Visual Storytelling: A Creative Aging Class

Claire Obermarck is a traditional oral Storyteller who specializes in British & Celtic folktales. She has worked extensively with all ages for schools, festivals, prisons, recovery programs, historians, archeologists, architects, government professionals, health services and charities. She was honored to be invited by Scottish Parliament to tell before leaving.

Claire is the former Chair & programmer of Edinburgh’s oldest Storytelling club ‘The Guid Crack’ and was mentored by Master Storyteller David Campbell amongst others.

She provides workshops through the City Chambers Artist in the Classroom Directory, hosts Storytelling by the Friends Fireside at Sedona Public Library, and special Storytelling events at the Sedona Center for Harmony & Enrichment.    

Jan Marc “The Janimal” Quisumbing hails from Jersey and is a graduate of the Mason Gross School of the Arts, Rutgers University (NJ). He’s a regular exhibitor at comic conventions across the country and serves as the acting president of the Northern Arizona Cartoonist Association (NAZCA).

His high fun style has become a firm favourite for workshops and demo’s for over a decade in AZ, often accompanied by his popular book Time Shark, yes, it’s a time travelling shark! He is an award-winning chili chef who resides with his loving family and 3 crazy cats.  He and Michael Phelps have a combined 28 Olympic medals.

Follow his work on Instagram at #thejanimaldraws

“Every painting begins with investigation into the subject.  Every artist is then challenged to infuse that knowledge with the skills they have accumulated in their art ‘toolbox’. My goal as an instructor is to motivate and assist artists where they are and encourage them to learn and refine those talents to create their best Masterworks.”

I was raised on the west coast, lived and worked in Colorado for 35 years and now live full time in Sedona, AZ. I have also been involved in the regional arts in Arizona these last 15 years. I participate in exhibitions at Sedona Arts Center, Sedona Visual Artists Coalition Open Studio events, Artlink shows in Phoenix, AZ, and many national juried exhibitions around the country.  I am an environment-focused artist, whose objective is to create a visual that connects people with wild nature. I am also an avid birdwatcher and made nature documentaries for television. My detailed watercolors are large works on paper, done in the ‘narrative style’ that often touches on important social and environment concerns.

I teach drawing, watercolor, and mentor artists and friends with creative projects. Currently, I am writing a series of inspirational nature books based on my travels and sketch journals containing stories of wildlife about the interesting people I encountered both in North and South America.

Presently my paintings are traveling in a national exhibition “Environmental Impact II” 2019-2024, an exhibit compiled of 26 national artists whose art shows the effect and demands humans put on their environments throughout the world, bringing to the forefront pressing and critical issues facing global communities in the next decades.

I am fully vaccinated for Covid-19.

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