I’ve been an artist for over 25 years. Through my art I’ve learned many valuable lessons about life. I’ve learned to respect myself and others. My residency is designed to share what I’ve discovered as an artist. The objectives are to teach creativity, how to employ the imagination, self-expression, problem-solving, teamwork and the importance of learning.

These goals are achieved by having individuals create drawings which encourage positive thinking and instill pride. In groups, participants work together using their individual drawings to create one design. This teaches individuals how to work in teams. In their groups they learn that people have different opinions and to respect one another. I believe it’s important that we all acknowledge and learn to accept our differences. “Con ganas si se puede!” (With will and determination it can be done!)

My works are maps of imaginative geography and portraits of people made of words and places. My project “Talking Suitcases” at Intermedia Arts brought immigration stories alive through art. In 2004, I received a MN State Arts Board Grant to create “Geography of Home,” a huge map painting of the Twin Cities made out of the words and languages of the people who live here. The map was exhibited at the Weisman Museum of Art in 2006 and will be on exhibit at the Minnesota History Center in 2009. 

One of the more popular activities that I offer is Map Boxes—small boxes that open and unfold a long flap with a miniature 3-D world on it, complete with moving pop-ups. Map boxes bring to life a place or time, Wordplay 3-D combines art and words; building 3-D objects—a story chair, a poem in space, a dangling conversation, a speech that sets out to sea… In Talking Suitcases™ (6th grade & up), students fill suitcases with handmade objects that tell stories—personal, family stories, history & fiction. (requires 5 2-hr. sessions). I also speak French and Japanese.

I attended Seward Elementary, in Minneapolis, and my classmates remember me as the kid who constantly drew cartoons in the back of my notebook. I grew up to become a graphic designer, art director, photographer, writer and editor, but I always drew cartoons in the back of my notebook. Finally, I gave in to this weakness and submitted cartoons for publication. Now, my cartoons and illustrations have appeared in The Saturday Evening Post, Time Magazine, Mpls St Paul, Cabin Life and National Newspaper Syndication, as well as in scores of children’s books and used by hundreds of companies including Disney and Warner Brothers. In 1997, I wrote and illustrated the award-winning book Cartooning Basics.

I am proud of these accomplishments, but I still get the most satisfaction from a student who beams with pride and confidence because she or he knows how to draw like a REAL cartoonist! When I come to schools, students learn how to create their own successful cartoon characters, tell stories using both words and pictures, get ideas when there seem to be none in sight, and learn about the contribution Minnesota has made to cartooning.

I discovered puppetry shortly after graduating from St. Olaf College with a BA in Art as Community Activism. Puppetry combines sculpture, painting, movement, music and story-writing.

In residencies, students are given freedom to explore their own artistic process and make their own decisions. In a one-week residency, there are two general phases: puppet making and puppet movement, culminating in a short presentation or mini-parade. Two-week residencies enable students to explore more complex puppet-making techniques, develop their story-writing skills, create musical accompaniment, work on set design, and present a fabulous puppet show!

Examples of puppetry residencies include: Giant Puppets ~ teams make larger-than-life characters, Rod Puppets or Hand Puppets ~ either fit over the hand like a glove, or are operated by sticks held from below, Cranky Shows ~ A “cranky-show” means a scrolling painting that is turned by two cranks—kind of like a low-tech TV, Masks ~ Students create a papier-mâché mask using found objects or by sculpting a clay base and Shadow Puppets ~ Puppets are cut from thick paper with thin rods to control their dance across a back-lit screen.

I first learned calligraphy at the Minnesota Renaissance Festival. Before long I was their official scribe and had created the living scriptorium—The Hall of Scribes—still in operation. My examination of the history of literacy by way of letterforms has led me to the study of many different media—from painting and gilding to the book arts, stone carving and beyond.

My residencies examine the human talent for invention and the benefits of cross-cultural interaction. With elaborately painted backdrops and authentic recreations of writing tools, my opening performance is a one-hour visit to ten cultures (spread out over 5000 years) who borrowed from each other’s inventiveness. I visit classrooms with the portable paintings and props for a more in-depth examination and to try our hand at the creation of some of these inventions. We use tools to write words and numbers on clay like the first writers in Mesopotamia, then dip a reed pen in ink to write our names in ancient Egyptian. Our week can culminate with each student binding their own hardcover book. Other workshop themes can include Papermaking, How the Letters Changed, or Calligraphy.

Children are instinctually aware that they must create. My role is to stimulate, instruct and champion their efforts. I have been fortunate to work with many children through the Walker Art Center, MCAD, MN Museum of American Art, the Science Museum and others. My artwork has been in numerous local and national shows and is included in private and corporate collections. I am a recipient of a MN State Arts Board grant and a fellowship to the Vermont Studio School. Three years ago, I exhibited my paintings at the Florence Biennale in Italy.

At residencies, I begin by sharing stories and slides about what inspires me. I enjoy working with classroom themes and adapting art lessons to topics of study. A few examples of my residencies are: Visual Story Quilts: a collage lesson inspired by Hmong and African quilts and story cloths. Murals: students draw images based upon a selected theme; a design is then transferred to masonite board or a wall. World Architecture: a 3D process informed by one or more cultures. Students draft and build their own structures from cardboard, wood, dowels, buttons, found objects and paint. Photo Montages: with a B+W head shot as subject matter, students build and collage a body which explores their emotions and life goals.

I received a BFA degree from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design in sculpture. My artwork has been exhibited locally, nationally and internationally. I’ve been a visual artist on the MN State Arts Board Roster since 1989 and on the COMPAS roster since 1994. I work mainly in sculpture and room installations, incorporating found, discarded and collected 3-dimensional objects of our society. When my own objects are arranged in combination with one another, or set in juxtaposition, they tell stories about life, relationships, pain and joy. Working and constructing with found and collected objects develops an acknowledgment of choice as part of the creative process, builds motor and special skills, stimulates problem-solving abilities and gives them the social message: Reduce, reuse, recycle.

Some of my most popular residencies are: Kinetic Robots and Assemblage Robots and Cars, where the individual students create a robot or car using recycled objects they bring from home and build a circuit using a battery, a motor, a light and a switch to have a moving part on their robot. Build an ArtCar, where teams of three or four students transform recycled objects into the parts of a car. Classroom installations of the Ocean and Rain Forest. www.corktruck.com

My life and work as an artist is immeasurably enriched by my collaborations with the scientific community. My interest in science has helped me build rooms with breathing walls, map the surface of an ocean wave in real time, create a hanging forest of thousands of sound emitting tubes, and construct a delicate steel bridge poised high in the air. My work has been exhibited nationally, and I am currently the Artist in Residence at the National Center for Earth-Surface Dynamics.

In schools, my desire is to build excitement about interconnections between art and other disciplines. Some workshop options are: Nature is the Ultimate Designer - we examine shape and function in the natural world through the effectiveness and stability of natural design, such as a honeycomb, and incorporate aspects of natural design into our structures and sculptures. Analogous Shapes - an investigation of objects with similar form but very different function. This project involves observation, hands-on object building, verbal and written brainstorming, and scavenger hunts. Geometry in Sculpture - We do exercises that test our ideas of structural stability, such as the “15 minute tallest sculpture” contest.

I pursue mixed media through the creation of dimensional relief sculptures using materials from metal and wood to paper and glass. Many students’ understanding of collage is limited to the use of magazine clippings. The residency expands this to include fabric, various papers, buttons and ribbon. The work the students create is not a result of my teaching, but the freedom to engage their senses, their imagination, and the materials in an unstructured way. The purpose of my residency is to challenge the students to explore ways to share their ideas without words.

Using images to represent ideas may seem simplistic, but it is a very challenging approach to artmaking. Students begin to understand that everything we see and experience is made of basic elements such as color, shape and texture. They are challenged to bring their ideas to life. Possible residency themes include: Weather Wonders where students create collages representing a favorite season; or This is Who I Am where students “write” a visual autobiography through collage, focused on telling a story about themselves.

Since early childhood, growing up in Iran, I drew, painted, wrote poetry and fancied myself making films. But it was not until I came to America that I seriously began pursuing art. After I graduated from college, my country went through a revolution, preventing me from returning home. Art has provided me with a way of observing and navigating cultures and asking questions about values and beliefs that shape our identity.

I am interested in utilizing the photographic portrait to assist youth in exploring questions of identity. While students learn how to interpret photographs through various writing exercises and group interaction, they also learn about themselves, society and cultures. The process of portrait making is kept flexible to make a meaningful connection between the class curriculum and the activities of the workshop.

My work has been exhibited at the Walker Art Center, Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art, Minnesota Historical Society and many other institutions, nationally and internationally. I have received many awards for my photography and films. Currently I am working on a portrait project about youth from immigrant backgrounds.

My main goals when I teach are to set the stage for my students to express their unique visual and literary vision; to fan the creative flame while teaching craft; and to provide an inspired and artful learning environment. My poetry classes open the imagination to the use of figurative language and metaphor. I teach myths and folk tales by introducing students to Swedish folklore from which they weave stories rich in detail and texture. I guide students in writing fairy tales filled with adventure, built around fairytale archetypes.

In a curriculum called ROOTS students explore their own cultural heritage by writing prose, letters and poetry. I present several visual arts classes including: bookmaking, illustration, mask making, and puppetry. I often combine art forms and design curriculum appropriate projects.

I’m from Sweden, where I studied art history, sculpture, and theatrical clowning before emigrating to the US in the eighties. Since then I’ve written and illustrated several picture books, including Sofia and the Heartmender, honored by a Mid-America Publishers Award and a Midwest Book Achievement Award. I’ve published one collection of poetry titled White Leaves, a book of tiny poems.

Drawing pictures to illustrate words has always been important to me. My art background ranges from being among the first “Snoopy Artists” in the 2000 summer event in St. Paul (I did the North Star Flying Ace, still at the MSP Airport), to showing my work at the Minnesota State Fair Fine Arts exhibit, and being a protégé in the WARM mentorship program. Living in Africa for two years (2003-05) as a Peace Corps Volunteer, I found that keeping a daily journal using illustrations was a great way to capture the events of the day.

A graphic memoir—drawing simple pictures to illustrate daily life—is something that anyone can do. A person not only gains greater confidence in basic artistic skills, but in creative writing. We take time to reflect and honor the importance of a single simple day. In this residency, each student will create one page of their own graphic memoir. It is my experience that young people often think their lives are “nothing special” or that they “can’t draw.” With this technique children gain a greater appreciation for their own lives and abilities.

Experiencing the joy of working with beautiful fabrics, making textile art, and learning a new art form is what makes my art residencies so valuable. I use mixed media, lots of color, traditional and modified quilting techniques, and an interdisciplinary approach to engage and challenge students. Quilting and quilt art are innovative ways to expose students to African American and other artistic and cultural aesthetics, and to meet educational requirements in reading, writing, history, music and science. My presentations are animated, lively and fun. Touching, seeing and handling quilts inspires students to create in textile. Wide ranges of quilting and textile art residencies are possible, and all can be tailored to suit your curriculum goals.

I am a former member of the board of directors for the Textile Center of Minnesota, and teaching artist for the Stitch of Time program. Several collaborative works have been exhibited at the Walker Art Center, the Phipps Center for the Arts, and InterMedia Arts.