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. To begin, we offer an Introductory Art Partner Package to establish rapport and basic skills. After that class is completed, students can return for study as they wish. 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. 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.

Marlie McLauglin

Art Partner Classes - Sewing/Embroidery

Marlie McLaughlin is a semi-professional cosplayer based in Stillwater, Oklahoma, also known as Divine Creations Cosplay. She has a bachelors degree from OSU with a minor in theatre. She has been creating costumes since 2017, and has won over twenty costuming awards from the west coast to the midwest. Her skill sets include sewing, patterning, needle arts, foam smithing, corsetry, dye work, and other costuming mediums.

Jo Haven
Art Partner Classes - Wheel Throwing/Scuplutre

Jo Haven comes to us from a small town in northern California where she found and developed her love of fiber arts. She moved to Stillwater in 1993, eventually teaching crochet, sewing, and quilting classes at a local craft store. Jo took her first wheel class at Prairie Art Center, and she credits instructor Kim Bryant for igniting her love for all things clay. She’s found getting her hands dirty and playing with clay both cathartic and grounding. She remains enthusiastic and continues learning by taking specialty classes. Jo also loves to sculpt with clay and enjoys making animals, creatures, and people, sometimes adding them to her pottery in fun forms. She loves sharing her passion for this art form that has given her such bliss and balance while still allowing her to play in the mud.

Mark Crow

Art Partner Classes - Acrylic Painting

Mark Crow has been an artist for 30 years. He paints portraits, landscapes and old buildings. He also enjoys painting scenes from sci-fi movies. Mark's classes are always filled with humor, laughter, and the freedom to play!

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.

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.

Missy Hitch
Art Partner Classes - Wheel Throwing/ Handbuilding

Missy Hitch discovered her passion for ceramics after nearly 20 years in administrative roles at OSU. What started as a single class quickly became an obsession, leading her to spend countless hours in the studio, exploring, learning, and refining her craft. After a decade of working with clay, she became a ceramics instructor at Prairie Arts Center, where she now teaches hand-building and beginning wheel classes.

Missy specializes in creating functional everyday pieces like mugs, baking dishes, and teapots, but she also enjoys making decorative work. She has led a variety of workshops and classes for both adult learners and children. Over the years, she has gathered a wealth of techniques and tricks, which she loves sharing with her students to make pottery both fun and accessible. Whether she’s at the wheel or in the classroom, Missy finds joy in helping others discover the magic of clay.

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.