Our instructors are drawn from a wealth of talented teachers, including nationally known artists from across the country and across the street. They are innovative craftsmen and artists who enjoy trying new techniques and love sharing what they do with their students.
If you are an experienced art, craft, writing, or performing arts instructor and are interested in teaching at Shake Rag Alley, click here for more information.
I now live in a small town of Hopkinton, Iowa. Spent most of my adult life taking all kinds of craft classes. The ones I enjoyed I practiced a lot so I could master them. Some of the crafts I really enjoyed most include carving, knitting, tatting, Hedebo, papercutting and Zentangle. I try to incorporate some of the crafts together. I have really enjoyed putting Zentangle on carvings. When people see them, they ask me to teach classes. I really enjoy passing along the craft to others.
Workshops
Bob Ristow has been interested in Shaker Oval Boxes ever since he visited the Canterbury Shake Village in New Hampshire. To advance his knowledge in box making, he attended several classes taught by John Wilson at the Home Shop in Charlotte, MI. Since then, Bob has demonstrated these procedures at several woodcarving clubs in IA, MN as well as at a number of rustic retreats as far away as Montana. He is always experimenting with different woods, shapes, and sizes to make these boxes. His other interests include woodcarving, wood turning, winemaking and fiber arts.
Workshops
Jamie Rogness is a highly creative and versatile artist who works in a broad range of mediums, predominently using natural materials. She is a master woodcarver, working with both hand and power tools to create intricate sculptures from tree branches and exquisite designs on ostrich eggs. Her concrete leaf castings are beautifully realistic. She has taught a variety of classes at the annual Woodlanders Gathering at Shake Rag Alley for over 10 years, including handsome, handmade lampshades with a touch of nature.
Workshops
Creating has always been a huge part of my life and I have never found an artistic process or tool that I did not like so I consider myself a mixed media artist. After teaching full time for 30+ years, I was able to retire and make creating my full time job. Recently, we (my partner Tom, and two dogs), downsized to an RV and traveled full time making my storage and “studio” much smaller so I decided to focus on art journaling. I love art journaling because it allows me to create using different techniques and mediums in one not so tidy little bundle. Very recently, we moved what we had left after downsizing to a cabin in Waynesboro, MS where I have a small studio surrounded by nature.
Workshops
I started working with metal in 2000. I moved in and took over my husband’s small motor repair shop and began fabricating lawn ornaments. I began incorporating blacksmithing into my work after going to a thresher man’s show. My husband built me a forge and we started going to every blacksmith event we could find. Afterward, I would go back to my shop and practice what I learned from the demonstrator.
In 2005 I was introduced to copper. It was the same thing all over again. Learn and practice. I enjoy working with both metals. Blacksmithing may have been my first love, but copper is my passion. I most enjoy the design and teaching others how to create pieces in copper. I cannot admit that I am self taught for I have learned from demonstrators and the many friends who have encouraged and supported me. I am fortunate to be able to teach, demonstrate, and share what I have learned over the years – to pass it on, as they may say. My husband and I are members of IVBA, UMBA, IBA, ABANA and SOFA. I have enjoyed every minute of learning both of these fine crafts.
Workshops
Nick Scheuer has been carving birds since he was a Boy Scout 40 years ago. He has developed a coloring system as popular as his rustic, whittled, carving style. His colorful songbird carvings may be seen at Longbranch Gallery in Mineral Point.
Workshops
Cheryl Smeja is a Mineral Point leather artist, nationally known for her pioneering work in wet-formed leather sculpture. She has appeared on The Carol Duvall Show, taught at national leather conventions and has had articles published in The Leather Crafters and Saddlers journal. For over 25 years she sold her formed leather masks, wall hangings, jewelry, pots, and more at art fairs and from her Mineral Point gallery/shop. Now semi-retired, Cheryl enjoys pursuing other interests such as needle felting, wire jewelry, polymer clay, paper making, and Photoshop image manipulation. Cheryl serves on the Shake Rag Alley Curriculum Committee. A versatile artisan and dedicated teacher, Cheryl is ever ready for a new challenge.
Workshops
Luann Smith began making jewelry to help with school expenses while studying figure painting and illustration at the American Academy of Art in Chicago. After moving to Madison, she worked as a freelance illustrator, portrait painter, and taught watercolor for the UW Extension.
Years of painting realistically has morphed into more sculptural work, which incorporates vintage and found objects into her jewelry, mosaic water pieces, and bird sculptures. Luann’s jewelry can be found at River Arts on Water Gallery in Prairie Du Sac, and Longbranch Gallery in Mineral Point.
Workshops
David Southward grew up in southwest Florida and earned degrees in English from Northwestern and Yale Universities. Since 1998 he has taught in the Honors College at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. A two-time winner of the Lorine Niedecker Prize, David’s collections include Bachelor’s Buttons (Kelsay Books 2020) and Apocrypha, a sonnet sequence based on the Gospels (Wipf & Stock 2018). In 2019 his poem “Mary’s Visit” received the Frost Farm Prize for Metrical Poetry. David resides in Milwaukee and Mineral Point with his husband, Geoff, and their two beagles.
Workshops
Carole Spelić grew up with educator parents and no television, so since childhood she’s been making things in 2D and 3D. She graduated from Bates College (ME) with a BA in Fine Art and earned her MA and MFA from the University at Albany (NY).
After graduate school, Carole lived in Manhattan, New York City, for 17 years where she was assistant coordinator for the State University system’s Studio Semester in New York program.
She has retired from her senior lecturer position in the art area at the University of Wisconsin-Platteville. She also retired from being program director with Shake Rag Alley Center for the Arts, and is now a full-time artist, musician, workshop leader, and gallerist – Carole and her partner, painter Richard Moninski, own and operate Green Lantern Studios, a gallery of fine art and handicrafts in Mineral Point.
Her recent exhibitions include work at the Museum of Wisconsin Art (West Bend), a show at the Pump House (La Crosse, WI), award-winning work at the Center for Visual Arts (Wausau, WI), installations at the Evanston Art Center (Evanston, IL), and a one-person exhibition at the Nohr Gallery (Platteville, WI).
Workshops
I have been making woodblock prints since 2003, with an emphasis on water based, nontoxic, Japanese style printmaking called Moku-hanga. I grew up in Northern Illinois and love exploring nature and creating woodblock prints from what I find. I have a BFA in Drawing from Northern Illinois University and my work can be found at Long Branch Gallery in Mineral Point Wisconsin.
Workshops
Kim Suhr is Director of Red Oak Writing and author of Nothing to Lose (Cornerstone Press, 2018) and Close Call (forthcoming from Cornerstone Press, 2024). She leads Roundtables, teaches craft & publishing workshops, and provides manuscript critiques/developmental edits and coaching for individual clients. Her work has appeared in many journals including at Midwest Review, the Stonecoast Review and Wisconsin People & Ideas. She holds an MFA from the Solstice program at Lasell University where she was the Dennis Lehane Fellow in Fiction.
Workshops
Artist Jacqueline Sullivan expresses her creativity through mixed media, acrylic, and calligraphic paintings. Her works are unique expressions of adventure and discovery, each piece experimenting with texture, layers, color, unusual materials, calligraphic marks, and words. In addition to technical precision, personal artistic development is intrinsic to her practice.
Jacqueline is a teaching artist with more than 30 years of experience. She has developed and presented many classes at art centers, colleges, guilds, and online. She is a certified Golden Artist Educator, making her a specialist on acrylic products and techniques. She is known for her multidiscipline workshops given at top art retreats as well as art and calligraphy guilds in the U.S. and Canada. She has also served as faculty for several international calligraphy conferences.
Jacqueline’s work has appeared in many publications, including Astarte’s Mega-Zine, Cloth Paper Scissors, Pages, and Somerset Studio, as well as calligraphic journals. Her work has been published in the book AcrylicWorks 4: Captivating Color the Best of Acrylics and Acrylic Works 6. Her bestselling DVD, Acrylics: Textures, Layers, and Metallics, is published by Creative Catalyst Productions.
Her widely collected work has been shown in galleries and top-juried art fairs nationwide. In addition to garnishing the walls of collectors and inspiring thousands of students through her teaching, Jacqueline has enriched her painting practice by using her degree in graphic design, working for many years as a publication, marketing, and advertising designer. She paints and lives in Cincinnati, Ohio.
Workshops
The duo 85% (riffing on chocolate) is made up of Katrin Talbot and Parry Karp.
Australian-born Katrin Talbot is assistant principal viola of the Madison Symphony Orchestra and has played chamber music with the Pro Arte Quartet, Bach Dancing and Dynamite Society, the Red Hot Lava Chamber Music Festival, and the Oakwood Chamber Players. She is also a poet, and has eight collections out, including her latest, Wrong Number. and has recently been nominated for two Pushcart Prizes in Poetry.
Cellist Parry Karp is Artist-in Residence and the Graebner Professor of Chamber Music and Cello, at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he is director of the string chamber music program. He has been cellist of the Pro Arte Quartet for the past 45 years, the longest tenure of any member in the quartet’s over 100 year history. He is also an active solo artist, performing numerous recitals annually in the United States, and has recorded six solo CDs. He is active as a performer of new music and has performed in the premieres of dozens of works, many of which were written for him, including concerti, sonatas and chamber music. Unearthing and performing unjustly neglected repertoire for cello is a passion of Mr. Karp’s. In recent years he has transcribed for cello many masterpieces written for other instruments. This project has included performances of all of the Duo Sonatas of Brahms.
Workshops
85%: Cello, Viola, and New Poetry
Cyn Tennant is a self-taught painter/sculptor/assemblage artist living in Ada, Michigan. She has taught numerous classes over the last 10 years in the west Michigan area. Cyn’s style of art is quirky and twisted with a heavy dose of humor reflected in her Halloween-themed pieces; her teaching style emphasizes humor and encourages students to step outside the box and create totally unexpected artwork! She suffers from essential tremors, so rest assured that she understands and can help each student manage their own dexterity challenges.
Workshops
Lisa Thill is a mixed Media artist, Art Journal Creator and Papercrafting enthusiast. She lives in Stoddard, WI along the beautiful Mississippi with my husband of 30 years, Dan. Creating is her passion and she does several “hands on” classes a year and loves inspiring others to step out of their comfort zone and experience new mediums. She has been published several times in Somerset Studio and Art Journaling magazines and loves seeing her creations “in print”. She’s working on creating online classes for the future and keeps busy waitressing at the local supper club on the weekends for fun money and new supplies. The focus for her art is to reuse, repurpose and recycle as much as she can by incorporating it in her art and classes.
Workshops
FeLion is inspired and run by artists Alisa Toninato & her partner, Andrew McManigal. Through her cast iron artworks & vibrant studio community, Toninato exposes the true grit & culture of DIY iron artists to her city, the country & the globe.
FeLion Studios is a design / build sculpture studio specializing in cast iron art, custom castings and commercial commissions. We’re driven by a craft-centric methodology that strives to exceed expectations in every aspect of our process, from concept to design and into the final finish.
Workshops
Bob Tuftee has been blacksmithing almost 30 years now. “I started out making ironware for my camping gear doing Mountain Man rendezvous events.” Bob lives in LeClaire, Iowa, and has done all kinds of blacksmithing, including forge work for his business, Upper Mississippi Valley Mercantile Company. He has sold to re-enactors across the country and has also sold ironware to movie and production companies. He has been the village blacksmith at Pioneer Village in Scott County Park, Davenport, Iowa, for the past 25 years, plus teaching and leading workshops at the Old Blacksmith Shop at the Galena History Museum in Illinois. Bob is an active member of ABANA (Artist Blacksmith Association of North America), IVBA (Illinois Valley Blacksmith Association), and UMBA (Upper Midwest Blacksmith Association), and is currently a board member of UMBA. He has taken several advanced blacksmithing classes throughout the years. Most of his blacksmithing work is done in a coal forge. Bob retired in 2012. He worked almost 45 years in skilled trades as a millwright and certified welder, the last 28 at Alcoa in the Davenport area.
Workshops
Sherry Viktora is a senior instructor in silver metal clay. She brings a love of nature and gardening to her art and an enthusiasm for sharing to her teaching. She combines metal clay with glass and organic materials to create unique work. After receiving PMCC certifications and art clay instructor certification, Sherry retired to become a full-time senior instructor. Sherry’s work has been published in national art and jewelry magazines and can be found at Longbranch Gallery in Mineral Point.
Workshops
Fine Silver Rings in a Day – May
Fine Silver Rings in a Day – August
Fine Silver Leaves from the Garden
Nancy retired from the world of graphic design and business ownership. With a degree in art and as part of her new journey, she is teaching playful art classes, taking creative classes and exploring the world of ceramic art and traveling whenever she can.
Workshops
18 Shake Rag St.
Mineral Point, WI 53565
(608) 987-3292
