Instructors

Instructors

Kelly Alford

Kelly Alford, designer and creator of the popular iota brand, believes deeply in the power of design to make the world a more beautiful, humane and livable place. Since 1988, she has worked with a wide variety of clients to imagine, articulate and communicate their core messages through the strategic use of words, pictures and colors, implemented in their best form.

Stanley Bell

Stanley Bell’s work draws from a range of sources, including pop culture, graffiti, outsider art, illustration, and design. Drawing upon his urban upbringing and subsequent move to the mountains, Bell’s work intermixes hallucinatory fragments of urban landscape with the surrounding atmosphere and environment. More recently, these paintings have taken the form of detailed, colorful, microscopic visions of the energy amidst clouds and buildings, attempting to describe physically, graphically, and symbolically.

Stanley Bell was born in 1977 in Dallas, Texas. His work has been exhibited publicly in the Dallas Museum of Art, the Aspen Art Museum, and collected privately throughout the country. He is a previous Arts Recognition Winner in the Visual Arts for the National Endowment for the Advancement in the Arts. He currently resides in Carbondale, Colorado.

Vidabeth Bensen

Vidabeth Bensen is a screen printer who calls North Carolina home after living overseas for 27 years. She holds a BA in Art Education from Brooklyn College in Brooklyn, New York and an MA in Gifted Education from the University of Connecticut in Mansfield, Connecticut. Vidabeth has taught screen printing in North Carolina at various art centers, the University of Connecticut summer program for teachers, and has traveled to Germany, England, Japan, and Turkey to conduct workshops in screen printing for students and teachers in American Schools. She presents workshops for the NC Art Education Association and the National Art Education Association and was chosen Retired Art Educator of the Year 2013/14 by the NC Art Education Association. Her recent book, “A Simple Guide to Screen Printing,” written with Barbara Forshag, was published by Royal Fireworks Press in 2010.

K Rhynus Cesark

K  Rhynus Cesark received her Bachelor of Arts in Art from Plymouth State University in New Hampshire and received her Masters of Fine Arts from Massachusetts College of Art and Design in Boston Massachusetts. K has passionately taught ceramics, encaustic painting, collage and printmaking for over 20 years.  She lives in Carbondale Colorado where she maintains a studio and lives with her husband, Mark, their two sons, and dog. She divides her time in her studio between ceramics and encaustic painting. K is the former Executive Co-Director of The Carbondale Clay Center.  She teaches at Colorado Mountain College, Anderson Ranch Arts Center, Wyly Arts Center and Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts. She has been a visiting artist and lecturer at numerous institutions and organizations. K is a fellowship recipient from the Colorado Council on the Arts, for her ceramic sculpture. She exhibits her work nationally.

Brooke Coon

Brooke Coon is an oil painter who finds her inspiration living above an antique store in the tiny mountain town of Redstone, Colorado. After receiving a degree in Visual Communication from the University of Kansas, Brooke decided she was done with the computer, and got back to her first love: painting. She loves all things rusty, faded, and chipped, and works to achieve texture in her work by painting with thick layers built up with palette knife. Her passion for teaching has taken many forms, from instructing women’s art classes in jails to launching a teen mentoring program in urban Kansas City. Brooke teaches throughout the Roaring Fork Valley, but her favorite classes to teach are Yampah High School and the Youth Recovery Center, using art as a vehicle to connect youth to the journey within and let them know they are not alone.

Karen Divine

Karen Divine was first introduced to photography in the early 70’s and went on to study painting, drawing and alternative photographic processes. After learning Photoshop in 2001, she began creating the images she imagined using her photos as a palette. During the past three years she has transferred that process to the iPhone. While learning to create a beautiful single image is crucial to being a fine art photographer, the multi-image is what speaks to her heart. She has won numerous international awards including Discovery of the Year Nominee with the International Photography Awards in NYC 2011, first place in Florida Museum of Photographic Arts, Julia Margaret Cameron, Prix de la Photographie Gold Award, Eyephonegraphy #3 in Madrid on Tour through Spain 2013, WPGA Pollux Award, first place in Texas Photographic Print Program, and the CFAP just to name a few. Her work is in private collections around the world. She currently teaches classes with the Santa Fe Photographic Workshops, takes groups to India, as well as private mentoring. Visit her online at www.karendivinephotography.com and www.karendivineblog.com.

Laurie Doctor

Laurie Doctor is a painter, calligrapher and writer whose work is in collections in the United States and Europe. Her work is based on language, image and contemplative practice. Her recent solo exhibition consists of paintings based on a poem by Galway Kinnell, Another Night in the Ruins, for The New Editions Gallery in Lexington, Kentucky. There was a lively celebration at the gallery with 16 Kentucky poets and musicians. She offers classes and lectures internationally in Europe and Canada, and in the United States – recently at the Palace of the Governors in Santa Fe and the Women’s Prison in Kentucky.

Brian Dunning

Brian Dunning is a professional artist interested in creating figurative and abstract art of a whimsical and playful nature that often takes the form of painting, sculpture, or animation.  He has over 25 years experience as a fine artist, and 18 years experience teaching graphic design, web design, and 2D & 3D animation in higher education institutions. He is a professor in the Graphic Design and Rich Media program at Aims Community College, and has worked the last three summers in the College for Kids program at Aims, conducting summer workshops for children ages 8-13. Brian has also worked as an industrial designer—building working models for a research and development group in Boulder, CO, and as a Montessori teacher.  For over 13 years, Brian and wife Allison, together with their three daughters, own and operate Merry Makers & Decorators in Greeley, CO—a full-service family entertainment and balloon decoration company. Brian wears many hats, from a balloon artist/decorator and an award-winning face and body painter, to playing Beezer the Clown and Capt’n Red the Pirate.  Brian continues to promote the serious business of having fun, along with the slogan, “Celebrate Everything Until Further Notice.”

 

Hilary Forsythe

Hilary Forsyth is the Art Director at the Aspen Community School. She has received the Patricia C. Moore Outstanding Educator award and the Mary Ellen Nix Excellence in Art teaching award. She is also the illustrator of BearBop Press children’s books, Family Field Guide Series: Rocky Mountain Mammals, Rocky Mountain Plants, Rocky Mountain Birds and Rocky Mountain Bugs.

Jennifer Ghormley

Jennifer Ghormley is an artist who employs a variety of techniques in her translation of ideas into works of art. She received her M.F.A. in printmaking in 2006 from the University of Nebraska in Lincoln and her B.F.A. with an emphasis in printmaking in 2002 from Metropolitan State College of Denver. Jennifer actively shows her work through national juried exhibitions and invitations. From 2007 to 2009, Jennifer was the studio manager of Anderson Ranch Print Editions at Anderson Ranch Art Center, located in beautiful Snowmass Village, Colorado. Currently, Jennifer teaches drawing, printmaking, and digital arts courses at Metropolitan State College of Denver, Arapahoe Community College, and various arts organizations.

Penny Greenwell

An artist and educator for four decades, Penny has taught in public school in Philadelphia and locally at the Waldorf, Colorado Mountain College, Aspen Center for Environmental Studies and Carbondale Clay Center. She has taught all ages from preschool to university levels. She has an M.F.A. from University of Pennsylvania in sculpture and printmaking, graduate work in education from Temple University, as well as graduate work in creativity from SUNY Buffalo. Penny states, “One of my greatest joys is teaching art – to assist others in how to express themselves and the creativity that is their birthright. Image Making allows me to express the deep movement inside that is informed by my everyday experiences and relatedness to others. I believe we are all co-creators – we just have to get out of our own way to figure out how to express our unique voice, image, song, movement or taste. Nature is my inspiration – I love going up high into the mountains and soaking it all in! I’ve been teaching for ages, I love to watch students become inspired to find their own art form – to become creators in whatever media they choose. I am fascinated by how humans grow and develop. How the physical, mental and emotional experience of being in a body informs the intellect of the mind and consciousness of the soul. I love to watch the creative spark alight in the eyes of another. Drawing helps me to see the exquisite beauty and life breathing in the world around me.”

Bill Gruenberg

Visiting Artist Bill Gruenberg explains his approach: “For me, making art is a joy. There is almost nothing I won’t use or try. Sometimes I start with a recycled idea, although once I had an original idea! Children take easily to working in three-dimensional art with non- precious materials. I use discarded pieces of wood and other materials for my sculptures because while they were once cherished, they are no longer wanted, but I see value in them. My working with junk and scraps satisfies my need to work rapidly, intuitively, and prolifically. Refuse is selected for its appearance rather than its former function. Besides rounding up raw materials from sidewalks and construction sites I cajole bits and pieces from friends who have access to wood. Some of this wood was from trading firewood for “art” wood.”

 

Maria Hodkins

Maria Hodkins is a naturalist, writer, illustrator, and multi-media artist. She teaches field/nature journaling workshops all over Colorado for parks, schools, botanical gardens, and art centers. She combines all of her arts with a love of nature in her passion for journaling. Maria teaches an easy, basic approach to capturing the essence of a subject in words and images, comfortable even to beginners. She helps people to become keen observers, and to reconnect with the magic inherent in even the simplest of Nature’s forms and processes.

Bayard Hollins

Bayard Hollins’ work explores the link between abstraction and figurative representation. Although the lines back to classical realism can be traced, Bayard’s approach is absolutely modern. Spatial qualities and momentum are combined to exalt the rawness of nature. Earthly references to known objects and forms are allowed to remain undefined, demanding the viewer to engage his or her own imagination.

Kathy Honea

Kathy Honea perfectly describes the way her mind works as “Untamed.” She goes on to say: “I merely follow along, while striving for better methods to manifest what I see in my mind’s eye. Craftsmanship is important to me, so I am continually learning new techniques and honing old skills in an attempt to keep up with my overactive imagination. No need for me to bore you with a lengthy bio about some life-altering event from the second grade. Nor how years of continuing art education form an unending quest to find my inner child. Suffice to say, it forms the basis for my attempt to manifest my untamed imagination. I don’t run deep. I make art for the sheer fun of it. There is never an angst ridden moment when I’m messing around in my studio making something.  What I would wish to convey, if anything, is have a good time, laugh often.”

Guinevere Jones

Guinevere Jones finds her artistic inspiration in nature and found objects. She currently teaches art to middle school students in Basalt, Colorado. She aspires to bring playfulness into the process of teaching art. Guinevere continues to build on her ten years of teaching by seeking out new learning experiences to bring back to her students.

Ami Maes

Ami grew up in the Roaring Fork Valley. She graduated with a B.S. in Visual Art Education K-12. She has taught art in the Roaring Fork Valley since 1999 in places such as the Aspen Art Museum, Anderson Ranch Arts Center in Snowmass Village, Aspen Center for Environmental Studies, Wyly Art Center, public schools and various other local programs. Ami is the recipient of the Mary Ellen Nix, “Art Instructor of the Year” award presented by the Aspen Art Museum. She loves to work in a wide array of art media including acrylic, watercolor, printmaking, collage & mixed media.

Summers Moore

Summers Moore grew up outside of Chicago. After graduating from the University of Denver with a Mass Communications degree, Summers moved to Aspen, Colorado to teach skiing. She married in 1996, and two children and four horses later, her focus shifted toward portraiture and equine photography. International travel opportunities inspired her to photograph locations dear to heart, like Africa.  Currently Summers is the curator of Photography at The Aspen Chapel Gallery in Aspen.

Nicole Nagel-Gogolak

Local artist Nicole Nagel-Gogolak uses mixed media and encaustic to create installations, some of which are on view in the Aspen area. She has taught extensively throughout the Valley, including classes at Anderson Ranch Arts Center and Aspen Country Day. Nicole received an MFA in fiber from Cranbrook Academy of Art and a BFA in painting from the University of Michigan.

Mary Noone

Mary Noone is a painter who is all about color. After receiving her Bachelors of Art at Georgetown Universityin 1978, Mary set out on a course of exploration in paint… working in graphics and creating murals throughout the east and California. She moved to the Roaring Fork Valley in 1982 and has basically painted plein air ever since. In the winter, she paints her animals and flowers. In the summer months, her car is her traveling studio, filled with canvas, paint and her easel…ready to go. Mary’s paintings are in many private collections world wide and her style is easily recognizable and joyful. Mary’s love of color and paintingin the moment is contagious. Her favorite students are kids who have a “fresh and unfiltered approach to artistic expression.”

Graham Northrup

Graham Northrup is a professional director and actor who received his MFA in Directing from Baylor University in Waco, Texas. He has taught numerous acting classes to children, youth and adults. At Theatre Aspen, where he serves as the Director of Education and Outreach, Graham has directed 10 conservatory productions in his five-year tenure. Graham’s approach to coaching and directing employs both physical and psychological/emotional techniques to help actors reach their most truthful and compelling performance. An active performer, his musical credits include Theatre Aspen’s reprise of Annie, and John Adams in Aspen Community Theatre’s production of 1776. He has also appeared in dramatic and comedic roles such as Oliver Kilbourne in Theatre Master’s reading of The Pitmen Painters, as well as the Take Ten Playwrights Festival and the Aspen Fringe Festival.

Sarah Peterson

Visiting Artist and Instructor Sarah (a.k.a. Tootie Forbes) grew up in Aspen, in the days of dirt streets and no movie stars. She has been a studio potter for 22 years and is well known for her signature trout majolica ceramics. However, her true love has always been watercolor, spending summers in Aspen at the Anderson Ranch Arts Center under the tutelage of her mentor, Anstis B. Lundy. Sarah teaches nationally and has exhibited both her ceramics and watercolors in numerous venues in Boulder, Denver, Aspen, Ketchum, New York, Key West and San Francisco.
http://sarahfpeterson.com/

Garry Pfaffmann

Garry Pfaffmann is a teacher at Aspen Community School and is the author of a series of children’s nature books called The Family Field Guide Series. Garry has taught environmental education programs with ACES for the past 15 years, and is excited to combine his enthusiasm for nature study into his art classes. Garry’s classes are the perfect blend of science, imagination and creation! See Garry’s books and a more detailed bio at www.naturescool.com. (All participants in this program can purchase Garry’s books for 40% off their retail price–$10/copy.)

Pam Porter

Pam Porter has her master’s degree in Arts Education and has a strong background in printmaking and other art forms. She ran a children’s art studio in Boulder for 20 years and also taught adult printmaking and collage classes in her studio, Naropa University, Hawaii Preparatory Academy, and other schools and centers in the U.S. Pam is a certified life-coach and loves helping students of all ages tap into their natural creativity. She is also the author of the children’s book, The Magic Cookbook.  Pam and her husband moved to Carbondale in the fall of 2013 after their home was flooded in Boulder. Pam is thrilled to be back. She lived here when she was a kid- her parents taught at Colorado Rocky Mountain Sschool in the 1960s. Her studio is in The Third Street Center in Carbondale, which happens to be her old elementary school.

Chelsea Richards

Chelsea Richards graduated from Kutztown University of Pennsylvania with a degree in Art Education.  She is excited to be returning to The Wyly. Chelsea was a highly successful participant of The Wyly Young Educator’s Internship program in 2012.  She enjoys traveling and exploring the beautiful wonders our world has to offer, and that excitement and curiosity greatly flows into her classroom. Chelsea finds inspiration through her life experiences with nature and the cultures she’s immersed in while working in object making, sketching, watercolor and collage.  Her goal in teaching art is to help children express themselves confidently and meaningfully, while learning new techniques and media.

Eliza Rogan

Eliza was born in Los Angeles, California and raised in the mountains of rural Virginia.  She found her interest in art in high school with a focus on black and white photography.  She attended The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Warren Wilson College in Asheville, North Carolina and the University of Virginia to study at the Curry School of Education.  She graduated in 2004 with a Bachelor’s degree in studio art with a concentration in painting and photography and a Master’s degree in education.  Since graduating, Eliza taught middle school art for two years in public school and then two years in a private school. Following that she left to pursue her art full time. In 2009 Eliza opened The Flying Pig Art Center in Scottsville, Virginia. The Flying Pig was a collective of studios and gallery space shared by over 40 artists. The Gallery was closed the summer of 2011 so that Eliza could fulfill a lifelong dream of moving to Colorado. Eliza currently lives and paints in Redstone, Colorado. In her art, she draws inspiration from the natural world, and the stories and faces of the people around her.

Walter Salas-Humara

Born in New York City, Walter Salas-Humara grew up in South Florida after his family relocated to Fort Lauderdale when he was three. He began playing drums at age seven, performing with a series of prog-rock and disco bands throughout adolescence, a time in which his love for music became intertwined with a mounting passion for painting and fineart. He spent his senior year of high school at the progressive Colorado Rocky Mountain School in Carbondale, Colorado, where he developed his visual aesthetic in multiple media, and where he first took up the guitar and began to experiment with songwriting and song structure. Walter continued both pursuits while attending the University of Florida in Gainesville—where he received a BFA and graduated Phi Beta Kappa. In 2005, he formed the WaltersDogs Company and began producing originals and prints for sale. In 2008, Walter relocated to Flagstaff, Arizona, and started creating his dogs in 3D. After rendering maquettes in clay, he partnered with the master bronze foundry Bronzesmith in nearby Prescott Valley to realize the final bronze sculptures.WaltersDogs paintings can be seen on the walls of actress Elisabeth Moss’s apartment in the 2010 Universal Pictures comedy Get Him to the Greek.

Jill Scher

As a child, Jill Scher was taught to knit by a neighbor and continued to knit through adulthood. Jill studied textile arts as a teenager, and weaving became her chosen medium for artistic expression. She received her BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design, and in 2000, she and her husband and four sons moved to Carbondale, Colorado where she developed and taught a fibers curriculum for grades 1-8. The felting medium has been her focus for the last 12 years, but she continues to weave as well. Jill draws her inspiration from the natural world and from the relational aspects of color.  In 2013 Jill was selected as an Artist in the Wilderness, for Wilderness Workshop, a wilderness advocacy group. Her current goal as an artist is to create larger pieces that are beautiful, unique and engaging for those who see them.

Lisa Singer

Lisa Singer has honed her skills as an artist from various eclectic sources. A graduate in Fine Arts and Psychology from the Evergreen State College in Washington State, she has since then studied with many artists in New Mexico and Colorado. Most recently she has studied extensively at Anderson Ranch Arts Center in Snowmass Village, Colorado. She has taught jewelry making and mixed media acrylic techniques in Boulder, Carbondale and she is happy to be here at the Wyly Art Center. Lisa Singer was raised in Colorado and has found her home in the Roaring Fork Valley. As a working artist and teacher she delights in the fact that the area is fertile ground for creating and sharing the artistic experience with others. In the studio she works primarily in acrylic paint and mixed media creating wall pieces, and occasionally there are sculptures that come along. Teaching what she does is a true love of hers’ also. She always makes space in her schedule for teaching workshops and classes.

 

Christine Szeredy

I grew up in Germany, and art and photography have been a passion of mine since I was a child. During my childhood in Germany, I had the chance to travel throughout Europe and North Africa with my parents. This early exposure to many culturally diverse environments, not to mention the people who lived in them, fascinated me. It is amazing what the human eye sees and can capture with a lens. The exquisite nature of light, dark and color can captivate the mind, body and soul … most inspiring …  My work has been highlighted in American Photography, Profoto, Select Magazine, Picture Perfect, Bahrain Confidential, Alcove Books, MAC-on-Campus, Photo Vogue Italy, Best ofPhotography (Photographers Forum), Creative Quarterly …I received my MFA from the Academy of Art University in San Francisco, California and taught at the Art Institute of Charlotte in Charlotte, North Carolina.I recently moved to Colorado and am dividing my time between commercial and fine art photography—teaching and alternative processing with my recently restored Deardorff Camera.

Mariana Vieira

Mariana Vieira is a Brazilian artist based in Boulder, Colorado. After earning her M.F.A. from the University of Colorado at Boulder, she has continued her research in mixed media and alternative photographic processes. Mariana teaches numerous workshops in various topics, and works as a freelance editor and adjunct instructor.

Meridy Volz

Visiting artist and instructor Meridy Volz is known for her inventive use of intense color. This award-winning artist uses the figure in all her work to express passion and sensuality. Her work is best described as gestural, and Expressionist with an Impressionist palette. Paintings are rendered in oil, and drawings in pastels and oil pastels. Meridy uses texture and stroke to create an impasto surface on the canvas, thus invoking a vibrant movement of energy, and the shockingly innovative use of electric color creates the mood. Meridy paints with her fingers and palette knife.

Meridy has been painting since she was three. She was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on September 28, 1947, and received her first art scholarship, at the age of six, to attend the Milwaukee Art Center. She went on to graduate from The University of Wisconsin with a degree in art education in 1971, and worked as an illustrator/consultant for the Rockefeller Foundation. Meridy then moved to San Francisco, where her work received numerous awards, such as the California Discovery Award, multiple best of show awards in juried exhibitions, and many Northern California solo exhibitions. During this period, she taught art workshops at San Quenton for the Arts in Prisons Program and taught art to adults and children in various venues. Meridy then moved to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, where she lived for a decade working and showing in one woman shows. She has work in numerous private collections. In 2010, she won first place at the Palm Springs Art Museum Artist Council Exhibition and third place in 2011.

Meridy now resides in Cathedral City, California. She teaches life-drawing at The Desert Arts Center. She is the founder, director and art teacher of “Art with Heart,” an art program initially for incarcerated children, and presently for at-risk and gang teens in Desert Hot Springs. She is presently teaching group painting and drawing lessons at various desert resort communities, including The Reserve, The Springs, Marrakesh, The Lakes, and Presidential Estates. Meridy offers private lessons as well. Every summer she teaches at The Wyly Art Center.

David Warner

David Warner is an architect and artist living in Carbondale, Colorado. He majored in art and physics in college and has a Masters Degree in Architecture. David’s landscape paintings are primarily on large canvases with broad expressive brushstroke and colors. He has shown work in Maine, Florida and Colorado, most recently at the Pensacola Museum of Art, in Florida, and the Quintenz Gallery in Aspen, Colorado.  www.dwarnerpainting.com

Margie Woods

Margie Woods is a mixed media artist and portrait photographer living in Venice, California. She is a self-proclaimed crusader for the healing powers of art. Her exploration of the creative process began with photography at a young age, then designing quirky handmade greeting cards, and eventually found form in visual journaling, bookmaking and painting. She has studied with and been mentored by incredible artists along the way, in particular Deb Jones and Laurie Doctor. Their existence as brave artists and teachers continues to inspire her to always strive to deepen her own creative practice, and to share what she has learned whenever she can. For the past 15 years (starting with her first visual journaling class at The Wyly), Margie has been an avid art-journaler. Through this practice, she has experienced intimately the enormous healing power of creativity, and is passionate about sharing this creative practice. In 2006, she earned her masters in Psychology, and married her love of art journaling, and her training as a therapist, to create her Language of The Soul workshops. She also blogs regularly on her Language of The Soul art blog, as another way to share her creative journey. When not blogging, teaching, making art or sailing on her beloved sailboat, Margie can be found shooting portraits of her wonderful clients in California and Colorado. California is now home, but her roots run deep in the Roaring Fork Valley, as her family has been here for 30 years.