Meet Our Instructors
Fine Arts & Crafts Instructors
Flora is a Colorado native and earned a degree in business management from Metropolitan State University of Colorado. She started her own floral and gift business “Flowers By Flora & Gifts, Inc.” located in Arvada. Her passion and love of flowers is centered on sharing, caring, and designing beautiful floral creations for others. Flora teaches floral design for the City of Westminster.
Flora believes that she can teach anyone to design flowers. She loves teaching and sharing the joy of creating beauty with flowers with her students.
Afsheen Ahmad and Rafya Faridi design and teach all of the Chromatix classes. Their classes are simple and easy to do, and they allow students to explore their creativity and imagination. Afsheen’s background is in architecture and art has always been a big part of her life. She has studied drawing, painting and sculpture. Rafya has always had a knack for arts and crafts and has a background in business marketing. She loves to sew, draw, design Henna paintings, and create recycled art pieces.
In their experience, every human being is an artist and Chromatix is an effort to get students connected with their inner artist. They have a firm belief in the healing power of art and their classes are designed with a focus on enhancing the well-being of self.
Caren has a degree in geological engineering but has had a life-long interest in rocks, minerals, jewelry, and gems. She began her journey as a jewelry artist in 1989 and branched into wire working and silversmith work in 1995. Caren has been teaching jewelry-making classes for more than 20 years.
Caren believes that anyone can learn the joys of creating their own jewelry and have a lot of fun while making it. She strives to make the learning experience the best possible with one-on-one guided coaching, detailed references, and lots of encouragement.
Born in Toronto, Canada, Marva is a self-taught artist that has been painting fmost of her life. From a very young age Marva had a deep desire to draw and work with colors, and when she moved to the U.S. in 1980 she started teaching at an art studio. Marva has taught oil painting for the City of Westminster for 14 years.
Dana is a fine art sculpture and painter from Colorado. She studied at the University of Northern Colorado and then went on to study in Italy. Her love of traveling has highly influenced her art. As an artist she studies her subjects’ mass, movement, and lighting and applies this to her work. Each piece has a sketch done before to look at these elements then the piece can be set in motion. Dana teaches drawing and watercolor classes for the City of Westminster.
Joseph was trained in small woodcarving studio in Bavaria, Germany. He worked under the guidance of a master carver for 8 years. In 1991, he returned to the U.S. and opened his own business in Colorado. He teaches wood carving classes for the City of Westminster.
Pottery & Ceramics Instructors
Cyndi’s love for clay began in high school when she had a wonderful pottery teacher. She went on to attend Red Rocks and Pikes Peak Community College and then pursued a career as a graphic designer, but Cyndi was continuously working with clay in her spare time. Cyndi has been teaching pottery at the City of Westminster for 12 years and teaches Thursday evening classes.
Cyndi wants her students to feel successful making art from clay and encourages students to express their individual ideas in each of their pottery pieces. She is always researching new ideas and ways to create in clay, but most of all she wants her students to have fun!
Stefanie has been practicing the art of ceramics since 2008. She also has a background in many other avenues of fine art like painting, jewelry and metal work, sewing, sketching, writing, and design. Stefanie teaches youth pottery classes for the City of Westminster and finds that teaching is the most fun when she is instructing youth pottery classes. . Stefanie teaches youth pottery classes for the City of Westminster and is also a studio assistant.
Stefanie always tries to incorporate new ideas and imagination into her students while still laying the groundwork for the basics. She focuses on fun and confidence, yet she still encourages students to venture outside of their comfort zone.
Shannon began working with clay in high school and then earned his BFA in Ceramic Art from Arizona State University in 1990 and his MFA in Ceramic Art from Texas Tech in 1996. He has taught ceramics at Texas Tech University and Metropolitan State University. His ceramic art has been exhibited in AZ, NM, TX, CO, KS, OK, and AL. Shannon works as the Studio Coordinator for the City of Westminster and teaches many of the pottery classes as well.
Alicia has had a passion for clay for about a decade. She is a certified k-12 art teacher. She enjoys working with students of all ages and different skill levels. Alicia teaches youth and parent & child pottery classes for the City of Westminster.
Johanna originally enrolled in a pottery class offered at City Park Pottery Studio as a student and was later hired as an instructor. Her background is in elementary education and she has lived in Westminster since 1975. She has worked for the City of Westminster as a pottery instructor for the past 30 years and teaches teaching all levels and Majolica workshops.