21 SECRETS Fall 2014 Teacher Bios

As an art therapist and counselor, Amanda gets to do art almost every day with her kidclients. She uses art journaling for her own art therapy and is convinced that art saves her life and soul! After a year of complete turmoil, Amanda has moved to the Atlanta, GA, USA area and is working with Autistic children and families. In addition to exploring with tons of color, paint, mixed media and texture in her journals, Amanda quilts, knits, draws, practices mindfulness and lives a creative life so as to tap into the soulful intuition so needed for positive health.

Bebe Butler began her love for design while sculpting and painting faces and masks at the children’s theater she’s worked with for over 14 years. But her love for design bloomed when she discovered the meditative, honest and playful realm of art journaling. She has several publications with Somerset studio and was recently published as the featured artist in January’s Art Journaling magazine. Her love for mixed media inspired her to open an Etsy shop and recently, she’s been designing cd and book covers for personal growth publications with “Release Your Wings” productions.

Brian is an artist, visual journaler, and teacher living in Southern California. Brian began his art studies growing up in Montana and has continued his studies in Southern California. He credits art journaling with giving him a deeper understanding of himself and his emotions and is passionate about sharing the process to help others develop as artists. Brian has developed a style of richly layered, abundant, art journaling and he is enthusiastic about helping others to develop their own unique personal style. Brian’s artwork has been published in several books including Seth Apter’s newest book “The Mixed Media Artist”. Brian lives in Long Beach, California with his partner Ed and their three Main Coon cats that love to sit upon Brian’s journals.

Carolyn Dube is a full time mixed-media artist and instructor who is addicted to color and play.  After 10+ years teaching kids in her public school classroom, Carolyn decided she wanted to be a kid again by embracing the painty, inky messy part of art! When her hands are clean (or sort of clean), she writes magazine articles, designs stencils for StencilGirl, creates videos for her blog, and whatever else grabs her artful attention.

Cathy Bluteau is a self-taught mixed media artist who plays with everything from paper to fabric to found objects. Her colorful and whimsical style can be found in her water color, pen and ink and collage pieces ranging in subjects from little house villages to abstracts to paper girls.

Cathy offers local workshops on all of her techniques as well as online workshops to the US and rest of the world. Cathy’s work has been published in many Somerset Publications including Artful Blogging, Somerset Life, and Art Journaling as well as in many of the Cloth Paper Scissor publications including Cloth Paper Scissors latest publication called “Pages”. She has also been a featured artist on many online blogs including Spoonful and Crescendoh.

All of Cathy’s work can be viewed on her blog, which is aptly named Cathy Michaels Design combining her name and her son Michael’s name. Cathy loves visits so do stop by to browse around!

Cathy believes that everyone has the ability to create and her manifesto includes making sure that she inspires enough women to search for and find their inner artist.

Connie Hozvicka

I am an artist, passionate teacher, and a gatherer of creative Spirits.  I’m also a devoted mother and wife to the greatest blessings of my life. I consider creativity to be a sacred path to wholeness and that every soul has a story worth telling.  I’ve been sharing my own insight online at DirtyFootprints-Studio.com since 2008 and teaching art professionally for 20+ years.  My work is dedicated to inspiring women to trust their feminine wisdom, express themselves fearlessly with a paintbrush, and  to embrace life with an open heart.  At Dirty Footprints Studio I offer workshops, retreats, eBooks, and my celebrated IGINTE program designed for women called to share their creativity sustainably through Feminine Leadership and heart centered programs.  I am also the founder and director of the renown 21 SECRETS art journaling program…..and am absolutely thrilled to be teaching this year in 21 SECRETS Fall 2014!

Dion was born and raised beside the ocean in Australia where the treasure to be found in a rock was more valuable than the crown jewels of England. She grew up in a house filled with energy, laughter, and arguments over the bathroom.

Dion’s art is well known for its color, sparkle, and shimmer. She draws most of her inspiration from nature and will use its many faces to fuel her work. Her journals and sketchbooks are filled with luscious, shimmering pages – treasured expressions of her endless adventures which she shares on her blog, and her fine art can be found in galleries and collections around the world.

When not creating art, Dion’s main focus is on writing and teaching. Her master classes and workshops are always filled to capacity, and her online classes are hugely popular. Her gentle, nurturing, teaching style has helped fuel the creativity of so many budding artists.

“We’re all just walking each other home.” a quote by Ram Dass, is one of Donna’s favourite inspirational quotes. Having left the security of a government career 5 years ago, she is now an artist, creativity coach and yoga teacher who loves to encourage and inspire other women to express and celebrate themselves.

Working in watercolour and acrylic, her approach to art is an intuitive and expressive one, embracing the thrill of putting paint to paper and listening to her heart to express her joy and gratitude for life in vibrant colour.

Hailing from Canada, Donna’s work is in private collections across North America and in the United Kingdom, and has been published in Art Journaling Magazine. She has taught and coached locally, provincially and online.

erica simpson is a soulful artist encouraging creative freedom and delight in your everyday. she softens into her story through the practice of art journaling, collage, poetry, painting and photography. she is a Believer, dependent on grace and rooted in love. erica ultimately desires to live free, as though she has wings. she would love to connect with you in her online sanctuary, {e} everyday art.

France is a Belgian mom, wife, mixed media artist and designer. The mix of soft grunge, color and rusted or vintage embellishments are the main ingredients of her tags, books, altered art and art journaling. To tell her story, she likes to play with inky techniques, just like a writer juggles with words. These techniques allow her to offer a comfort zone to class participants, while guiding them to tell their own story.

Jamie Ridler is a creative living coach and the founder of Jamie Ridler Studios. From coaching to workshops, from podcasting to blogging, Jamie’s work helps women find the confidence and courage to discover and express their creative selves so they can be the star they are.

Jill is a mixed-media artist who makes books, paintings and other story-telling structures. After graduating with a degree in Design, she spent a year of graduate studies in Italy, where she learned to see a bigger picture of both art and the world in general. She focuses her work on text, color and social issues, and it often involves maps, symbols, houses, housewives, and the mystique of charisma.

Her handmade books are in the permanent collections of the Newberry Library in Chicago and the Denver Public Library. Her paintings and artists’ books have been shown in national invitational and juried shows and can be found in public and private collections across the country. She has taught at five universities, Art & Soul, Artfest, Valley Ridge and Artunraveled. and various other institutions around the globe.

Jill feels that art is necessary and accessible to everyone.

“Your sacred space is where you can find yourself over and over again.” -Joseph Campbell

Karen Michel is a mixed media Artist and Author who creates work from recycled and repurposed materials, mojo and sunshine. Born & raised in New York, she escaped to the mountain desert for a moment in time and has since returned to the sea shore. She ran a not-for-profit visual art center for kids for over 12 years and has taught mixed media art workshops throughout North America. When not creating, you can usually find her & her 2 little ones hunting for seashells and buried treasures.

Kate Robertson is an intuitive painter and mixed media artist, weaver, spinner, writer and all around creative. Originally from Michigan, she has lived in Eastern Idaho for the past 20 years. She draws her inspiration from nature, her connection to the divine feminine and other sources. She is particularly drawn to birds who often show up in her work. Her surroundings give her ample opportunity to commune with animals. Besides the dogs, cats, and sheep, she often sees hawks, owls, and ravens.

I practice mindfulness and heart-centered creation in my work as an intuitive painter, fiber artist, teacher, coach, and writer. I believe that creating art can heal our beautiful hearts, help us discover our deepest selves, and radically transform our relationships with each other and our world. In front of my easel I have loved, danced, dreamed, cried, laughed, and healed as I’ve painted my way back to my self. I also co-own Stitch Your Art Out, a quilting and knitting shop located just outside State College, Pennsylvania, where I have inspired and guided women to discover their creative hearts for over ten years.

Kristal Norton is a wife, mother, creative explorer and a mixed media artist on a mission to help others unearth their creative spirit. In her role as a creativity guide, Kristal seeks to inspire, motivate and instill joy while breathing new life into those hibernating passions. As an artist, she has dabbled in countless mediums, but always falls back to acrylics, watercolor, and fabric. Her love for texture is evident in all of her work from her paintings and art journal pages, to her primitive dolls. Her art has been featured in art galleries, magazines, on television, podcast radio, and in stores around the US. Her primitive pattern line, Rags-n-Tags, has over 80 published designs and has reached thousands of creative hands all around the world. Learn more about Kristal and her adventures in art journaling and creative coaching, as she shares her musings on cultivating the authentic self via inspirational ebooks, videos and articles on her website and blog.

Latisha is a mama, artist, and herb farmer. She spends her time fondling nettles, homeschooling her two girls, and learning how to live for a living. She delights in the paradoxical, the contradictory, the juxtaposed.

I am an Artist, Life & Soul Coach, Tribemaker, Intuitive Healer and Truthseeker.

I guide women through the art of unfolding the truth of her soul’s purpose, inspire creative muses to come out and play while the Divine Goddess, the Essence, immerses.

As a Life Envisioning Expert I Support and Empower a woman’s path of transforming their current life and beliefs while creating Courage and Clarity to Design the life she wants with new Wisdom, Awareness and Courage to Embody the Truth of Your Essence and remove roadblocks to help her flow through Fear and immerse into her Sensual, Thriving, Happy, Loving Goddess Self of Pure Love Light .

My passion is guiding women through expressive arts and mindful experiences that inspire them to trust more, go deeper, and find the Felt Truth of their intuition. At the essence of my work is helping others hold space for themselves with gentle honesty, safety, curiosity, and deep listening in order to observe their patterns, reconnect to their truths, and restore clarity. I want every woman to feel the magic of their inner wisdom on a cellular level. I have been practicing intuitive art for over 10 years with various mediums. This journey has led me to the truth that we have all the answers within to feel passionate, grounded, and connected in our lives. I share my devotions of expressive arts and holding space for ourselves in person and on-line. I am also a licensed Clinical Social Worker* and maintain a small private psychotherapy practice in Vermont where I live.

• If you are currently or have been a client of Michelle Turbide, LICSW, please contact her directly prior to signing up for 21 Secrets to inform her of your wish to participate in this course 

Opal Keen

Opal Keen is excited to be co-teaching with Connie Hozvicka in 21 SECRETS Fall 2014!

Opal’s yoga journey began in 2010 when she took her little sister to a yoga class.  She knew the minute she walked in the door that something very powerful was  being shared inside of those walls and wanted to know more.

From that moment on, she engaged with the tools and techniques that yoga offers to help cultivate stillness of mind and found that peace became a part of her experience. Her life-one that had been riddled with anxiety, depression, an eating disorder and addiction was transformed powerfully by this practice.

Her experience was so liberating that she wanted to dedicate her energy to helping others find the same, especially those who experience addiction. She is deeply grateful to all of her teachers and this life-giving practice and loves sharing it with others.

I believe deeply that at our core we are creative beings. In acknowledging and working with this creative self we can reconnect with a powerful source of infinite love and inspiration. I believe the act of creating is a sacred act, and through it we can express and explore messages and symbols that will enrich our lives. I am an artist living in the beautiful and enchanting Willamette Valley, Oregon, where inspiration and a connection with nature and spirit is at my fingertips. I have a background in Illustration, Bio-Medical art and graphic design, but lost track of inspiration somewhere along the way… I felt “shut-down’ for several years – until I was introduced to the world of art journaling and mixed media art. This has been one of the greatest gifts in my life. I have been deeply transformed by it. I have the great honor to continue to give this gift by teaching art journaling and mixed media painting workshops. In my practice I strive to connect, illuminate and inspire others. I am dedicated to creating sacred spaces for love, support and for reclaiming your own creative power.

Veronica Funk is a painter, curator and writer inspired by life in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains in Alberta, Canada. Growing up in the north, she was influenced by the Cree culture in which she was immersed, spending time canoeing the Churchill River, snowshoeing through the Boreal forest, and hearing the stories of Aboriginal people. Her work and writing have been featured in a number of books and magazines including several issues of Cloth Paper Scissors as well as the Summer 2014 issue of Artful Blogging.

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Hali Karla, 21 SECRETS Creative Director

Hali Karla is an artist passionate about cultivating holistic creativity. She enjoys gathering artists, healers and visionaries for collaborations, workshops and circles. Her soulful perspective and background as a nurse offers a meaningful framework for her how she guides others, which has been described as nurturing safe space for truth-telling and courageous transformation. Celebrating our wholeness – light and dark – she encourages trust in body, intuition and creative process as a way toward vitality, healing and joy. Grounding in her own daily creative practice, you can see her current musings at HaliKarla.com.