Oak Street Faculty
School Year Summer Camp
NANCE PARKER
is the longtime director of Portland's infamous community based Shoestring Theater. She is well known for her parades with large puppet heads and masks. Nance is also a local painter. You can find her work at various venues around Portland. Her work has been featured and sold at Maine Cottage Furniture. Nance has been working with kids in our community for many years!
And be sure to check out ShoeString Theater's Site.
BETH WILBUR VAN MIERLO
is the director of Oak Street Studios A Young People's ART Institute as well as an art instructor. She started Oak Street Studio's 10 1/2 years ago and still loves every minute of teaching students the richness of Fine Art! Beth is a local artist as well as a mother of three! She holds a BFA in sculpture and drawing from the University of Southern Maine.
MEGHAN SCRIBNER
has been creating art in many forms for the past 20 years. After moving to Maine in 1991, she received a masters in both art therapy and fine art. She loves working with a variety of materials creating both three-dimensional and two-dimensional forms. She had several shows of large sculptural pieces including a solo show in NYC while teaching at Maine College of Art. Some favorite work includes papermaking and painting with her two children.
MOLLY ANGIE
has been sewing since she was 12 years old. Her training started when her mother taught her how to follow clothing patterns in the small town of Marion, NY where she grew up. By the age of 15 Molly was selling her own designs in a shop in Rochester, NY. This trend continued through high school and college. Even though Molly received a BFA in Graphic Design, her mother knew that a sewing machine, not a computer, was the correct graduation gift for her daughter.
With this sewing machine, Molly started her own business in the winter of 2007 called Boom Chick-a-Boom. She has been designing and selling her creations around Portland and other cities on the east coast, as well as providing sewing services to the community. For two years (2007-2008) Molly worked as a seamstress for the Portland based clothing company Rogues Gallery.
Molly now runs her business out of her home in South Portland. She is very excited to work with kids to teach them how to make their own clothing. Learning to sew is a great skill that is sure to boost confidence, strengthen creativity, and promote self-sufficient living. Plus, it is really fun!
Check out her work at: boomchick-a-boom.com.
MARTHA MILLER
is an artist and an art teacher, a mother of five children and grandmother of four. She and her husband live with their two cats in the woods of Woolwich, Maine. During the week, Martha works in Portland where she keeps a studio and teaches through the Continuing Studies Department at Maine College of Art.
You can see more of her artwork at her website www.marthamiller.com.
HENRY WOLYNIEC
has been a visual artist for over 25 years. Among his other artistic credits he is the author and artist of two comic book series.
Education:
New York University, 1983
Columbia University, General Studies Program, 1981-82
Parsons School of Design, B.F.A., 1979
Check out his work at: henrywolyniec.com.
ALLISON VILLANI
has a BFA, majoring in sculpture, from Boston University, and a Masters of Education in Art Education from Teachers College, Columbia University.
Allison has taught art for K-12 in the Portland Public Schools since 1995, most recently at Reiche Elementary teaching grades K-5.
She has also taken book arts classes from Rebecca Goodale and attended the USM Book Arts Institute at the USM Stonehouse in Freeport in 2007. She personally loves clay, book-making and anything adventurous!
KATE PHILBRICK
grew up in northern Maine and has been a professional photographer since 1992. She currently lives in Gorham Maine and is Director of the Photography Program at the Salt Institute for Documentary Studies in Portland Maine. Kate earned her BFA at the University of Southern Maine and her MFA at the Art Institute of Boston. Kate has exhibited her work in New York City, Boston, in addition to various Maine and New England galleries. Her photographs have been featured in Yankee Magazine, Ready Made Magazine, Story magazine and in Real Simple Magazine and their PBS television program.!
Kate will be teaching the Citizen Journalism camp this summer at Oak Street Studios. Check out her work at www.katephoto.com.
MEGAN COOMBS
Megan Coombs graduated from University of Southern Maine in 2008 with a Bachelors of Fine Art in Art Education and a studio concentration in Printmaking. She is currently working at the Middle School of the Kennebunks in the Life Skills program helping students with severe mental and physical disabilities succeed academically and gain independence. In the summer, Megan works for the Waynflete Summer programs as their lead teacher in the Wonder Arts program, an art based camp for ages 3-5.
Megan has taught art in a variety of settings and variety of levels. As an outcome of working with so many ages and in so many different environments, Megan is confident teaching both 2-D and 3-D techniques including water color, wood working, drawing, found art sculpture, and ceramics. A personal passion for texture has lead Megan to working with fabric. Megan's current personal projects include adapting traditional quilting techniques to make one of a kind wall hanging quilts.