Upcoming Workshops, Spring 2026
Stencil Cut & Paint Workshop on May 31 in Hillsdale, Invasive plant paint-making workshop with CCE on June 7 (Acra) & 13 (Hudson).
Stencil Cut & Paint Workshop on May 31 (Hillsdale)
WORKSHOP EXPERIENCE WEEKEND is a weekend festival of hands-on learning, creativity, and community with over 26 workshops and events. For more information, please visit here. I was asked to answer some questions for the Meet the Instructors section of their website, and thought it’s a nice thing to share here as well.
Q&A
What will participants learn in your workshop?
How to cut and paint with stencils, and how to find freedom within limitations. Stenciling is a technique with a lot of constraints, but those constraints can actually be inspiring and liberating.
How did you first get into your craft?
When I was a teenager, a local history museum in my grandmother’s neighborhood in Tokyo held an exhibition of Katazome 型染 (traditional Japanese stencil printing) by Serizawa Keisuke 芹沢銈介, a central figure in the Mingei folk art movement of the early 20th century. I started teaching myself how to make cutout pieces afterward.
What do you love most about teaching workshops?
Learning a skill gives you joy and confidence that nothing can take away. I think it’s important to have that one unshakeable source of joy, no matter what you’re going through. I love being able to help make that happen for others.
What can someone expect to walk away with after your class?
A versatile technique that can be applied not only on paper, but on other materials such as fabric, interior walls, and murals. A stencil and a painting they made themselves. And a feeling of “oh, it’s really not that hard to be creative.”
Can you share a favorite moment from teaching or creating?
Learning from participants’ work. I once taught stenciling to 3rd graders and found myself thinking, “Maybe I should be a little less precise with my cut lines to create more dynamic compositions.”
How would you describe your teaching style?
I’m a product of DIY culture: anti-hierarchy, self-taught, and collaborative, so I’m there to share what I know, but equally interested in learning from participants. I try to create a flat space.
What’s a small tip or insight you wish every beginner knew?
What makes a piece of art beautiful is not your skill level, but honesty. Let your work stand on its own, without self-deprecation or grand statements, but just plainly: this is what I’ve got, this is who I am.
What do you love about working in the Hudson Valley / Roe Jan region?
I love finding inspiration and subjects in the Roe Jan natural landscapes. They are not only beautiful, but shelter threatened species, including the Bobolink, a grassland bird that nests in Roe Jan Park. It’s quite special, and not something any of us should take for granted.
Join us!
Join us as we venture into nature to find simple shapes and transform them into unique stencil designs. Participants will create stencil paintings on paper to take home, using cutting tools with safety guidance provided. All materials are included, and the workshop is suitable for beginners.
Fee: $75 + taxes, all materials included. RSVP here.
Paint Making with Invasive Plants Workshop at Cornell Cooperative Extension Columbia and Greene Counties (Acra, Hudson)
Sunday June 7th (Acra) RSVP here.
Saturday, June 13 (Hudson) RSVP here.
1-3pm. Fee $45, all materials included.
Through mini presentations and hands-on paint-making, workshops introduce participants to bird species on farms and invasive plant management that supports their conservation. Asian invasive plants such as Toringo crabapple and Multiflora rose, collected at Hawthorne Valley Farm with guidance from professionals, are used as teaching materials.
While acknowledging their impact on local ecosystems, participants learn the plants’ names, cultural significance, and uses in Japan. Participants take part in a hands-on session making paint from invasive species, creating a positive relationship with these otherwise harmful plants.
Participants will take home a bottle of plant paint and a list of low-cost, recycled-material options that allow them to continue paint-making independently.
This project is made possible with funds from the Statewide Community Regrant Program, a regrant program of the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of The Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature and administered by CREATE Council on the Arts.
