Ninety Twenty Studios is a wonderful gem! This is my first time ever working with metal, and I love…read moreit. The faculty I am working with, Tayja Danger, and owner Christine Clark are awesome, and I hear great things about the rest of this vibrant art community. The MOST important thing to me is communication and accessibility, and Christina was wonderful in responding to emails and she ANSWERED the phone when I called. Twice! ;-) If you're interested in MAKING, check this place out!

What a lovely way to learn how to create art, and to learn something about yourself at the same…read moretime. So much of what Phil teaches spills into other areas of life too--areas where perfectionism and self-criticism reside. He helps us be more gentle with ourselves as we approach creativity. The energy in the room is not competitive, it is supportive and helpful. People return, year after year, to retake the "beginner" classes, in part to stay in touch with the beginner mindset and sense of wonder. The Drawing Studio is wonderful!

If you're looking for an art class where the instructor shows you how to hold your brush to paint…read moreclouds, this is not the class for you. Phil Sylvester does something much more valuable: he helps you to ignore critical thinking when you paint (or draw--he has drawing classes, too). Keeping your left brain from sabotaging your artwork can be a formidable task for some people, myself included. Phil basically helps you become that 5 year old kid with crayons again, where you have no expectations of what your art is supposed to be. His exercises encourage you just to paint, while he cites mantras from himself and other artists amid occasional music. This process leads you down a path where you find yourself and lose yourself at the same time. I can honestly say, in the short time I have been painting, that Phil has made me a better artist. Any class which does that is a good thing. So I suggest taking classes that teach techniques and color theory as well as taking the types of classes offered at the Drawing Studio. Every time you expand your horizons as an artist your soul will benefit.

wonderful crafts for the kids and Jen is very engaging with the kids, we had a great time and can't…read morewait for the next one.

Glass artist extraordinaire. Go feast your eyes on beautiful glass. Buy yourself a gift that will…read morespend a lifetime making you happy.

I started with glass fusing at one of those places where you come in, you pick a pre-defined…read moreproject and then hand it over to the facilitator - you come back later to pick up the final piece. I enjoyed that and did it a couple of times. I wanted to do more however I didn't have all of the equipment you need to finish a piece of glass (kiln, grinder, sandblaster, diamond saw). The equipment is both massive and expensive. Some of it is very dusty (sandblaster) and other pieces require water supply (grinder, saw). Some requires special ventilation (kiln, sandblaster) and a lot of knowledge to use these pieces safely. My next step was to take a couple of classes with Bullseye, again, somewhat pre-defined projects with limited opportunity to go in your own direction. The good news is that they offer "studio time" which allows you to use their equipment, for a fee. Finally I met Nathan. While he didn't invent the vitrigraph kiln, he did a lot of original innovation in what can be done with it and has taught classes far and wide to others who want to learn his process. He is also very experienced and talented with kiln glass - creating your design in a piece of glass, perhaps dropping it through a mold to create a vase or a bowl and then all of the "cold work" that I alluded to above. Nathan is a great teacher and after taking a couple of on-line classes from him, I've taken a class from him in his studio. I've made a couple of projects there and I am continuing to go back to work on other projects, expanding on the knowledge I've accumulated. When I started my most recent class I was not very successful with cutting circles of glass. Nathan identified part of the problem was that I had a similar but not the right tool. The other part was to get out of my head and just do it until I was comfortable. Now I'm feeling very comfortable cutting circles, loading terracotta pots with glass, pulling cane (rods of glass) out of the bottom of the vitrigraph kiln and chopping those up into murrini and moving them on through other processes. Nathan is available to answer questions as I am assembling my work, his studio has all of the equipment I need to create my own projects and it's more affordable than Bullseye. I am eager to see what he still has to teach me as I keep moving forward in my own learning. He is also an artist that creates a variety of pieces that you can purchase for your home or a gift. Additionally, he makes very high quality molds that will likely outlast you unless you drop them. Finally, if the finished piece of glass or the molds he has on offer aren't exactly what you are looking for, he might consider taking on a commission to make exactly what you want. I highly recommend Nathan to people who want to get into kiln glass. He knows his stuff, has a well equipped studio that will take you as far as you like and his rates are very reasonable.

Gesso Studios is a fun place for kids to be creative. Jaime, the owner, loves kids and art! She…read moremakes their whole experience; fun and gets their creative juices flowing. She offers camps in the Summer, we haven't tried one but they sounds amazing! Check out her studio and classes you won't be disappointed.

Gesso Studio is an amazing place for kids to express their creativity and bring to life anything…read morethey can imagine! The environment is SO wonderful and kids and parents alike love being in the space. Jamie is very creative and fun and kids adore her. Whether it be for a party, workshop or just to paint, she makes it special and creates a lasting memory for your kiddos. Lake O is lucky to have Gesso!

Carissa interpreted in ASL sign language for one of our recent meetings. It made me realize that we…read morereally need an ability facilitation request option for upcoming meetings on our website and that our videos should be closed captioned. Carissa interpreted an over hour meeting solo with a fast speaker and less familiar to many technical design subject material. I had a chance to communicate after with the individual who experienced the event through Carissa. They were happy. That makes us happy. Thanks!

Carissa recently volunteered to interpret at a fundraising event for my partner and I. She is a…read morewonderful individual to work with, I highly recommend them for any event!

I got to take classes with Brooke Totman and she is phenomenal! She helps students with their…read moreindividual needs and gives exact points to focus on. She really loves her craft and it showed, which in turn, made the class genuine and fun. I cannot express how much Brooke helped me grow in the span of 6 weeks. She helped me improve myself and made me want to continue along the path of acting. I highly recommend her class if acting is a passion of yours.

The Short: Ted Rooney is an incredible teacher, artist, and human. If you have the opportunity to…read morework with him, I highly recommend you do so. The Long: Ted single handedly gave me the fortitude to transition from stage to film, and made me feel in control and confident while doing it. When I came to Ted, I had recently graduated from theatre school, and though I had been acting on stage for years, I'd never really explored film. I wanted to be able to do both, but was overwhelmed on how to start. Enter Ted. He met with me, had me do an scene, and talked me through a specific, personalized, game plan for practicing film in class and on my own, based on where I was at in my career. Ted is a confident yet humble teacher, he's an artist at giving a small note that makes a big impact, and he keeps his direction focus, and (stressing this again) personalized. Now, years later, I am very fortunate to work almost primarily in film, and honestly have Ted to thank for jumpstarting my career. Finding a good acting coach can be difficult... Luckily, you can stop looking now. :)

I've worked with both Jamie and Alicia and found them both to be excellent teachers, extremely…read moreknowledgeable, and professional. My 1-hour mac pages training session with Jamie had an immediate impact for my business, helping me learn the tools I needed to finish a number of important marketing documents. Alicia has been a great resource for getting un-stuck as I learn to use QuickBooks. I recommend her Quickbooks training to anyone seeking clarity in that complex program. Royalwise is a great value for the services they provide. Is there anything having to do with computers they can't do?

I have been working in Excel for close to 10 years and have always had the feeling I wasn't using…read moreit to its full capacity. I am now in a new career and just wanted to add some tools to help me be a bit more efficient and to make me more versatile in future job searches. I have taken the in person beginning lesson and have explored the online portal. Both were interesting and gave me usable skills within minutes. Alicia is fun and her office manager Jef are very helpful and great folks to work with.