Like we said, we’re very lucky to have two wonderful photography classes on offer. Today we’re talking with Ileana Hernandez, who is teaching our class on creative photography.

Tell us how you grew into an artist. Have you been taking pictures since you were a child?

I started learning about photography in 2008; by that year I had graduated from a bachelor in Electronic Systems and from a Master Degree in Electronic Commerce. I had been working in IT for about 7 years and had a secure 9 to 5 job. My husband and I had already gotten married and we were paying the mortgage of our first house….and then I found photography!

Without expecting it, photography became the watershed of my life. It has changed a lot of things for me. First of all, I have learned a lot about myself and about what I am capable of accomplishing. About two years later, after that first “learn to use your camera in manual mode” workshop, I quit my secure job and started pursuing my passion.

I can’t say this journey has been easy; working as an artist is very different from working as an engineer. Before coming to Boston in 2011 I wasted a lot of time and procrastinated a lot. When we got here, I got the opportunity to attend a Post-Baccalaureate in Photography at MassArt, which gave me the direction I needed to became a working artist.

Sometimes I regret having found photography this late in my life, but then I realize that everything I have lived is what makes me appreciate things the way I do. If things had been different, I would be a very different artist, and I wouldn’t like that.

We’re intrigued by this categorization of photographers as either “hunters” (i.e., capturing images as they find them) or “farmers” (using an image or images more imaginatively, to express a particular idea). Tell us a little bit about the tools and guidance you’ll offer Skillshare students to help them grow into “farmers”!

Being an artist and being a photographer is about expressing yourself. Everybody has a story to tell, and the more personal your work is the more it differentiates from the work of others, and in the case of photography, from the billions of photos out there.

I’ll present the work of artists that work in the “farmer’s” way (constructing images) and we’ll compare their very different practices and the ideas they work with. I’ll also explain my creative process and how I make images from ideas or concepts in which I have an interest. We will see examples and I’ll give participants an introduction to the discovery of their own story to tell.

You’re a native of Mexico and have exhibited your work internationally. Why did you decide to settle in Somerville, and how does the local arts community support you in your work?

We came to Boston in 2011 because my husband was relocated from his job. After graduating from MassArt, I started looking for studio spaces and I found Somerville has a lot of artists’ buildings and communities. I’m a member in the Washington Street Art Center, and I’m glad to be part of it because it is a very supportive environment.

Recently I learned that Somerville has the largest Open Studios in New England and the third-largest one in the country. It is clear to me that if you are an artist you are going to find a great place to work and share your work in Somerville.

Do Skillshare participants need any prior photography experience to take your class?

Not really, they just need to be ready to learn what is out there, to then meditate and express themselves.

You can enjoy more of Ileana’s work on her website, and be sure to follow her on Twitter and Facebook too.

If you’ve ever seen a bunch of people practicing T’ai Chi in the park and wondered what it’s all about, you’ll have your chance on Sunday—take our class with Judith Poole! Along with teaching Qigong and T’ai Chi, Judith practices energy medicine (including Reiki) and periodically offers a course on sacred writing as well.

Photo by Brian Robinson, via Flickr.

What is T’ai Chi?

T’ai Chi, one of many qigong forms, is an ancient Chinese discipline, often referred to as a moving meditation. More highly choreographed than qigong postures, and designed to enhance chi flow, T’ai Chi has both internal alchemy and martial arts applications. The practice of T’ai Chi, as with the many Qigong forms, cultivates health, relieves stress on body and mind, increases stamina and bone health, and incorporates principles of grounding and good posture.

What unique benefits can people derive from T’ai Chi compared to yoga or other martial arts disciplines?

T’ai Chi is a moving, upright form whereas many yoga postures are done on mats. Both are mind/body disciplines with an internal non-competitive focus. Individual preferences vary. There are many different T’ai Chi forms as there are many yoga styles. I teach Yang Style short form.

You’ve been practicing T’ai Chi since 1983. How and why did you first come to study it, and how has it changed your life over the past thirty years?

In 1983 I was a single parent in a stressful job and had developed Crohn’s Disease along with many complications common to autoimmune diseases, including fatigue and joint pain. I had tried various yoga classes but was not comfortable doing things on the floor because I had several ruptured discs. I saw classes advertised at Interface, a center teaching mind/body and spiritual practices.The first class included several profound meditation practices. I could sense that moving my vital energy as directed was health promoting. The same evening, T’ai Chi was offered. It took me longer to master T’ai Chi. Gradually my body changed, allowing me to distribute my weight differently, become more grounded, improve my balance, and enjoy the sense of mastery, though it was slow in coming. I began to teach this Yang Style Short form, and soon discovered how much small postural corrections can bring major changes.

Your class is suitable for all ages and fitness levels, right?

Children can benefit from learning T’ai Chi, but for this occasion it would be difficult to design a class to meet the needs of all ages. I have therefore suggested that this class is appropriate for adults.

Where can they go if Skillshare students love your class and want to keep practicing? Do you offer classes in and around Somerville?

I teach a two-week Taoist Meditation class and a four-week Qigong class twice a year in Newtonville at Newton Community Education held at Newton North High School on alternate sessions. It is not too late to register for the next “Three Taoist Meditation” class on March 3rd and 11th. The next Qigong class will be held in the Spring, April 22th to May 13th.

We’ve received many excited tweets and messages about Blake Evitt’s intro to parkour class. Parkour is a powerful way to transcend your own boundaries while getting a great workout, so we expect an enthusiastic turnout for this one!

For those of us not yet familiar—what exactly is parkour, and how did you first get into it?

At its heart, parkour is essentially running, jumping, and climbing through an environment. Parkour incorporates movements and techniques from a wide variety of disciplines, and a number of “unique” techniques have developed over the years as well. While it may seem like a bunch of high-flying antics to the casual internet observer, the actual sport/discipline/art form of parkour is much more about functional movement, community, discipline, and overcoming physical and mental challenges. I started training in 2009 while on a research trip to Paris to interview the original French founders of the discipline. I was hooked after my first exposure to parkour, and have been training, traveling, and teaching ever since.
 

 
You’ve studied and taught parkour all over the world—do you have any fun stories to share with us?

I’ve spent a lot of time traveling for parkour over the last five years and I documented much of the first 2+ years (part of which was while I was on a Watson Fellowship studying parkour as an agent for positive social change) on my blog.

Part of learning parkour is training yourself to “see your environment in a new way.” How is this accomplished?

People are often very surprised by how much their perspective on the world changes very soon after starting parkour. It’s hard to fully appreciate until you’ve tried it, but since we look for obstacles and challenges all around us, the world essentially becomes a giant playground that is full of ways to experiment and play with movement.

Is there a minimum fitness level for this class?

No, this class is open to participants of all fitness levels and athletic backgrounds. Each of our classes is designed to accommodate a wide range of skill levels, from absolute beginners to experienced traceurs.

For those Skillshare attendees who may be on the fence (no pun intended) about taking your class because of safety concerns, let’s reassure them here and now that parkour won’t lead to injury if practiced with basic care and attention:

Parkour is actually very safe when taught by experienced instructors. Parkour is taught in a series of progressions in which participants master basic movements before moving on to more difficult techniques and challenges. This, along with the fact that there are no additional outside pressures on the participant (peer pressure, competition, other players, etc.), mean that the participant can progress at their own pace.
 

 
On the other hand, for those of us who are all “bring it on!”, where will students be able to continue their parkour practice locally?

We run 20-30 classes/week for all ages in the Boston Metro area, and a number of our classes are based in the Somerville area. Participants that would like to continue their training are welcome to join our regular classes.

We have a rockin’ assortment of art classes, if we do say so ourselves—thanks in part to mixed-media sculptor Jodi Colella, who will teach you how to felt an orb. Intrigued? Read on!

Tell us about the path you took to grow into the artist you are now. Were you making art from a very young age?

Yes, I’ve been making art for as long as I can remember. My parents kept me in good supply of all sorts of materials and were very encouraging. Summers were spent on the beach with long hours to learn how to knit, embroider, draw, paint, etc. There was a herd of us kids and when taking a break from swimming we would sit on our blankets in a large circle and work on our projects together. Some of us were using pencils for knitting needles and all of us had plastic Wonder Bread bags as our totes. I intended to go to art school for college but a disruptive family move derailed me. I ended up at B.U. studying biology, another interest of mine. After graduation I worked as a research technician at Dana Farber and attended night classes at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design working towards a certificate in Graphic Design. After 16 years as principal of my own design firm, Colella Design, I turned full time to my fine art practice and have been obsessed ever since.

“‘Yarns’ is made from skeins of yarn that were forgotten about for decades and found in an attic. Winding from the core out with color on color, almost as performance art until as large as a celestial body. A tribute to the life work of Colella’s mother, ‘Yarns’ records a shared visual language and serves as an icon for disclosure, loss and consolidation.”

As a mixed-media sculptor, you work with many different materials besides wool fiber. How do your various interests inform one another? Where do you find your inspiration?

IMPULSE (Dendrite III), copper wire and found fishing rope.

Inspiration can be mysterious. For me, something will spark an interest and I’ll pay attention to it without asking too many questions, working it out while not knowing where I’m going until I get there.

I am intrigued by traditional craft practice. The stories behind the making of objects throughout history reveal a society’s values and sense of place better than any historic text. After some experimentation I’ll use scale, metaphor, tactility and expression to create burgeoning organic shapes. Strong color, a sense of humor and a pinch of threat are combined to engage the viewer in surprising ways.

I’m also attracted to process and repetition with many of my sculptures being an accumulation of many smaller units. Some of this is my work ethic, but some of it is a method of being quiet and allowing my thoughts to rise to the surface.

At this time I’m experiencing a confluence of several aspects of my personal history where science, design, experimentation and community engagement are melding together into whatever it is I’m trying to create. I’m waiting to see where it takes me.

How does the Somerville arts community support you in your work?

The arts community in Somerville is generous, diverse, numerous and talented. There is a palpable buzz of activity on any day of the week with more things to do than any one person could ever attend. The Arts Council is incredibly accessible and ready with assistance for all kinds of proposals. Being a part of this community with other artists where we share knowledge and resources is pretty special and I’m so grateful to be here.

Do Skillshare participants need any prior experience in the fiber arts? Is the class open to children?

No experience is necessary; however, due to the very sharp needles, this activity is not recommended for children younger than 12.

You teach many local art classes on making even more cool things. Where else can Skillshare attendees find you?

My studio is at 11 Miller Street in Somerville, and I can be reached at jodi@jodicolella.com to answer any questions.

I am teaching the following classes this spring and hope to see some new faces! Visit my blog for more details:

Needlefelted Orbs, Five Crows Gallery: Saturday, March 1st, 10am—3pm

Sculptural Crochet, Eliot School, Jamaica Plain, MA: March 16th and 23rd, 10am—4pm

Fiber Jewelry, Five Crows Gallery: Wednesdays: April 2nd, 16th, 30th, 10am—1pm.

I’m also curating an exhibit at Nave Gallery Annex, March 12th—April 5th (it’s called “Practice” and has to do with my interest in process, proficiency and commitment in artmaking), and there is a story slam scheduled for March 31st as well.

MUSHROOMED: nylon, fiberfil, wool and wire. An outdoor installation at the Cushing-Martin Gallery, Stonehill College.

Find more of Jodi’s amazing work on the web here and here.

We’re all about the co-operative spirit here at Somerville Skillshare HQ. The way we see it, one of the coolest parts about being alive at the start of the 21st century is seeing so many people striving for more creative, innovative, equitable—and ultimately much more satisfying—ways of making a living. Lucky for us (and you!), on March 2nd Yochai Gal, co-founder of TechCollective, will teach you everything you need to know to establish a democratic business.

What exactly is a worker cooperative, and what benefits does it offer the worker-owner?

A worker co-op is a business that is wholly owned and operated by its employees. That means decisions, like hiring, firing, wages, new markets, etc. are all made by either the workers themselves, or elected decision makers (themselves beholden to their co-workers). They can come in many forms—some places have a strict hierarchy, others do not. Some all pay the same to all workers, others (like mine) do not. Some make decisions by consensus (so, unanimous only), others by majority vote, and even more are hybrids.

What does this all do for the worker? Well for starters, we usually get paid more on the bottom rung of the ladder, and a little less on the top. The ratio between the highest paid and lowest paid workers is on average 6:1 in a worker co-op; the US corporate average is 300:1. Workers tend to work harder and better than their non-co-op counterparts, because they see the business as theirs, the same way you’d treat a car you own differently than one you’re renting. A co-op will rarely pick up and leave the state for cheaper labor—all the workers would have to vote on it! A co-op will likely NOT poison the environment around it (like Chevron did to Richmond, CA—where 99.9% of its workforce lives).

If you’d like to know more, I highly recommend the film Shift Change (I may even play a portion in the class). I have it if you ever want to borrow it.
 

 
Tell us about your background—what in the course of your education inspired you to develop this particular area of expertise?

My family are kibbutzniks from Israel; democracy was always a big part of my life. I believe that worker co-ops are the answer to many of societies’ economic woes; just as democracy allows for the weak but many to have power over the strong and few, worker co-ops decentralize the power of capital by redistributing it among workers. But not from some top-heavy state; rather it comes from below, where workers are allowed to choose how they wish to spend their profits. No one can be underpaid OR overpaid unless the workers allow it!

When I came of age, I decided to work at a co-op but couldn’t find one in my area of expertise (computers). So I worked “in the field” for a while, developing experience and planning. Eventually, I was able to convince a number of my co-workers at a computer store to break off and form a co-op (the original TechCollective in San Francisco). We kicked butt!

After a few years I decided to follow my heart out to wintry Boston; eventually the co-op bug bit me again and I started looking for people interested in starting another TC branch, out here. Last May we opened in Somerville, and have been going (relatively) strong ever since.

What conditions must be met in order for a “bossless” company to thrive?

It is not easy to work at a co-op. You need good communication skills, patience, and the belief that you can learn from others, and they from you. Critical thinking about your place in the community around you and the world is essential; unfortunately none of these things are actually taught! A lot has to be unlearned; and occasionally one has to accept that this type of job isn’t right for them! We are not a one-size-fits-all solution; there are co-ops with bosses and workers who choose not to be worker-owners (e.g., Alvarado Baking Company) and prefer to treat it as just any other job. This is OK by me, as long as they have a choice. Co-ops also face critical financial challenges; we aren’t recognized in most states, and find it very difficult to get funding (no venture capitalist wants to give us money without having a vote themselves). It is getting easier, however—I’ll talk about this in the class.

What can Skillshare participants expect to take away from your class?

What I hope is that participants take away two things:

• A true understanding of what a worker co-op is.
• The notion that it is POSSIBLE to start one yourself.

Can you tell us about some worker cooperatives in the Somerville area?

Besides Boston TechCollective (we’re in Teale Square), there is only Metro Pedal Power (11 Olive Square).

You can find Yochai on the web, on Facebook, and at the TechCollective storefront at 231 Holland Street, Somerville.

We’re so lucky to have two great photography classes on offer at the Somerville Skillshare! First up is Edie Shimel’s Taking Better Pictures with Any Camera. Edie is a Somerville-based artist and educator who was recognized for her phenomenal talent at the 2012 “30 Under 30” exhibition at the Arsenal Center for the Arts.

Tell us about your background in the arts. How did you first get into photography?

My relationship with photography began when I was 13. I joined the photography club at my school and really fell in love with it. I was an Art Major in undergrad (I went to Sewanee) and then went on to get an MFA at UNC Chapel Hill. I tend to think of myself more of an artist than a photographer. The end result of my creative process these days happens to be a photograph. For a while the end result was painting. I’m sure the end result will become something else later on down the road as well. But photography is like a first love for me, I’m not sure whether it haunts me or helps me, so it will always be a part of me.

Consummation, 2009.

You teach Digital Photography at the Institute of Contemporary Art, and you’re also the community arts educator at the Peabody Essex Museum. What have you learned about your art through teaching?

I have actually transitioned out of my role at the ICA, but what I learned there about teaching and art, for me anyway, that the two are not so different from one another. They are both ways of communicating and building up an idea. In the case of art, it’s a body of work; in the case of teaching, it was building the photography program. The Peabody Essex Museum provides such a wealth of materials, content, objects and diversity, that I am really able to experiment with programming.

An image by one of Edie’s students in the Creative Arts at Park program, summer 2013.

People talk a lot about developing “an eye” for taking good pictures. Do you believe this is a skill anyone can nurture?

Absolutely! Its training yourself to see good compositions. Plus you have to take a lot of photos!

How does the Somerville arts community support you in your work? Do you have a studio space in your neighborhood?

I do have studio space. I have a darkroom that I share at Miller Street, and space at Vernon Street to set up shoots, paint, and otherwise piddle around. My husband actually has the studio next to me at Vernon Street. The community has supported us both in other ways too. For example, when we were looking to move into the neighborhood near Vernon Street, we put a sign up during open studios. It worked! That’s how we found our apartment.

Do Skillshare participants need any prior photography experience?

Nope! If they have a camera, be that a film camera, digital camera, phone camera, they should feel free to bring it!

Visit Edie on the web at EdieShimel.com.

We’re very excited to offer a Skillshare class on urban beekeeping, a very practical past-time that is newly legalized in our area! Our class will be taught by Ms. Jacqueline Beaupré, a Boston beekeeper at The Best Bees Company, where she builds and maintains honey bee hives for businesses and residents in cities and towns all over eastern Massachusetts. She also works as a research assistant studying food allergies and eczema at Boston Children’s Hospital. Jacqueline first became interested in honey bees while earning her master’s degree in science education at Boston University. She is looking forward to starting a Warré-style hive this spring at the Boston Nature Center’s teaching apiary and sharing her enthusiasm for honey bees with students when she goes back to teaching biology next fall!

Jacqueline and friends. Photo by Doug Levy.

Urban homesteading and self sufficiency is growing in popularity all over the country, so we predict this class will be very popular! How did you first get interested in beekeeping?

When I started graduate school for a Master’s in science education, I was looking for a campus club to join and found the Boston University Beekeepers. The buzzing noise and threat of stinging had always made me nervous, but I was motivated to join by my grandfather (a beekeeper), as well as the fact that honey bees are so ecologically important and fascinating! I’m glad I did because I learned my anxiety was totally unfounded and I got some new beekeeping friends and an awesome hobby out of it!

Can you truly taste the difference between the honey you buy in a health food store and honey made in your own backyard?

Absolutely! Honey off the comb is one of the tastiest things in nature! Honey reflects the local nectar foraged by bees, so in diversely-planted urban areas like Somerville, bees will make a very complex and delicious honey! I highly recommend visiting Follow the Honey near Harvard Square. They have an amazing selection of seasonal, local, and global honey to try—all with completely different flavors and textures. I just sampled some of Dee Lusby’s Arizona cactus flower honey there and it was so good! So, fair warning: once you try real honey, it’s impossible to go back to that plastic bear stuff from the grocery store.

Many environmentalists are concerned about the effect of beekeeping on the ecosystem. Is it possible to raise honeybees in a sustainable way?

I’m far more concerned about the effects of NOT beekeeping on the ecosystem. Right now a lot of our pollinator populations are in decline. Native bees and honey bees are no different- about one third of known honey bee colonies die annually. This level of population loss is ecologically unsustainable. But if biodiversity isn’t something you care about, just consider the economic costs. Most of our food (experts say up to 80%) is ultimately produced thanks to bee pollination, so losses would cost billions of dollars and reduce us to eating mostly wind-pollinated grains. So beekeeping and bee-friendly gardening/agriculture has never been more important. Oddly enough, urban beekeeping is often more successful than its rural counterpart. We’re still determining why—it might have to do with a greater diversity of pollen and nectar in the city, as well as less widespread pesticide use.

The Best Bees Company acts sustainably by practicing chemical-free beekeeping, meaning we do not use any drugs or pesticides to control infections or deter hive invaders. If we see something that doesn’t belong in the hive or look healthy, we simply remove it. This keeps things in check without resorting to poisons. A side benefit to this method is that weak hives are not kept alive by accident—natural selection is less interrupted and strong colonies become stronger. Best Bees also uses most of the profits from beekeeping services to conduct research developing bee probiotics at our Urban Beekeeping Laboratory & Bee Sanctuary in the South End. Just like humans can benefit from healthy yogurt cultures and a balanced diet, so can bees!

Is any sort of permit required to raise honeybees in your backyard?

Somerville and Brookline passed legislation to legalize beekeeping and have started instituting a permitting process. It’s not particularly easy to navigate, but it’s a start.

How much of an investment is involved?

Beekeepers usually say that managing a hive takes more time than caring for a cat but less time than a dog. Obviously it varies by season and the health of the hive.

A backyard hive.

No prior experience or knowledge required to take part in this Skillshare class, right?

Right! Newbees welcome! The only way you can mess up beekeeping is to not have fun.

The staff at Best Bees, summer 2013.

A classroom observation hive at Fenway High School.

Chat with Jacqueline about her Skillshare class on Twitter at @jbeaupre424, learn more about Best Bees on their website, and you can also follow them on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest.

Perhaps the most practical class on our roster is Basic Bicycle Maintenance, which will be taught by Emily Thibodeau of Hub Cycle Company in Cambridge. Emily is a passionate cyclist and loves to travel abroad during an annual off-season sabbatical from her shop. Check out this awesome sculpture she spotted in a botanic garden on her recent trip to Singapore:

We take it you’ve had a passion for bicycles for a long, long time. When and how did your love of cycling begin?

I learned to love bikes when I started going for ‘long’ bike rides with my dad. I was seven or eight and we’d ride an eight-mile loop near our house—which at the time seemed like an impossibly long distance. I thought it was very cool to ride so far from home.

What’s the longest you’ve ever cycled in a single day?

I rode to Portland, Maine a couple of summers ago. At the end of the ride my computer read 123.4 miles.

What’s your all-time favorite route?

When I ride for fun I usually ride mountain bikes. There are so many great places to ride in New England I probably can’t name a favorite, but Harold Parker in N. Andover, MA, Bradbury Mountain in Pownal, ME and FOMBA in Manchester, NH are on my short list.

What can Skillshare participants expect to take away from your class?

Folks will leave with knowledge of the two things they need to do to maintain their bikes (two—that’s all you need), as well as how to deal with flat tires (the number one bicycle repair).

No previous experience necessary, right?

Definitely not—all experience levels welcome!

Out for a ride at Tyler State Park.

We bet a lot of your Skillshare students are going to get the “cycling bug” after taking this class. How can they connect with other cyclists to enjoy some social exercise in Somerville and Cambridge?

We’re really lucky here in the Greater Boston Area—there are tons of opportunities to connect with other bike folks. I, personally, look to the Boston Bike Party, New England Mountain Bike Association, and (here’s a shameless plug for my team…) Team Monster Truck when I’m looking for good people to ride bikes with.

Visit Emily at her shop at 1064 Cambridge Street or online at hubbicycle.com. You can also follow her on Twitter and Facebook.

Today we’re talking with Miranda Aisling: artist, teacher, singer-songwriter, and author of Don’t Make Art, Just Make Something. She’ll be teaching a Skillshare class of the same name. We love how passionate she is about empowering people to create!

We really appreciate your emphasis on executing your ideas (rather than just sitting around wishing you could make them happen). Tell us a little about your evolution as an artist and a thinker. How did you grow into an “idea person”?

Although I’ve always considered myself very creative, it wasn’t until my senior year of college (as an art major) that I felt comfortable calling myself an artist. You see, I was never the “art kid” in school. By which I mean, I wasn’t the kid who could draw something really well. I made tons of cool things both in an outside of art class, but because I couldn’t realistically render with a pencil, that was it. I wasn’t an artist. It wasn’t until I was standing in the middle of my senior show that I looked around at my collection of large abstract paintings and realized, “Oh, I guess this does count.”

That’s when I figured out that all this stuff I make, the knitting and the doodles and the fictional worlds, they can be art. All the ideas that I’ve always had suddenly seemed to matter. The truth is, I’ve always been an idea person, and I think most people are. That’s what humans do: we think of cool new things to make. The problem is, our willingness to act on our ideas and our confidence that our ideas are “good” or “artistic” is often stamped out of us. So though I did have to learn to be an artist, I never had to learn to be an idea person. I just had to accept what was already there.

You practice many forms of art—music, painting, pottery, writing, knitting, and more no doubt! How do your various passions inform and inspire one another?

One of the best things about having so many different art forms is that I’m always in the mood to make something. Even though I’m a painter, sometimes the last thing I want to do is paint. Thankfully, if that happens, I can write or knit or play guitar instead. This has helped me develop some resistance against a culture that is obsessed with specializing. Because I didn’t specialize in just one art form, I’ve realized that my passion isn’t for my oil paintings or songs or stories. Instead, I’m passionate about the actual process of making things.

In fact, I just realized that I follow pretty much the same process in every art form: get a new idea, plunge in, start to really like it, ruin it, debate whether to give up, stick with it and finish.

Are you a Boston native (and if not, what led you here)? How does the local arts community support you in your work, and conversely, how do you build community through your work?

I came to Boston in 2011 to get an M.ed. in Community Art from Lesley University. During my time time there I wrote Don’t Make Art, Just Make Something, the book this class is based on.

If we get right down to it, community is my work. In the past year I’ve also started Miranda’s Hearth, which is currently a local creative community and will grow into the first-ever community art hotel. Through Miranda’s Hearth I host Dinner, Art, & Music nights (which everyone is invited to!) where I get to share my own work, see the incredible work of the people around me, and introduce people who really should be working together. Because what’s creativity without community?

What advice do you have for artists (both beginners and the more experienced) who are looking to “step outside the box” and see the world with fresh eyes?

First, go find something and try to figure out its story. Who made it? Why did they make it? Who owned it? Why did they buy it? Unless you’re standing in the middle of an untouched mountain, everything around you was at some point thought of by a person. Which means there’s a story. And stories are the best inspiration.

Then, give up on art for a little while.

Everyone gets so obsessed with that word and what it means that they forget to actually make stuff. I’ve found that the only way to actually make art is to just start with something which turns into something else and something else and eventually, possibly, ends up where you wanted it to be all along.

What can Skillshare participants expect to gain from their time with you? Is any prior art experience required?

Participants will walk away with an appreciation of process and a bit more confidence to jump into their next project. They’ll make something and, since creativity is a chain reaction, they’ll leave wanting to make something else. The hardest part is building up the nerve to jump in, and that’s just what I’m here to help with.

No prior art experience is required.

See more of Miranda’s wonderful work on her website. You can also connect with her on Facebook and Twitter!