Taylor is a Character and Creature Modeler with her eyes set on the Game and Film (VFX) Industry. She loves studying anatomy and seeing how extreme she can push the limits of what is perceived as normal physicality of humans and animals to create experiences from which other may draw enjoyment and inspiration!
"Gibby is a real g. I hope I can share my work and experiences with the "youth" one day to both excite and inspire them to pursue what they love."
the Chicago Bean
www.ratlord.space
Minakshi is an aspiring healthcare designer with interests is human factors, UI/UX, and at home care. She enjoys designing for the purpose of empowering those who are struggling in life.
“I really enjoyed being able to work with a professional paper maker to develop our product. I gained a lot of professional experience and expanded my physical prototyping skillset.
Black beans, especially in a burger.
www.minakshi.myportfolio.com
Hayley is an aspiring UI/UX designer with an interest in designing interactions and visuals for apps, websites, and more. With her designs she hopes to not only improve users’ experiences with digital products, but inspire them in the process.
“I am so lucky to have had the opportunity to work with a professional in a medium like natural paper-making. It is so satisfying to see sketches and models transformed into physical products that you hand-made yourself!”
Edamame beans
www.hayleystout.com
RJ is an aspiring computational designer with interests in human / object interaction, 3D printing, and shiny things. He likes using robots to do his bidding in all aspects of life.
“This experience was a great opportunity to learn a new process, and expand my prototyping knowledge!”
Refried beans from El Charro in Floyd
www.rjweaverdesigns.myportfolio.com
Gibby Waitzkin, is a paper artist living in Floyd County, Virginia- a place her parents discovered in the mid-60’s. Her green studio, built in 2008 is located on a thirty-acre farm off the Blue Ridge Parkway, includes recycled wood from site, collection of rain water for paper studio, insulation from recycled paper, and an exterior green wall. Her education and training focusing on photography, printmaking and art education at the University of Georgia and graduate work at Georgia State University. Using her art skills, she became a community organizer in civil rights and the environment in Atlanta, Georgia and then on the lower East Side of New York City, in urban agriculture and green energy solutions. After working on these issues in the Carter Administration., she formed Gibson Creative, a design, marketing & communications company working on non-profit issues- climate, the environment, healthcare, women and the arts.
In 2000, after facing serious health issues, she returned to her primary love-art, to start an intensive dive in to hand papermaking using the ancient methods from plants. She grows, harvests, processes and makes paper from bamboo, banana, iris, lilies, papyrus, grape vines, thistle, artichoke -any plant with fiber. She has exhibited and taught workshops all over the country, including Floyd Center for the Arts, Piedmont Arts Center, Pyramid Atlantic, Hahn Center at Virginia Tech, Black House, Durham Arts Council, NC Museum of Art, Sarah B Duke Gardens, Raleigh Fine Arts, Penland, Olin Hall Galleries, Meredith College, Hollins Museum, and the Women’s Museum at Arlington Cemetery.
Gibby believes in giving back, and has served on many Boards over the years- the Washington Project for the Arts, the Corcoran Galleries & College of Art and Design, Nasher Museum Friends, SustainFloyd, and most recently, the Voters’ Participation Center-assisting millions of the rising American electorate to be registered to vote for the first time. In her work, she has striven to create things that are aesthetically pleasing, but underlying each work is a philosophical statement which derives from her decades of community organizing and political activism.
Gibby was recently named the 2021 Distinguished Artist of the Year by the Floyd Center for the Arts.
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www.gibbywaitzkin.com
