About
Who we are
Monique Maria Philpot
|
Guest Facilitators
Andrea Oedingnature mentor, land steward and farmer, wild foods chef, amateur botanist, lifelong crafter, and Soulcraft digital media content creator
Andrea has dedicated her life to learning the language of the land. She finds hope from the magic of connecting deeply with the world and interactions with people and places. She grew up exploring the forests of southern Indiana, swinging on grapevines, uncovering animal bones, and learning how to walk quietly through the trees. She has been teaching and sharing her knowledge and love of nature for over 20 years. Maybe you have been on one of her wildflower hikes, watched her passionately talk about the live owl she used to bring to schools, saw her warm smile and enthusiasm as you dropped off your young child to their first forest school class, or volunteered alongside her planting trees. Currently working on a small market farm in Brown County with her partner, they grow vegetables and strive to provide healthy and delicious food alternatives to our community. She feels the most alive when wandering the woods without time constraints and losing herself to thoughts and daydreams while working on a project with her hands for hours, especially if it’s around a fire. Andrea creates a supportive environment for children and adults to investigate the wildness of nature and the wild places within themselves. We’re thrilled to have her as a mentor at many of our kids' classes, where she nourishes the curiosity and sharp observation kids inherently have while gently guiding each into a deeper connection with the natural world. |
Amy Leyenbeckartist, kairomancer, vice-president of community impact at United Way, harpist
I have been expressing myself through collage for over 20 years. I have facilitated many workshops over the years related to ritual, spirituality, art, and leadership. I love living in Bloomington, being outside as much as possible, and finding new ways to grow! |
Paolo Ansaldopoet, storyteller, nature mentor, blacksmith
Paolo Ansaldo is Bloomington born and raised and is about to start his sophomore year at Indiana University, pursuing a bachelor's degree in Exercise Science and a minor in Parks and Recreation. Nature and the outdoors have always been a major part of his life and he started taking wilderness education classes at seven years old. He started blacksmithing with Jack Brubaker at 10 years old, and Jason Nichols at 14 years old. He has been blacksmithing now for over eight years and has contributed major projects to various organizations like the Bloomington Community Orchard, by creating their wrought iron gate. Over a decade later he still loves being outside, fire, and blacksmithing has decided to start to pass on the knowledge he has accumulated throughout the years through mentoring in the community. You can find him at Soulcraft Bloomington's Community storytelling nights or Blacksmithing classes!
|
Michelle Becker Boshears, RNMichelle has been connecting with land since a young age, when she would steal away to the small woods and railroad-bed prairie behind her home and write poetry, check on the daffodil shoots under Wisconsin snow, and watch monarchs visiting purple prairie flowers. That deep land connection continues to be a vein throughout her life and work - as a gardener, avid learner of plant medicines and healing, and even as a registered nurse. She formally studied at the California School of Herbal Studies in 2011 and has continued self-study for the 12 years since, particularly focusing on Midwest natives and herbs for mental health. Michelle has been a clinical nurse in the family practice setting since 2014, is a certified Nutrition Consultant through Bauman College, has done numerous one-on-one consultations, and has taught various herbal workshops, including co-creating and co-leading a seven-month immersive program. Michelle has two curious children and together they find magical, wild places wherever they are, learning from the plants and creatures within them.
|
Nina Montenegrovisual artist, illustrator, biophiliac, and culture transformer
Montenegro's practice crosses disciplines to advocate for an ecologically-vibrant and socially-just future. Her work has been featured in publications worldwide. She is co-founder and co-creative director of the design studio The Far Woods, with her sister Sonya, where they seek to contribute to a great Culture Shift in which there is a land ethic, a reverence for nature, a rejection of the dominant throw-away mentality, and direct connection to where our food and the things we use come from. Many of their artworks serve as educational tools and inspiration for deepening relationship to nature, food, and community. Their practice crosses disciplines, including teaching handcraft skills, beekeeping, and growing food, to work toward an ecologically-viable and socially-just future. Published books: Mending Life by Nina and Sonya Montenegro, A Year in the Garden by Nina and Sonya Montenegro, Three Year Garden Journal by Nina and Sonya Montenegro Instagram: @thefarwoods and @nimonte |
Allison Strangphotographer, artist, dancer, relationship coach, feng shui dealer, nature mentor and poet
Nourished by the great lakes, inspired by the unique dunescapes of Michiana, as a child I found solace in nature. Holding space for others to navigate their unique lifepaths in the hills and valleys of this piece of turtle island is to feed the hunger to belong. The lessons of life can be difficult and the elements around can impart knowledge and expand consciousness. I feel most alive while dancing and embodying plant powers. You can find me striving for harmony in multidimensions because we depend on each other to live, remember?
Allison has been a lead mentor at Chickadee girls camps for many years, and a valuable part of the Soulcraft community- helping behind the scenes to make many events happen, along with mentoring many children in classes and camps as well. She also leads a teen girls empowerment circle at North high school once a week. |
Katherine Novotny, Registered Herbalist, (AHG)I am a clinical western herbal educator and practitioner who comes from a long line of Eastern European artists and green-thumbed matriarchal influences. As a professional Member of The American Herbalist Guild, I believe in seasonal preventative healthcare and strive to empower my clients and students to pursue healing through kitchen potions, small gardens, and deepening the connection to our local forests. My passion for holistic health started in 2007, when I moved to the San Francisco Bay Area, where I spent 10 years learning the healing properties of both Eastern and Western plants and fungi. While living in Oakland CA, I taught an extensive herbal apprenticeship program (2013 - 2016) and was the head staff adviser for a donation-based, community herbal clinic at the Berkeley Herbal Center. I also extensively studied Ding lineage Pulse and Tongue Diagnosis under the mentorship of Dr. William Morris. I’ve hosted countless herbal workshops at various herb-related gatherings and grade schools throughout the country. For the last 6 years, I’ve continued to facilitate the Herbal First Aid Wellness Den at Spirit Weavers Gathering, where 500+ women gather celebrating a life in harmony with nature.In 2017, I returned to Bloomington Indiana and created the Indiana Herbal Center, where I see clients for one-one herbal consultations and make hand crafted, custom formulas, tinctures, salves, and teas. I’ve cultivated an extensive organic garden (with honey bees and a mushroom farm), where I’ve grown most of the herbs used in the apothecary - holding to the belief that there really is medicine growing in YOUR backyard. When I am not communing with wild plants and people, you can find me at the Orbit Room (local restaurant/music venue), thrifting, or hanging with my dog Arrow. I'm excited to be hosting my classes at the Soulcraft Studio and land!
|
Natalie Kuzma KravchukNatalie Kravchuk is a first-generation Ukrainian American and a fifth-generation pysanka writer who uses wax-resist and colored dyes to create intricate patterns on the surface of eggs. She began learning from her grandfather in their family home in Hartford, Connecticut when she was just four years old. “I was writing on eggs before I was writing on paper,” she says. Like her grandfather, Natalie believes the importance of the tradition lies in sharing it with others.
Natalie is currently a Master Artist in the 2023 Traditional Arts Indiana Apprenticeship cohort, teaching the art of Pysanky writing to her apprentice Gabriela Coolidge. |
lilian millerpainter, stained glass artist, nature mentor, musician
Lilian Miller is a lifelong lover of all things art and nature. Born into a family of artists she was able to explore a wide range of visual art forms from a young age. She was raised in the Forrest of southern Indiana and developed a deep appreciation for the natural world. She has continued to grow her skills in nature and arts and has worked in outdoor education since 2019. She continues to express herself through her art. She specializes in painting, drawing, and stained glass. She looks forward to sharing her knowledge and learning new things through the Soulcraft community. |
Amy Dunnprofessional artist, singer, songwriter
In 2013, with the help of a friend, Amy Dunn remembered she was an artist and has been creating consistently ever since. Working professionally in digital mixed media and passionately on paper and canvas, her portfolio is bursting at the seams. Working in a unique style she has developed that is both evocative and vibrant — a blend of intuitive surrealism and abstract expressionism — has allowed her to heal, grow, and find peace without being constrained by the limits of the traditional art world.
Writing and performing music has been another vehicle for Amy’s creative expression over the last 15 years. What began as a way to relieve boredom with a guitar and notepad quickly evolved into a healthy way to cope with life’s ups and downs. She now participates in several different community singing organizations including Threshold Choir, a worldwide choir that sings to people on their journey with the support of Hospice. This was one of her late mother’s passions and she continues on in her honor — finding joy and surprising healing when voices are joined together in song. |
Duncan Waterfordwoodworker, spoon and bowl carver extraordinaire
Duncan grew up about 18 miles outside of Bloomington on 40 acres. His father was a woodworker and he assisted him until his late 20s. When Duncan was in his mid-30s he noticed someone selling a spoon they had carved and without any reference or guidance he started carving spoons for a number of years. After taking a little break from it he discovered a spoon gathering in Minnesota which opened his eyes to the whole world of green wood working and he has been steadily increasing his skillset ever since. Along with teaching spoon carving at Soulcraft Bloomington, you might find him at the Hoosier Sloyd gatherings, or on the B Line carving. |
Ileana Haberman Duceyfiber artist, comic artist
Ileana is a fiber artist who has been creating embroidered self portraits for over 15 years. Her work is a practice of giving voice to her own stories and physical experiences using bodies, patterns, and the natural world. She creates embroideries, clothing, quilts, illustration, and comics and facilitates workshops in these mediums, for kids and adults. Ileana lives in Bloomington, IN, and is most interested in explorations of queerness, body, grief, and self. Many of her inspirations hit while hiking the hills of Southern Indiana with her young dog, Willow. |
Stacey DeckerCommunity builder, organizer, gardener extraordinaire, lover of nature, educator
Stacey Decker has found that an important aspect of her life is the process of creating in order to connect with each other and the earth. This has led her to form many of her passions including: community building, listening and learning from one another and the natural world(plants and animals are such wonderful teachers), asking questions, and being in the woods as much as possible. She very much enjoys her family farm project(Stanford Farm) where she tends the soil and grows and connects through plants, food, and community. She finds joy and inspiration in their gardens, greenhouses, farm stand and kitchen. She has been involved in many wonderful community projects and is currently doing volunteer and project coordination with Indiana Solar For All(a non-profit that creates solar power access). For the past 20 years Stacey has been home schooling which has included educating and learning with many children. This has led to learning cooperatives, circuses, plays, cranky storytelling, cooking, planting, journaling, puppet making, science exploration, paper mache projects, traveling, and creating lasting relationships. She looks forward to continuing to help create a welcoming learning environment at Soulcraft Bloomington. |
Jill SchimmelpfennigLicensed Acupuncturist, Traditional Chinese Medicine Practitioner, Certified Bioenergetics Practitioner, and Qigong Instructor
Jill enjoys teaching people ways to incorporate Traditional Chinese Medicine and Bioenergetics into their lives. Her favorite modality for accessing healing, altered states of consciousness, and reaching greater potential for herself and clients is through Qigong (pronounced chee-kong). Nationally Certified Acupuncturist (NCCAOM certified) She graduated from Southwest Acupuncture College in Albuquerque, NM, in 2011, receiving her Masters in the Science of Oriental Medicine. She treats pain issues of various kinds, gynecological issues, hormonal balance, infertility, insomnia, and/or depression, among other things. Qigong Instructor and Practitioner Jill practices Qigong daily for self care, inner cultivation, and personal peace and happiness. She teaches online 2 days a week via Zoom. She is a Master’s Path Medical Qigong Instructor through Zen Wellness. She is practitioner of Chi Lel Qigong with completion of training of in Medicine Begins with Me. Bioenergetics Practitioner with NES energetics She is a certified Bioenergetics practitioner through NES energetixs. NES energetix was created by Harry Massey and Peter Fraser in 2006, explaining the quantum physics of the body. This system implements the meridian system of Chinese Medicine and beyond. You can find more information or schedule an appointment with Jill here: www.evolvehealthllc.com |
Rebecca SamplesSound Healer, Energy Worker, Earth Medicine Practitioner, Sister Circle Leader, and Spiritual Life Coach
I guide you into deep healing using sound and energy techniques. We are all made of vibrations, so feed yourself Good Vibes!
As a lifelong musician and naturalist, I have always used sound and earth medicine in my own life to heal. I have had quite a journey with many, many battles ( just like you!) and have gathered medicine along the way. Using my love of nature, music and my passion for cultivating a joyful and inspired life, I infuse each session with the medicine that has been shown to me by God and our good green earth. I step out of the way during healing sessions to be a light-filled conduit for the Divine! https://www.soundhealingstrings.com/ |
Chelsea Holden-Gurney
Weaver, gardener, lover of color and life
As a weaver and gardener raising two kids in the countryside of Bloomington, Chelsea has an ever-evolving relationship with simplicity and spirituality. She is drawn to a life that honors slow craft, solitude and relationship as teachers, and presence with what is. Her creative practices tend to be meditative in nature, seeking to draw both herself and those who interact with her art into sensual experiences around common feelings. Join her for a natural dye workshop to learn how easy and accessible it is to dye with food and plants that are found in everyday life.
As a weaver and gardener raising two kids in the countryside of Bloomington, Chelsea has an ever-evolving relationship with simplicity and spirituality. She is drawn to a life that honors slow craft, solitude and relationship as teachers, and presence with what is. Her creative practices tend to be meditative in nature, seeking to draw both herself and those who interact with her art into sensual experiences around common feelings. Join her for a natural dye workshop to learn how easy and accessible it is to dye with food and plants that are found in everyday life.