Yasufumi Ishida
Multidiscipline: Storytelling, Japanese Traditional Theatre, Origami, & Kamishibai
Inspired by a movie “Patch Adams”, Yasu came to the United States to become a professional hospital clown. Earning a Master of Fine Arts in Theatre for Young Audiences, he also graduated from the Chavez Studio of Magic, the world’s most prestigious magic school. He beautifully imbues the essence of traditional Japanese culture into his magic and storytelling. Yasu has enthralled family audiences all over the United States, including performances at the Disney Summer Stage Kids in New York, the National Cherry Blossom Festival in Washington, D.C. (the world’s largest festival of Japanese culture outside of Japan), the Florida Storytelling Festival, the Hawaii Book & Music Festival, the Tryon Super Tuesday Children Festival (NC), KIDabra International and Touhill Performing Art Center (MO).…
Douglas Laubacher
Visual Arts, Comics & Cartooning
I’m a cartoonist from Northeast Ohio. My comic strip “Unbound” runs in a handful of papers spanning Stark, Carroll and Tuscarawas Counties. I have nearly a decade of experience teaching every age group the art of cartooning and cartooning adjacent classes. I’ve taught students as young as 3 and as old as 93. I’ve taught in libraries, senior centers, museums, schools and community centers. I pursued Fine Art and English in College because ever since I was twelve I knew, this is what I wanted todo. I hold a BA in Fine Art from the University of Mount Union, am a certified substitute teacher and a member of the National Cartoonist Society.…
Eric Marlow
Visual Arts, Painting, Sculpture, Jewelry, & Recyclable Materials
Eric Marlow is a visual artist-painter, sculptor, jewelry designer, craftsman, and inventor. He thanks his mother for her encouragement early in life which evolved to make him the artist he is today. While in high school he won free art classes at the Columbus College of Art and Design. Eric attended The Ohio State University where he received his degree in Fine Arts and while in graduate school taught beginning drawing and sculpture classes. He has also taught jewelry making classes at the Columbus Cultural Arts Center.
As a teaching artist he begins his workshop by showing examples of his artwork and explores with students where his ideas comes from.…
Vicki Murphy
Visual Arts: Mosaics
Vicki Murphy is a mosaic artist who works primarily in Ohio and New Orleans. She has trained extensively with master mosaic artist Laurel True of True Mosaics Studio for many years focusing on studio work and professional development in large scale public art. She worked with True on multiple projects in New Orleans including the Global Mosaic Project and Universal Garden’s Lotus Fantasy Bench, the Green Project, and the Edible Schoolyard murals. Vicki’s combined years as artist, educator and licensed social worker give her a unique perspective regarding the healing power of art and the beauty of creative expression.…
Pamela O’Loughlin
Multidisciplinary: Dance, Creative Writing, & Visual Arts
Pamela O’Loughlin is a gifted creative, avid learner, and passionate teacher.
She is an innovative, thoughtful, and skilled educator; from budgeting supplies for activities to last-minute changes that tend to come up when dealing with multiple groups, classes, and organizations, Pamela handles any adverse situation seamlessly.
Pamela is passionate about brainstorming with teachers, students, and administrators. Believing that if she understands what needs to be taught, a creative activity can be developed. Grounded in her early efforts centered around social emotional work that pairs well with Ohio’s Social Emotional Learning Standards, she believes she can teach to any standard of which she has a clear understanding.…
Hyacinth Paul
Visual Arts, Mixed Media & Fiber
Dr. Hyacinth Paul is a retired scientist and professor who started her career as an artist later in life. Her art works are both abstract and realistic; mostly done in oil’s, acrylics, and mixed media. Her paintings are very colorful because she believes color sparks synesthesia and involuntarily evokes feelings of joy. Her mixed media work is done in fiber and textiles from India. Sculptures made out of Recycled Saree Fabric are a new passion of hers. She is telling the stories of the immigrant Indian women and their contributions in almost every field in Dayton, OH.…
Klaire Smith
Visual Arts: Printmaking
Printmaker and collaborative artist Klaire Smith was born in the hills of Southern Ohio and raised in Portsmouth, Ohio, the region and its beauty having always been a point of inspiration. Attending the University of Rio Grande, Klaire graduated with honors in 2016 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree. While in college they took a special interest in supplemental education methods and collaboration. Klaire was certified as a Professional Printer at the Tamarind Institute in Albuquerque, New Mexico studying lithography and was trained professionally as a collaborator. Personally, Klaire’s work touches on regionalism, Appalachia, and its social complexities.…
Stephanie Stewart
Visual Arts: Acrylic, Mixed Media Collage, & Bookmaking
Stephanie Stewart is the artist and owner of P31 Art & Design. She has been a contributor to the arts and culture sector for many years and has built a creative business from the ground up. Stewart consistently produces original works of art that are used as a central point of inspiration for all of her handmade products and print goods. Stewart works in the mediums of acrylic paint, watercolor, and mixed media content. With her love for art with a focus on the contemporary genre, Stewart’s artwork has been exhibited in galleries and art venues throughout northeast Ohio.…
DaShika Street
Visual Arts, Painting, Sewing, Candle Making, Murals, & Digital Art
Da’Shika A. Street is an Akron-born creative, wife, and mother of three whose enterprising spirit and artistic influences are shaped by her faith and the legacy of entrepreneurs and artists who preceded her.
Da’Shika’s most recent endeavors have blossomed from Project Sew United, a home-based facemask sewing initiative that she started in 2020 at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic to produce a proprietary 3-layer CDC-approved facemask. The project quickly grew and morphed into what’s now known as Street Craftery, a creative studio founded in 2022, where Mrs.…
Shannon Timura
Visual Arts: Sculpture, Collage, Fiber Arts, & Kinetic Art
Shannon Timura is a mixed media artist, educator and public art creator who lives and works in Medina, Ohio. Her whimsical work is found in over 20 galleries and shops throughout the US and in two shops abroad. Shannon was featured in Oprah’s O Magazine as a “Fearless Female Artist” and has recently completed the Artist Launchpad workshop through Summit ArtSpace.
She is a member of Akron Soul Train and Artists of Rubber City as well as an active part of Upcycle Parts Shop in Cleveland’s St. Clair Superior neighborhood.…
Carol Tyler
Visual Arts, Comics & Graphic Novels
Carol Tyler is an influential pioneer of American Comics, known for her beautifully written and drawn by hand autobiographical stories.
Carol was born and raised in Chicago, received her Masters from Syracuse in 1983. After some years in NYC, she moved to San Francisco and began getting her comics published in R. Crumb’s Weirdo. In 1988, Carol received the Dori Seda Memorial Award for Best New Female Cartoonist.
Carol has many books, including the graphic masterpiece “Soldier’s Heart: The Campaign to Understand my WWII Veteran Father, A Daughter’s Memoir” (2015) which began as the “You’ll Never Know” trilogy.…
Tiffany Wilson
Film/Video/Media: Video Production & Photography
Tiffany Wilson has taken a unique approach to finding her life’s purpose and has sought to find ways to constantly reinvent herself. She has held positions from working in the news industry to owning a business, to now her current passion of being an educator.
Raised in a military family, Tiffany understands what it means to be resilient and wants to inspire her students to do the same as life can be challenging. Throughout these challenges, creativity has always served as a vehicle to express and share her gifts with the world.…
