ACW’s Partnership with Emma Norton Services continues in 2025
Teaching Schedule Classes: Twice a month Jan-Dec /Thursdays Jan-June
Register for Classes Soon. Sign up at the desk at Restoring Waters.
January 9th 6-8pm Meandering Art Journal: Easy bookmaking from brown paper bags with Karen Daphne McDonald
Create a book decorated with colors and pictures meaningful to maker. A relaxing and quick
project in which anyone can succeed. Makers experience the satisfaction of making something
that is one-of-a-kind, practical, and replicable book art.
January 23rd 6-8pm Healing Beads: Crafting Vision Board Earrings with Rebecca Froehlich
Explore the power of self-expression and healing in this hands-on class, where you’ll create earrings from custom beads as personal symbols of identity and resilience. Using recycled magazine paper, you’ll design and handcraft unique beads that reflect your goals, dreams, and affirmations. The paper beads, rolled from your choice of magazine clippings, act as “living vision boards”—each bead holding personal meanings and aspirations.
Throughout the session, we’ll reflect on our intentions and identity, discussing how these earrings can serve as a reminder of the stories we carry. Walk away with a new set of earrings—and a tangible, wearable vision board—empowering you to celebrate yourself and the goals that guide your path forward.
February 6th 6-8pm The Art of Self Care- paint a bud vase & make a print with Lynnette Black
Create a piece of art that is beautiful and useful for every day life, “Joy Bud Vase.” This project encourages self expression and builds confidence that “everyone can be an artist.” The Joy Bud Vase is practical, and interactive, as you can put new flowers in the vase; even dandelions would look good.
You do not need expensive special materials to make art. Also learn how to make a monoprint.
February 20th 6-8pm Medicine Card Magic with Laura Burlis
Get Familiar with Animal Medicine Cards and draw one. Create a collage based on their response and feelings about the Medicine Card they drew. Share (optional) with group what they were thinking about or how they feel about their collage.
March 6th 6-8pm Creating Sacred Space- Let’s build a home altar with Cynthia Mauleon
Through conversation and creating portable home altars, we will explore how we can shape our living space to promote healing, manifest intentions, and create a restorative atmosphere.
March 20th 6-8pm Sashiko Slow-Stitching Coaster with SAM Greene
Slow stitching is a meditative sewing movement that is becoming really popular these days.Students can make several coasters, matching or non-matching.
They will make one or two in class and can take home the materials they need to make additional coasters.
April 10th 6-8pm Scraper Painting with Katie Palmer
This class will focus on using different types of painting tools along with paint brushes to create interesting marks on canvas with thick and thin paint along with different painting mediums. This class will be using a variety of painting tools to create textures and add whimsical expressive mark making to our creations.
April 24th 6-8pm Bottle Town with Paper Mache with Deb Rip
We will be creating and collaborating to construct structure(s) that could eventually resemble a town or village. Paper mache is a relaxing process.
May 8th 6-8pm Salvaged Sentiments with Barbara Bridges
Participants will be able to take their old gift cards and re=engineer them into being a gift card which then becomes a Mini-wall sculpture.. re-cycle and recreate.
May 22nd 6-8pm Card Creation with Gelli Plate Joy with Liisa Le
Participants will learn how to create with a Gelli plate. They will use this expressive medium to explore and reflect on personal experiences and emotions and create bright and interesting friendship caring cards to celebrate friends and family.
June 5th 6-8pm Trees Talk-Are you Listening? with Leo Fortune
Take time to slow down, listen and look within. Leo will read from their bilingual (Spanish/English) guided meditation and then we will take about 30 minutes to listen to what comes up. Participants can journal, doodle, sit, move, whatever they need to do to hear what is in their heart.
June 19th 6-8pm Mixed Media Messages with Robin Getsug
We will set an intention and explore the concept of personal power and resilience and the importance of expressing our unique visual voice
Our medium= mixed media collage= torn paper, images and words layered with bright oil pastels, tempera paint sticks and other drawing materials.
Teachers Bios:
Laura Burlis has made art since she was a child, and knows how important making art has been to her own sense of well-being and creative self-expression.
She has experimented with many mediums in her life- a few include painting, bronze casting, screenprinting, and scarecrow making. For the last 15 years her main medium has been Polymer Clay. She uses the clay like solid paint, assembling her landscapes & nature scenes like a mosaic. She loves plants and landscapes, and was Artist-in-Residence at Glacier National Park in 2017.
Laura loves teaching both kids and adults both how to work with polymer clay and other mediums.
She has taught at the Textile Center of MN, Minneapolis Community Ed, Courageous heArts, Phipps Center for the Arts, Banfill-Locke Center for the Arts, and for Breanna’s Gift, a program to bring art to kids in hospital.
Not sure if you want these:
You can find her art at: https://www.etsy.com/your/shops/BorealisArtByLauraB
Facebook: Laura Borealis Art
Debra Ripp
I am a native Minnesotan born in Mankato and based in the Twin Cities. I welcome you to come
visit my studio in the Dow building and the Creative Zone of St. Paul. The Dow building is on the
Green Line of the Twin Cities Light Rail System~ Tobersonstudios, 2242 University Ave. W.
#201B, St. Paul. MN 55114
Tobersonstudios is home to a broad range of spirited images by Debra Ripp in various media.
Toberson is the doghead figure on the home page; he is an original insignia character in Debra’s
work, the guide to all of her imagery. ~
I am a Mixed Media artists which means I am willing and love to explore all possible media,
anything that will make the image emerge stronger and obtain the voice it is meant to have. My
favorite thing is to vacillate between media and observe how the image can transform and
mature as it is manifested in different clothes, so to speak
Liisa Lillian Lê, a Pennsylvania native, embarked on a diverse artistic journey through
Italy, Germany, and various regions of the East Coast and Midwest before settling in
Minnesota in 2022.
Her early studies concentrated on drawing and painting, culminating in an MBA in Art
Conservation. A four-year tenure in Germany saw her meticulously restoring fresco and
secco wall paintings in historical churches, castles, and community halls, alongside
polychrome sculptures and panel paintings. Her expertise in painting conservation led
to positions at the Fairfield Art Museum in Indiana, the Cincinnati Art Museum, and the
Dallas Museum of Art. Lê’s conservation career boasts involvement with significant
works, including the Violet Oakley murals at the State House in Harrisburg and the
Thomas Hart Benton Murals from the 1933 Chicago World Fair Exhibit, now housed at
Indiana University Bloomington.
Beyond conservation, Lê has shared her artistic knowledge, teaching art and sciences
to students from kindergarten to twelfth grade, working with individuals with disabilities,
and instructing adults in the ancient art of Iconography. With over four decades of
experience in art conservation and a lifelong commitment to creativity, Lê’s art reflects a
deep passion for the transformative power art holds.
As a second-generation Finnish-American, her Finnish heritage profoundly influences
her artistic vision. Drawing inspiration from her ancestors, who carved winged cranes
into the prows of their ships, Lê imbues her work with the crane’s symbolism of
protection, security, and resilience. This cultural connection fuels her advocacy for
nature conservation and the protection and security for all human rights. By intertwining
these themes, her art becomes a platform for promoting environmental stewardship
and humanitarianism.
Currently, Lê’s paintings narrate stories of nature, employing the crane totem to create a
sanctuary for complex emotions that transcend language. Through her art, she
endeavors to deepen the bond between humanity and nature, celebrating the
interconnectedness of all living things and highlighting the importance of global
strength for wetlands and their inhabitants. Her diverse artistic output ranges from
intricate portraits to abstract expressions, created with mediums such as graphite, oil,
acrylic, and colored pencils. Lê strives to evoke timeless emotions and forge
connections through each piece. Her work has been shown in Minnesota, Indiana, and
Germany. Her artistic journey is a continuous exploration, fueled by a commitment to
growth and discovery.
Karen Daphne grew up in Washington, D.C. and attended the Art Student’s League in New York. Early on, Karen’s photo-realistic renderings set her work apart. Fascinated by quantum physics and frequency, Karen studied Sacred Geometry and in Australia spent time with a Reiki Master who was able to imbue painted image with prana or chi. One of her aspirations is to create art for public spaces that produces positive, healing changes in quantum field.
Karen holds a B.A. in Art and Education, M.A. in Language & Culture and M.F.A. in Writing. She has taught in NewYork, Miami and Santa Fe as well as France, Portugal, Australia, New Zealand, Morocco, Republic of Georgia and the U.K.
Catherine A Palmer BFA,
University of Minnesota Minneapolis, MN While I have been at the business of making art for as long as I can remember, my work as a student began in earnest in 1987 when I was awarded a scholarship to the Split Rock Art program. Since then, my study has led me from the precepts of life and figurative drawing to the freedom I have found in theory and an abstract vision. In other words, you need to know the rules to break them. And in the process of doing so, catharsis is found. My starting place is color; color leads me through space to composition. My subject matter can be identified as a conversation with the world I live in, influenced by feminism, personal circumstance and the on-going attempt to create a pure art object, one that exists solely for the experience of the beholder. I have shown my work in Minneapolis since 1997 in Galleries, Community Colleges and Coffee Houses. As a result, my paintings are held in personal collections across the United States and in Norway. Artist Minneapolis
Lynnette K. Black,
Immigration, Social and Environmental Justice
Lynnette Black is a global medical device marketing expert, having used her visual arts and writing ability to market life-saving products and products that improve the quality of life, such as artificial limbs, wound care, pacemakers and interocular lenses for cataract surgery.
Now retired, Lynnette is a full time artist seeking to raise awareness of global issues such as mass migration, equal rights, environmental justice, and racial justice. A cooperative member of Highpoint Center for Printmaking, she has exhibited nationally, including twice at the Katherine Nash Gallery, Regis Center for the Arts, University of Minnesota, in “Women and Water Rights” and “Women and Money”. In 2018 her print “Wood Nymph” was selected by Juror Crawford Alexander Mann, curator for Prints and Drawings, Smithsonian American Art Museum, for the Biennial International Juried Exhibition, Highpoint Center for Printmaking.
A long-term member of Women’s Caucus for Art (WCA), Lynnette is also a member of International Association of Female Artists (IAFA) and Art to Change the World. https://www.lynnetteblackart.com
Artist, Minneapolis
SAM Greene, 2D illustrator and jewelry designer
After earning my BA in Graphic Design, I worked at design firms in New York City first doing print design, then illustration and design for the web. My most fun and inspiring job was a stint as head art director for Skittles and Snickers. During those years, I moonlighted doing editorial illustration for the New York Times, Business Week, and other publications. After 911, I worked independently as an illustrator and graphic designer. My biggest accomplishments were ninety illustrations for a book for Brooklyn Botanic Gardens and fifty signage illustrations for New York Botanical Gardens. Managing details like change registered agent in hawaii kept my business structured and organized, allowing me to focus on creative projects.
During this time I began developing my own personal work: a series of humorous illustrations of extremophiles (extreme life forms) and a second series depicting Planets and Planettes, which relied heavily on astrological metaphors and magical realism. This work was exhibited or sold at the Flushing Hall of Science in Queens NY, Brooklyn Public Library, and the American Museum of Natural History.
My career took a turn when I became a teaching artist for the New York Department of Education and the New York Department of Juvenile Justice. I taught art workshops to underserved students in New York City public schools and to residents of Juvenile Detention sites, both girls and boys in Brooklyn and Bronx New York.
And now I live in Minnesota, where I’ve finally come to embrace my own muse, making my art the main course, as it were, of my life. Since moving here in 2018, I’ve been working in polymer clay and have continued creating 2D illustrations–after a 5 year detour to earn my MA in teaching English as a Second Language while teaching at colleges, adult learning centers, and libraries. At this moment in time, I eagerly anticipate the next chapters of my creative journey.
Website www.sciencepiction.com
Email sam@sciencepiction.com
Barbara Rogers Bridges Founder and Director of Art to Change the World
Barbara has been an artist and a teacher/college professor for over 40 years. Her social practice sculptures have been exhibited in Maine, Miami, the Virgin Islands, Maryland, Chicago, Mexico, Spain, Canada, and throughout Minnesota.
Bridges taught K-12 art in Minnesota, Maine, and the Virgin Islands. She was voted Art Teacher of the Year twice in Minnesota.
Barbara has partnered with various Minnesota institutions such as the Minneapolis school district, the Minnesota online high school, Perpich Center for Arts Education, the Walker Art Center, the Mpls. Institute of Art, the Weisman Museum, and the Minnesota Museum of Art. The online curriculum site and discussion group, ArtsNet Minnesota, came out of those collaborations.
Barbara has served as a professor for twenty years at the university of Minnesota and Bemidji State University and has contributed in a variety of ways. Her appointment includes teaching Foundations of Education, Human Relations and Critical and Creative Thinking and also serving as the architect of the unique DLiTE (Distributed Learning in Teacher Education) – a hybrid online K-8 teacher licensure partnership program and the FasTrack secondary initiative designed for previously degreed candidates who wish to teach high school. These programs were the first online teacher licensure programs in the nation. Artist Minneapolis, Minnesota Zihuatenjo, Mexico
Layl McDill
grew up in Gillette, Wyoming where she began creating at a very young age. Her early works were dollhouses, marionettes and even an entire “Smurf Village”. Layl received her BFA in Illustration from the Columbus College of Art Design but she found it more exciting to make sculptural work and sell it through galleries and art fairs. She has exhibited her work around the country since 1994. Polymer clay has been her medium of choice using the millefiori technique and some mixed media materials added. The theme of wonder permeates her sculptures that are covered with endless details. Her work can also be found in numerous books and publications. Selected recent awards include 2nd Place Overall at Arts North International 2021, Best in “Blue” at “Primary” Banfill Locke Center for the Arts 2021, Best in Sculpture, Edwardsville Arts Fair 2018 and 2019.
Social media: https://www.facebook.com/layl.mcdill
Tiktokk.com/@laylmcdill
Twitter: @laylm
Robin is a mixed media artist, a licensed marriage and family therapist and a registered and board certified Art Therapist .
Robin has been making art since she was a child, expressing creativity and healing through her art . Robin believes art has the power to heal by embracing who we are, and expressing this visually . Through our art , we can share our unique perspective of self , our feelings and our response to important social justice issues . Robin believes there is power in the layering of
Image, word, color, line, shape, and composition .
“I embrace a social Justice lens in my art. There is power in sharing who we are and what we believe in through our art. We can express our hopes, wishes and dreams for our selves, for our communities and for the world through making art as a means of self expression and personal power .
Art Heals!” Robin G
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Teacher information:
How to write a lesson plan here.
Teaching at Restoring Waters info here.