising industry. She was recently honored as a semifinalist in Lilla Rogers’ Global Talent Search.
Cindy blogs about her artistic process at cindysilverstein.blogspot.com. You can also find her at facebook.com/CindySilverArt and etsy.com/shop/CindySilverstein.
Jane Spakowsky lives in Washington state. She grew up submerged in an artistic culture, and her father passed on his love of art and music to her. All her life she has been expressing herself through one form of creativity or another.
Some of her favorite things to make are mixed-media paintings and unique art dolls. She has a growing interest in Impressionism and enjoys many mediums. She especially finds pleasure in collecting what others might throw away and turning it into something beautiful. Jane enjoys sharing her techniques by teaching workshops. She offers original paintings online and occasionally in galleries. Her artwork is collected both locally and worldwide.
Cynthia Stroo is a Seattle-based artist who combines her love of drawing, painting, photography and textiles with a sense of wonder about the world surrounding her.
She seeks the flow that creating art brings and the sense of joy that comes from bringing the invisible forth to the visible world. She loves to draw portraits without a reference and then discover who emerges from the paper.
A past career as a psychiatric RN informs her view of art as a strong tool that brings lessons and magic to the soul of both the creator and the viewer.
Creating art provides her with a language of expression and understanding of this big world.
Kate Thompson’s work as an artist using fabric and fiber to create abstract three-dimensional forms was her focus for many years. She started painting full time in 2009, and her current work combines the two disciplines. Using watercolors, acrylics, inks and pastels, she paints on substrates such as layered vintage linens, laces, plaster and wood. The portrait or figure is the focal point of her work, creating images that parallel her spiritual life.
Kate teaches online as well as studio classes. She is starting to travel around the United States, teaching at Random Arts in Saluda, North Carolina; Donna Downey Studio in Huntersville, North Carolina; Art and Soul in Portland, Oregon; Art is You in Nashville, Tennessee; as well as private workshops. Her passion is focused on the creative process, and she is as passionate about teaching as she is at creating art.
To learn more about Kate, visit her at: fracturedangelics.com, fracturedangelics.blogspot.com, facebook.com/katethompsonartist.
Dina is a mixed-media artist and teacher. She loves everything about art: creating it, thinking about it, looking at it and teaching it. She lives in sunny Arizona with her husband and three boys. Her work has been published in many magazines and books.
Dina is passionate about teaching art. She teaches both in-person and online workshops. She is a docent at the Phoenix Art Museum, where she gives tours to school groups and gets kids excited about art.
In partnership with Ranger Ink, Dina designed a line of mixed-media art supplies that includes acrylic paints, mediums, brushes, rubber stamps and stencils. Look for the Dina Wakley Media Line by Ranger at a store near you or visit rangerink.com.
Dina loves hanging out with good friends, reading good books, cooking good food and traveling to good places. You can visit her at her website: dinawakley.com.