Creative fun from home!

We are all sad about not being able to have Camp the summer of 2020, so Grace Art Camp has a gift for you! “Bright Spots” – short videos led by our artists to inspire fun and creativity for you and your families.

A special thanks to the Juan Young Trust for their generous support
of the Bright Spots videos!

Storyteller Will Hornyak weaves a wide web of beautifully crafted stories from oral traditions around the world.  A favorite at Grace Art Camp, he loves the music and rhythm of language, and fully engages campers in bringing traditional and original stories to life.  Will taught storytelling at Marylhurst University and Portland State University, is a guest lecturer at many colleges, and performs at festivals, schools, theatres, pubs and churches throughout the United States.  He has been a featured performer at the National Storytelling Festival in Jonesborough, Tennessee and at numerous regional festivals.  He was named Artist of the Year Young Audiences of Oregon and Southwest Washington. The National Storytelling Network awarded Will with the Brimstone Grant for his environmental education program: Living Streams: Stories for Healthy Watersheds. That program for K-6 schools, has educated and entertained over 60,000 students and teachers.  He lives in Milwaukie, Oregon not far from the Willamette River where he loves to paddle a canoe.  

Video and Sound Design by Orie Weeks

Join in with artist’s Ashley, Kristin and Paula as they put together ‘Wherever I Go, I’m Aglow’ Snail Mail Mural! Many thanks to the 80 past and present campers, CITs, Counselors, Artists and staff who enhanced a mural piece from home. Ashley Klump, who drew all the illustrations for the mural, is a painter and multimedia artist who finds inspiration in the natural world and scientific drawings. Passionate about providing access and knowledge with a variety of new art materials, curating a fun and creative space for people of all ages and experience levels, she earned her BFA and MA in Art Education. Ashley has worked to create inspirational art experiences for over 15 years.  She has been a studio artist at Grace Art Camp since 2018, and a teaching artist with the Right Brain Initiative since the fall of 2013. During the school year she does large-scale mural residencies where she helps students put together collaborative murals for their school walls, or smaller scale projects like multimedia book arts residencies where students create an art book to share illustrations and creative writing. Follow her art on Instgram @ashley.klump Kristin Koop, who handled organization and mailings, has been involved with Grace Art Camp for 23 years, beginning as a camper and joining the staff as an Artist in 2015. She has studied at San Francisco Art Institute, Portland State University, and Oregon College of Art and Craft. Kristin is the Church School Coordinator at Grace Memorial Episcopal Church and often teaches art projects to enrich her lessons. She taught as an Assistant Teacher at St. Gabriel Episcopal School, a small preschool based on the Reggio Emilia approach, which influenced both her teaching style and art practice to focus more on the art process and experience. Currently Kristin continues to work on her art when she is not nannying or being a “cat-couch”.  A lover of mark-making and painting, she currently focuses on the figurative and abstract in her work using varied painting and mixed-media techniques. Follow her art on Instagram @kristin.koop.studio Paula Benjaminson, our artist from Episode 6, assisted in this truly collaborative effort. 

Video and Sound Design by Orie Weeks

Create your own Lucet or French Knitter from home with artist Judee Moonbeam. Judee  is a long-time Grace Art Camp Artist, who spent 18 happy years in the Fibre Studio. Judee sold her first piece of wearable art through a small gallery in Old Town, at age 13. Even then, she was inspired by the idea of reclaiming fabrics (cutting up dress-up clothes with Mom’s permission) to create fun garments with printing, dyes and embellishment. With her degree in clothing design, she went to San Francisco, turning down a pattern-making job at Levi Strauss, for design work in a left-hand gift shop. Rather than follow a more focused career in fashion, Judee pursued a variety of successful artistic projects, from creating street banners to custom graduation stoles, fashion shows to accessory lines for retail stores. She sells her one-of-a-kind designs at festivals and galleries. She was a founding artist of Last Thursday on Alberta, is a member of the Portland Handweavers’ Guild, and has been a member of Local 14 for more than three decades.  www.judeemoonbeam.com.

Video and Sound Design by Orie Weeks

Artists Kelly and Robert inspire your next artistic adventure as they introduce you to stop motion animation. Robert Randall is a versatile artist, video-maker, instrument-maker and “creator of things fine and semi-fine.” He has been helping kids and semi-kids make their imaginations come to life for over a decade. At Grace Art Camps he has told stories and taught theatre, leads the popular GACimation studio, taught baking (his pies are legendary), and plays in the band!  Most years he works with hundreds of students in residency programs all over Oregon and Washington.  He is known to break out in sudden bursts of frantic congratulations and engages in regular (and semi-extravagant) high-fives.  You can see more about Robert’s creative range on his website. Kelly Campbell has been working with Grace Art Camp since 2010. They are a teaching artist, puppeteer, podcaster, and (brand new!) stop motion animator! Kelly has performed and taught puppet classes throughout the Pacific Northwest for the last 12 years with Tears of Joy Puppet Theatre and their own company, KCPuppetree. Kelly is currently working toward a master’s degree in teaching and will be soon found in a classroom near you!  Check out Kelly’s website for more information.

Video by Robert Randall Animations, by Kelly Campbell and Robert Randall Titles by Orie Weeks

In this episode you can create your very own Worry Dolls and Furry Worry Friends! Annie Rimmer-Weeks has always liked to make things and is pleased to be flexing her creative muscles for this week’s Bright Spot.  Since 2018, Annie has been working as the bookkeeper/business manager at Grace Institute. In addition to her time as a bookkeeper, she continues to work as an actor, costumer, director and marketing assistant for a local theatre company.  Annie has written, performed and produced original performances in Portland’s Fertile Ground Festival.  She also enjoys working in film and creating multimedia projections for the stage with her husband.

Video and Sound Design by Orie Weeks

Artist Paula Benjaminson offers a mini-class showing you how to make art with items that have cool shapes and textures — things you can find around the house.  Paula Benjaminson has taught Printmaking, Fibre Arts, Bookmaking and Paper Arts at Grace Art Camp since 2014.  An avid quilter and maker, she was most recently president of the Columbia Fiber Arts Guild.  She describes herself as “a former diplomat who’s crossed over into the world of fiber art.” Her posting in Namibia introduced her to the hand-carved wood printing blocks of Oshiwa designs, and she specialized in making textile art pieces with her hand-stamped fabrics for many years. Paula particularly loves teaching classes in fabric stamping (using those same stamps!). She also taught a variety of other quilting classes in Belgium, Burkina Faso, Namibia, Canada, Gabon, Kenya, and the US.

Video and Sound Design by Orie Weeks

GRACE ART CAMP! GRACE ART CAMP!  GIMME A…  Do you know the lyrics?  Do you remember the hand motions?  Returning camper or new, this week’s episode gives you a chance to relearn the words or practice the motions of our very own camp song — with music and lyrics by David Hall.  Special thanks this week to Robert Randall (creative lead), Mike Van Liew, and Kailee McMurran for the video creation, collaboration, singing, playing and performing the motions in this distanced version!  If you already know them, join our artists, counselors and staff to sing out and dance.  This will keep the magic of Grace Art Camp alive in your hearts until next summer.

Video creation and collaboration by Robert Randall

Have fun with Becky creating your own Journal. Becky “Slice” Schroeder graduated from Western Oregon University with a BFA in Illustration. Becky designs merchandise for Camp Namanu as well as freelances as an illustrator. This is Becky’s second summer at Grace Art Camp. When they aren’t at summer camp or painting, they spend their time working for Outdoor School in Vernonia, Oregon.  

Video and Sound Design by Orie Weeks

New to Grace Art Camp this year, Fibre Artist LuAnn Rukke, fell in love with fabric and design as a young child, and at 13 she was making wearable art and selling to boutiques. She received her degree in textile and apparel design from Collège LaSalle Montréal. After returning to Oregon, she spent many years working for Chanel and being inspired. She taught quilting in Kampala, Uganda and traveled the world looking for exotic fabrics and techniques.  In late 2001, she created her own shop Fibers in Motion in Multnomah Village, offering Portland gorgeous fabrics, classes for adults and children and an inspirational store filled with ideas grounded in her interest in color and international and contemporary fabrics.  LuAnn continues to create her own fibre art, teach and share her love of this incredible medium.

Video and Sound Design by Orie Weeks

Please enjoy this story of Two Goats performed by storyteller Alton Takiyama-Chung. Alton, who wonderfully tells two or three stories at Grace Art Camp each summer, is a Japanese-Korean storyteller, who grew up with the superstitions and the magic of the Hawaiian Islands.  He tells stories of Hawaii, of the Japanese-American experience of WWII, and Asian folktales, and has performed at the Timpanogas and the National Storytelling Festivals, and at international storytelling festivals in the Cayman Islands, Singapore, India, Vietnam, and Thailand.  He also is a former Chairman of the Board of Directors for National Storytelling Network, the national organization for US storytellers.  You can find out more about Alton at www.altonchung.com  or www.linkedin.com/in/altonchungstoryteller. 

Two Goats Paper Action Figures Print Out

Video and Sound Design by Orie Weeks

Please watch and enjoy Melissa’s Mandala Coasters! Melissa, who usually teaches in the clay and sculpture studio at Camp, received her Bachelor of Arts in Art History from the University of Illinois and has since worked with students in museums, schools and camps. To learn more about Melissa and her art visit her website, Etsy, or Instagram.

Video and Sound Design by Orie Weeks

Please watch and enjoy Kristin and Mariann’s Floral Lace Collage! This piece was originally inspired by the paper cuts of Henri Matisse. Kristin grew up in camp, attended San Francisco Art Institute, and teaches in the visual arts studios at camp. A lifelong maker and artist, Mariann is our Operations Manager and Registrar.

Video and Sound Design by Orie Weeks