You will have the opportunity to meet some of this year’s instructors in an upcoming Zoom – stay tuned!
For now, here’s a little intro:
TATIANA ALMOND (SHE/HER/HERS)
TBILISI
Tatiana Almond grew her instagram organically (no paid promotions) over 11K followers. She graduated from a course of PR and marketing before becoming an artist. Over the last 15 years Tatiana had participated in more than 40 personal and group art exhibitions all over the globe and created a private online collage club with over 660 participants.
FAVORITE ADHESIVE: Glue Stick
FAVORITE SOURCE MATERIAL: Weird magazines from 60’s–80’s, encyclopedias of sex education, street posters (I “decollage” them from the streets and then use in my artworks – they have a great texture)
FAVORITE CUTTING IMPLEMENT: Cuticle scissors
FAVORITE ART SUPPLY: Double sided and transparent colored tape (for transfer)
HOBBIES/PETS/KIDS: I do love to explore art history and write google reviews about restaurants (I’m a “local guide” & “diamond contributor” in google maps app).
FUN FACT: Once I went to IKEA in Poland and put my collages in the frames of the interior section and left them there! (https://www.instagram.com/p/B6vCh1dncce/)
https://www.instagram.com/tati.s.titch/
https://www.facebook.com/tatialmond/
MARIANNE BURGER (SHE/HER/HERS)
SWAKOPMUND – NAMIBIA
With a background in design and influenced by her love for all things paper, nature and fashion, Marianne works predominantly in mixed media and hand-cut (analogue) collage, creating whimsical postcard art as well as more reflective pieces. Growing up in a small farming community in the North of Namibia, her artistic philosophy is based on the belief that creative expression is abundantly inspired by the world around us and should not be limited to the availability of products and opportunity.
Her collage journey started 6 years ago when she experienced a personal crisis and have since been an advocate for the benefits of a daily creative art practice. She believes that collage has the ability to heal the wounds of the soul and when practiced intuitively, using images as a mirror, can we begin to interpret the microcosm of our existence and respond to ourselves and the world around us with understanding and compassion.
She lives with her Husband and Daughter in Swakopmund, Namibia where she works as a Montessori Preschool Teacher, Children’s Expressive Arts Facilitator and part time Collage artist.
FAVORITE ADHESIVE: Bostik Glue Stick for Paper
FAVORITE SOURCE MATERIAL: National Geographics || Lifestyle & Décor Magazines || Wildlife/Birdlife & Hunting Magazines
FAVORITE CUTTING IMPLEMENT: My Small MUNDIAL embroidery scissors and my X‑ACTO craft swivel knife. And I have recently discovered a Circle Cutter that has been fun to play with!
FAVORITE ART SUPPLY: Paper – any kind, texture or pattern
HOBBIES/PETS/KIDS: I’m have an allergy to boredom so my hands are always in the state of making – Collage, dolls, jewelry and journals. Together with my Tourguide husband and 11 year old daughter, I love to camp, road trip, cook or hang out at the beach.
FUN FACT: I met my husband in Kindergarten…we’ve been best friends ever since and tied the knot 16 years ago.
https://marianneburger1437.wixsite.com/mariannegreeffburger
https://www.instagram.com/mariannegreeffburger/
JEN BLALOCK (SHE/HER/HERS)
PITTSBURGH, PENNSYLVANIA
Jen Blalock is a collage artist, illustrator, and art teacher living in Pittsburgh, PA. She is an active member of the Pittsburgh Collage Collective and enjoys connecting with others through creativity and the love of collage. Mental health and body positivity are close to her heart, and she considers making collage or any kind of art a practice in mindfulness and self-care. Jen believes that making and creativity are central to one’s well-being, no matter the skill level, and hopes to encourage others to let go of their fears and make things for fun and wholeness. She is also interested in curation and has curated two exhibitions for the Pittsburgh Collage Collective, College: Visual Stories, and Abundance.
FAVORITE ADHESIVE: UHU Glue Stick
FAVORITE SOURCE MATERIAL: National Geographic and The Magnificent Universe coffee table book
FAVORITE CUTTING IMPLEMENT: Fiskars orange-handled scissors and X-Acto knife
FAVORITE ART SUPPLY: Scrapbook paper
HOBBIES/PETS/KIDS: I’m a book nerd, movie buff, and lover of travel. I try to practice mindfulness and yoga whenever possible, and I have the sweetest calico cats in the world, Luna and Mora.
FUN FACT: I’ve been to ten different countries!
https://www.instagram.com/jenisforlove
MJ CONNORS DAVISON(SHE/HER/HERS)
PORTLAND, OREGON
MJ Connors Davison is a mixed media artist specializing in collage. She invites viewers into various dynamic happenings where self and society, the indoors and outdoors, all interweave as alternative realities. Enjoying both solo projects and those with a collaborative theme, MJ yearly organizes and curates “Exquisite Community” for Kolaj magazine’s World Collage Day out of Portland, OR. She also teaches design principles for this wonderful medium to teens and adults both there and in the Bay Area of CA.
Her collage commissions are directed towards published book covers and promotional materials for musicians. Since graduating with a MFA in Book Arts and Printmaking, from The University of the Arts in Philadelphia, PA,1990, she has been exhibiting her mixed media artworks across the US, in both group and solo shows. Notable collections include SFMOMA, MoMA NYC, The Smithsonian Libraries, Washington DC, and The Victoria and Albert Museum, London, as well as in many private patrons’ collections.
FAVORITE ADHESIVE: Small: Elmer’s Disappearing Purple Glue Stick; Large: LINECO Neutral pH Glue
FAVORITE SOURCE MATERIAL: Home, garden & lifestyle mags & catalogs
FAVORITE CUTTING IMPLEMENT: Any size lefty Fiskars
FAVORITE ART SUPPLY: Strathmore mixed media paper 184#
HOBBIES/PETS/KIDS: DIY Interior Decorating, Happy Hiker, Mom of 2 Young Adults, Cat & Bird Referee, Dancing Fool
FUN FACT: I’m a relentless optimist.
https://www.instagram.com/mjmixedmediaart/
JEN DYKEMAN (SHE/HER/HERS)
ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI
Jen Dykeman spent many years trying to figure out how to be an artist and still pay off her student loans. She has an undergrad degree in Art History and returned to the same university twenty years later to study Art Therapy Counseling after paying off her student loans and becoming utterly disillusioned with the corporate world. She spent one glorious year taking studio classes in order to get into the Art Therapy Counseling program and received a dual master’s degree in Art Therapy and Counseling and uses art therapy and psychotherapy to help patients and families experiencing grief and loss. Warner Brothers Studios purchased seven mixed media collages, made in school, that hung on the sets of “Two and 1/2 Men”, “The Big Bang Theory” and one currently hangs on the set of “Bob Hearts Abishola” and she has been commissioned to create more. Jen Dykeman also sold work to the Doug + Laurie Kanyer Art Collection and will be featured in an upcoming book of collage. Dykeman’s piece, “The Beautiful Brokenhearted”, is to be featured in the book and that piece is a meditation on finding strength in loss, the fragility of human existence and the capacity of humans to mend their own broken hearts and transform themselves after tragic events. Her work is about not being afraid of walking away and finding ourselves and our own inner strength and resilience. Dykeman describes her own style as moody and emotional, tinged with some dark edges but also filled with light and joy and a lot of color. Her work is organic with themes of life, death and regeneration expressed through energy and movement and she considers herself an intuitive artist drawing on psychological and philosophical theories learned through her 10 years as a hospice grief counselor and art therapist.
FAVORITE ADHESIVE: Nori Paste
FAVORITE SOURCE MATERIAL: National Geographics
FAVORITE CUTTING IMPLEMENT: Scissors
FAVORITE ART SUPPLY: Bone knife or palette knife
HOBBIES/PETS/KIDS: Yoga, art history and psychotherapy
FUN FACT: My art has been featured on the sets of Bob Hearts Abishola, Big Bang Theory, and Two and 1/2 Men.
https://www.instagram.com/jenx_art/
KAT FRISTROM (SHE/HER/HERS)
BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS
Katherine Fristrom has never picked one thing to do. Her art reflects the many different focuses in her life as she brings together different materials and processes.
She has been involved in Mossesian Center for Arts and Watertown Children’s Theater for over 10 years in both the visual arts and theater sides. She uses her many experiences of all forms of art to create the world of a show and completely different visual experiences. She credits being involved in the Arts as what makes her who she is today. She believes that she will be doing some form of art for the rest of her life and she considers herself extremely lucky to have gotten to be surrounded by art for her whole life.
FAVORITE ADHESIVE: Hot glue
FAVORITE SOURCE MATERIAL: Alice in Wonderland
FAVORITE CUTTING IMPLEMENT: Scissors
FAVORITE ART SUPPLY: Hot glue
HOBBIES/PETS/KIDS: Painting shoes, Making props for plays, Baking and Backstage Management
FUN FACT: I am dyslexic.
https://www.katherinefristrom.com/
https://www.tiktok.com/@yikeskitkats
https://www.instagram.com/arts.bykat/
MELISSA FRISTROM (SHE/HER/HERS)
BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS
Melissa Fristrom gets paint everywhere when she creates art. (Her friend Leah doesn’t even need an apron with indelible ink.) Melissa’s painting sweater used to be a formal work sweater until she was using acrylics during a break in her work day and till looks like a 3-year-old after she finishes her art. She has spent her life trying any and all art and craft projects she could find.
In the summer of 2022, Melissa Fristrom fell down the rabbit hole of encaustic wax. After a class from Kelly she has spent many many hours in the world of wax. Art brings her back to herself. Art helps her understand herself. Art is what she would rather do than almost anything (almost).
In her work life, Dr. Fristrom is known for harnessing “The Power of the Hidden” to help individuals and teams discover the hidden factors that both help and hinder their success. For nearly two decades, she has assisted leaders from over eighty-three countries on six continents uncover the unconscious patterns that block growth and change in themselves and in their organizations. When solutions are easy, her clients don’t need her. But when they can’t find a solution on their own, she helps them figure out the hidden factors are holding them back.
FAVORITE ADHESIVE: Sookwang tape for collage
FAVORITE SOURCE MATERIAL: Homemade papers
FAVORITE CUTTING IMPLEMENT: Fiskars Fingertip Swivel Knife
FAVORITE ART SUPPLY: Something new (or wax, R&F oil sticks, rice paper)
HOBBIES/PETS/KIDS: Hedgehog named Caliban and Daughter Kat doing reels class
FUN FACT: I have worked with people from over 83 countries.
https://www.instagram.com/melissafristrom/
MAUREEN LARDIE (SHE/HER/HERS)
SUNNYVALE, CALIFORNIA
Maureen Lardie grew up in the gray Midwest of the US and spent time teaching in cloudless East Africa before settling in California. She has produced and exhibited traditional and art quilts as well as paper collage work. Maureen currently uses unexpected combinations of altered materials to create collage-based work, manipulating fabric and paper to become more than the sum of their parts. The materials have often been discarded or up-cycled and are now having a second life after being painted, dyed, or stitched. She works from her studio in Sunnyvale, California.
FAVORITE ADHESIVE: UHU glue stick, sewing machine
FAVORITE SOURCE MATERIAL: My own handprinted and painted papers
FAVORITE CUTTING IMPLEMENT: Rotary cutter and mat
FAVORITE ART SUPPLY: Containers for holding all of the things
HOBBIES/PETS/KIDS: I have two grown sons and like to watch improv.
FUN FACT: I taught in East Africa for a few years and still speak a little Kiswahili.
https://www.instagram.com/mplardie/
LIZ McENTEE (SHE/HER/HERS)
WINSTON SALEM, NORTH CAROLINA
Elizabeth McEntee is an artist, writer, teacher, student, mystic as well as a curator of curiosities. She loves using colors to create landscapes and abstracts. She enjoys crafting stories that share whimsy and heart. She adores watching students move from uncertainty to glee. While many people journal every day to process their lives, she has found collage to be a primary source of self-care. She enjoys spending her days creating beauty herself and teaching others how to confidently explore their own creativity. She currently lives in a quiet neighborhood in Winston Salem, North Carolina. She shares her studio with Molly, a Lab mix and Colin, a Bichon. They are good company even though they have been known to chew on artwork that isn’t up to their standards. They share their yard with a multitude of birds, squirrels, deer and a neighbor’s cat who pretends they have never met.
FAVORITE ADHESIVE: UHU glue stick
FAVORITE SOURCE MATERIAL: Free books and free magazines, my old artwork
FAVORITE CUTTING IMPLEMENT: Cutter Bee scissors
FAVORITE ART SUPPLY: Pens, markers, paint — its too hard to pick one
HOBBIES/PETS/KIDS: Writing, hunting for ephemera, Molly, sweet lab mix and Colin, sweet Bichon.
FUN FACT: I enjoy visiting grocery stores when I travel
https://www.instagram.com/liz.mcentee.art/
LEAH PETERSON (SHE/HER/HERS)
BROOKFIELD, VERMONT
Leah Peterson is a mixed-media artist who enjoys experimenting with a variety of mediums and techniques, including sculpture, drawing, freeform embroidery, and most recently, mixed media collage. Right now, she particularly loves working with pages taken from old books, acrylic paints, and a variety of stamping and printing tools. In addition to making art, Leah spends her free time collecting and playing board games with her husband. As her day job, Leah works as an instructional designer at Boston University building online courses.
FAVORITE ADHESIVE: UHU glue stick, Golden matte medium
FAVORITE SOURCE MATERIAL: Old book pages with text and/or pictures of animals
FAVORITE CUTTING IMPLEMENT: Small pointy scissors
FAVORITE ART SUPPLY: Simple acrylic paints with Golden Gloss Glazing Liquid
HOBBIES/PETS/KIDS: I have two daughters, ages 12 and 21, a goldendoodle, and a husband who has taken a very welcome interest in cooking healthy delicious food.
FUN FACT: I absolutely love Cocoa Pebbles – not just any sugary cereal, it has to be Cocoa Pebbles.
https://www.instagram.com/leah.navelos/
DARLENE SARDINSKY (SHE/HER/HERS)
WEST CALDWELL, NEW JERSEY
A native Jersey girl, Darlene believes that art is a way to express ourselves without the structure and reason of words. She has always intuitively connected pictures, letters, colors and shapes, allowing art to take form without thought or judgment. Her first love is photography, but finds collage to be similar in the way that their composition takes form, creating an artistic embodiment unique to the moment, filled with mood and self-expression. Her experience as an elementary school teacher for students with special needs has taught her to help people trust themselves and their instincts when it comes to creating art. Mom of two twenty-somethings, a puppy and two cats, she loves anything nature or art related, road trips and traveling to new places.
FAVORITE ADHESIVE: UHU glue stick, Mod Podge
FAVORITE SOURCE MATERIAL: Magazines, books, mail – old is better but new is fantastic too.
FAVORITE CUTTING IMPLEMENT: Any sharp scissor, so many to choose from.
FAVORITE ART SUPPLY: Paper
HOBBIES/PETS/KIDS: I am the mom of a 28 year old daughter and a 24 year old son. I have a puppy and 2 cats. My hobbies include hiking, kayaking, travel, art museums. always learning and growing.
FUN FACT: I had a homebased baking business for 7 years.
https://www.instagram.com/mindtocanvas/
https://www.instagram.com/the97collageproject/
KELLY SCHAUB (SHE/HER/HERS)
ROCKPORT, TEXAS
Collage artist Kelly Schaub fell in love with mixed media collage and Rockport, Texas in 2015. Prior to this, Schaub spent over 25 years working in live theatre production and arts administration. She served as Production Stage Manager for Garrison Keillor’s A Prairie Home Companion, touring the country with the weekly live radio show. As a collage artist, Schaub has exhibited and taught locally at Rockport Center for the Arts, Port Aransas Art Center, and Art Center of Corpus Christi. She is an active member of K Space Contemporary, South Texas Art League, Nexus Art Collective, and currently serves on the Board of Directors for Rockport Center for the Arts. Schaub’s work has been in exhibits and won recognition locally, nationally, and internationally. She has curated several online collage exhibits, and published several collage collections. She is represented by Moon Over Water Gallery in Rockport. Schaub teaches a variety of collage classes online and hosts several creative challenges and events for an international audience of collage artists through her website collage-lab.com.
FAVORITE ADHESIVE: Nori Paste
FAVORITE SOURCE MATERIAL: Anything old with handwriting on it
FAVORITE CUTTING IMPLEMENT: Cutter Bee scissors
FAVORITE ART SUPPLY: Derwent XL Graphite Blocks
HOBBIES/PETS/KIDS: Making collage, teaching collage, spreadsheets
FUN FACT: We are currently caretakers for 4 cows, one of whom was the inspiration for a Warhol-esque encaustic piece!
https://www.instagram.com/powonwheels/
https://www.playonwordsdesign.com/
This year’s workshops are HERE.
