Dan D. Shafer is a graphic designer, artist, and educator living and working in Seattle. He owns Dandy Co., a graphic design studio specializing in book design, installation, and environmental design (as well as event promotion and branding). The studio's clients include Kronos Quartet, American Cancer Society, Salish Lodge, Herman Miller, and Pratt Fine Arts Center.

Shafer is also the creative director at Chin Music Press. His self-initiated social practice installations explore the nebulous territory that exists between traditional definitions of "art" and "design," and investigate how people interact with objects in their everyday lives.

Dan D. Shafer is a graphic designer, artist, and educator living and working in Seattle. He owns Dandy Co., a graphic design studio specializing in book design, installation, and environmental design (as well as event promotion and branding). The studio's clients include Kronos Quartet, American Cancer Society, Salish Lodge, Herman Miller, and Pratt Fine Arts Center.

Shafer is also the creative director at Chin Music Press. His self-initiated social practice installations explore the nebulous territory that exists between traditional definitions of "art" and "design," and investigate how people interact with objects in their everyday lives.

I am energized by the spirited exchange of expression and ideas. I am a metal worker, sculptor and installation artist. I have always worked with my hands; gardening, farming, fabricating. I took my first metal working class at Pratt Fine Art Center nearly 25 years ago and went on to get a certificate in Welding/Fabrication at South Seattle Community College specializing in non-ferrous metals and blacksmithing. 

I have been a metalworker in various industrial and artistic capacities ever since: I ran public art programs in SE Seattle high school and middle schools, as well as worked alongside established artists and builders. I have recently returned to Pratt teaching forging and welding for adults, families and and teens. I also teach at Burkehead Art Center and Coyote Central.  I maintain a shop/art practice on our family farm amongst the goats in Woodinville, Wa. 

I am energized by the spirited exchange of expression and ideas. I am a metal worker, sculptor and installation artist. I have always worked with my hands; gardening, farming, fabricating. I took my first metal working class at Pratt Fine Art Center nearly 25 years ago and went on to get a certificate in Welding/Fabrication at South Seattle Community College specializing in non-ferrous metals and blacksmithing. 

I have been a metalworker in various industrial and artistic capacities ever since: I ran public art programs in SE Seattle high school and middle schools, as well as worked alongside established artists and builders. I have recently returned to Pratt teaching forging and welding for adults, families and and teens. I also teach at Burkehead Art Center and Coyote Central.  I maintain a shop/art practice on our family farm amongst the goats in Woodinville, Wa. 

J. Gordon brings over two decades of experience as an artist, educator, and curator, to his classrooms.  Gordon earned his BFA and MFA in painting from the University of Kansas and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts respectively. While his current professional practice centers primarily around the medium of drawing, he incorporates aspects of traditional and contemporary painterly practices in both his teaching methods and mixed media art works.

Gordon is a recipient of multiple scholarships and awards, as well an artist fellowship from the state of Delaware.  He has taught drawing at many colleges, art centers, and museums including the Tacoma Art Museum and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. He is currently represented by Gallery Strega, where he also plays a supporting role in exhibition design and curation.

Bradley Taylor is a Seattle based artist, and printmaker. He is currently working at Cornish College of the Arts as the Printmaking Studio Technician. Proficient in all forms of printmaking Bradley specializes in woodblock prints. His work has been shown in numerous galleries in the Seattle area. He has also work collaboratively with many notable Seattle Artists.

Bradley Taylor is a Seattle based artist, and printmaker. He is currently working at Cornish College of the Arts as the Printmaking Studio Technician. Proficient in all forms of printmaking Bradley specializes in woodblock prints. His work has been shown in numerous galleries in the Seattle area. He has also work collaboratively with many notable Seattle Artists.

Tory Franklin is a visual artist working with diverse media unified by pattern, print, and narrative. Since 2010, Franklin has focused on public installations inspired by folktales that are accompanied by screen-printed books, posters, and other ephemera. Her work has been exhibited at MAD Art, Bellevue City Hall, Storefronts Seattle, Storefronts Auburn, Spaceworks Tacoma, the Renton Arts Commission, Arts-A-Glow festival, Portland Winter Light Festival, the VERA Project, and 826 Seattle. She has received a Seattle Office of Arts & Culture City Artists project grant, a 4Culture project grant, and an Artist Trust GAP grant for these projects. In 2015, Franklin created her first permanent window piece with her sister, Eroyn Franklin, for Harborview Medical Center, and is currently working on SoundTransit’s Star Lake light rail station in Kent slated to open in 2024.

Ellen Forney is the author of the bestselling graphic memoir, Marbles: Mania, Depression, Michelangelo, & Me, and its companion book, Rock Steady: Brilliant Advice From My Bipolar Life. Marbles has been translated into six foreign languages and was the selection for common book programs at the University of Washington Health Sciences schools and UC Davis. She curated an exhibition for the National Library of Medicine on Graphic Medicine, comics about health, and has given talks and lectures internationally at universities, conferences, and institutions, including a recent TED talk. As a visual artist, she created two large-scale murals for Seattle’s Capitol Hill light rail station. She has taught comics at Cornish College of the Arts since 2002 and is currently working on a middle-grade book on making autobiographical comics.

Winifred Westergard is a Seattle based fine art and commercial photographer with degrees from the University of Washington and Cornish College of the Arts in Creative Writing, Journalism and Art. Her art making foundation is rooted in the early processes of photography, fully embracing the slow processes of 19th century photography. She is a visual creator with a strong base on human emotion and storytelling. She has managed the photography studio at Cornish College of the Arts since 1999 and has taught Photography and Portfolio Development through Summer@Cornish since 2003.

Winifred Westergard is a Seattle based fine art and commercial photographer with degrees from the University of Washington and Cornish College of the Arts in Creative Writing, Journalism and Art. Her art making foundation is rooted in the early processes of photography, fully embracing the slow processes of 19th century photography. She is a visual creator with a strong base on human emotion and storytelling. She has managed the photography studio at Cornish College of the Arts since 1999 and has taught Photography and Portfolio Development through Summer@Cornish since 2003.

Born and raised in Seattle, Nikki moved to California to attend college, receiving a BFA in Film Production in 2002 from Chapman University. For the next 6 years she worked various office jobs in the film industry while also earning a Masters Degree in Secondary Education. In 2006 Nikki decided to shift her career to Special Effects Make-Up working at Creature FX studios and from there segueing into the stop motion world, beginning in 2008 with Shadow Machine on the Adult Swim hit show, Robot Chicken: Season 3. Nikki has worked as a puppet fabricator, lead fabricator and department head on numbers stop motion television shows, commercials and films, helping create iconic stop motion characters for such shows/films as Happy Honda Days (Socal regional commercial campaign for the last 12 years), Ask the Story Bots, Buddy Thunderstruck, Anomolisa and Ted Lasso to name a few. In 2022, the next adventure brought Nikki back home to Seattle to be closer to family and to hang out her own shingle as Puppets Northwest, offering a one stop shop for puppets of all kinds, SFX, 3D modeling/printing and educational outreach of all of the above.
 

Born and raised in Seattle, Nikki moved to California to attend college, receiving a BFA in Film Production in 2002 from Chapman University. For the next 6 years she worked various office jobs in the film industry while also earning a Masters Degree in Secondary Education. In 2006 Nikki decided to shift her career to Special Effects Make-Up working at Creature FX studios and from there segueing into the stop motion world, beginning in 2008 with Shadow Machine on the Adult Swim hit show, Robot Chicken: Season 3. Nikki has worked as a puppet fabricator, lead fabricator and department head on numbers stop motion television shows, commercials and films, helping create iconic stop motion characters for such shows/films as Happy Honda Days (Socal regional commercial campaign for the last 12 years), Ask the Story Bots, Buddy Thunderstruck, Anomolisa and Ted Lasso to name a few. In 2022, the next adventure brought Nikki back home to Seattle to be closer to family and to hang out her own shingle as Puppets Northwest, offering a one stop shop for puppets of all kinds, SFX, 3D modeling/printing and educational outreach of all of the above.
 

Born and raised in Seattle, Nikki moved to California to attend college, receiving a BFA in Film Production in 2002 from Chapman University. For the next 6 years she worked various office jobs in the film industry while also earning a Masters Degree in Secondary Education. In 2006 Nikki decided to shift her career to Special Effects Make-Up working at Creature FX studios and from there segueing into the stop motion world, beginning in 2008 with Shadow Machine on the Adult Swim hit show, Robot Chicken: Season 3. Nikki has worked as a puppet fabricator, lead fabricator and department head on numbers stop motion television shows, commercials and films, helping create iconic stop motion characters for such shows/films as Happy Honda Days (Socal regional commercial campaign for the last 12 years), Ask the Story Bots, Buddy Thunderstruck, Anomolisa and Ted Lasso to name a few. In 2022, the next adventure brought Nikki back home to Seattle to be closer to family and to hang out her own shingle as Puppets Northwest, offering a one stop shop for puppets of all kinds, SFX, 3D modeling/printing and educational outreach of all of the above.
 

J. Gordon brings over two decades of experience as an artist, educator, and curator, to his classrooms.  Gordon earned his BFA and MFA in painting from the University of Kansas and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts respectively. While his current professional practice centers primarily around the medium of drawing, he incorporates aspects of traditional and contemporary painterly practices in both his teaching methods and mixed media art works.

Gordon is a recipient of multiple scholarships and awards, as well an artist fellowship from the state of Delaware.  He has taught drawing at many colleges, art centers, and museums including the Tacoma Art Museum and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. He is currently represented by Gallery Strega, where he also plays a supporting role in exhibition design and curation.

Maja Sereda is an environmental artist, teacher and coach. Born in Poland, Maja has dedicated her life to transcribing and sharing her experiences in nature. Working with pen, graphite, color pencils, charcoal and mixed media, her highly detailed drawings explore the myriad connections between human beings and the natural world. Her drawings have been shown throughout the US, Europe, and South Africa. 

After studying graphic design at University of Pretoria and working as an art director in advertising agencies, both in South Africa and Ireland, Maja became an award-winning book illustrator. She has illustrated more than 20 books with many major publishers including Penguin Random House, Maskew Miller Longman, Oskar Editeur, Tafelberg & Lapa Publishers. Amongst others, she won the Crystal Kite award in 2011 and the Katrine Harries Award for best illustration for 2010. In 2012, she was also invited to illustrate a book with a French author, Yves Pinguilly titled La Grande Fleur (The Big Flower), followed by an invitation to Salon du Livre fair in Paris, France and La Reunion, where she showcased her books and led art workshops for children. 

Now based in Seattle, Maja is a teaching artist and coach. With the outbreak of COVID, she began teaching drawing classes online. By investing deeply in her students’ work through highly individualized feedback, research and demonstrations, she nurtures an online community of over 250 artists. 

With a deep passion for nature, drawing and community, Maja operates Guardians of the Jungle, a creative project which aims to save endangered wildlife and protect precarious ecosystems.

Maja Sereda is an environmental artist, teacher and coach. Born in Poland, Maja has dedicated her life to transcribing and sharing her experiences in nature. Working with pen, graphite, color pencils, charcoal and mixed media, her highly detailed drawings explore the myriad connections between human beings and the natural world. Her drawings have been shown throughout the US, Europe, and South Africa. 

After studying graphic design at University of Pretoria and working as an art director in advertising agencies, both in South Africa and Ireland, Maja became an award-winning book illustrator. She has illustrated more than 20 books with many major publishers including Penguin Random House, Maskew Miller Longman, Oskar Editeur, Tafelberg & Lapa Publishers. Amongst others, she won the Crystal Kite award in 2011 and the Katrine Harries Award for best illustration for 2010. In 2012, she was also invited to illustrate a book with a French author, Yves Pinguilly titled La Grande Fleur (The Big Flower), followed by an invitation to Salon du Livre fair in Paris, France and La Reunion, where she showcased her books and led art workshops for children. 

Now based in Seattle, Maja is a teaching artist and coach. With the outbreak of COVID, she began teaching drawing classes online. By investing deeply in her students’ work through highly individualized feedback, research and demonstrations, she nurtures an online community of over 250 artists. 

With a deep passion for nature, drawing and community, Maja operates Guardians of the Jungle, a creative project which aims to save endangered wildlife and protect precarious ecosystems.

Soo Hong is a visual artist whose work explores issues surrounding cultural identity. Having lived and exhibited in places around the world, including, London, Shanghai, her native South Korea, and now the U.S., her experience of varying cultural norms and expectations has precipitated her observational practice. Her paintings represent an unbound freedom of expression released of any formal adherence to a determined identity.

Her work has been shown in galleries around the world, and she has been awarded grants from D&AD (London), GAP (Seattle), Bellevue Arts Program (Bellevue) and was a finalist for the Neddy Awards (Seattle). She had her solo shows in Seattle at Linda Hodges Gallery and AMcE Creative Arts gallery. Her work is part of the permanent collections at the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, the city of Bellevue, and the city of Portland. She created public art installations for Redmond Lights, Odessa Children's Hospital (Seattle), and The Vera Project (Seattle).

From a young age, I've been captivated by light and its power to transform the world around me. At seven years old, I begged for a camera, eager to capture the magic of my small world through photography. This insatiable curiosity has fueled my journey as a visual storyteller, leading me across the globe to film and edit stories for brands worldwide. Through these experiences, I've grown as a person, and I remain just as curious and excited to explore new stories and mediums.
My artistic practice as A Box In The Sea extends into multimedia, print, and sound art. In my sound lab, I experiment with soundscapes and scores, translating them into visuals and rendering them into pen and ink. This process of creating and transforming sound into art is a continuous cycle of discovery, and it's a journey I feel lucky to be on.
 

Robynne Raye is a co-founder of the Seattle-based Modern Dog Design Co, an internationally acclaimed design and illustration studio that opened in 1987. Her client list includes Showtime, The New York Times, Coca-Cola, Nordstrom, HarperCollins, Warner Bros. Records, Hillary Clinton, and K2 Snowboards. Her posters have been exhibited internationally, and are collected in the archives of major libraries and museums worldwide, including the Library of Congress, Bibliothèque National de France, Museum Fur Kunst und Gewerbe, the Smithsonian Institute’s Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, Guan Shanyue Art Museum, and the Louvre’s Musee Des Arts Decoratifs, among others.

For over thirty years, Raye has lectured extensively about design issues and led workshops around the world. In 2013, Graphic Design USA Magazine listed her as one of the "50 Most Influential Designers Working Today.” She is the co-author of Modern Dog, 20 Years of Poster Art and Inside the World of Board Graphics: Skate, Surf, Snow, and author of 1000 Dog Portraits.