Artist Mentors

2023 - 2024

Paper Weavings: Michelle Grabner | The Art Assignment | PBS LearningMediaMichelle Grabner is curator, critic, professor, and artist who works in multiple mediums, but much of her work centers around pattern and color. Her assignment asks you to recall an activity you may have done in kindergarten and explore it's potential as a design project.

Catalina Swinburn’s Paper Weaving

Weaving vintage documents become a vital and dynamic language for raising awareness both physically and conceptually about sustainability, identity, gender equality and globalization underlining the connections of the Global South throughout history.

The Talisman According to 46 Contemporary Designers

"Talisman – Contemporary Symbolic Objects’ an exhibition curated by Barbara Brondi & Marco Rainò where 46 international designers have been invited to give their own interpretation of the talisman. Whether it’s rubber glasses offering a look on the future or a magnetic brass stem hanging trinkets, everything is a matter of perception."

Black Artists, Yinka Shonibare CBE RA — Art21Art21 is the world’s leading source to learn directly from the artists of our time. The mission of Art21 is to educate and expand access to contemporary art through the production of documentary films, resources, and public programs.

Yinka Shonibare CBE RA

Yinka Shonibare CBE RA, is a British-Nigerian artist living in the United Kingdom. His work explores cultural identity, colonialism and post-colonialism within the contemporary context of globalization. A hallmark of his art is the brightly colored Ankara fabric he uses which he describes as a kind of talesman that holds the magic, memory and stories of African Culture. Watch his video on Art 21, see more of this work on here on his website, and read more about the show he curated of artists who work with the ideas of Talismans as a vehicle for change here.

Julie W. Chang

Julie W. Chang is interested the wide variety of cultural icons that serve as talismans, investigating and celebrating the power of cultural symbols to shape and transform our lives.

"In the wake of the 2020 pandemic, Chang began reconsidering how traditional amulets operate as protective energies as well as binding or guiding forces. Her deftly intricate paintings weave together fetishes from a wide range of cultures and eras, in a series of layers that form a three-dimensional matrix. Layered and interwoven in this way, these symbols of healing, wisdom, redemption, joy, enlightenment, interdependence, and peace combine to form a powerful global emblem of hope and renewal." From her exhibition at the Hosflet Gallery, San Francisco

Accordion Book Artists

Unfolding Practice: Reflections on Teaching and Learning - Women's Studio WorkshopUnfolding Practice is an artist's book about education in the arts and how the structure of the accordion book facilitates fluid thinking.

UNFOLDING PRACTICE

We looked at various artists books created at the Vermont Women's Studio Workshop. Among them is Arzu Mistry who is a bookmaker artist and educator. He project Unfolding Practice: Reflections on Teaching and Learning inspired us to bring the practice of accordion books to our process in Create!

You can see Arzu's videos here about how to create different structures with accordion books and find out more about Unfolding Practice at the Accordion Book Project.

You can also see more artists books and accrodion approaches she showed at the Women's Studio Workshop Gallery.

FOLDING AN ACCORDION

To learn more about how to make and create different kinds of folds for your accordion book check out this great PDF. Very student friendly!

Contellation Artists

Amplifier.org

Amplifier builds visual campaigns with and for movements and the brands that support them. Their campaigns promote critical thinking and build compassion, capturing the attention of tens of millions of people, providing them with pathways for direct action to solve some of humanity’s most challenging issues. Check out their site for free posters and curriculum.

Ala Ektekar

His work frequently orchestrates various orbits and cadences of time, bringing forth sculptural and photographic possibilities of the universe, and time, gazing back at us. This extensive research and making process borrows and physically reworks thousand year old image/object-making traditions up to the latest technological advances in production. You can learn more about his work here.

Luminous Ground — Ala Ebtekar

Alma Nungarrayi Granites Night Sky - Japingka Aboriginal ArtAboriginal Warlpiri artist, Alma Nungarrayi Granites, paints Jukurrpa, Star Dreaming stories of the Seven Sisters.

Alma Nungarrayi Granites

Alma Nungarrayi Granites, a Warlpiri woman, was an Australian artist. She lived at Yuendumu, and was known for painting Yanjirlpirri, Star Dreaming. Alma's painting of the great Warlpiri story of the Seven Sisters Dreaming, tells the narrative of the ancestral Napaljarri sisters who are found in the night sky in the star cluster known as the Pleiades, in the constellation Taurus.

Artists we looked at in the 2022 - 2023 school year

Artists we looked at in the 2020 - 2022 school years

Mahogany L. Browne, PoetMahogany L. Browne is a poet and author coordinating the Women of the World Poetry Slam at New York’s Pratt Institute. She gives her Brief But Spectacular take on “Black Girl Magic” and the struggles facing African-American women in modern society.

Njideka Akunyili Crosby: Inhabiting multiple spaces – TateShots | TateDrawing on art historical, political and personal references, the Nigerian born artist creates densely layered figurative compositions

Accordion Book Artists

Neruographic Art Process

Neurographic art is a simple way to work with the subconscious mind through drawing. Simply stated, connected neurons process information received and allow you to process, meditate or think more deeply about a questions or concern that is on your mind. This process also supports you nervous systems and can bring a sense of calm and resolution to their mind. Learn more about it here.