It was an enjoyable 6 class. Lots was learned. Each night was filled with laughter, fun and good carving. Darren is a Hoot! Always in good spirit and very helpful with his guiding eye and suggestions.

You guys run a fabulous and inspiring studio. What a nice atmosphere this place has! (Its energy is real good.) I just expected to come and act out some stewing "inspiration". It's been too long. I had a ball. It has been a privilege working /spending a day with the two of you. Thank you.

This was a fantastic morning. Old techniques I've used where given a new twist. Thank you so much for this great day. I hope to be back again soon to learn a whole lot more.

Thanks Kathy & Sue for opening your home and your studio to us. It was a complete pleasure. To be here while "Blooming Artists" was happening was an added joy. To have the public dropping by, along with all the artists, created an amazing sense of creativity. The workshop exceeded my expectations.

Darren was a humorous, helpful and highly talented teacher. The workshop was great fun. Heck,he even shared his lunch. Awesome. I would have liked another 5 days.

Nice "control" over the class. We're all art teachers and can be the worst students. It's tough to get a class of teachers to pay attention and settle down. I'd love to come here for every personal development day instead of other district presentations. The activities were great and I can see me using them in my classroom. I would like to have more of these classes offered to all teachers in the district who teach art.

Two of the great things about today were Sue and Kathy. They were encouraging and genuine. They guided me when I was "stuck" but never gave me the whole idea or did it for me so that I still had to think, create and do. The clay was a wonderful medium for creativity.Thank you so much. The class more than met my expectations.

Actually, it surpassed my expectations. Not only did we learn about lots of great ideas to take back to school, we also got to experiment with everything (making it more meaningful, fun, and memorable). Great day.. great experience. You are wonderful. Great location. Well organized, The day zoomed by!

Food, location & instructor were great. I'd love to come back for future workshops. Thanks for the tea, homemade treats and creative atmosphere. The workshop exceeded my expectations.

A wonderful workshop. Well planned and presented with lots of room for experimentation and creativity, but almost foolproof results in terms of the finished product. A perfect idea for a high school clay lesson. Thank you! The workshop exceeded my expectations.

It was excellent. I felt free to learn and discover all about art and practiced some great ideas to use in the classroom. It was very helpful. I feel confident and excited to teach my art class. It was fun and relaxing.

Great supportive atmosphere. The day flew by. Thanks for a very memorable day!

Wonderful weekend! Trudy was a great instructor. There is certainly a reason why she has excelled in this field. The workshop definitely exceeded my expectations. I have learned things in the last 2 days that I will be able to practice and create from home.

Sophia Bella

Sophia Bella, a retired art teacher, taught first in Slovakia, (her birth place,) and later in Saint John and then at Bellisle Regional High School. Through the years she has worked in many art and craft mediums, including clay, drawing and painting, batiks and knotted jute and sisal wall hangings. Now she has learned the art of bobbin lace. This fascinating, ancient art with its endless stitches can be used to make traditional and contemporary designs in lace.

Jim Boyd

Jim Boyd grew up in Saint John and now lives in Hampton with his family. A graduate of the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design with a major in sculpture, Boyd has created art in carved stone and wood, welded steel, cast lead, plaster and foam.

Darren Byers

Darren Byers is a sculptor and has been working with wood for over twenty years. He is a self taught artist with a passion for sculpting and an excitment for discovering the hidden meaning in the unique configurations of wood.

Sheryl Crowley

Sheryl Crowley is a former elementary music teacher who likes to make music with children. She has most recently done children's music sessions locally for community programs and spends much of her time these days volunteering with several organizations supporting children and families.

Amie Cunningham

Amie Cunningham received her B.F.A at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario and recently completed her Master of Fine Arts at Parsons School of Design in New York City. She is a painter and a sculptor creating work inspired by pop culture, history, and objects of antiquity. She has taught painting and printmaking in university and enjoys teaching the benefits and techniques of art making to others.

George Fry

George Fry was born in England but has spent most of his life in Canada. He trained as an illustrator and theatre designer but his main work was as a teacher of art. He was the director of the College of Craft and Design in Fredericton. Since his retirement he has devoted himself to being an artist, working primarily in making masks. He has had exhibitions in both North America and Europe and his work is in public and private collections in Canada, the U.S., and Europe. He has always been interested in masks. He feels that it is such an ancient and mystical craft that he is honoured to be a part of such a noble company.

Trudy Gallagher

Trudy Gallagher is the Designer, Owner of both Bejewel by Trudy Gallagher, Ltd as well as Bejewel Gallery in Fredericton, N.B. Trudy has been making jewellery for 15 years and is most recently all about having FUN with her \"art to wear\" work and being colourful.

Toby Graser

Toby Graser is a well-known Canadian artist who has had over 30 solo exhibitions and is represented in over 70 corporate collections as well as museums and government collections. She has worked in acrylic, collage and mixed media for many years in both figurative and abstract areas, doing whatever is necessary to explore her unique artistic sensibility and to set up the vibrations of response for which her abstract work is noted.

Suzanne Hill

Suzanne Hill lives in Renforth, N.B. and is active as a professional artist and art education consultant. A graduate of Mount Allison and McGill Universities, she exhibits in the Atlantic Region and in Montreal and has work in many private and public collections.

Kathy Hooper

Kathy Hooper is a professional artist who has worked in many mediums for the past 40 years. Her work is in private and public collections and she has exhibited both nationally and internationally.

Sue Hooper

Sue Hooper is a graduate of Georgian College of Art in Barrie, Ontario and has worked as an artist and designer for the last 25 years. Sue has worked & studied in the last 6 years with the healing power of art.

Kate Kerr

Kate Kerr studied metalsmithing and jewellery at Georgian College, Barrie, Ontario and NSCAD in Halifax. She practiced as a metalsmith for several years before becoming a partner for six years in Handworks Gallery. She is now a mother of two.

Theresa MacKnight

Theresa MacKnight is a native of Saint John, attending Mount Allison University, Fine Arts, graduating with a BFA from NSCAD and a B.Ed at UNB. Theresa has worked in a wide variety of media beginning with photography and drawing early in her career then turning toward painting almost exclusively. In the early 90¹s she experimented heavily with homemade encaustic(wax) paint recipes, painting archeological subjects. In addition, she began combining acrylic and collage to explore feminist themes and environmental subjects. Since moving to Miramichi, Theresa continued to work mainly in oils, but has been experimenting with combining acrylic and oil in order to add collaged elements to her paintings. She has been teaching art for 12 years at Miramichi Valley High School and gives evening classes and paints from her studio at home.

Peter Manchester

Peter Manchester is a painter/illustrator in oils and watercolour. He has been painting and living in Sackville, New Brunswick with his family since 1992. Over the years he has been a production artist, graphic designer, museum curator, videographer, author and illustrator, as well as a painter. He has lived in many parts of the world, and drawn inspiration from all.

Alexandra Milburn

Alexandra Milburn is a native New Brunswicker who has come home to roost after 25 years away. During these 25 years, she lived in different parts of the country, all the while identifying and collecting wild plants. In 2002, she researched, wrote and published What¹s Blooming: A Guide to 100+ Wild Plants of Northwest Territories. In the same year, she wrote Wild and Wacky Plants of the NWT, which was distributed to all schools within the territories. Another book on plants for kids is now in the works. Alexandra can be seen in spring and summer looking in the ditches along Kennebecasis River Road, collecting plants to identify and study.

Alison Murphy

Alison Murphy graduated from the New Brunswick College of Craft and Design in May of 2004, with a major in textiles, received a New Brunswick Arts Board Scholarship and the Nel Oudemans textile award in 2004 for her variety of work in the textiles field. Currently, Alison is living in Saint John where she is keeping her hands busy knitting, spinning and weaving.

John Murphy

John Murphy has taught Visual Arts at high school level since he emigrated from England in 1974. As a student he obtained a National Diploma in Design from Goldsmith's College School of Art in London and a Masters in Art Education from Birmingham Polytechnique.

Elena Redkina

Originally trained as a teacher in Russia, Elena Redkina immigrated to Canada in 1997. Elena has taught art in Russia & Canada & through the years worked in many art and craft mediums, including drawing, painting, woodcarving, fabrics and clay.

Maureen Robichaud

Maureen Robichaud has been a nurse educator for the last 15 years in both the clinical and classroom settings. She has taught Kundalini yoga both privately and publicly over the last 6 years.

Rod Stears

Rod Stears is a professional photographer and teacher. Rod has taught at the New Brunswick College of Craft and Design for over 20 years. His teaching experience has also extended to UNB Fredericton, UNB Saint John, Maritime Photographic Workshop, Atlantic Photographic Workshop and the Maine Photographic Workshop.

Alice Whitney

My art training is from Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, where I earned a BFA in 1959. I came to Toronto in 1962 and moved to New Brunswick in 1977. I taught at the Sussex Regional High School from 1980 to 1996 and got involved with the Sussex Artists' Co-Op in the early nineties, at its inception. Besides pastels, I also work in watercolour, gouache, oil, and acrylic. I am a mother of five and grandmother of nine.