Michele & Steve Vaughan - “Winging It-Navigating a Creative Life Together”
Winging It: Navigating a Creative Life Together
Michele and Steve Vaughan have stitched together more than three decades of marriage, art, and adventure. Michele is a restless creator, following her curiosity into quilting, mixed media, painting, photography, and more while Steve has remained nested in his lifelong passions as a naturalist and photographer. Through their presentation, they share stories of two creative journeys—vastly different in approach yet deeply connected—woven together by partnership, curiosity, and a need to create.
Speaker Bios
Michele Vaughan
Curiosity is the thread that is woven through every part of Michele Vaughan’s life—her work in technology, her adventures as an entrepreneur, and her passion for making. It has carried her through careers in technology, entrepreneurial ventures in teaching art and yoga, and creative pursuits in photography and quilting—and continues to fuel her restless creativity. From fabric to paper, megapixels to bytes, making to teaching, Michele is driven by curiosity to keep exploring. For her, art is less about arriving at mastery than about discovering what’s possible when she tries something new.
Stephen Vaughan
Consistency has defined Steve Vaughan’s life as a naturalist and nature photographer. For more than fifty years, he has devoted himself to observing, studying, and photographing the natural world, with his images appearing in National Geographic, Audubon, National Wildlife, Sierra Club, and Arizona Highways. He is especially known for his passion for eagles, hawks and owls and for mentoring others to look more closely at the life around them. For Steve, creativity is rooted in focus, patience, and the enduring joy of bearing witness.
Michele’s restless curiosity and Steve’s steady devotion have created a shared life of art, nature, and adventure. Side by side, they show that creativity can take many forms—sometimes sewn together, sometimes flown apart, but always deeply connected.
NeoColor II: Are They Crayons or Paint?
Workshop Description:
Discover the versatile magic of Caran d’Ache Neocolor II crayons in this hands-on, all-levels workshop. These Swiss-made, high-quality, water-soluble oil crayons can be used both opaquely and transparently, allowing you to build rich layers of imagery and create beautiful visual effects of space and depth.
In this class, you’ll explore how Neocolor II crayons function as both crayon and paint, and how they combine seamlessly with other media. Through experimentation, layering, and playful exploration, you’ll develop imagery using color, templates, water, and graphite to define and refine your compositions. These materials are fun, expressive, and surprisingly versatile—perfect for artists of all experience levels.
Creative Benefits:
Participants will learn the properties and capabilities of Neocolor II crayons and gain confidence using them for layering, mark-making, and mixed-media effects. You’ll experiment with color, texture, and tools to build imagery and discover new approaches to composition and surface.
Dates & Location:
March 6 – Celebration Room (tentative)
March 20 – Small classroom in building next to Celebration Room
Workshop Space: St. Francis Church
Time:
10:00 AM – 2:00 PM (includes a 30-minute lunch break)
Class Level:
All levels welcome
Cost:
$65 (includes $15 materials fee) Open to Members Only.
Class Size:
Minimum 9 participants / Maximum 12 participants
Materials Provided by Instructor:
Good quality paper
Neocolor II crayons
Mechanical pencils
Water-soluble pencils
Sponges
Brushes
Tape
Materials to Bring:
Container for water
Scissors
X-Acto knife with a sharp blade
A file folder (does not need to be new)
Protective cutting surface (to protect the table)
Packed lunch, beverage, and/or snacks
Instructor: Heather Bentz
Website: www.heatherbentz.com
Instagram: @heather_bentz
April Workshop: Envelope Fan Book
April Workshop: Envelope Fan Book
Artist: Ginger Burrell
Date & Time: April 10, 10:00 AM – 2:00 PM
Cost: $60
Maximum Participants: 15
Location: Pastel Society, 2447 N. Los Altos Avenue
Registration: Opens at the March 5th meeting
Contact: Sally Krommes
Workshop Description
This workshop is fantastic for both book artists and non-book artists. You’ll create an “Envelope Fan Book,” a unique book structure designed to beautifully display and hold collages, paintings, photographs, and more. It’s one of Ginger’s most popular structures and a wonderful way to explore creative presentation in a hands-on, approachable format.
All materials will be provided. Please bring your journal or sketchbook, along with snacks and water.
About the Artist
Ginger has been a teacher all of her life—she even set up a “school” on her driveway for the neighborhood kids! She holds a degree in Child and Adolescent Development and a BFA in Photography, and has been teaching art exclusively to adults for 19 years.
Spring Field Trip: The Land with No Name
Join us for a guided spring field trip to The Land with No Name (LWNN)—an immersive desert experience blending landscape, learning, and community.
📅 Friday, April 10
🕙 10:00 AM – 2:00 PM
Registration
All sign-ups will be handled through the PW website
Registration will go live at our February meeting
A minimum of 19 members must sign up for the tour to proceed
Cost
$25 per person
What to Bring
Packed lunch
Hat
Water bottle
Hiking shoes or sturdy sneakers
(terrain is desert and uneven)
LWNN will provide prickly pear juice and cookies.
Travel & Meeting Details
Meeting place: Kestral Kafe, Three Points
Drive time to meeting place:
From Tucson: ~35 minutes
From Oro Valley: ~45 minutes
From Kestral Kafe, we will carpool an additional 30–40 minutes to The Land with No Name.
⚠️ Important:
We will need five high-clearance vehicles to reach the site. The road is unpaved and may be rough.
Questions?
Please contact:
Deb Hilbert
📧 debhilbert9@gmail.com
How to Work with Ideas in an Artist’s Book Format with Beata Wehr
How to Work with Ideas to Format and Design Artistic Books with Beata Wehr
Ginger Burrell - “You Look So Normal”
You Look So Normal
"But you look so normal on the outside" is the best compliment Ginger Burrell ever received about her work. Join Ginger as she shares her lifelong journey through art making. A journey that began with her first artist’s book at age 8, to a high school teacher’s proclamation that her art was "no good," to having her artwork featured in the Smithsonian. From driving down dark streets
With a tripod in the back of her minivan to filling a gumball machine with books, Ginger expresses her ideas, feelings, and opinions through art. She finds the flexibility of Artists' Books exciting and endless. Ginger often collaborates with her husband, Greg, who is adept at sudden U-turns because there is something that really needs to be photographed.
On her way to becoming an artist Ginger was a teacher, ran a preschool, and headed Human Resource departments for high-tech companies. A round of layoffs, a class at the San Francisco Center for the Book taught by Laura Russell, and a visit to the annual Artist Books' show at the Donna Seager gallery transformed a love for photography into a need to create Artist's Books. Ginger has a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Photography from San Jose State University's School of Art and Design and a degree in Child and Adolescent Development.
Ginger's work includes photography, monotype, composite imagery, sound, electronics, poetry, and, most recently, ceramics. She explores a range of topics, especially social and political issues. Ginger has exhibited nationally and internationally, and her books are held in museums and private and public collections, including SFMOMA, the National Museum of Women in the
Arts, Ringling School of Art and Design, The Art Institute of Chicago, Harvard University, and many more. For a full list, please see www.gingerburrell.com
Ginger lives in Marana, AZ, with her husband and "too many" cats.
IG - instagram.com/gingerrachele/
Or visit her website at www.gingerburrell.com/
Making Cardboard Sculptured Lanterns with Mykl Wells
January 2026 Workshop: Making Cardboard Sculptured Lanterns with Mykl Wells
Holley Bakich - World Mythologies and Storytelling as Artistic Inspiration
Holley Bakich is a multi-faceted artist who wants to tell you a story—either an ancient myth, a religious epiphany, or a tale of a remarkable person—in images and symbols.
Craftsmanship, through the use of traditional processes, is her goal. Using beads, sequins, metal leaf, as well as leather and fabric, Holley draws upon mythologies and stories from all over the world. The materials, all hand sewn on leather, fabric, or wood, take time and patience, giving each artwork a part of herself through the meditative creative process. The materials she selects have a tactile quality that elevates the image above two dimensions, shaping and forming the material to last for hundreds of years.
for more information visit her website at
Art Delivery to Steinfeld Gallery
A Call to Paperworks Artists
Paperworks 25th Anniversary Members Exhibit at the Steinfeld Gallery
Title of the Exhibit :Beneath the Surface
Dates:
Public Opening (ArtWalk Saturday): January 3, 2026
Subsequent Saturdays: January 10, 17, 24, 31, 2026
Artist Reception: January 11, 2026 – 2:00-4:00pm
Location:
Steinfeld Gallery, 101 West Sixth Street, Tucson, AZ