When Wendy Anne isn’t spending time outside with the moss and the trees, she is creating. While her favorites are mixed media art and acrylic painting, she also loves sewing, weaving, writing, photography, making fairy houses, and recently started learning pottery! Wendy knows that creating art is not just about learning techniques, it is about what it does for your soul while you are creating. Art is not just for creating something, it is for creating someone – YOU!
Wendy is teaching Intro to Linocut and Youth: Intro to Linocut this Summer A session!
Renee Calder’s work is a reflection of the diversity of the world around us. She strives to bring personality into each piece – to engage the viewer or class participant with the unexpected. With her ceramic work and in teaching, she focuses on the combination of materials, where the mundane becomes something more, engaging the viewer to take a second look and see things in a different way – prompting a new perception of ordinary things that surround us. There is a simple pleasure that we get from working in clay. We are perceptive creatures, and aesthetics can touch us in some powerful ways. So whether you respond to form, color, craftsmanship, or the design, her goal is to make you smile.
Renee teaches All Level Hand-Building and ceramic Mixed Media.
Sarah Eller teaches kids and adult hand building classes! She has 10 years of art teaching experience in North Carolina, and also internationally at American IB schools in Abu Dhabi and Casablanca, Morocco. She loves designing and creating hand built vases, planters, and mugs, and learning about ancient pottery. Sarah is a university TA and is working on her Masters in Art History. She also likes cats, gardening, reading, traveling, and spending time with her family.
Sarah will be teaching the Shape & Sculpt: Hand Built Ceramics summer camps!
Kortney Gibson has lived in the Lake Norman area all her life. Now residing in Mooresville with her husband, daughter, and four dogs, she’s excited to open more opportunities in the world for anyone who wants to paint. Kortney’s focus is on painting animal portraits in oil mediums. She is passionate about bringing out the animal’s personality in each painting. Kortney wants to continue to help people of all ages find their inspiration to start making art and believes that everyone CAN!
Kortney will be teaching the Magical Creatures summer camp!
Gail Kolenda resides in Iron Station, N.C., originally coming from Bucks County, PA. She holds a degree in art from Bloomsburg University. Gail has been teaching various art classes since 2010. Because of instructing students, she continues to take classes to sharpen her skills. When creating, Gail works not only with watercolor, but also mixed media, acrylic, ink and more.
Keep an eye out for Gail’s future classes!
Keith Meyers received a Bachelor’s degree in fine arts in 1999, with a major in ceramics and a minor in painting. Keith moved to North Carolina in 2001, and has been teaching pottery classes since 2005. Keith taught classes at Clay Works (Charlotte), Pottery101 (Salisbury), Carolina Clay Connection, (Charlotte), Icehouse (Davidson). He currently teaches at Tack House Pottery. Keith is also the Studio Manager and an instructor with the Cain Center ceramics studio, including when it was the Creative Arts Project and the Cornelius Arts Center.
Keith teaches All Level Wheel Throwing.
Taisia Ealy is a Florida native who fell in love with pottery, printmaking and art in general at Stetson University. She went on to get her MFA in printmaking from SUNY Purchase college where she also adjunct taught evening classes, and started an elementary homeschool co-op art program in Crestwood, NY. After moving to NC in 2000, she began working at Children’s Arts Project, which became Community Arts Project/ Icehouse, which became the Cornelius Arts Center which is now the Cain Center for the Arts. Along with working at the Cain Center, Taisia also is the lead art teacher at the lower school at Community School of Davidson. In her spare time Taisia fishes obsessively but mostly she enjoys time with her two daughters, Hannah and Emma.
Tasia will be teaching the Ceramics for Youth summer camps!
Kathy Murray created art and taught in California for 15 years until moving to Cornelius in 2021. She creates vibrant abstracted nature and figurative mixed media paintings and collages with a passion for color and texture and energy. She doesn’t feel she has to paint exactly what is there, but rather alter things to achieve vibrance, harmony, balance and excitement. Kathy is passionate about helping others create their own vision with strong composition, color and design.
Kathy will be teaching this upcoming Summer B session!
Maria Luz Roca was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina where she received her education in the Arts and Letters. She attended the “Instituto Superior de Formacion Artistica” where she received her training as a painter and received a B.A in journalism from the “Instituto Superior Mariano Moreno”. Miss Roca started her career as an educator in San Francisco, California and has been teaching for over 35 years. She is thrilled to be sharing her love for the arts at the Cain Center.
Keep an eye out for future classes and workshops!
Beverly Walker is a fiber artist who has won many awards and taught many workshops in several states. She has been weaving pictorial tapestries for over 20 years, and her creations are found in corporate collections in the U.S. as well as in a Scotland hotel, a Mercy Ship in Africa, and a Paramount Pictures movie. Having relocated to Mooresville, she is bringing this tapestry fine art skill to our area this fall with Beginner Level classes you will be excited to learn!
Keep an eye out for Beverly’s future classes and workshops this fall!
Ken Lambdin teaches wheel throwing ceramics at the CAIN Center for the Arts in Cornelius, NC. He began his pottery journey in 2016 after moving to North Carolina and now works from his home studio, where he throws, mixes glazes, and fires his own work. Ken specializes in functional pottery—especially matching sets and altered forms—and draws inspiration from nature and seasonal changes.
With a background in physics, Ken brings a technical, hands-on approach to instruction. He breaks down the mechanics of wheel throwing and helps students understand where and how to apply pressure for better results. His classes focus on form, proportion, and refining technique so students can grow in confidence and create work they’re proud of.
Ken is teaching All Level Wheel Throwing and Intermediate and Advanced Wheel Throwing this Summer A and Summer B session! Find his work at @KLBS.Pottery or carolinaclaymatters.org.
Lisa Albinus is a professional illustrator and teaching artist with over 20 years of experience in traditional and digital art. She creates a welcoming, encouraging environment where students can develop their skills and explore creative techniques with confidence. Her work includes book illustration, surface design, and botanical illustration. Lisa is excited to bring her experience and approachable teaching style to Cain Center for the Arts!
Keep an eye out for Lisa’s upcoming classes this Fall!
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INSTRUCTOR'S ASSISTANT
Brenda Wilmot has spent her life flying the skies, and now she finds herself embracing a new passion for ceramic arts. She eagerly assists Renee Calder with instructing, enabling her to spend time learning and sharing knowledge with students. The pottery skills she has obtained also allows for her to translate the love she has for animals into clay through carving (sgraffito). She is delighted for the expansion of the Cain Center, and greatly looks forward to our future.
Brenda will be assisting in classes this Fall!