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.
Elaine Luther is an independent studio artist working with textile fragments to shine a light on issues of women’s labor, lives and rights. She transforms handcrafted textiles with light reactive dye to change how people perceive the items. Her work has shown across the country and in the UK, including at the Garrett Museum of Art, the Jewish Museum Milwaukee, and the libraries and archives at the Bristol Art Museum and the Henry Sheldon Museum. A long time teaching artist, Elaine has taught a wide range of skills over the years and currently teaches shibori dyeing and quilting and garment sewing to classes of intergenerational students. Over the years she has taught at many art centers, libraries, and for guilds, including Lillstreet Art Center, the Indianapolis Art Center, 20 Neighborhoods with WMG, and Chicago Public Library. She has presented speeches at SECAC, Self-Employment in the Arts, FX Chicago, Northern Illinois University, Business of Arts Peoria, and more. Publications include the book, Give and Take; articles at Sixty Inches from the Center, Chicago Artist Resource, Moore Women Artists, and the Craft Industry Alliance. She is listed in the Chicago Artist Files and in the Reyerson Library Files at AIC. Her work is in the permanent collection of the Kolaj Institute, and the Henry Sheldon Museum and Archives.
Workshops
No-Mordant Natural Dyes: Indigo, Kakishibu, Iron Buff and Tea
Mara Manning is a painter based in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula and Colorado. Since retiring from teaching in 2017, she has devoted herself to exploring abstraction through oil and cold wax painting. Known for her masterful use of color, composition, and texture, Mara’s work has earned recognition in numerous juried exhibitions throughout the Midwest and Colorado over the past decade. Her paintings are represented by galleries in Colorado, Michigan, Tennessee, and Wisconsin.
A 1984 graduate of the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee’s Painting and Drawing program and a 1998 graduate of Lesley University in Arts and Education, Mara brings both technical skill and conceptual depth to her practice. Her process integrates stencils, printmaking techniques, and the layered application of cold wax and oil paint to create richly textured surfaces. Through the gradual buildup and partial obscuring of patterns, she invites viewers to discover subtle traces and hidden messages within each piece.
When not in her studio overlooking Lake Michigan or the sagebrush landscapes of Colorado’s Western Slope, Mara enjoys mountain biking with friends and exploring new trails with her cardigan corgi, Pippa.
Workshops
Deb Marett is a professional artist from Wisconsin. She works in watercolors and oils,
focusing on figurative and natural scenes. Her favorite time to paint outdoors is spring
and fall, when things start blooming and/or the trees start showing off their colors.
Deb Marett is a narrative figurative artist who loves blending imagination with
observation. Inspired by fairy tales, song lyrics, and literature, she often weaves stories
and symbolism into her artwork. In plein air painting, Deb finds joy in capturing the
ever-changing light and mood of the outdoors. She enjoys helping students slow down,
notice details, and express their own creative response to the landscape in a relaxed,
supportive atmosphere.
You can learn more about Deb and her work at http://www.debmarett.com.
Workshops
Andrea Matus is a visual artist living in Vancouver, BC, who exhibits as well as teaches her unique combination of painting, collage, assemblage, and sculpture throughout the world with collectors in Canada, the United States, Europe, and Australia.
In her art, Matus creates powerful visual statements of the role of women in both history and mythology. Through her culling of images from contemporary sources, historic iconography, travels, and original designs, a sense of surreal worlds is evoked. Combining color, symbolism and ornamentation, each motif is a transport to a different time, place, and culture. Through her process, discordant shapes and designs are manipulated to find harmony where at first there seems none. A part of the human experience is created when these collections form new narratives and meanings.
The improvisational nature of collage coupled with the very deliberate method of painting creates a balance of spontaneity and premeditation in her work.
Workshops
Ace, of Studio Luna Verde, wandered (and settled) into the shadow of the Rocky Mountains in Colorado after many years of exploring and hiking and driving all over the western U.S., living in beautiful locations like Point Arena, California / Moab, Utah / Flagstaff, Arizona. Experiences have included driving 1950s-era tour buses for Green Tortoise Adventure Travel / performing for a year with a three-ring circus / hiking into (and out of) the Grand Canyon so many times she’s lost count / living out of a ’72 Toyota Landcruiser for three (and a half) years while exploring the U.S. / and failing miserably at surfing on the Sea of Cortez in Baja California. She loves spicy chocolate, and lightening storms. Her largest creation thus far is having built her own studio, where she currently makes her eclectic jewelry and unabashedly embraces the art of imperfection.
Workshops
Michele Micarelli is a certified rug hooking teacher whose main objective is to unleash creativity. The classes she teaches are full of storytelling, imagination exercises, and laughter. She has been a rug hooker since 1991 and prefers using 3, 4 and 5 cut wool, mixed media, and linen for lots of detail but can teach all cuts.
Michele is proud to have served on the A.T.H.A. Region 1 board of directors for ten years. She is past President of the Northern McGown Teacher’s Workshop. She served as a judge for 15 years of Craft’s Adventure in New England and is pleased to have had her rugs appear in several editions of The Celebration of Rug Hooking. She has also been a judge and has been inducted into the Celebrations Rug Hooking Hall of fame. Her rugs appear in books by Linda Coughlin, Jessie Turbayne, Mary Sheppherd Burton, Amy Oxford, Aine Humble, Leslie Knight and Rae Harrell. She has been in several issues of Rug Hooking Magazine with articles that featured her dying skills and rugs made with imagination.
A teacher at many workshops, she has taught at Asilomar, Shelburne Museum, The Highlands Rug School, The ATHA Region 1 Rug School, Rugs by the Sea, the Burlington Ontario Rug School, Cambria, Caraway, The Star of Texas, Little River School, Historic Fraklin Rug Hooking Retreat, The Green Mountain Guild School, Sauder Village and The Rug Hooking Guild of Nova Scotia, among many others.
She was honored by The Green Mountain Guild in the “Strong Woman” show and has received the “Silver Hook Award” from the Newtown Historical Society Rug Show for her devotion to promoting fiber arts. She was named “Hooker of the Year” By the Rug Hooking Museum of North America in Queensland, Nova Scotia where she is Director at large. Her rugs have been shown in the US, Canada, and Tokyo.
Workshops
Sue Moberly spent 30 years as an art educator in the Madison Metropolitan School District. Most recently, as the Metal and Glass teacher at Madison West High School. Several years ago, she decided to pivot toward offering Metalsmith classes to the general public in the surrounding areas.
I have felt the pull of the torch flame since my first Art Metal class at the UW-Madison, with Professor Emeritus Fred Fenster. After earning my degree, I immediately entered Art Education, and have since taught Kindergarten through College adult students. I treasure the bonds and relationships that can be made while creating art.
Torn Edge Arts is the business name I chose several years ago, while selling my silver jewelry at Art Fairs. I am drawn to the concept that each of us has struggled, healed, grown, and continues to seek strength. The kind of strength and beauty that is born from those little torn edges inside. My own silver work is often stressed, reticulated, and shows the contrast between exposed and finished.
I have met so many wonderful artists throughout this journey, and I currently serve as the President of the Wisconsin Metalsmith Guild. Teaching and learning with others is my passion.
Workshops
Trained as a painter, Richard Moninski received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and a Master of Fine Arts from the State University of New York at Albany. He completed additional study in surface design at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City.
Moninski is strongly influenced by history, nature and numerous decorative arts traditions. His paintings and drawings have been exhibited nationally. Awards include a grant from the American-Scandinavian Foundation for research in Norway, and artist residencies at the Vermont Studio Center, Cuttyhunk Island, the Virginia Center for Creative Arts, Ragdale Foundation and the Roger Tory Peterson Institute. An educator with over twenty years of experience, he has employed diverse media and approaches in both his teaching and his studio practice. He resides in Mineral Point, WI where he co-directs an art gallery, Green Lantern Studios, with his partner Carole Spelić.
Workshops
Black and White Collage Portrait
Joanne is the author of the collection, My Neglected Gods, and the memoir, This is How We Leave, both available from Vine Leaves Press. Her award winning writing appears in numerous anthologies and literary journals and she has been a contributor to Lake Effect, her local NPR affiliate. Nelson lives in Hartland, Wisconsin where she develops and leads community programs. Over thirty years of experience as a psychotherapist allows Nelson to combine clinical expertise with her love of teaching to create programs that are research based, practical, and enjoyable. She holds an MFA from the Bennington Writing Seminars and an MSSW from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Workshops
Originally from Wisconsin, Amanda worked as a blacksmith’s apprentice in high school to save up for college. She studied Textile and Apparel Design in a connected program at both UW-Madison and the Fashion Institute of Technology in NYC. After a decade in New York, she moved back to Wisconsin and entered the Metal Fabrication program at Madison Area Technical College. After obtaining her Metal Fabrication and Welding Technical Diplomas, Amanda began teaching Art Welding and creating custom pieces for individual clients.
Workshops
Gary Warren Niebuhr is a found object, mixed media, collage and assemblage artist. Gary’s art has been included in exhibitions at Alverno College (Milwaukee, WI), Anderson Arts Center (Kenosha, WI), ARTgarage (Green Bay, WI), Cedarburg Cultural Center (WI), Fond du Lac Public Library (WI), Grafton Arts Mill (WI), Green Lantern Studios (Mineral Point, WI), Hilliard Gallery (Kansas City, MO), John Michael Kohler Arts Center (Sheboygan, WI), Kenosha Public Museum (WI), Ludington Area Center for the Arts (MI), Monmouth Museum of Art (NJ), Mount Mary University, (Wauwatosa, WI), Museum of Wisconsin Art (West Bend, WI), Re:Vision Gallery and Artist Studio (Kenosha, WI), Two Fish Gallery (Elkhart Lake, WI), Walker’s Point Center for the Arts (Milwaukee, WI), and the Wustum Museum (Racine, WI). A ten-year retrospective of Gary’s work was hung at the Milwaukee High School of the Arts in 2106. Gary was the curator of Connections, an exhibition of assemblage art at Re:Vision Gallery and Artist Studio (Kenosha, WI) in 2017. Gary had a solo exhibition of his art at the Anderson Arts Center (Kenosha, WI) in 2021 called Nailing Crap Together and Calling It Art. Gary has solo exhibitions of his art at the Green Lantern Studios (Mineral Point, WI) including 2022 called But I Know That and 2024 called Portrait Assemblage. In 2024, Gary was accepted into the 2024 Collage Retreat Residency at Kolaj Institute (New Orleans, LA). In 2025, Gary will have a solo exhibition at the Ludington Area Center for the Arts (MI).
Gary served forty years as a public librarian and now enjoys his retirement making art, take photographs, gardening and watching old films and current sports. Gary lives in Milwaukee, WI, with his wife Denice.
Workshops
Leslie Perrino is an artist and “art evangelist” who loves to share the power of art and creativity with people, particularly in her beloved areas of metals and enameling. Her artwork is a quirky mix of traditional and found objects, most recently combining computer/electrical components with enamels. She is a charismatic and effective teacher who encourages skill building and exploration of the medium.
Workshops
Kristin Peterson is a third generation artist, originally from South Dakota. Kristin’s creative passion is inspired and supported by her husband and kids, all who encourage, critique, and promote her work.
Kristin is always exploring and expanding the creative depths of being an artist. She very much enjoys vintage collage work and mixed media. Kristin loves color and things that have a love-worn comfortable feeling-like an old favorite pair of jeans-coffee stained, patched, painted and well loved. She wants her art to project feeling and make people feel good while looking at it. Her style contains vibrance mixed with a little funk, which is sprinkled with discreet sensibility.
Workshops
Andrea Pfeifer is a Wisconsin native artist and musician. After graduating from the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design with a BFA in painting, and Concordia University with a MS in Art Education, she served ten years in the military as a human resources specialist and cannon crewmember. Andrea is currently enrolled at the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee and will be graduating with an MFA in painting in 2026. Her work focuses on capturing the invisible and exploring the bounds of human perception.
Linda Pietz grew up in a family of artists, but her interest always lay in textile art even at the young age of four. Since graduating from college with a BFA, she has designed needlework for companies such as Bucilla, Dimensions, and even her own line of needlepoint and traditional rug hooking designs. Mrs. Pietz has taught art and arts and crafts for over forty-five years to ages ranging from kindergarten to adults and holds a teaching credential in both areas.…
Read MoreLinda Pietz grew up in a family of artists, but her interest always lay in textile art even at the young age of four. Since graduating from college with a BFA, she has designed needlework for companies such as Bucilla, Dimensions, and even her own line of needlepoint and traditional rug hooking designs. Mrs. Pietz has taught art and arts and crafts for over forty-five years to ages ranging from kindergarten to adults and holds a teaching credential in both areas. Not only has she taught in the locales where she has lived, but had had the opportunity to teach adults from coast to coast. She has had work featured in Woman’s Day and Family Circle magazines, written five books on various textile art subjects in addition to contributing to other books and magazines. She has won a number of awards for her work including the prestigious Sauder Award for the traditional rug hooked portraits of all the presidents. She recently taken on serving as president of the Art League of Ft. Bend and displays her work at the Ft. Bend Art Center in Rosenberg.
Alex is a full time parent and metal artist in Mineral Point. He enjoys creating sculptures in a wide array on subject matter, centering in nature, wildlife and repurposing scrap metal. Other interests include antique tools, machinery and construction. I like to build things.
Workshops
Han Raschka is a Pushcart-nominated feminist poet whose work focuses on personal and collective traumas, resilience, and queer existence. They have been published in various periodicals such as Anti-Heroin Chic, Eunoia Review, The Lake County Bloom, and CERASUS Magazine, among others. Their first collection, Splinters (Collapse Press) was released in 2022 and was nominated for the Edna Meudt Poetry Book Award. In 2023, they released a chapbook, Enamel (Bottlecap Press). They are the 2024 second place winner for the Wisconsin People and Ideas Contest. Han was a 2023 finalist for the Charles M. Hart Jr. Award and a 2024 finalist for the Therese Muller Memorial Nonfiction Award at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where they study creative writing. They currently reside in Madison, WI with their fiancée.
Workshops
Mining Your Stories Writing Retreat
I have a BS degree in art education, and taught art in the Stevens Point school district for over 20 years. I am a jewelry designer, using beads, chains, and vintage elements in my designs. I became interested in metal clay when I took a Shake Rag class years ago, taught by Sherry Viktora. Since then I have taken every class she has taught, and continue to explore the medium in my home studio. I am excited to share my love of this medium.
Workshops
For 38 years I worked for the Madison Metropolitan School District as their graphic artist before retiring. Prior to that I worked in 2 different ad agencies in Madison. I have been enjoying creating fun and out of the norm gourd projects for 20 years originally joining the Wis. Gourd Society in 2005. Through that, I was the co-editor for the gourd quarterly newsletter until WGS ended in 2020. My gourd art has been in the Monroe Art Gallery, Middleton Public Library, The Madison Civic Center and currently is with 2 art galleries and a retail store. I have taught a variety of gourd classes throughout Wisconsin and attend gourd workshops myself including out of state gourd workshops and festivals. There is so much more to still be experienced. It is a unique art form available to everyone and anyone.
Workshops
International Santa Claus Gourd Vases
Washi Egg Ornaments – Woodlanders Gathering
18 Shake Rag St.
Mineral Point, WI 53565
(608) 987-3292
