Paula started life in upstate NY and always was involved in art of some kind, ceramics, sculpture, polymer clay, drawing, painting, wood working…. It all came together into this, Taper Mache, a method created while teaching some art classes right here in Sheridan! Paula has been in Oregon for 20 years, and has been a cook most of her life, with various other occupations in the mix, painter, wallpaper hanger, zoo worker… everything you do, leads you to where you are!

Evan Tait is an actor/director from he Portland area. He is excited to return and to be teaching Shakespeare and Musical Theater again this year. He has acted on many different stages in the Portland Metro area, including Broadway Rose, Lakewood Theater, Stumptown Stages, Portland Actors Ensemble, and more. Evan has a BA in Theater Performance from Portland State University and a Master of Arts from Western Oregon University. He has taught at several high schools.

Sonia is a painter, printmaker, and sketchbook journal keeper. For the past 25 years she has been a teaching artist in the Willamette Valley with the Salem Art Association, Bush house Museum, Ash Creek Center for the Arts, Lake Oswego Center for the Arts and more. Sonia has lead children’s art sessions overseas. In 2017 she was awarded a grant to use art and science to educate children in Pierce county Wa about invasive weeds.

Julie is an Art Educator in the Monmouth OR area. She teaches creativity and courage in her art teaching, along side practical art making skills. Lessons are molded by her goals for the class and student interest.   She is a professional oil painter, and maker of anything and everything! She teaches at Queen of Peace Catholic School, Ash Creek Art Center, as well as private teaching in her studio in Monmouth.

Anthony enjoys a diverse career in music, playing and teaching modern and baroque flutes, recorder, baroque violin, viola da gamba. He has taught in schools in Boston, MA and Eugene, OR, and currently directs recorder ensembles at Willamette View in Milwaukie, and maintains a teaching study. He has performed in ballet and opera orchestras, baroque orchestras playing baroque violin and baroque flute, and many chamber music groups. He holds a degree in Early Music from the Longy School of Music in Cambridge, MA.

An interdisciplinary artist based in Dallas, OR primarily focused on the phenomena of creating artwork dealing with concepts of memory and thought transference through objects. Currently Eric is an Adjunct Art Instructor at Chemeketa Community College. He retired from the Oregon Army National Guard (US Army) after 24 years of military service. Eric received a BFA in Art and Design from Western Oregon University, Monmouth in 2019, and MFA in Studio Arts at Studio Arts College International in Florence, Italy in 2021. Exhibiting works since 2011 ranging from digital photography, woodblock and linoleum prints, installations, to sculptural works in local, regional, national, and international art exhibitions.

Natalie is an artist who enjoys many different mediums. She owns a shop in McMinnville called Parlor on 3rd, where she does tattoos and teaches painting classes. She spent many years as a body painter. She has been a mural artist for 20 years now, and recently taught a mural workshop with middle school kids at the Warm Springs Reservation.

Melvin studied art at the University of Oregon, then started sign painting in 1970 in Vancouver, BC. He owned and operated Studio Signs in Portland from 1985 to 2020, where the jobs included painted wood signs, window lettering, truck lettering and much more. He has taught a number of sign workshops in Portland. He would like to pass some of this old craft on to students.

Rusty Rae is an award-winning photographer who has been making photographs most of his life. He’s worked for a number of publications, newspapers, magazines, and web sites both writing and making photographs. Currently he is one of the photojournalists at the News-Register in McMinnville. He is a former Nikon School Instructor. “I love helping photographers learn to see and then take what they see and capture the image with their cameras.