Hi my name is Leonard Erlbruch and I’m a children’s book illustrator for more than 20 years.
Born in Wuppertal, Germany, I moved to Leipzig to study Illustration at the HGB where I did my diploma in illustration.
I worked for many well known publishing houses in Germany and created the yearly published “”Kinderzimmerkalender”” (children’s room calendar) for Peter Hammer Verlag.
I recently moved to Nelson, with my wife and our kids.
http://leonarderlbruch.de/
Emilie Leblanc Kromberg started her practice in the applied arts and has been a professional artist since 2010. Materials, their transformation and ancient techniques were aspects that ignited the spark that brought Emilie to work with metals, textiles and clay. Goldsmith by trade, she explored the subject of adornment by the making and selling of her jewellery in art shows across Canada.
Since studying Fine Art in the Netherlands at the ArtEZ AKI Academy for Arts & Design, her work has expanded out of the 3-dimensional form to incorporate painting, photography, video and sound. Through the exploration of these new mediums in tandem to her initial disciplines she seeks to investigate the multi-faceted bonds between human and object.
Myra Rasmussen is a community engaged artist, who focuses on the role of festivals and celebrations in bringing people together. Originally trained in sculpture, she graduated from Wesleyan University in 2004, where she was awarded a degree in studio arts with high honors. Since 2009, she has been based in Nelson, British Columbia, where she is the artistic director of the Polka Dot Dragon Arts Society, which focuses on creating multidisciplinary events that link the arts, nature, and community. In addition to her work with festivals, she also has extensive experience with lino and woodblock printmaking and is part of the ink + moon calendar collective. She teaches in schools through the ArtStarts program and at the Oxygen Art Centre.
Danielle Soucie is a fibre artist, educator, and co-founder and Coordinator of the West Kootenay Fibreshed. Her practice explores locally grown and gathered fibres, natural dyes, and the transformation of raw materials into cloth. Working with flax, nettle, wool, and alpaca fibre, she is interested in material literacy, traditional skills, and the relationships between land, labour, and textile-making.
Danielle’s education has developed through self-directed study, mentorship, experimentation, and years of hands-on practice. She has facilitated workshops and community learning opportunities in flax processing, spinning, natural dyeing, and regional fibre systems, creating welcoming spaces where beginners and experienced makers can learn through shared exploration.
Marceline Tanguay
Hello, my name is Marceline and I have worked in the Animation industry for over 15 years. My most recent work was story boarding for the movies Dog Man, Gabby’s Dollhouse and Puss in Boots 2 at Dreamworks Animation. I also did storyboarding for Cartoon Network, and created many Character designs for Pixar, Warner Brothers, Sony, BlueSky and Paramount Studios. I studied at Sheridan College in Animation and wish to bring back fast-pace costumed life drawing to help everyone enhance their skills in drawing fast, which can be applied to all art related disciplines.
Doug Thorburn
My formal fine arts training includes two years at langara college in Vancouver, and two years at DTUC here in Nelson. I have been involved in similar informal drawing sessions since moving back to the Kootenays in the late 80’s. These sessions have taken place in a variety of venues from the SUB building on the CIC campus, to people’s living rooms. The current Oxygen sessions carry on this tradition of volunteer led, community based life drawing sessions.
Zen Wang is a polymath renaissance man who specializes in anything that is challenging and worthwhile. His art has won many awards and was exhibited in galleries in Canada and the USA. His films have premiered in Toronto and other communities in Ontario.
He is an engineer with a MBA and a film diploma from Vancouver Film School.
His sculptures have been selected for the Castlegar Sculpture Walk for three years in a row.
Zen teaches Digital Art at Selkirk College and he volunteers as a firefighter and does Chinese Lion dance during his Abundant Spare Time.