Artists & Instructors @ Manor Mill
We feel so grateful to have such a large group of talents artists coming to the Mill to teach and share their work. Feel free to email us at info@manor-mill.com if you’d like us to set up a private class or workshop! Visit our Workshops & Class Page to register for something coming up, and sign up for our newsletter for up-to-date class information!
Annie Howe
Annie Howe is a multimedia paper cut artist based in Baltimore, Maryland. Her intricate papercuts are used for a variety of projects including illustration, surface design, and more recently three-dimensional work. Annie has created work for numerous organizations and businesses including Anthropologie, T. Rowe Price, Neighborhood Design Center, Baltimore Office of Promotion & The Arts, and the University of Maryland Medical Center. With over 12 years of workshop teaching experience, Annie leads workshops for small groups, large groups, young and old, artists and non- artists.
Annie teaches at museums, summer camps, libraries, universities and private homes.
Instagram: @anniehowepapercuts
Courtney Cohen
Courtney has had the pleasure of making agriculture/horticulture her career for over a decade. It took her all over this country, from the foothills of Appalachia to the peony fields of Alaska. When she returned to Baltimore in 2017 she started tinkering with the idea of starting her own farm. With a whole lot of help, encouragement and sweat Spore and Seed was created in 2018 and we haven’t looked back since. We are committed to providing our local community with high quality fresh cut flowers, dried flower products and mushrooms grown in a way that honors nature. We love being able to provide products that nourish belly and soul while remaining true to our environmental stewardship beliefs.
Instagram: @sporeandseed
Emily Bell
Emily Bell has called the mountains of Western North Carolina her home for over a decade, though she is a Baltimore County native and looks forward to sharing this craft in her hometown.
Descended from a long line of grandmothers whose bones now rest in the Appalachian mountains, she has chosen to reclaim her ties to her heritage through a craft of hand tied brooms. She views her work as practical art: one that embodies beauty, simplicity, heritage, and functionality.
Instagram: @rhythm.and.ritual.craft
Phil Gay
Phil has been a fly fisherman for more than 50 years and has tying flies for most of that time. He has also taught fly tying classes at a fly shop in Arlington, VA as well as many individual lessons in his home on the Gunpowder River.
Phil is the owner and head guide at Trout & About and has fished and guided all over the US and many other countries. He primarily guides and teaches on the Gunpowder River. He is also a Master Certified Casting Instructor through Fly Fishers International.
Shirley Apple-Jenkins
Shirley Apple-Jenkins spent time living on the Alabama Gulf Coast teaching watercolor classes, was president of the Pleasure Island Art Association, had paintings in numerous galleries across the Gulf Coast and had works published. She found it hard to find a substantial artist community until she moved to the Baltimore Area where she was accepted into the Baltimore Watercolor Society. She met many serious artists professionals and began to truly develop as an artist herself. She is a faculty member of Zoll's Studio of Fine Art in Timonium, MD, a Watercolor instructor, Signature status in Baltimore Watercolor Society, BWS Board of Directors and Exhibition Co-Chair. Shirley paints with her BWS friends once a week as she appreciates their feedback and keeps her honest and grounded.
Chris Lōser
Chris Lōser is a musician from Monkton MD. He grew up in central Pennsylvania and quickly realized music was his passion. He started his career before leaving high school, teaching lessons after school and gigging on weekends. Chris is a top call jazz drummer, and has had the pleasure of sharing the stage with world class musicians, such as Tim Warfield, John Swana, Steve Rudolph, Anthony Wellington, Chris Bacas, among others. As a composer, his music covers a wide variety of styles, and includes scoring short films and writing for music libraries. His latest self produced release, titled 'Strange Fates', is a retro-futuristic blend of electronic and analog sounds, inspired by the art of Simon Ståhlenhag, and heralded as "unique, enchanting, and deeply moving". Chris also runs a recording studio for solo artists, small groups, and teaching music production. Please visit www.chrisloser.com for more info.
Lisa Mitchell
Lisa Mitchell paints with oils and also pastels. Lisa creates representational paintings, primarily Maryland landscapes but she does travel to other scenic locations to explore different painting subjects. Her purpose in painting the landscape is to pay homage to the beautiful effect of light on the environment that is sometimes subtle and quiet and other times powerful and brilliant. She hopes those that view her work will slow down a bit and spend time imagining themselves in such a place or perhaps become reacquainted with a familiar setting.
Lisa finds her inspiration by painting on location. Anything outdoors is fair game because it’s the beauty of the design, flow, texture and play of light she’s after in her work. She places emphasis of this outdoor painting discipline as a means to study the effect of light on a subject. More in-depth work is accomplished in her home studio. Lisa believes that these two types of intertwined painting experiences allow her to create a believable and expressive artistic impression of a scene.
Kas Rohm
A native of Maryland currently living in the Towson area, Kas Rohm has developed her own watercolor style by blending her love of color, composition, and technique. Watercolor, her primary medium, is beautifully fluid and presents as both versatile and challenging, lending itself gracefully to realism as well as to impressionistic studies.
Kas finds inspiration for her art from the natural world around her, including waterfowl and other flora and fauna. At times she finds ways to infuse her sense of humor in her works through personification and cartooning.
Shelley Stockett
As a Canadian immigrant and now a citizen of the United States Shelley has lived in Maryland since March of 2000. She is a fourth generation (and maybe more) creator of all crafting and artistic endeavors involving wools and threads of all textures and qualities from knitting to needle point with too many to list. She first learned to knit at the feet of her grandmother before she can remember and created her first self-designed afghan at the age of 10. Shelley started teaching individuals and selling her work beginning when she was 13 (a long time ago in her words). One-of-a-kind designs have become most of her projects along with endeavors to teach others not only "how to" follow a pattern but also how students can use their imagination and creativity to design their own unique items. Shelley was a college instructor for many years during her work life and enjoys teaching adults. Shelley also tested many crochet and knit patterns before they reached publication- neat! We hope you will enjoy any class offered by Shelley at Manor Mill.
Bey-Her Baskets
Bey-Her Baskets grew from Louise and June being co-workers, friends, and taking basketry classes together. They were intrigued about how you could make something so strong, long-lasting and useful with just your hands and minimal tools. That began their love of basketry and their love of sharing basketry through classes they teach, interacting with the public at craft shows and other venues, and becoming active members of a basketry guild. Their passion grew to designing original baskets and experiencing different material. Over the past twenty-five years, they have grown their skills and basketry knowledge to include many different basket styles, taking classes from basketry teachers from all over the country. . The reward of hearing praise about their craftsmanship, the delight of a beginner weaver taking one of their classes and interacting with the “basketry community” has led to hours of pleasure for them as they continue to pursue the art of basketry.
Facebook: Bey Her Baskets
Matthew Clarke Davis
Matthew Clarke Davis is a lifelong Baltimore City resident and a graduate of the Baltimore School for the Arts. He works exclusively in oils. Undergirded by the concept of “art for life’s sake” and believing that an artwork is its own justification, Matthew’s approach to painting is deliberate in indulging the properties of paint. Formalist marks, spontaneity, and intentional mistake-making via paintbrush, trowel, string and the occasional credit card are used to bring each piece to its conclusion.
Matthew’s subject matter is widespread, ranging from the seasons and weather to interiors and his own life events distilled into metaphor.
Since 2016, Matthew’s paintings have sold both nationally and internationally and he has exhibited locally at Creative Alliance, Maryland Art Place, Pixilated Fed Hill, and Frederick Arts Council.
@matthewclarkedavis
David Friedheim
David Friedheim is a sculptor who works primarily in steel combining hand wrought elements with industrial cast-offs. His sometimes whimsical, sometimes frightening creatures have been exhibited in galleries and museums throughout the United States.
He has built artwork on commission for private and public clients including such firms as Bill Graham Presents.
In addition to his own work, David frequently works with his partner Trisha Kyner under the name of Grendel's Mother. As Grendel's Mother, they work collaboratively on large-scale public art projects.
@david_aaron_friedheim
www.davidfriedheim.com
Bonnie Zuckerman
Bonnie creates highly detailed, one of a kind hand-painted ceramics. She uses a wax resist technique to create a stained glass effect on her pieces.
Bonnie graduated from Towson University with a Bachelor of Arts in Illustration. She studied abroad in Florence, Italy, where she completed an independent advanced study in painting. Bonnie works in a variety of media, including watercolor, acrylic, oil, collage, drawing, and fiber art.
Bonnie has exhibited her work in a variety of juried and non-juried shows throughout Maryland, Virginia, DC, and Pennsylvania. Her current studio is in Columbia, MD as a resident artist with the Howard County Arts Council.
Bonnie has been a Gallery Artist with Horse Spirit Arts Gallery in Savage, MD since 2017, with a following of local collectors. A lifelong learner, Bonnie continues to expand her practice by attending art workshops, including printmaking classes and life drawing sessions.
Instagram: https://instagram.com/bonnie.zuckerman
Website: https://bakerartist.org/portfolios/bonnie-zuckerman
Michael Guarraia
Since an early age, Michael has been interested in all things mechanical, from hammering nails into a stump when barely old enough to walk, to disassembling small appliances throughout grade school. This led to training and a career in engineering, followed by teaching engineering for more than a decade, and ultimately becoming a nationally recognized STEM educator working at NASA. While in the classroom, Michael worked hard to ensure manufacturing and fabrication processes were integral in his engineering curricula and has taught hundreds of students how to weld. Michael currently balances working for an education nonprofit, running a small metal-art business, and working on a local organic poultry and hog farm.
Cecilia Grimm
Cecilia Grimm is an artist and entrepreneur who runs SewLab USA, a Sewing Manufacturing company in Baltimore with her husband. Her work pulls from fantastical and imagined flora and fauna based on the creatures and plants in her life that inspire her. While she historically preferred to paint in oils, circumstance has dictated that acrylics, guache, water colors, colored pencils, and good ole pen and ink are more accessible, especially working from her small house and taking over the kitchen table.
As a child, growing up in New England to a Swedish mom, she traveled to Sweden every year to visit family, where everyone had a creative talent, always surrounded by art and artists. She spent time with her mom sourcing fabric and art for her Brooklyn shop, studying the beautiful textiles of Josef Frank and his contemporaries. In 2006 her mom Birgitta passed away after a long journey with breast cancer, this was a life altering experience at the age of 28. Birgitta was an artist as well and always supported and inspired her children to follow their dreams. While it’s not an easy path to follow one’s dreams it’s lessons help you grow whether you want it to or not.
At the age of 18, she moved to and spent 15 years in Brooklyn NY, the first four were at Pratt Institute, where she earned a BFA in painting and a minor in Art History. She opened a store and a gallery in Park Slope, Brooklyn called Albert & Piccolo from 2001-2004 and and started turning her drawings into silkscreens and printing on apparel. In this time she met her future partner in life and crime Jeremiah Jones, they spent their time creating art and learning all the life lessons that helped them build a future. They moved to Maryland in 2009, got married, fell in love with a dog they called Freya, and then brought a child, Adrienne, into the world in 2012! With the current work she’s created for this show, she’s looking to meld old influences and experiences with new ideas, and to continue to keep on learning, teaching, and growing.
Claudia Brookes
I’ve been painting as a professional artist for the past 24 years. It’s a second career for me, following more than 30 years in the medical publishing industry where I was a marketing director for a large firm here in Baltimore. I’ve always drawn and painted, but there were years of working and raising a family when that part of my life was on the back burner. I was fortunate to grow up in the Boston area, surrounded by many art museums and with an artistically talented dad who always made sure plenty of art materials and informal classes were available to me.
In 1998, I started out painting in watercolor, and did teach in that medium for about 10 years. When I got hooked on painting en plein air (painting outdoors, from life), watercolor was supplanted by oils—more predictable and much easier to control while painting outdoors. I began to enjoy juried plein air painting competitions held around the country, and have so far participated in nearly 50 of these events.
Today, I spend more of my time in the studio painting for the galleries where I’m represented than I do painting outdoors in competitions. I’m represented by three wonderful galleries: Landmark Gallery in Kennebunkport and Argosy Gallery in Bar Harbor, Maine, and Pink Papaya in Cruz Bay, St. John, USVI.
Caroline Graf
Grilled Trees was born a few years ago when I decided to make a little birthday present for my friend. I started to make wood burnings for myself and close friends, as people started to appreciate my work. I started an Instagram (@grilled_trees) and instantly gained followers, and learned people had a real interest in my work! I love creating custom-made wood burnings for anyone now, and love to venture out and try new designs myself.
https://www.instagram.com/grilled_trees
Sarah Travers
My name is Sarah Travers and I am a former Nurse Manager turned Board Certified Holistic Health Coach. I left the bedside to help guide clients through their deep transformational and healing journeys. I built Green Perspective Coaching to directly support people as they make changes in their health, relationships, careers, and family lives.
Tara Gillespie
Tara Gillespie (b.1983, Baltimore, MD) is an abstract artist with a passion for contemporary art. In 2018 she started mixing her own acrylic paints and experimenting with resin, amongst other materials, and her practice has evolved since. Her studio is based in Timonium, MD.
Tara has recently joined the fine art festival circuit and will be an exhibitor at this year's American Craft Made Baltimore convention. Select pieces of her work are currently on display, and available for purchase, in the Femme Fatale DC store in Washington DC. She also reveals her techniques in her studio offering in-person acrylic paint pouring classes for adults and children. Past events include FaerieCon 2022, The Chevy Chase Fine Art Festival 2022, a 2019 pop-up art exhibition titled “Blurred Boundaries,” Karmafest, and the 2020 RAW Artists Baltimore Showcase.
Instagram: @taragill_art
Kristina Kriss
Kristina Kriss, the pyrographer and mixed media artist behind K. L. Kriss Studio, is a Maryland native. Most of her work is inspired by nature and the magic of storytelling. She grew up playing in the woods and corn fields of northern Harford County and spent many summers on the Chesapeake Bay sketching wildlife from her father's fishing boat. These experiences helped shape her style as an artist. Over the years, she has dabbled in many creative interests such as photography, journalism, oil and watercolor, leather, sewing, fiction writing, digital art, and pyrography. She has degrees from Washington College on the Eastern shore and JHU, and multiple awards from the MDDC Press Association. She discovered pyrography in 2016 and opened an Etsy shop during the pandemic. What is pyrography? Good question - it means to draw with fire. Kristina is always exploring new canvases to burn, from wood to fabric, cork, and more. She makes art most days from her home studio in Towson where she lives with her husband, two kids, and Bernese Mountain Dog.
April Snyder
A lifelong art enthusiast, April Snyder’s wool interest began early in life when her sister purchased a flock of Border Leister sheep. Together, they attended the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival in the 70s and since that moment in time, April has been hooked on all things wool including knitting, traditional rug hooking and rug punching. As an avid gardener with a background in graphic design, April draws her inspiration from life on her farm in Northern Baltimore County. Taking a cue from nature, she custom draws her rug designs and even dyes her own wool to get the perfect color to complete her vision. April is a member of ATHA and became a Certified Oxford Punch Needle Rug Hooking Instructor in 2019.
Instrgram: @sweetautumnstudio
Cheryl Bubier
I have been a working artist for 25 years, showing my paintings and ceramics around the country. I have an M. F. A. from Pratt Institute, and I am a founding member and President of The Northern Baltimore County Art Foundation. I have taught art for 20 years, and I am currently the art teacher for the lower school at St. James Academy.
Instagram: @cherylbubier
Mike Bare
I draw inspiration from nature and the surrounding landscape. What interests me as an artist is not only the formal qualities of solving the puzzle, but how creativity and the arts lead to the unknown and connect the dots in unexpected ways.
Michael lives in Monkton with his wife Joanne. He is a MICA graduate and has been a lifelong artist/educator.
Bim Jones
I can't remember a day of my life that I wasn't already addicted to the act of creating.
I grew up in the suburbs of Washington, DC and learned first from the artists around me. My parents and grandparents, though not professional artists, were extremely creative people who consistently filled their lives and mine with making things of one kind or another.
As I got older, and through college, the more I learned about art and other artists and every new way of making things, the more I liked it and the more addicted I became. I pursued art through my undergraduate years, through years of child-rearing and now into the great unknown...as always...
Today, I live in rural Baltimore County with my husband, our dogs, an ever-varying number of children...and four exquisite, precious and endlessly entertaining grandchildren.
Joanne Bare
Joanne began a study of painting at the Schuler School of Fine Arts as a teen. Since that time, she has earned a Master’s of Art Education from Towson University and has received in instruction in painting, printmaking, and fresco painting from instructors at the Maryland Institute College of Art and Art New England in Vermont. Joanne recently retired from a thirty-year teaching career in Baltimore County Public Schools. She enjoys painting mostly plein air both locally and abroad. “I try to capture the ever changing and sometimes-mysterious effects of light and atmosphere found in nature. Inspiration comes from early Italian Renaissance and Medieval paintings, Corot’s Italian landscape sketches along with other contemporary artists”. Joanne continues to enjoy traveling and painting with her husband, Michael Bare.
Mary Swann
Mary Swann is a landscape painter, formerly a narrative quiltmaker, and recently a printmaker. She has spent most of her adult life somewhere in the countryside and now lives on a nearby farm with her husband, Josh Brumfield, a fine woodworker. Returning to school in the 1980’s, she received a BFA in Painting from MICA, only to return once more to take classes in Printmaking throughout the 2000’s. Her latest passion is color Reduction Blockprinting, which she is dying to share with anyone daring enough to take it on.
website: marymcbpaintings.com
Alison Maxwell
I am a Baltimore County based fiber artist, who is inspired by nature. I have a degree in Studio Art, Fiber Art from Indiana University of Pennsylvania, but I am self-taught in needle felting. I source my wool locally, when I can. If I cannot, I source my wool from three US based Etsy shops. I pride myself in making sustainable pieces of fiber art.
Instagram: @feltupgirl
Rita Baker-Schmidt
Rita is a singer, songwriter and instrumentalist from the Hereford. A lifelong musician she started teaching Voice, Piano, Guitar, and later Ukulele, Music Theory and Boomwhackers about a decade ago. She teaches privately in the Northern Baltimore County Area and is the former Director of Music at EMC Performing Arts Studio in New Freedom, PA. Rita is a long time Music Minister at Our Lady of Grace where she sings and plays Bass and D’jembe for the Contemporary Music Band.
Alexandra Hewett
Alexandra Hewett is an actor, storyteller, writer, producer, teaching artist, mother, and yogi. She is a lecturer in the Johns Hopkins University Odyssey program where she teaches Finding the Funny: Comedy Writing and Performance. She produces the storytelling show Mortified in DC and Baltimore. She wrote and performed her one-woman show Mother Therapy at MCS Theatre in NYC. She has performed at The Manhattan Rep Theatre, DC Fringe Festival, the Kennedy Center, the Baltimore Improv Group, the Magnet Theatre in NYC, and the Strand Theater in Baltimore. She has an MFA in Counseling Psychology from Loyola University Maryland. She' currently pursuing an MFA in Creative Writing and Publishing Arts at the University of Baltimore.
Ben Smith
Ben Smith was born and raised in Baltimore, Maryland. Growing up between the rolling hills of northern Harford County to the family house on the Chesapeake Bay.
Since youth Ben was drawn to craft and working with his hands. Following this passion, he attended a technical school for machining and precision manufacturing. He then attended Salisbury University where he graduated with a BFA in glass. This union of metal and glass is ever present in Ben's work. Postgraduate he assisted at the Chrysler Museum Glass Studio in Norfolk, Virginia. Ben spent several years traveling the country working in different glass studios and continuing to cultivate a body of work. Ben now resides in Baltimore, Maryland where he teaches classes and makes his own artwork in a public studio.
Payton Pan
As a young and experimental photographer, Payton Pan blurs the lines between various genres in the art form, including international travel photography and photojournalism. He has previously taught nature photography courses at Irvine Nature Center. Using his camera, Payton has documented stories ranging from the deaths of migratory bird populations to the battle for renewable energy. With this focus on environmental conservation, his Maryland-based nature photography has been published by organizations such as NeighborSpace and Precision Camera. His outdoor photography benefits from a deep connection with the natural world; Payton is an Eagle Scout and his adventurous pursuits often open exciting new sights to photograph. He also combines photography with creative writing, and finds new ways to push the medium towards its poetic and fine art edges.
Website: paytonpan.com
Instagram: @paytonschreiberpan
Susan Gossling Walters
Susan Walters is a native of Bloomfield, Connecticut who came to Maryland to attend Goucher College where she earned a BA in Arts and Ideas, a blended major combining English, Philosophy and Studio Art. It was there she was first introduced to printmaking as an artform, opening her a medium that combines a love of paper, ink, books, and images – a bridge connecting written works with art.
In 2019 she discovered Gelli Printing, an approach that does not require a printing press. The actual printing plate is made from a recipe of gelatin, glycerin and alcohol forming a semi-hard surface suitable for rolling out acrylic paints or inks and making marks with any material that does not scar or puncture the plate. Gelli printing is incredibly versatile printing technique limited only by the imagination.
Susan prints from a studio spread across three rooms on the second floor of a home in White Hall she and her husband have cared for for 30 years. While she misses her beautiful daughters who once occupied this space, Susan is grateful she is free to pursue her artistic curiosity.
She benefits from many skilled and generous print makers, book makers and artists whose work inspires her every day.
Jillian Roper
Jillian Roper is a Maryland based printmaker and founder of Jump Jack Studio. Roper’s imagery is inspired by the nature that surrounds her Carroll County home. Her wood and linoleum block prints frequently include animal imagery and elements of storytelling, two of Roper’s greatest loves. A graduate of the Maryland Institute College of Art with over 22 years of experience in public arts education, Roper is a highly trained artist and teacher, as committed to community engagement as she is to her own art practice.
Judy Lalingo
Inspired by nature, Judy Lalingo spends much of her time outdoors sketching, painting, and photographing everything from horses and hounds to birds and wildlife. Her work ranges from tightly rendered miniatures in acrylic to looser oils of landscapes and animal studies. The artist values her experiences in the field and feels that it lends authenticity to her work.
Her formal studies began with the New School of Art in Toronto, a UNESCO project where working professional painters led courses in drawing, anatomy, colour, design and painting. Throughout the years, she has participated in several workshops with notable painters, including animal artists Robert Bateman, Matthew Hillier, Greg Beecham, Julie Chapman, and Jill Soukup.
Judy has embraced the miniature art world for the past three decades, exhibiting her award-winning paintings in many of the miniature art exhibitions throughout the US and beyond, including Russia and South Africa.
Originally from Toronto, Canada, she was honoured as Ducks Unlimited Canada's Artist of the Year in 1997. Judy's work has appeared on the back cover of Reader's Digest, as well as in various galleries, collections, and museums. She lives and works in the beauty of northern Maryland’s horse country.
Jack Robbins
At 66, I am a lifelong resident of Harford County, Maryland. I received a BFA from Ohio Wesleyan University in 1977 and have spent my professional career as an artist and cabinetmaker.
For me, painting is storytelling, creating an image that sparks the viewer’s imagination. It can remind them of a favorite place from long ago, or someplace new yet to be explored.
I work in my studio from photographs, often combining images to create a composition I like. I paint with acrylics which allow me to build layers of texture, glaze, and washes to create depth. After 40 years of painting, I still treat each new work as an adventure, always trying new techniques to best tell the next story.
Carol Lee Thompson
Carol Lee Thompson is trained in the methods of the Old Masters. Carol paints a wide range of subject matter including equine, landscape, animals, portraits and western themes.
Carol is featured in galleries throughout the country. Her work is part of many corporate and private collections, including the Butler Institution and the Academy Art Museum. Her art hangs in Baltimore’s City Hall, the Fort McHenry National Shrine, the U.S. State Department, the Star Pass Resort in Arizona and Camden Yards Stadium in Baltimore.
Carol is a Signature Member of the OPA, AAEA, NOAPS and American Women Artists (AWA)! She is a member of the Society of Animal Artists as well as the Miniatures Painters Sculptors and Gravers Society of Washington DC. Carol is published in several books and featured in many magazine articles.
Heather Kennedy:
Heather developed a love for spinning during the height of the pandemic. She's grown to love spinning as a form of meditation, launching her business "Zen Fiber Arts." With a background in Therapeutic Recreation she's passionate about teaching others interested in fiber arts and encourages its use for relaxation. In addition to spinning and creating she spends her time raising her three sons with her husband.
Instagram: @zenfiberarts27
Tarah Boyd
Since my childhood, I have followed the creative process fluidly and intuitively. It has only recently become a part of my professional practice. Each of my wallhangings is made with intention, patience, and love. Using only natural materials is important to me, to reflect the earth's organic process. Home is meant to be a safe, comforting place and that is why I choose ethically-sourced, non-mulesed, merino wool for my pieces; so that you can have peace of mind when choosing a Ore + Wool weaving for your home. Although many share similarities, no two pieces are exactly the same. Each dream weaving is smudged with Palo Santo before shipping, to ensure it brings you the purest energy.
Candice Jasper
Valley Mill Microgreens is a woman owned, indoor microgreens farm located in Freeland, Maryland. The farm was founded in September 2021 by Candice Gasper. Candice discovered her interest in agriculture when she started volunteering at her neighborhood farmer’s market in 2016 and at a nearby urban farm in Washington DC. In 2018, Candice completed her Permaculture Design Certification and traveled to the Nouvelle-Aquitaine Region of France to work on two organic farms for several weeks through the program WWOOF France. Candice has held various roles at Little Wild Things City Farm, Gotham Greens, and Karma Farm. After enough experience, Candice opened Valley Mill Microgreens and sells over 30 varieties of microgreens to Baltimore restaurants and twice a week at Central Market in York, PA.
Mike McConnell
A 1975 graduate of the Maryland Institute College of Art, Mike McConnell worked for more than 30 years as an illustrator before focusing on his fine art. He often turns to nature for inspiration for the vivid visual stories he tells. He uses paint in a collage-like way, cutting out shapes with vibrant colors on handmade wood panels, paper, and found material.
McConnell won the President’s Best of Show award for the 2016 Biennial Maryland Regional Juried Art Exhibition for his painting Bear Carver. He is also a 2016 and 2019 Maryland State Arts Council Individual Artist Award winner, a 2017 finalist for the 13th Annual Bethesda Painting Awards and a 2020 Cumberland Valley Artists Exhibition Juror’s Award winner.
Jim Kuhlman
My wife Julie and I first visited Bermuda in 1997 to celebrate her completion of chemotherapy treatments for breast cancer. In Bermuda, I was overwhelmed by the blue and, upon our return to Maryland, found myself impelled to try to put watercolor on paper that might in some way reproduce the strong impressions that the island had left in my heart.
In the following years, Julie and I returned to Bermuda another five times and I created over 100 watercolors of Bermuda. In the summer of 2013, I had a One Man Show, “Breathing”, at The Masterworks Museum of Fine Art in Hamilton, Bermuda. Sadly, just before it, my wife had passed on after battling cancer four times over the previous 16 years. Our two children accompanied me to the solo exhibit…as did her memory.
The watercolors are not typical. They are not light. They are, at times, dramatic and dense. But they are me. They contain a range of values from cool dense shadows to sun filtering through leaves to blithely wispy clouds. I take in an attempt to capture and still a moment in such detail that one can literally revisit to see what perchance was missed in the gone encounter. I have now painted over 150 scenes of Bermuda. I revisit often, sometimes by plane, sometimes by brush...
Website: kuhlmanart.co
Susan Weis-Bohlen
Susan Weis-Bohlen, the former owner of Breathe Books, has written three books on Ayurveda and is a contributor to several magazines and online forums. She is a certified Ayurvedic practitioner and Certified teacher of the Gateless Method of Writing. Learn more about Susan here.
Val Lucas
Val Lucas, artist and educator, is the proprietor of Bowerbox Press, specializing in woodcut and letterpress prints, bookbinding, and custom design and printing. She teaches Letterpress and Bookbinding at Towson University and offers related workshops. Val is a graduate of the Maryland Institute College of Art, and lives in Monkton, MD.
Instagram: @bowerbox
Kelly Laughlin
Kelly Laughlin (she/hers) is an artist, writer, maker and creative wellness facilitator who focuses on process-based, meditative acts of artmaking. She believes every person is capable of living a creative life and seeks to empower people and communities by amplifying their own voices and visions through creative language.
Inspired by a deep and necessary connection with nature and the earth, Kelly is the founder of Odette Press, a stationery and bookbinding studio focused on handmade journals and marbled cards, created in nature, infused with the intentions to support self-discovery and healing through the act of creative practice.
Kelly leads classes on journaling, bookbinding, suminagashi-style paper marbling, and mind/body connection for small groups and teams both nationally and internationally, and provides creative support for individuals in 1:1 sessions.
Instagram: @OdettePress
Sarah Butcher
Sarah Butcher is an artist and art educator living in Timonium Md. She has been teaching art in schools and independent workshops for over 20 years. Her many artistic pursuits include painting, photography, digital art, crafting and jewelry making. Sarah has led workshops for The International Gem Show, The Mount Vernon Conservancy, The Baltimore Public Library, Art Exposure as well leading virtual and private experiences through national venues.
Her own work is focused on the exploration of mood and emotion directing the outcome of what she creates. Many times the work evolves over a period of time changing focus and subject before finally being “finished”.
Instagram: @sarahbutcher_artandtype
Minas Konsolas
Minás Konsolas was born in Greece and has lived in Baltimore since 1976, where he graduated from the Maryland Institute, College of Art. He is the former owner of Minás Gallery, an outlet for poetry, both visual and verbal. The gallery, one of Baltimore's alternative art spaces, was a gathering spot for artists, writers, and performers for twenty-two years. He subsequently sold his business and now works from his studio in Charles Village.
Konsolas has participated in three public mural projects in Baltimore City, in Greektown, at the Farmers' Market, and at the Hanover Street Gallery. His work has appeared in numerous literary journals, including Little Patuxent Review and Passager. His original artwork and reproductions are widely collected, locally, nationally, and abroad.
Konsolas is known for employing a variety of artistic styles and techniques, which allows his work to continually evolve. His constant focus is how light interacts with color and form.
Instagram: minas_gallery_space_
Lynne Jones
After taking art and mechanical drawing classes in high school and college, working in a frame shop was a natural direction for me, combining the two studies.
I learned the basics of picture framing from 1976-78 in local shops.
In 1978 I opened my first frame studio and gallery in Towson.
Moved to Balto. in 1980 and operated another shop within an established gallery and helped train other framers.
After relocating back to the HZ, I continued to work in the framing industry, specializing in museum conservation practices.
Currently I assist other framers needing more technical insight into their projects.
Rog Hicks
Rog has been teaching art for more than 26 years. She has taught a wide variety of mediums from drawing and painting to fiber and clay arts.
Her philosophy is that everyone possesses that creative spark. One only needs to open one’s mind to the possibilities that artistic expression has to offer in order to light that spark.
Rog lives on a small alpaca farm near Bel Air, Maryland where she paints her alpacas and dogs with acrylic and oil paint but also enjoys using fiber to “paint” her creations
Rog holds a BFA from the Philadelphia College of Art. She is the middle school art teacher at St. James Academy.
Judeth Pekala Hawkins
Currently Living and working near in south central Pennsylvania, Judeth Pekala Hawkins was born in Detroit, Michigan. A graduate of the University of Michigan, Judeth’s intensely personal work and unmistakable style has been recognized and awarded throughout the Mid-Atlantic United States. Her work is in many private collections and has been represented by galleries in Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Baltimore and Beaufort, SC.
Artist’s Statement:
Why am I driven to express myself in pictures? I have begun to allow myself the questions without formulating any answers; growing more comfortable with uncertainty and observation, less with obligations and expectations. I have become more responsive in the work of painting. Rather than designing and then executing a piece, I now start with a broader impression and less confined ideas and see where the images suggest a decisions. My recent work is a chronicle of my constant interaction with the natural world surrounding my home in the woods. Some of the pieces are the result of visual puzzles I invent for myself. These brain teasers have to do with creation of and reaction to reflection, mirror image, pattern and negative space.
Beth Lavallee
Beth Lavallee: My work parallels my life. It reflects the opportunity to begin again. Working with my hands, reflecting the beauty I see in nature, has become my life’s purpose.
Essential as the air to breathe. There is a profound sensitivity that can only be revealed through brokenness. As in the shifting seasons, there’s opportunity that arises from being vulnerable to the elements of life. Something beautiful arises.
Felt within and then manifested through metal. To create is to truly be alive. To bear witness to the profound details in a leaf or seed pod is to know life itself. I have traveled to many places but need not go further than my backyard to experience the abundance and lessons of the natural world.
Beth studied Fine Arts at MICA many years ago. More recently, she attended classes at the Baltimore Jewelry Center. She plans to share her love of metalsmithing through workshops at Manor Mill.
Lucie Pentz
Everything is a potential craft material… that’s what Lucie discovered when “knitting” with grass at age four growing up in a creative family. This love for anything artsy-craftsy was deepened when she started taking art classes at Lidová Škola Umění in Czechoslovakia (modern day Czech Republic).
She’s tried it all, but she feels especially happy when working with yarn, fabric and a fun pair of socks. In 2009 she made her first sock monkey and has been hooked ever since. Yes, several hundreds of them (she stopped counting) are living all around the world spreading sock monkey happiness.
She loves incorporating crafts into her work with students as a Child Psychologist at St. James Academy in Monkton, MD.
instagram: @sock_monkey_familia
Nancy Fine
Nancy Fine’s interest in Plein Air painting has evolved over the past six years. In a transition from the detail of realism, Plein Air has provided the perfect vehicle for expressing her love of the outdoors and awareness of nature. The success of Nancy’s work is the result of not only her interpretation of the ever-changing natural surroundings, but of her use of lush colors, and freedom of brushwork and pallet knife.
How fortunate to have the 24,000 acre Pretty Boy Watershed in her backyard, a perfect spot to disappear for hours—just an artist, her easel, backpack, and her dog, Luna. Whether it’s a beaver pond, a stand of trees in winter, or a rushing stream in spring, Nancy finds a way to connect. From time to time, she is approached by passersby who observe her doing her artwork and want to buy her paintings.
Pam Miller
Cheesemaker Pam Miller, owner of Charlottetown Farm was raised on a farm in Monkton MD where she was an active member of the Sparks 4H club and the Hereford FFA chapter in her youth. Through these programs Pam learned the importance of agriculture and eating local.
In 2003 Pam‘s daughter Allison was involved in 4-H and showing cattle and goats. For the next 8 years she made cheese from the milk of those goats for her family and friends and eventually decided to turn it into a business.
Charlottetown Farm serves many restaurants, farmers market and community festivals and has been going strong for over 10 years.
Instagram: @Charlottetownfarm
Facebook Charlottetownfarm
Website: Charlottetownfarm.com
Nick Aumiller
Nick Aumiller has been making pictures since the early seventies. Although while very young he received lessons in watercolor and drawing from his father, in college he fell in love with etching and stone lithography and his life-long commitment was cemented.
Through the Seventies and early 1980’s Nick has painted many murals, published numerous graphic works and has exhibited his paintings extensively in the mid-Atlantic region.
His paintings are in numerous public and private collections.
Dan Goode
I attended the York Academy of Arts majoring in commercial art/graphic Design. After school I work for printing companies, I painted billboards, worked at designing woman clothing and multimedia development. I still live and have my studio in York, PA.
I started painting furniture way back in the late 1980’s, and this is the result of that effort. I liked the idea of the furniture as 3D art. As you can see I like bold bright colors perfect for a spring show.
Pamela Wilde
Pamela Wilde is a native of Chicago, but has called Maryland “home” for nearly thirty years. Pamela received her formal training at the Chicago-based American Academy of Art, and graduated with a degree in Advertising Design and Illustration.
Pamela works exclusively in oils. Working from life, memory, imagination and reference. Pamela began painting at age 12 under the tutelage of her mother and has gone on to study with several renowned mentors.
Pamela is best known for her community portrait project, Portraits from Havre de Grace 2018-2019. Over the span of one year Pamela sat down with over one hundred members of the community for live alla-prima portrait sessions. A collection of 120 12x12 oil paintings was created and later exhibited at Artists Emporium in Havre de Grace 2019, World Trade Center Baltimore 2019 and Maryland Hall for the Arts Annapolis, virtual 2020.
Pamela is available for commissioned portraits. Visit pamelawilde.com to see her vast collection of both commissioned and non commissioned work.
Floriona Fleischer
I am an Albanian-American artist, designer and owner of Floral Flair Studio, a paper flower company brightening up residential and commercial spaces with colorful, impossible-to-ignore blossoms. I am also a mom to a four-year-old who inspired it all.
Growing up in Albania, I was always creative (drawing, acting, singing, etc) and both my parents were artists; even so, I never seriously considered pursuing a creative career. After my daughter was born, however, I taught myself how to make paper flowers to decorate her nursery. I quickly fell in love with the beauty of paper flowers, and – to my surprise – the process itself, finding it therapeutic in those anxious early days as a new parent.
I casually shared a few photos of my work on Instagram, and it wasn’t long before people started to reach out for their own paper flower decor. Thus Floral Flair Studio was born, a name which, besides being alliterative with my own, expresses my lifelong love for and fascination with all things related to flowers.
When the pandemic struck, I had to switch my focus from in-person workshops and creating backdrops for live events to educational content, hosting virtual workshops, and designing digital paper flower templates. While it wasn’t my original plan, the pivot was a fairly seamless one.
As the world is opening back up, I am beyond excited to get back to in-person workshops to share my knowledge and love for the art of paper flowers. I can’t wait to connect face-to-face with fellow creatives and see the sparkle in their eyes when they create their own beautiful paper blooms!
Casey Jones
Casey Jones grew up in Parkton, MD and is now a Pittsburgh, PA based artist. She is greatly influenced by her nature-infused childhood, informing her art which consists of abstract works, animal portraiture, and digital illustrations. Casey is deeply inspired by the natural world, folklore, her Filipino-American heritage, and the mysteries of the universe. She works primarily with acrylic, watercolors, and an iPad Pro. Painting has become her main source of expression, aiming to find the space inside where letting go allows an artist to become an instrument through which the universe can express itself subjectively. Being creative is her ultimate method of enjoying the human experience. To invoke authentic emotion through swipes of a brush or pen, to get messy and hyper-focus on a vision or artistic journey so that all else seems to fade away at least for a little while. To discover moments of pure creative release, where the work becomes a direct representation of a moment or mood. To tell the story of an experience through bold colors, intricate textures, and intriguing light.
Sara Smigle
Sara Smigle is a stained glass artist based outside of Baltimore. She learned the craft almost accidentallythrough the continuing education program at CCBC, when the glass blowing course she was interested in didn't fit her schedule or budget, causing her to sign up for the "next best thing." Call it fate because there she fell in love with the deeply satisfying and therapeutic nature of the all the steps in the stained glass process and most importantly the beautiful colors and textures of the glass itself. It is virtually impossible to become bored or uninspired while working in this medium.
Sara specializes in modern stained glass design with tons of colors and texture. Her pieces have traveled into many homes all over the world, but especially in Baltimore where you can find many of her locally themed pieces such as the ever popular lemon stick.
What started as a hobby has become Sara's full time career and passion, which she would love to share with the world. What better way to achieve this goal than to teach others and hopefully ignite a fire in them as well.
instagram: @smiggart
Bo Willse
Bolling Willse is a local Monkton philosopher/photographer who has been capturing light for most of his life. He built his own darkroom when he was in middle school and dreamed of someday having the skill and resources to process and print color photographs. Bo spent much of his work life as a systems consultant for personal computers beginning in 1984. He spent his time building local area networks and teaching software applications. He developed and delivered computer literacy and advanced training courses for some of Baltimore’s most well knows companies. In 1997 Bo developed a strategy for capturing digital still images (using PC technology) from video sources. Finally, he could capture and print color photographs, which did not require a darkroom or toxic chemicals. Two years later he had acquired his first digital camera. Since then, he has captured and saved approximately 500,000 digital images, using a wide array of equipment. Bo has learned and used dozens of image editing software tools. Presently he employs smartphone, mirrorless, and traditional “DSLR” cameras in his craft.
Bo has developed a philosophy of photography in the age of social media and smartphone ubiquity.
David Powell
David Powell has been researching his own family history for over 25 years. Dave is the immediate past president of the Baltimore County Genealogical Society and he is currently treasurer of that organization. He is also a member of the Maryland Genealogical Society and a member of its Board of Directors.
Dave teaches genealogy courses at the Community College of Baltimore County and at local senior centers, libraries and genealogy societies. He has given numerous talks on genealogy, DNA, and foreign research throughout Maryland. He has done extensive research for himself and clients with family trees from France, Scotland, Wales, England, Canada, Poland, the United States and other countries.
Maxi Cifarelli
Maxi Cif Designs is a one-woman company, striving to create simple, ethical, sterling jewelry, inspired by the earth and moon. Formally trained in metal working and digital object design, Maxi began using her love of bright stones, crystals and flowers in her work, allowing the forms to speak for themselves.
Maxi earned a BFA in Interdisciplinary Object Design from Towson University, concentrating in CAD and metal working. Using her passion for silversmithing she designs and fabricates all Maxi Cif Designs pieces out of her home studio.
Influenced by the vastly unique essence of a wide variety of botanical species, the jewelry forms take their shape from the hand selected stones and delicate lines from each flower petal. All Maxi Cif Designs wire forms and components are designed and fabricated by the maker, and each piece is lovingly made by hand in Baltimore, MD.