Helen Shafer Garcia – Painter, Mixed Media Artist and Award Winning Illustrator
Helen Shafer Garcia is a painter, mixed media, found object and assemblage artist and award winning illustrator. Her whimsical style shows a love for living creatively with a studio filled to the brim with found objects! She’s currently working with watercolor, pastel, and mixed media to create contemporary images on paper along with a series of Icon folklore triptychs with wood, watermedia and found object construction.
Helen’s watercolor illustrations have graced the cover brochures, garden articles and advertisements of numerous International resorts and magazines. Awards include four San Diego Press Club First Place Awards of Excellence in Illustration for San Diego Home/Garden Lifestyles Magazine. Helen holds a BA degree in Fine Arts and currently teaches watercolor and acrylic painting at the college level. She has led painting workshops on both coasts, as well in New Zealand and San Miguel de Allende, Mexico.
Eileen Mandell, Photographic Artist
Eileen Mandell is an award-winning photographic artist, well-known for her nature photography and innovative work with alternative photographic processes and media. For Eileen, alternative media and photographic surfaces capture the life of the scene, creating a depth and richness that mirrors her love of nature. The metallic papers and aluminum surfaces add back what is sometimes lost in translation from three dimensions to two.
Eileen’s love of art and photography began at a young age, strongly influenced by relatives in the creative arts industry. She found photography to be an exciting medium for combining her love of art, nature, and her eye for detail. “I look for the playfulness and personality in every scene.”