Josie Colt (she/they)
I am a Portland Based artist and community organizer with a love for visual storytelling. My preferred mediums range from comics and animation to portraiture and puppetry. I love to share my passion for art making and learning with kids and young adults in schools and in summer camps. I believe art is for everyone, and I try to bring it to the public through ventures like Portraits As You Pass, Portland Drawing Group, and Animation Planet.
Jessica Ping DePaiva (she/her)
In our family each day includes outdoor fun from trail walks to gardening to beach scavengers. Alongside my five-year-old we come home with our hands, pockets, and even sometimes buckets filled with pinecones, flowers, rocks, driftwood, and seashells. We often bring nature inside with us and enjoy recreating our items into anything from decorations to living terrariums. I studied art at Wheaton College (MA) and in Florence, Italy. In addition to working in art and architecture in New York I have also worked with students domestically and abroad from elementary to higher ed. I have a great appreciation for diversity and drawing from your culture and the environment around you.
Ted de Mille (he/him) and Susan Pelis (she/her)
Hi, I am Ted DeMille, a teacher, writer, musician, artist, and nineteen-year veteran of Art Camp. For forty years I have woven music, collage, painting, and drama into the curriculum of his elementary school classes in Massachusetts, Cape Elizabeth, The Center for Teaching and Learning in Edgecomb, Maine, and most recently at 317 Maine Community Music. In 2007, I published the critically praised book Making Believe on Paper for Heinemann Press about how to teach young children to write quality fiction literature. As a musician I have performed all over New England as a member of various roots music bands, and as a solo artist. I have also recorded several compact discs and written over one hundred songs for kids and grown-ups. Currently at 317 I teach Family Classes, ukulele, and guitar to musicians aged one to eighty-one. I will be joined by Susan Pelis, an experienced teacher and collagist who has collaborated with me at Art Camp for over fifteen years. Susan Pelis is a talented teacher and artist in Western Massachusetts. We can’t wait to meet you and your emerging artists!
Leonid Eichfeld (he/him)
Hello wonderful reader! My name is Leonid Eichfeld (he/him/his) and I am excited to be a teaching artist at Bowdoin Summer Art Camp this year. I am a lifelong artist who was brought up in Southern and Midcoast Maine's vibrant arts community. As a seasoned interdisciplinary educator, I know play, collaboration, and creativity are integral to joyous learning. I am also a member of Inventing Trees puppetry troupe, blending together found object puppet making, community building, and performance arts. In my free time when I’m not making art, I love exploring outside with my tiny dog Bumba.
Yasamin Holland (she/her)
Teaching art is a joy. I taught pre-school through high school visual art and arts integration in public, private, and charter school settings. I worked in the education and development departments at the Denver Art Museum and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. I’ve worked as a freelance fashion stylist, designed children’s clothing, homeware, and co-produced a short film featured in Barcelona Arte Contemporaneo’s exhibition La Piel. When not teaching art or parenting my two young children, I enjoy making sustainable embroidery, collage, and personal styling. I am interested in creating optimal conditions for learning, which includes an abundance of choice, positive support, community building, and an emphasis on the creative process. I have a longstanding passion for broadening young people’s perceptions of what art is and can be, what creativity is and can be. I have an MA in Educational Psychology from the University of Colorado, Denver and sixteen years of classroom teaching experience. During the school year I am the art teacher at Friends School of Portland. It is a pleasure to return as the director of the Bowdoin Summer Art Camp for the fourth summer, along with a fabulous team of artists and educators. I look forward to connecting with you this summer!
Sophia Kovacs (she/her)
I am a rising sophomore at Middlebury College in Vermont, but I’ve grown up in Bath, Maine. I am interested in studying climate science and am passionate about environmental justice and sustainability. I love art, especially collage, printmaking, and photography. My current endeavors include (but are not limited to) learning how to throw on a pottery wheel and shooting/developing my own film! When I’m not creating art, in my free time I enjoy being outside, cooking, and playing guitar. I’m returning to work at art camp for my third summer and can’t wait to meet you all!
Sarah Navin
I'm a fiction author and visual artist living in Bridgton with my partner and two kitties! I'm currently working on a scripted audio project called Darker Further Down, adapting a webcomic of the same name that I write and illustrate. My comic "Trapfixer" opens Let Her Be Evil, a forthcoming comic collection that celebrates nefarious women in fiction. I'm interested in all things whimsical and eerie, and in my work with budding artists, I like to follow the inherent weirdness of youth wherever it may lead. I'm stoked to be joining the camp team for 2024!
Audrey Parker (she/her)
My name is Audrey Parker and I am an art teacher who loves to teach paper craft and painting. I have taught Pre-k through 8th grade at St. Brigid, high school at Deering High School, and adults through private classes and a paint club! My artistic practice revolves around creating realistic paper flowers and watercolor paintings with paper sculpture elements, focusing on nature and our connection to it. I graduated from MECA in 2021 with my master's in art education and in 2019 with a B.F.A. in Painting and a minor in Art History. Outside of teaching and my artistic practice, my main interests are fiber arts, baking and reading.
Izzy Van den Heuvel (she/her)
Hello, my name is Izzy. I am a printmaker and artist, currently working as the Printmaking Technician and Artist-as-Residence at the Maine College of Art and Design. I work primarily in print and book arts, but I am always exploring new ways of making, whether it be cross stitch or digital modeling. I tend to approach making as a puzzle with the intent of finding alternate modes of storytelling. I look forward to sharing my love of puzzles and stories with you all this summer.
Alice Webber (she/her)
Hi all, my name is Alice and I am so grateful to be part of Art Camp this summer. Most of my life I have leaned on art as the way to ground and center myself. As a kid, I'd steal away from the chaos of our bustling house to hide under my bed and make storybooks, design Barbie clothes, or just draw. After studying Fine Art at SUNY Purchase, I began working in the conservation field and have been able to combine my love of drawing and the outdoors through multiple illustration endeavors and building trails, is an art form in and of itself. Now as a working mom with a busy family schedule, I cherish the evenings spent on projects, losing all track of time (and staying up way too late). My daughter and I have most recently been exploring watercolors, sewing, and lots of face-painting! I hope all our young artists can spend some time this summer drawing because we love to feel the pen move across paper, painting with every color because we love to see the whole page covered, and creating the time and space for crafting art because the joy of art is for everyone.
