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.
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/
Tracy Horner: “Palimpsest Paintings”
Palimpsest Paintings
After retiring from a successful career as an electrical engineer, Tracy Horner and her husband relocated to Prescott, Arizona. They arrived just before the pandemic, and once settled Tracy began looking for a creative community. She discovered the Arts Prescott Gallery and immediately knew it was the right home for her artistic journey.
Tracy works in several media, including fiber arts, digital painting, and jewelry. Her current focus is watercolor painting created on US Geological Survey topographical maps. Guided by her engineer’s mind, she approaches composition with structure and intention. Her paintings often feature the plants and animals native to the mapped region, expressed through clean geometric shapes and a unique blend of precision and whimsy.
Along with her paintings, Tracy also creates jewelry using electronic components and runs a side business designing and selling cross-stitch patterns. Her artistic range is wide, inventive, and full of delightful surprises.
Join us in December to hear Tracy share her process, inspiration, and her compelling approach to watercolor painting on maps.
Explore Tracy’s Work
Website: tracyhorner.com
Cross-stitch designs: inkcircles.com
Instagram: inkcircles.xs
Ellen Little - "Breaking the Rules of Watercolor Painting"
San Francisco based artist Ellen Little grew up in Los Angeles CA and earned her BFA from Art Center College of Design in Pasadena CA. Upon graduating she moved to New York to work as an art director at Ogilvy and Mather and teach at the School of Visual Arts. Next she moved to San Francisco and founded the graphic design firm, Little Design Group and taught at the Academy of Art. After 10 years Ellen closed Little Design and has been painting full time ever since.
In 2017 Ellen founded Dogpatch Collective, a community of 17 artist studios in the Dogpatch neighborhood of San Francisco. In 2022 she was awarded a grant from the San Francisco Arts Commission to start the Dogpatch Collective Artist Residency program which provides free studios and mentorship to artists from historically underserved communities.
Her work has been exhibited in museums and galleries around the country including DeYoung Museum CA, Milton Art Museum MA, Napa Valley Museum CA, Marin Museum of Contemporary Art CA and Triton Museum CA. Ellen’s work is included in over 500 private collections around the world as well as the public collections of UCSF Mission Bay, San Francisco CA, the University of Iowa, Iowa City IA, Phipps Botanic Garden, Pittsburgh PA, and multiple Kaiser Permanente hospitals throughout CA.
For more information, check out the article in LUXE magazine, which talks about her work
https://luxesource.com/article/ellen-little-san-francisco-watercolor-artist
Patti Gardner
Patti Gardiner
Creative Freedom and My Artist Residency Experience
Join us for a special presentation by Patti Gardiner, a multidisciplinary artist whose creative journey centers around capturing the hidden beauty of the natural world.
Last summer, Patti was awarded an artist residency along the Tongue River, where she explored the intricate relationship between water and the life it sustains. This experience led to her newest body of work, "Taking Root"—a powerful visual meditation on nature’s resilience and grace.
Patti will also share her experimental digital cyanotype series, "After the Bloom," which pairs the delicate shadows of wildflowers with macro photographs of their seeds and pods. The result is a striking reflection on the quiet transformation that follows the peak of bloom.
With a focus on the unseen, the overlooked, and the quietly magnificent, Patti’s work invites us to reconnect with nature, to pause in wonder, and to consider what’s worth protecting.
Come be inspired by her story, her process, and the vision behind her work.
Kat Manton-Jones
Join us on April 3 as we welcome the inspiring Kat Manton-Jones, a self-taught watercolor artist, sketch hiker, and sketchbook journalist. Kat is a Saguaro Fellow of the Southern Arizona Watercolor Guild and has served as an Artist in Residence at Guadalupe Mountains National Park (2018). She was also honored with the Arts Heritage Fund Award in memory of Janet Tifft (2018-2019).
Her signature series, "Katlas – Where Art and Science Meet," is a captivating blend of sketchbook illustrations, mini-paintings, maps, and musings on life—a testament to her deep connection with both artistic expression and the natural world.
Based in Tucson, Arizona, Kat finds inspiration in the landscapes she explores, spending her time backpacking, hiking, painting, and sketching. She is also an avid adventurer, having completed the Arizona National Scenic Trail as a section hiker on September 9, 2021.
At our April 3 meeting, Kat will share her artistic journey, creative process, and how she intertwines art, exploration, and storytelling. Don’t miss this opportunity to hear from a passionate artist who brings the beauty of the wilderness to life through watercolor and sketching!
erin harris - “Etched to Impress: Metal meets the Secret Belgian Binding”
erin harris
PaperWorks is pleased to welcome erin harris, a sentimental metalsmith whose work captures personal memories and emotions through handcrafted jewelry.
erin’s journey into memorial jewelry began with the loss of her beloved dog, leading her to create meaningful reliquaries that preserve deep personal connections. With a background in social work, she seamlessly combines artistry and empathy to craft pieces that offer comfort and remembrance.
Join us for an insightful presentation on the emotional significance of personalized jewelry and the power of tangible storytelling through metalwork.
For more information about Erin and her work, visit elmharris.com.
Judith Austen - A Painter's Journey: From 18 to 81
"Ever since I can remember, I've always seen the world as color—be it in dreams while I slept, in everyday moments and movements, or in painting flowers from my own garden. I paint 'ideas'."
Judith Austen is an accomplished artist and writer whose work spans decades of creativity and storytelling. A graduate of Pratt Institute with an MFA in Art Education from Boston University, Judith taught art at the renowned Shady Hill School in Cambridge, MA, while continuing to develop her vibrant and reflective painting practice. Her work has appeared in numerous group shows and several one-woman exhibitions throughout the Boston area.
This special presentation, "A Painter’s Journey: from 18 to 81,” offers a visual journey through Judith’s early works to her present-day creations, accompanied by the stories and inspirations that shaped them.
Join us for an intimate look at Judith's artistic journey—one that transforms dreams, color, and everyday moments into timeless works of art.
Makaye Lewis
Personal Narratives of Life on the Border through O’odham Eyes
(click picture for more details)
Linda Feltner
Drawing Nature: The Creative Process of an Artist, Illustrator, and Naturalist
