Art Partners

Prairie Arts Center is committed to developing and supporting interest in and exploration of the visual arts. As a part of that commitment, we offer students aged 13 and older the opportunity to partner with a working artist in our community for instruction and guidance here at the center. If you or your child have an interest or talent in a particular medium, we can help find a mentor that is knowledgable and skilled in that same medium. This includes drawing, painting, ceramics, printing, digital photography, fiber arts, and graphic design. Scheduling would be contingent on artist and student availability.

Classes are arranged between Prairie Arts Center and the adult student or, for children 13-17, the student's parent or guardian. Once availability is established, Prairie will find a suitable instructor. Classes are for individuals or pairs, and pricing is per hour, based on the number of students. Most supplies are included in the cost of classes.

For more information please call 405-744-1535 or email at infoartscenter@okstate.edu.

Jason Estala, Lecturer & Costume Lab Manager, OSU Theatre Department
http://www.estala.webs.com
Art Partner Classes - Sewing/Makeup Effects/Drawing/Costume Rendering

Jason Estala has always loved to make and create art and clothing. From a young age, he was always drawing or painting on something, including his bedroom walls. Originally from El Paso,Texas, Jason received his bachelors in Theatre Arts and Design from New Mexico State University. He went on to get his Masters of Fine Art at the University of Florida in Costume Design and Technology. Jason has traveled all over the United States designing and making costumes for theatre, film, dance and opera. Jason also has a passion for teaching and education. He has taught design, sewing and costume making at several universities including Florida State University, University of California at Riverside and now Oklahoma State University.

Ben Murphy
https://www.benjaminmurphy.art/
Art Partner Classes - Drawing/Painting/Linocuts/Screenprinting

Benjamin Murphy is an artist based in Stillwater, Oklahoma whose works have been exhibited nationally, as well as in Portugal and France. His work was recently purchased by the Bizzell Memorial Library at the University Of Oklahoma for their permanent collection. He finds inspiration in the intersections between the complicated relationship that science and innovation have with our understanding of the world. In addition to being an active artist he is a studio art instructor at Oklahoma State University and the University of Oklahoma.

April Dawes
https://www.aprildawes.com/
Art Partner Classes - Drawing/Oil Painting/Youth Classes

April Dawes was born and raised in Oklahoma. She discovered her aptitude for drawing and painting at a young age and became focused on a career as an artist. She attended Oklahoma Summer Arts Institute at Quartz Mountain in 1995 and continued on to study Painting and Graphic Design at the University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma, receiving her BFA in 1999. In the years following, April worked professionally as a graphic designer and commission artist until the birth of her first child in 2003. Like everything that she is passionate about, April threw her whole self into raising her three wonderful children; including homeschooling each of them until recently. Although art was not the central focus of her life at this time, it was never far from her thoughts.

April has since returned to painting with a renewed sense of purpose and passion. Currently working full-time in her studio, she is focused on cultivating her artistic voice and developing a strong, expressive body of work inspired by her fascination with human expression and the inner thoughts that remain unspoken.

Marianne Weber
https://www.capesandarrows.com/
Art Partner Classes - Knitting/Sewing/Embroidery/Fabric /Yarn Dying

Marianne is a long-time fiber artist based out of Texas and Oklahoma since 2009. Her primary love is for knitting and sewing but she has picked up a few other skills that she is learning and loving. Marianne is mostly self-taught and enjoys researching professional and historical touches and techniques that add to her work. She is often inspired by her other "nerdy" passions, primarily space/aviation history, sci fi and horror movies/books/podcasts, and gaming.

Bianca Ferreira
Art Partner Classes - Printmaking / Photoshop/ Illustrator

Bianca Ferreira is an artist and designer in Stillwater with a passion for printmaking. Bianca likes to dabble in all arts but excels most in printmaking, illustration and graphic design. They received a BFA in Studio Arts from the University of New Mexico, which is where they fell in love with printmaking—especially lithography. Bianca was selected to work in collaboration with student printers at Tamarind Institute of Lithography during their senior year. Their work was subsequently exhibited in the Tamarind Gallery's exhibition, Excavation: A Tamarind Student Exhibition. Bianca loves to initiate their students into the analogue world of printmaking, teaching methods that are at once age-old and contemporary.

Courtney Juen

Art Partner Class - Pottery

Courtney Juen received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in ceramics and printmaking from Oklahoma State University where she became proficient in wheel throwing, sculpting, glaze development, and electric, gas, and salt kiln firing. Juen works primarily on the wheel to create vessels that emphasize stillness and beauty as a form of encounter through simplicity of form. Her work is characterized by gracious contour lines, inviting rounded forms, and Shino glazes that she fires at lower temperatures to achieve a polished earth toned gloss. She has a passion for the personal, relational, and spiritual development that can occur while working at the wheel, and approaches her artistic practice as a tool for continual reflection and growth. Juen aims to invite others into that process by creating spaces for individuals to experientially learn through the chaos and stillness offered through the medium of clay, while laughing together as they do so.

Missy Kaiser
Art Partner Classes - Jewelry and Lapidary

Missy Kaiser was born and raised in Stillwater, OK and has lived in many other places including Colorado, NYC and Seattle. She has studied photography, letterpress and has a BS in Cultural Studies. Along with a love for metalsmithing, Missy also enjoys cooking, yoga, hiking and traveling. Missy is the administrative assistant and full time staff member at the PAC.

Courtney Kelly
Art Partner Classes - Jewelry/Metalsmithing

Courtney Lynn Kelly is a Stillwater resident and a graduate of Oklahoma State University's Jewelry/Metals program. She often works with india ink on wood combined with acid-etched sterling silver. Her work is meticulously detailed and vibrantly painted. She is influenced by folk art, scripture, poetry, and her travels to New Mexico and France.

Candy Beth Michalski, Fused Glass / Jewelry

Art Partner Classes - Fused Glass

Candy Beth Michalski has been working with fused glass since 1994. She loves that hot glass can’t be dictated to but only works as a collaboration. Her work has been featured in the 100 GLASS BEADS book, Lapidary Journal and Bead & Button magazines.

Miriam Young, Fiber Artists

Art Partner Classes - Wet Felting and Weaving

Miriam Young - Using the traditional crafts of felting, knitting, crocheting, macrame, and embroidery, I create fiber art. My most recent work involves wet felting and nuno felting. Felting is transformation. Thin, fragile wool roving is transformed into strong and vibrant felt by my hands, soap, water and agitation. The colors, textures, thickness of the product, and ultimate shape of the felt are determined by me and the techniques that I use to create it. I feel that I am creating something at a very fundamental level when I am felting.

I embellish my pieces with beads, hand embroidery, vintage lace or crochet work, and natural objects such as vines and driftwood. The use of vintage work and hand embroidery ties me to the strong women in past generations who created beauty and art in their everyday lives by making pieces such as quilts. Natural objects tie me to the earth, its intricate designs and rhythms, and our need to care for it.

I develop projects ideas in one of two ways. Sometimes I select fiber and technique first and let that serve as the creative inspiration for the piece. Often the colors and texture of the fibers themselves will tell me what they want to become in general terms. Then I refine the idea, adding and subtracting materials until I have the combination that seems right for the piece. Other times something external - a phrase from a book or song, a picture, or an object - will suggest an idea. Then it is a matter of matching fiber, color and technique to make the idea a reality. I seldom sketch an idea preferring to work with and manipulate the materials themselves to match the image I have in my mind of the finished piece.