Teacher Bios
Sonia Allen
Sonia Allen is a painter, printmaker, sketchbook artist, and avid knitter. Since 1998, she has been a teaching artist throughout the Willamette Valley with Salem Art Association, Bush House Museum, Ash Creek Arts Center, and at the Hallie Ford Art Museum in Salem. This is her fifth year with Art Conspiracy. In 2017 she was awarded a grant to use art and science to educate children in Pierce County WA about invasive weeds, and in 2022 taught at Kraxberger Middle School Oregon City as part of a grant from the Lake Oswego Center for the Arts.
Linda Blatt
Linda Blatt is a self taught artist. Born and raised in New York City as the child of a fine watercolor artist and a jazz musician, she acquired an eye for fine art visiting wonderful museums and exhibitions. She has honed her skills since that time by studying with other artists and continuing to draw and paint all her life. A graduate of the University of Hawaii where she resided for over 25 years, there is a strong influence of Hawaiian motifs and landscapes in her work. Linda taught art and ceramics at the Delphian School for over 10 years. Her love of fine art and her desire to help others create are the factors which lead her to teach.
Eric J. Frey
Eric J. Frey is an interdisciplinary artist currently based in Dallas, Oregon. He has been exploring printmaking in different forms for over 8 years. He teaches art at Chemeketa Community College, is the Assistant Gallery Director at Western Oregon University, a Co-Owner of Salem on the Edge Art Gallery in Salem, Oregon, and is the Visual Arts Coordinator for the Oregon State Fair. Eric has been exhibiting works since 2011 ranging from digital photography, woodblock and linoleum prints, installations, to sculptural works in local, regional, national, and international art exhibitions.
Jay Gipson-King
Jay Gipson-King (or Dr. Jay, to his students), has been an actor, improviser, playwright, dramaturg, scholar, and critic, but he mostly thinks of himself as a theatre director and educator. He is in his fourth year teaching English and Theatre at North Salem High School, and he previously taught theatre for ten years at Chemeketa Community College. He has numerous directing credits at North Salem HS, Chemeketa, Linfield College, Florida State University, and Salem-area community theaters. He loves the energy and unbridled emotion that young people bring to theatre (and to life).
Jen Hernandez
Jen Hernandez is an artist and educator based in the Pacific Northwest. Her painting and comic illustrations are inspired by PNW forests and Filipino folklore and mythology. Her artwork and writing can be found at jenhernandezart.com
Rusty Rae
Rusty is an award winning photographer who has been making photographs most of his life. He has worked for a number of publications, newspapers, magazines and web sites doing both writing and photography. Currently he is one of the photojournalists for 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.”
Susan Pinto
I am a multimedia artist with 55 years of creative practice that's inspired by dreams, meditation and life's random pieces.
I work in jewelry, upcycled fashion, painting, collage, and a host of other artistic endeavours that involve taking the old and repurposing it into a thing of beauty. I love taking both children and adults alike on a creative journey so they can explore the creativity that comes from within.