Facilitator- Somatic Movement

This somatic movement experience is led by visual artist, certified yoga instructor, and Soul Motion Embodied Leader and Teacher. Julia Becker. Julia has decades of experience as a visual artist and educator, and in her personal practice and teaching of Yogic practices. The last ten years she has been exploring somatic movement inquiry with the practitioners and originators of Soul Motion, 5Rythmes, Tamalpa, Azul, and other conscious movement/dance practices. In 2020 she earned her Soul Motion Embodied Leadership credentials and is excited to share with her Montana community.

Textile Painting

Annie began her career 50 years ago as a youth on a farm in Havre Montana. The land spoke to her at an early age and continues to speak to her today. Connections to the land and the energy that surrounds the land ignite the art process within her. These connections provide the fuel and passion to create meaningful art work. Annie has explored combining different mediums, dyes and techniques on varying surfaces including fibers, wood, and paper. This allows a rich diverse tapestry of color to prevail in her work. Annie has developed art programs for all age groups centered on using environmental techniques that work with surrounding land, vegetation and water, ran a gallery (Roasted) that built a strong foundation for the arts in rural Montana, and worked through the Montana Arts Council as a coach for the MAP program.

Textiles

Tammy is a fourth-generation fiber artist who enjoys sharing her passion with everyone she meets. She has a fiber-arts business, Goldieknots Montana, specializing in Montanagrown wool, yarn, spinning fiber, and Made in Montana gift items. Prior to moving to Montana, she lived in Southern California and the Pocono Mountains where she was a Humane Education specialist for the SPCA. Her teaching style is fun, creative, and interactive. When she’s not in her studio creating, spinning, knitting, or felting, you can find her spending time with her dogs, sheep, horse, and other barnyard critters.

Beginning, Intermediate, Advanced, & Raku Ceramics

Rob Kellenbeck has over 5 decades of experience in the ceramics field. He began his college academic studies in math and science, but once he took a ceramic elective course, he was hooked and started a more creative academic path in the arts. His major became ceramics which lead him to earn his BFA from Texas Tech. He went on to open Deer Creek Pottery in the early 70’s. His accomplishments in the ceramic industry are vast and we are happy to have him here as an instructor and fellow potter in the Great Falls community.

Instructor- Adult Drawing & Painting

Ashleigh McCann primarily creates abstract and nonrepresentational artwork, and she believes that practice rendering landscapes, the human figure, and still life enhances every form of artmaking. McCann emphasizes that developing a vocabulary of engaging mark-making and color theory elevate her student's representational artwork. McCann completed a 9-month residency at the Paris Gibson Square Museum of Art in 2017 and received her BFA in Drawing & Painting from BYU-Idaho in 2016. You can view her website at www.ashmccann.com.

Instructor—Youth & Adult Ceramics

Dino Pfaff has 30 years of K-12 art teaching experience in multiple mediums here in the great state of Montana. His love and skill for pottery is evident in his teaching style and works of art. He has been teaching pottery classes here at the Paris Gibson Square Museum of Art for 6 years.

Instructor—Senior Drawing

Dan Price creates utilitarian containers from found pieces of wood. Each work tells a story through its colors, textures, grain, origin, design and function. He started making works from wood as a child and has continued to do so all his life. In addition to being a sculptor of wood, Dan also works in a variety of drawing and painting mediums, as well as ceramic and leather. He received a BS in Art and MS in Sculpture and Ceramics from Fort Hays Kansas State University, and an MFA in Sculpture from the University of Oregon. Dan has worked several occupations in many locations, including contract security, correctional officer and game warden, among being an Associate Professor at SUNY in Geneseo and an Assistant Professor of Art for 6 years at the College of Great Falls. Dan has been a part of PGSMOA throughout the years, teaching Senior Drawing most Tuesdays for the past 8 years.

Instructor- Printmaking

Margi Schindele studied art at CAL State University in Long Beach California.  She puts her thoughts and feelings down on paper, through the art of Printmaking.  Mark-making is an expression of freedom which resonates with her. To be able to make multiples and additions is rewarding and she looks forward to sharing her technical skills with her students, while using the printing press.

Instructor- Youth Drawing & Painting

I’m Masina Seau from Great Falls Montana. Growing up in a family of potters and painters, I was prone to early exposure to art. My work primarily focuses on organic subjects usually with a surrealistic twist. I love to experiment with mediums from pen and ink, oil paints, acrylic and watercolor to sculpting with clay, printmaking and spray painting. In addition, I’ve been teaching youth art classes at the Square for two years and I have also taken multiple workshops to help further my skills and knowledge. I hope to expand myself as an artist by continuing to build my knowledge on different mediums and by teaching others to further their skills.

Education Director

Elizabeth Slot received her bachelors in K-12 art education at Kendall College of Art and Design. Originally from Michigan, Slot traveled to Montana for new inspiration. While she's an elementary art teacher during the school year, she takes her time as an artist during summer. She is looking to inspire the qualities of the arts into young minds using various mediums. Growing up, she was always surrounded by creativity through her family, with her father being a carpenter, and mother being a natural artist. They were always teaching others along the way. It was no surprise that Liz ended up in education! In her free time, she is either working on her home, exploring, gardening, or cooking with family.

Drawing, Painting, Book Arts

Susan, raised in Columbia Falls Montana, taught art and English classes at Flathead High School, Kalispell, for 23 years. She also taught one year at Narmer American College in Maadi, Cairo, Egypt. She received her B.A. Degree in English and Art Education in 1989, from Whitworth University in Spokane, Washington, where she was first introduced to the visual arts. Since then, she’s earned many graduate credits in art. Her first love is painting in watercolor, but she also enjoys working with dyes on silk, acrylic/mixed media painting, book-making and basket weaving. Susan was Montana’s Art Educator of the Year in 2004, received a Fulbright-Hays grant for a summer seminar in The Czech Republic and Slovakia in 2001, and was one of 12 teachers in the U.S. chosen to participate in “Modern Art in America,” a Humanities seminar in Research Triangle, North Carolina, 2012. She has shown work at The Hockaday Museum of Art, Longview Library, Columbian Artists show, Oregon Artists Association, The Broadway Gallery, and Paris Gibson Museum of Art.