Upcoming Retreats:
Portland, OR Spring 2026
March 15-23, 2026
Harrisburg, PA 2026
July 8-15, 2026
Portland Fall
Sept 13 - 18, 2026
Gubbio, Italy
Sept 28-Oct 27 2026
All registration is online ONLY!
Quicklinks:
I am a mixed media artist, designer and instructor from San Jose, CA (currently residing in Tempe, AZ) with a BA in Creative Arts. I believe that everyone has a unique style and desire to create and that we are born curious and creative. Over the years, many of us are discouraged from following our creative urges but I believe it is never too late to begin (or begin again!). I love to encourage my students to draw from their own experience when creating art and to have the courage to take chances. My art is messy, colorful, layered and fun. I have been drawn to the creative arts since I can remember. My first canvas was pretty much every surface in my grandma’s house: the walls, the books, underneath the marble coffee table in the dining room (she didn’t find out until YEARS later and it remains one of her treasured possessions!). I loved playing school and “art gallery” and my dream was to be an artist and teacher. I love the energy that my students bring to class;I love hearing their stories and guiding them through the fear and frustration and reflecting the joy they experience and cheering them on while they (re)discover their creative voice.
Website: https://www.kinueko.com
Orly Avineri is a mixed media artist, a teacher, and an author. She was born and raised in Israel, ended up in Southern California after living in the Netherlands for nearly a decade. Now living in the beautiful Willamette Valley in Oregon she teaches workshops and retreats in intimate settings, locally, in the US, and abroad. Orly’s work’s purpose is to advance the well being of those who seek it through unique and intimate natural and man-made processes and materials. Engaging in a world that is far more expansive than her own enlivens her to no end and she hopes to invoke that feeling in others by introducing and marrying multiple media to inspire freedom of expression and a deep belief in the possibility, the power, and the beauty of change. All for the sake of a deep sense of interconnectedness to all.
www.orlyavineri.com
Instagram: @orlyavineri
Facebook: @orlyavineri
Stephanie Burton is a lifelong artist and accomplished teacher who believes art is not simply something you make, it’s something you become. With decades of experience in ceramics and mixed media, she brings refined skill, confidence, and a deep devotion to process. Her teaching is thoughtfully structured yet generous, inviting students to slow down, build skills naturally, and fully inhabit the creative process.
Known for her warm, intuitive teaching style, Stephanie creates an atmosphere where beginners feel courageous and seasoned artists feel reawakened. She leads with generosity and clarity, guiding students to trust their hands, deepen their artistic voice, and leave proud of what they’ve created.
Her teaching spans schools, studios, and international settings, including 15 years at Georgie’s, five years with Art & Soul, collaborative teaching in El Salvador, and more than a decade from her home studio in Vancouver, Washington. The joy and energy she brings to teaching is unmistakable, felt in her own work and reflected in the growth and confidence of her students!
Website: www.stephanieburtonstudios.com
Instagram: @stephanieburtonstudios
Facebook: @stephanieburtonstudios
Clarissa Callesen is an international artist and instructor working in sculpture and installation art. Her chosen medium is discarded materials, found objects and textiles. Her work and teaching are inspired by her choice of non-traditional materials. In choosing this medium, it is her objective to explore the margins to find beauty and value in that which our society has discarded. Clarissa has exhibited her art throughout the US, including the Museum of Northwest Art and solo exhibitions in Seattle, WA, Bellingham, WA, and Boise, ID. She was an artist in residence at Playa Artist Program in Summer Lake, OR, Brush Creek Foundation in Saratoga, WY, and Surel’s Place in Boise, ID, and North Street Collective in Willits, CA. Her work has appeared in the books “Soulful Stitch”, “Threads of Treasure”, “Who’s your Dada?” and “Art without Waste”. Clarissa has been sharing her passion for creativity for 15 years teaching both nationally, internationally, and online with her signature class Creating with Courage drawing hundreds of students. Her teaching style is down to earth and fun; embracing spontaneity and cherishing “mistakes” while challenging students to look at creativity in new and innovative ways. If you would like to get to know her better this is a wonderful interview.
http://www.clarissacallesen.com/
In 2022 I turned 60…one of those milestone birthdays. That same year, I traveled to Paris for the first time since I was 21 years old. It was an amazing, joy-full, and life-changing trip. I played the part of an adventurer and instinctively set about my mission to document and observe my trip to Paris as if I’d never traveled before. I took notes. I collected things along my way throughout my days in Paris. I documented my findings in the biggest, juiciest, most beautiful travel journal to date. I noticed patterns in the wallpaper and tiles of the pied-a-terre I rented in Montmartre and copied them into my vintage travel journal. I traced typography from a women’s magazine advertisement from 1896. I focused on just one thing at a time. I recorded only what I was drawn to in those moments.
I came home wanting to keep that “Paris feeling” alive. That feeling of exploration, of discovery, of living in the moment. That’s when an idea came to me: sharing my love of travel and techniques I use in my handmade vintage travel journals to other like-minded and curious souls.
The No.1 Ladies Travel Chronicle Society was born.
I now teach workshops locally and internationally to other travelers. We find a vintage book, deconstruct it, then put it back together with layers and layers of vintage papers and ephemera, notes about what we see, feel, smell, and taste. We layer our pages with bits and flotsam collected throughout our wanderings. We tell our stories.
Email: good2btlg@comcast.net
Website: www.tammygilley.com
Micah Goguen grew up in Central Georgia and obtained his Bachelors in Art and Art History and his Masters in Art Therapy from Georgia College & State University in Milledgeville. He focuses primarily on bringing art to the community and using art as a form of communication for those struggling to understand and cope with life situations.
Goguen produces work while teaching art to both adults and children. He also volunteers time at the local community center and works with adults in alcohol and substance recovery as well as uprooted and traumatized children. Using mural work, art for entertainment and art therapy for healing, Micah collaborates with school systems, local shops, and non-profits to help unify and most importantly “spread a message”. The overall vision is to focus and rededicate back to a buy local, shop local mentality that strengthens community through unity and purpose.
Tonya Gray had been creating and selling her artwork for 30 years, first as a ceramics artist, then as a painter. She sells at art shows around the country and is at Portland Saturday Market most weekends (Market member for 15 years). Her work is quiet, thoughtful and fun, and often brings a smile.
Tonya Gray <tonyagrayartworks@gmail.com>
Pamela Sue Johnson is a self-taught mixed-media artist known for her expressive, layered work and her engaging teaching style. With a passion for helping others access their own creativity, Pamela designs and leads creative experiences that inspire, empower, and encourage joyful self-expression.
Pamela has been a core instructor with the Art & Soul community since 2022 and has taught at events throughout the Pacific Northwest and beyond for the last decade. She has also worked as a guest teaching artist in local schools and has served as an artist-in-residence in Southern Nevada, near the desert landscapes of her childhood.
Pamela is the creator of Art Zine, a publication dedicated to creative inspiration and the intuitive artist’s journey. Based in a rural forest community near Vancouver, Washington, she now spends part of the winter season snowbirding in the deserts of Nevada.
Learn more about Pamela here:
Website: https://www.pamelasuejohnson.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pamelasuejohnson11/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pamelasuejohnson/
Art is our universal language. From pre-historic bison scratched onto a cave wall, to the fervent expression of religious faith brushed onto a chapel ceiling; humans have been driven to leave a legacy of their hopes and dreams etched in stone, wrought in metal or wood, woven in cloth or painted on paper and canvas. It is a unique characteristic of human nature to create visual form that goes beyond function into abstract thought. No culture, past or present, has failed to leave this expression of their existence and humanity. The message can be patently obvious as an epic battle immortalized in a Medieval tapestry or as enigmatic as a legion of stone heads staring out to sea on a long deserted island. It can be as realistic as a photograph or as abstract as swathes of color. Art can be used to invoke spirits or exorcize demons. I am driven to speak with my hands, to translate my visions into a form that bridges all language barriers. My visions come from my perception of the world around me, dreams and faint remembrances of lifetimes lost in the past. I am a storyteller at heart and my quilts are my stories.
I was born and raised on the Monterey Peninsula in central California, a beautiful area that served as an inspiration to set me onto a creative path for life. From a very early age I showed a keen interest in art, starting with drawing and painting and exploring different mediums for my self-expression. In the early 70's, I turned my attention to fiber and fabrics with a focus on quilting and embroidery. For the last 40 years or so, fiber and quilting has been my primary focus and passion.
In 1991, we moved to the Pacific Northwest. I began teaching fiber and quilting classes in 1999. Over the years, my work has won awards at local, regional and national shows and the recognition has served me well in promoting myself as a teacher. In 2006 I received a nomination for the ‘Teacher of the Year’ by Professional Quilter Magazine another teacher ultimately won the top award but to be nominated was an honor itself. Some of my quilts have appeared in the pages of books and the cover of Quilter’s Newsletter Magazine; and I have written articles for various magazines and currently design quilt patterns. This year, I became a fabric designer for Northcott Fabrics and my first line came out in May of 2018.
In addition to art and quilting, I have a passion for gourmet cooking, books (the only place I can get into worse trouble than a fabric store), films and music.
Maude May is a collage artist, layering images utilizing hand stitching and photography. She collects discarded snapshots, copyright-free photos, scans of her own photographic art and more. Images are ink jet printed directly onto either linen or cotton and, then along with both used and new fabrics, are assembled to tell a new visual story. Layers of hand & machine stitching bind everything together. Creating these stitched fabric collage artworks allows her to rediscover (and also imagine) the mysteries of the people, memories, words, landscapes and possessions from both her past, and the lives of others, that were once deemed precious and have been forgotten or left behind.
Along with creating and showing her work, Maude teaches classes throughout Oregon and Washington.
www.maudemay.art
Instagram: @maudeanne
Instagram: @thetinyhouseartgallery
Facebook: Maude May
After many years of experimentation with fabric; dying fabric, creating custom fabrics for high-end designers, making wearable art, designing luxury clothing, and making gallery quality wall art; I have found the creative medium that brings a smile to my face, creative fabric collage. It is also known as art or collage quilting or painting with fabric. Whatever you choose to call it, it is a combination of the traditional techniques of collage using the materials of fabric and thread. Using commercial and hand died cotton fabrics, acrylic inks pens and crayons, digital manipulation, raw edge applique and free motion stitching, I create colorful, layered, and often whimsical collages. Being in the studio surrounded by brightly colored fabrics is both peaceful, challenging, and happy making!
Her life journey gives Jacqueline Newbold a never-ending source of inspiration to represent gems of the world in her color-filled paintings. Her watercolor journal has become a visual diary and constant companion everywhere she travels. Using a warm and playful color palette, Jacqueline enjoys capturing a moment in time by painting the dappled sunlight on a field of lavender, or the brilliance of a tropical beach. She introduces color in the shadows and sun-drenched areas, which creates a luminous glow in her paintings. Primarily a watercolor artist, she uses her watercolor journal as a springboard for exploring creative ways to incorporate mixed media into her art and providing the bases for her larger creations.
Jacqueline is a member of the Watercolor Society of Oregon, the Northwest Watercolor Society and the High Desert Art League. She teaches watercolor workshops locally, nationally as well as leading painting workshops in France and Italy. She has several articles published in the mixed-media magazine, Cloth-Paper-Scissors about creating art while on your journey. Jacqueline has partnered with Daniel Smith Art Supplies to create a watercolor traveling kit. Her self-published book, Watercolor Journeys is a helpful guide for beginning to advanced watercolor enthusiasts and her workshop DVD with Interweave has just been released: Art Journals On-The-Go: How to pack, prep, paint, and more.
Website: www.newboldart.com
Blog: http://djnewbold.blogspot.com
Jesse Reno is a self-taught mixed media painter. He has been drawing since he could hold a pencil, and painting and exhibiting his works since 2000.
Jesse has amassed over 3000 paintings in the last 12 years, and has exhibited his work extensively across the US and Canada as well as France and Mexico. Jesse's work has been covered in various art publications including Juxtapoz, Artnews, Artension, dpi and Somerset Studio just to name a few. One of his largest works can be seen in Winnipeg, Canada where he was commissioned by the Province of Manitoba to create a 25 x 40 ft mural as a reminder to the cultural importance of the Native American people in the region.
Collage is a wonderful way to wake up the sleeping artist within. Collages are unique individual expressions, just like the artists are. I am exploring a range of subjects without a political agenda, welcoming the technical challenge of making realistic renderings from recycled materials. I enjoy making something attractive from discards, appropriating images and putting them together in intriguing ways. Like any artist, I am especially thrilled when my work calls to a viewer to come closer and spend some time engaged in the piece. While my pictorial collages are best viewed from a distance, a close up inspection can reveal a very different piece of art.
"My goal as an artist is to let my work bring joy to the viewer."