Katherine Saviskas investigates ancestral reconnection, attempting to decolonize U.S. psychology such that time, blood, and traditions emerge as important or disappear, communities form, and radical aliveness flourishes. Through installation, photography, textiles, folk art, ritual, and social practice, she gathers where longing and play meet. In 2023, Katherine was a Rhizomatic Imagination Fellow with the Center for Story-based Strategy. In 2022, she was an Artist in Residence at Picture Berlin, in Germany. She is a Ph.D. candidate of East-West Psychology at the California Institute for Integral Studies in San Francisco, where she is pursuing the Creative Dissertation track.
RESIDENTS: 2024
Taylor Gallegos is a painter specializing in large-scale murals, paintings on canvas, and live art. In general, his work focuses on unity, environmentalism, connection, love, and creativity. As a professional artist, his work has ranged from large-scale murals to portraits to abstracts in the studio to live art, mostly in the fields of painting and drawing with acrylics and oils.
Alyson Earnest is a 3rd generation creative and insatiably curious world traveler. Her passion for writing is grounded in more than 30 years of daily journaling where she believes she has gained much of her wisdom, and yet so much more from her solo travel journeying across the US by car and throughout 6 continents beyond. She is currently writing her first memoir based on what happened when she left her cul-de-sac in 2018 and began to discover the rich, vast, fascinating world beyond. Alyson is living her mantra that proclaims: She is going places she has never been.
Ruby Peru's 2017 novel Bits of String Too Small to Save was named Distinguished Favorite by the New York Big Book Award. In the same year, Kirkus Reviews named her an "Indie Author to Watch." Her detective novel Untamed Justice, co-written with retired homicide chief Herman Hinton, has received critical acclaim as well. Ruby also ghostwrites memoirs and nonfiction for thought leaders, scientists, titans of business, cult escapees and others with compelling life stories.
Kristine L. Schomaker is an Art Historian, Curator, Publisher, Art Manager, and multidisciplinary artist living and working at the Brewery artist complex in Los Angeles, California. She earned her BA in Art History and MA in Studio Art from California State University at Northridge. Kristine’s art practice includes painting, photography, drawing, sculpture, performance, and conceptual art based focused on body image and society’s perception of beauty. In 2014 Kristine founded Shoebox Arts to support and empower artists while building community and creating new opportunities. Kristine is also the publisher of Art and Cake, a contemporary L.A. Art magazine.
Dare DeLano’s debut novel Abilene, (forthcoming from Mint Hill Books), is both a coming-of-age story (featuring dark clouds, whispered spells, and a search for a father), and a love story (featuring 80’s new wave club culture, occasional psychedelic trips, and Heideggerian philosophy.) An earlier draft of Abilene was short-listed as a finalist for the Faulkner-Wisdom Creative Writing Competition. Dare’s children’s book Odus and the Long Way Home won the San Diego Book Award in 2015, and also the Gold Moonbeam Children’s Book Award. Dare received her MFA in creative writing from Fairfield University in 2020. She is represented by Jennifer Thompson of Nordlyset Literary Agency.
Sooltan Madsen (b. Sun Valley, Idaho) received a B.F.A. in painting from The Savannah College of Art and Design, Savannah, GA in 2022. She has exhibited her work in solo and group exhibitions across the United States including galleries in Savannah, Chicago, Laguna Beach, Long Island, and San Diego. Madsen makes colorful portraits surrounding LGBT and Western identity. Her most recent exhibitions that ran simultaneously were, Proud to Be Seen in Tubac, AZ, SCAD Painting Senior Showcase in Savannah, GA, and Proud+ in San Diego, CA. She currently lives and works in Minneapolis, MN.
Aleta Barthell is a producer and writer. She is wrapping up production on a documentary—The Mosleys: Love for the Ages. During her time at Dorland, Aleta will develop a play called My Own Wilderness that explores the fantastical life of a woman experiencing dementia. This project has been funded by the William Male Foundation.
Aleta holds a Bachelor in Science from Northwestern University, trained as an actor at the British American Drama Academy, Shakespeare & Company, and has studied playwriting/screenwriting at the Kennedy Center, The Dramatists Guild Institute, and UCSD.
Daniel Getzoff is a Los Angeles-based community activist and organizer, a playwright, personal essayist, blogger, performer, and multi-faceted nonprofit sector worker. His first published story will appear in the upcoming 42 Stories Anthology Presents: Book of 42. Danny was awarded 2 residencies at Playa Summerlake in south-central Oregon to work on his first novel, Nicknames for Harold, the manuscript of which is nearly complete. He has published 80+ essays about his 3 solo cross-country bicycle trips at http://handlebarconfessional.blogspot.com and https://handlebarconfessional.com, which will be the subject of his upcoming memoir, Handlebar Confessional.Type your paragraph here.
Mia Alvar is the author of IN THE COUNTRY, which won the PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize, the Janet Heidinger Kafka Prize, and the Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Award. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, One Story, The Missouri Review, the Cincinnati Review, and elsewhere. Mia has been a writer in residence at Yaddo, the Djerassi Resident Artists Program, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, and the Blue Mountain Center for the Arts. She teaches in the Warren Wilson College MFA Program for Writers.
Straddling both film & theater, TrishDenton is a multidisciplinary director, producer, and storyteller specializing in immersive work. Producing in a variety of mediums, her visions often conjure the fantastic & surreal. She is the founder and Producing Artistic Director of In Tandem Arts, a nonprofit organization that produces immersive theater and multimedia experiences. Most recently, Trish produced & directed Retro Spec starring Kat Wright, the 4-screen video fantasia X-VOTIVE featuring Acqua Mossa, and the musical dreamscape “Easy on Me” featuring Marcie Hernandez. Both X-VOTIVE and Easy On Me have won laurels in international film festivals within the last year.
Gretchen DeVault is a dynamic multidisciplinary artist, renowned for her versatility as a songwriter, musician, producer, and graphic designer. Her prolific catalog of songwriting and recorded music has garnered both critical acclaim and commercial recognition and has been featured in Target and Motorola commercials along with several independent films and podcasts. Parallel to her musical endeavors, she has carved out a significant niche in graphic design, she has built a career in graphic design, displaying her extensive artistic abilities. DeVault's work embodies the essence of artistry, where music and design converge to express her profound creative vision.
Natalie Sudman is an artist and writer, with an interest in the spirit of place, consciousness, and the nature of being. She is the author of Application of Impossible Things: Out of Body in Iraq, and her poetry and essays have been published nationally and abroad. She earned her MFA in ceramic arts at the University of Oregon. She now works primarily with collage and abstract oil on yupo, and her artwork has been exhibited internationally.
Sherilyn Lee earned her Master of Fine Arts degree in Creative Nonfiction from Antioch University Los Angeles. She posts daily #overheards to her popular Instagram channel (@sherilynwrites) where she also writes about being a family caregiver. Her writing has appeared in Brevity, Common Ground Review, and other journals. She has been a Juried Poet for the Houston Poetry Fest, a finalist in the National Poetry Series Open Competition, and a semi-finalist for the Philip Levine Prize in Poetry. She is the founding Poetry Editor for Flight Literary West. Sherilyn lives in Southern California where she referees for the Los Angeles Derby Dolls.
Kendra Knight is an artist, photographer, and sustainability coordinator. Kendra has always had a passion for art and nature and how it harmonizes with our environment. Kendra also learned to produce art for a purpose and upcycle art as much as possible. Her passion for nature and art led her to Mammoth Lakes 22 years ago. Kendra was formerly the Director of Mono Arts Council (MAC), where she also taught art in schools and developed the Summer Art Camp for Kids. She also worked as the Mammoth Ski Museum Curator and Director. After working for the arts sector for over 20 years Kendra decided she would love to work in the environmental sector and use her creative knowledge to inspire others to support our Earth and local environment.
Julia Mary Gibson grew up by the magical lakes of the North American Midwest, or occupied Anishinaabe territory, where her novel COPPER MAGIC takes place. She writes about the ways that human civilization intersects with mysterious wild nature and the sacred responsibilities we have to each other and to the planet. Dorland has been an instrumental element in manifesting her work. She lives in Hollywood, California, surrounded by her extended family of poets, thespians, dancers, illustrators, filmworkers, and urban farmers.
Susan Davies is a painter working mainly in oil and acrylics. She received a BA in Art and Education from Gustavus Adolphus College, St. Peter, MN (1982) and a MA in Curriculum Design from St. Mary’s University of MN (1995). She also studied at Temple University’s Tyler School of Art, Rome, Italy (1981); at the Women’s Art Institute, Minneapolis College of Art and Design (2004). Susan is interested in our connection to our natural surroundings with a special focus on water and water preservation. Davies is represented by Artactile Gallery and Everett & Charlie, both in Minneapolis.
Al Denyer works with visual translations of mapping and mark making in her drawing and painting practice. Al holds an MFA from Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, and a BA Honors from Winchester School of Art, England.
A ‘Utah Artist Fellowship Award recipient, Al has received numerous grants for her ongoing research and shown in many national and international juried and invitational exhibitions. Al has received public art commissions and recently contributed a portrait for the ‘Work in Progress’ Mural, the National Portrait Gallery, London, England.
Al Denyer is a Professor of Painting and Drawing, at the University of Utah.
Ja'net Danielo is the author of This Body I Have Tried to Write, winner of the MAYDAY 2022 Poetry Micro Chapbook Editors' Choice Award, and The Song of Our Disappearing (Paper Nautilus, 2021. A recipient of a Professional Artist Fellowship from the Arts Council for Long Beach and the Fischer Prize, her poems have appeared in Frontier Poetry, Mid-American Review, GASHER, Radar Poetry, and elsewhere. Originally from Queens, NY, Ja'net teaches at Cerritos College and lives in Long Beach, CA, where she facilitates Word Women, a free poetry workshop series for cancer patients and survivors.
Mark Rumsey is an artist working in social situations and spatial manipulations. His work has been exhibited throughout the United States as well as internationally. The manifestations of his work take on many forms including site-specific installation, relational engagements, and live performance. Rumsey earned a BFA in Ceramics and Philosophy and an MFA in Printmaking. Rumsey engages internationally in the role of Artist-in-residence including at Tlacopac International Artist Residency (Mexico), Buinho Association, (Portugal), The Swatch Art Peace Hotel (China), Rondo Atelier (Austria), The Studios of Key West (USA), Frans Masereel Centrum (Belgium), Carvansarai (Turkey), and Global Arts Village (India).
Gail Werner is a Native American painter and printmaker who descends from three tribes located in San Diego County: Cupeño, Luiseño, and Kumeyaay. She lives and works in Long Beach, California, and holds an MFA in drawing and painting from California State University, Long Beach. Her work reflects a love for the Southern California landscape along with elements from her Native culture. In 2023 she completed a mural commissioned by Murals of La Jolla. In 2022 she was in an exhibit, "Voices from the Rez," at the La Jolla Historical Society.
Laura Schmitt (she/her) is a multiracial writer with roots in Hawai’i and the Midwest. Her fiction can be found in the New England Review, The Pinch, Boulevard, Indiana Review, The Florida Review, and elsewhere. She was a finalist for the New England Review‘s 2021 Award for Emerging Writers, received a 2019 Hedgebrook residency, and holds an MFA from Sarah Lawrence College. Laura was born in Southern California and currently lives in Los Angeles, where she is at work on a novel and a collection of stories.
Ryan Smith is a musician, educator, and researcher in nanoscale physics. His creative work focuses on making physics ideas accessible to anyone who is curious, engaging with how experiences with music and nature relate to science. Beyond his research, he has published several popular and educational articles about physics and is currently developing a nonfiction work “Play Outdoors like a Scientist," aiming to inspire deep wonder from seeing the outdoor world through a scientific lens. Ryan was a recent 2021-22 Alexander von Humboldt scholar in Berlin, Germany, and is currently a tenured physics professor at California State University East Bay.
Hannah Keefe is a metalsmith and visual artist known primarily for her one-of-a-kind handmade jewelry pieces. With a fine arts education and years working in the visual arts, she approaches her studio jewelry-making with a sculptor’s eye. For the past 2 decades, Hannah has maintained a rigorous studio practice concentrated around the material exploration of brass chain and silver solder. Her jewelry is sold at galleries and boutiques around the world.
January - March 2024 Residents
Sarah Z. Sleeper's debut novel, Gaijin, came out in 2020 with glowing reviews. Her short story, “A Few Innocuous Lines,” won an award from Writer’s Digest. Her non-fiction essay, “On Getting Vivian,” was published in The Shanghai Literary Review, and her poetry was exhibited at the Bellarmine Museum. In the recent past, she was an editor at New Rivers Press and editor-in-chief of the literary journal Mason’s Road. Prior to completing her MFA in 2012, she was a reporter, winning three journalism awards and a fellowship at the National Press Foundation.
Mina Manchester is an Editorial Assistant at Great Place Books and received her MFA from the Sewanee School of Letters. Her fiction, humor and essays have been featured in Electric Literature, HuffPost, The Evergreen Review, Columbia Journal, The Normal School, and Inscape. A Scandinavian American originally from Seattle she lives in Los Angeles where she’s at work on a novel and story collection.
Wisconsin-based author and poet Carrie Voigt Schonhoff has self-published two poetry books titled, 'The Liminal Space' and 'The End of the Beginning.' She was widowed in 2012 and that life challenge has taught her many things, some of which she writes about in her books. Her work addresses the importance of healing, moving on, and being ready to face a new beginning. She believes that we can all connect and understand one another on a deeper level through poetry. Carrie recently completed her first book tour and looks forward to continuing her travels and sharing her poetry with the world.
Anne Canright has an MFA in Creative Writing from Antioch University. She was a contributing writer to Coast & Ocean magazine for many years, and now has shifted her attention to poetry, and essays, and has begun work on a novel/linked story collection about WWII Los Angeles, Manzanar, and art.
Patricia Canright Smith is a writer and visual artist living in Edmonds, Washington. With advanced degrees in psychology and visual art, she practiced psychotherapy in Seattle while pursuing artistic interests. Her artwork has appeared in numerous group and solo shows in the Pacific Northwest. Patricia Smith also writes essays and short stories, which have been published in a variety of literary magazines. She has recently combined narrative and image to complete a book-length memoir, and has begun to collaborate with a jazz musician to create duets, prose, and piano.
Kim Fay is the author of the national bestselling novel Love & Saffron; The Map of Los Memories, an Edgar-award finalist for best first novel; and the culinary memoir Communion: A Culinary Journey Through Vietnam.
Jamie Diamond’s stories have appeared in Ploughshares edited by Raymond Carver, Rita Dove, and Tess Gallagher. She earned the E.L. Doctorow fellowship and an MFA from New York University. She was awarded residencies at Yaddo, MacDowell, Sacatar, and Djerassi. She was the West Coast editor of Mademoiselle and has written for The New York Times, People, and Vogue. A recipient of a Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs grant, she conducted a theater project in Brazil. She edited a book, pro bono, about the Los Angeles unhoused that became a play whose staged benefit starred Tim Robbins, Morgan Freeman, and Alfre Woodard. She’s started a new novel, “And the Winner Is…” set in Hollywood.
Laura Burges, a lay-entrusted dharma teacher in the Soto Zen tradition, lectures and leads retreats at different practice centers in Northern California. Laura co-founded the Sangha in Recovery Program at San Francisco Zen Center and is the abiding teacher at Lenox House in Oakland. Her first book, Buddhist Stories for Kids, was published by Shambhala in December 2022 and Zen for Kids in March 2023. A book for adults, The Zen Way of Recovery was released in July 2023.
Joshua Dysart is a New York Times bestselling writer of graphic novels and prose. His work often centers on real-world narratives backed by extensive research. He has traveled with child soldiers in Uganda (2007), convoyed across Iraqi Kurdistan interviewing Syrian refugees and victims of Da’esh (2014), and traveled across South Sudan researching human migration due to drought and war (2016). He has worked with the World Food Programme, Deepak Chopra, and musician Neil Young. In 2018 he led a college speaking tour across Pakistan for the “Comics for Peace” project. He has been published in seven languages, including Arabic.
JoBeth McDaniel is an author and journalist with work published in LIFE, AARPMagazine, House Beautiful, Veranda, Islands, Reader’s Digest, Newsweek and Business Week. She wrote for LIFE under five managing editors, operating LIFE’s LA bureau. She was a Working Woman columnist for four years, and Investors BusinessDaily columnist for three. Her bestselling biography A Special Kind of Hero (Doubleday, Dell) was named a Library Journal “Best Book” and a Literary Guild selection. JoBeth’s essays appear in several anthologies. Two were selected for college textbooks.
Sally J. Pla is an award-winning author of books for young people—although her work is popular with all ages. She’s known for writing contemporary “coming-of-age” fiction with honesty and heart, and for creating main characters who stay with you, long after you’ve turned the last page. Sally also runs A Novel Mind, a web resource on neurodiversity and mental health representation in children's lit. She, like many of her characters, is neurodivergent. Sally has English degrees from Colgate and Penn State and has worked as a journalist and in public education.
Melody M. Nuñez is a mixed-media artist whose work combines vintage textiles, found objects, and embroidery. Her art, which is autobiographical in nature, explores universal themes. Ms. Nuñez processes her life experiences and translates them into a visual language. The artist is drawn to materials that are vintage, worn, and imperfect. Handmade vintage textiles are especially valued and are the foundations of her most recent body of work. Ms. Nuñez earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Studio Art from the University of California, Santa Barbara. She has participated in several juried exhibits and art shows, in both California and Kansas.
Patsy Phillips has collaborated for thirty years with artists, educators, scholars, and administrators who advocate for the advancement of contemporary Indigenous arts. She is in her sixteenth year as the Director of the IAIA Museum of Contemporary Native Arts (MoCNA). Before joining MoCNA, Phillips participated in the planning and opening of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian, Washington, D.C. in 2004. Phillips holds an MA in Writing from Johns Hopkins University, a Graduate Certificate in Museum Studies from Harvard University, and BA in Anthropology from Southern Methodist University. Phillips is an enrolled citizen of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma.
An author with three novels and two story collections, Victoria Patterson lives with her family in South Pasadena and teaches fiction at Antioch University’s Master of Fine Arts Program.
Danielle Ezzo is an interdisciplinary artist and writer. Danielle’s work has been published in the Boston Globe, The New York Times, and The Tate and exhibited in numerous exhibitions and festivals including the A.C. Institute and the Santa Barbara Museum of Art. She’s lectured at conferences, companies, and schools about the future of photography. Bylines include The New Inquiry, Magnum Photos, Right Click Save, Fellowship Trust, and Obscura Journal. She is the author of If Not Here, The Where? published by Silent Face Projects in 2023. Danielle graduated from Lesley University in 2015 with an MFA in Photography and Integrated Media.
Sherri C. Perry is the author of Venn, a collection of short stories, Letters to Cadence, Musings of a Modern Grandmother and Slice, a collection of poetry. Her work has been featured in Streetlight Magazine, Tigershark Publishing, GNU Literary Journal, Dragon Poet Review, The Bayou Review, Emerge Magazine and The Storyteller Magazine. Her awards include the Write Partners of North Arkansas Award, Ozark Creative Writers Editor’s Award, Clouse Literary Arts and Theater Award, Saturday Writers Creative Non-Fiction Award, Porter Art Enterprises Award and The Caudle Memorial Award for Excellence in Storytelling. She is the head speech and debate coach at an all-girls college preparatory high school in Houston, Texas.
Barbara DeMarco-Barrett is author of Palm Springs Noir (Akashic). Her stories are in Orange County Noir, Coolest American Stories, 2022, USA Noir: Best of the Akashic Noir Series, Rock, and A Hard Place, Dark City Crime Mystery Magazine, and Literary Hatchet. She received a Distinguished Instructors award from UC-Irvine and is adjunct professor of creative writing at Chapman University and Saddleback College. Pen on Fire: A Busy Woman’s Guide to Igniting the Writer Within, was a Los Angeles Times bestseller. She hosts the podcast Writers on Writing.
April - June 2024 Residents
Amey Miller has published fiction, non-fiction, and translation in a number of journals, and has received numerous residencies at artists' colonies. In the short story "News," published in The American LIterary Review, she used a number of decorative elements as well as splices of different sources and pieces of story. She has continued in this vein, becoming a collagist of the page. In 2016 composer Miller and Christopher Preissing received an NEA-funded Chicago Artist Residency production grant using Miller's text. In 2020, she published Snakes, the first part of her text + image series Songs of All Other Birds.
Composer and violinist Tommy Dougherty (b. 1990) is a native of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and is a composer of orchestral, chamber, and solo works. This year, Tommy is in residence at the Winterthur Museum as a Maker-Creator Fellowship Scholar. In 2021, Tommy received a joint commission from the Johnstown Symphony Orchestra and Laurel Arts to compose a work as a tribute to the people of Somerset for the 20th Anniversary of September 11th. He has since been commissioned to write a new work for the JSO’s 2022-2023 season finale. Over the past several years, his music has been performed by the American Composers Orchestra, the Modern Violin Ensemble (MoVE), Alarm Will Sound, and Kinetic Ensemble. As a violinist, Tommy currently serves as Acting Section Violin with the San Diego Symphony.
Nancy Marie Mithlo (Chiricahua Apache) is a professor of gender studies and core faculty with the American Indian Studies Interdepartmental program at the University of California, Los Angeles. Mithlo’s curatorial work has resulted in nine exhibits at the Venice Biennale. Mithlo has taught at the University of New Mexico, the Institute of American Indian Arts, the Santa Fe Community College, Smith College, California Institute of the Arts, Occidental College, and the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her 2020 book Knowing Native Arts was published by the University of Nebraska Press.
Michael Remson is an accomplished composer, librettist and author who has had works performed across the United States and in Europe. Among the many professional, college and high school groups that have performed his operas, choral and chamber music include Houston Grand Opera’s “Opera to Go” program, Lone Star Lyric Theater Festival, Houston Ballet Academy, Bulgarian Composers Collaborative, The Cameron Museum (Wilmington NC), Museum of Contemporary Craft (Portland OR), Abilene College Opera, Texas Tech Opera, and New York City Opera’ “Showcasing American Composers” series. Dr. Remson has authored two books on American music and has held numerous faculty appointments over his career.
Mailing address: P.O. Box 6, Temecula, CA 92593 ~ Physical Address: 36701 Highway 79 South, Temecula, CA 92592
(951) 302-3837 ~ www.dorlandartscolony.org ~ info@dorlandartscolony.org
A California 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization
Colleen James is a painter and mixed media artist focused on the abstracted natural world and imagined landscapes. Her work is highly influenced by the colors and patterns found in mid-century textiles and her 15+ year career working for the modern furniture company Knoll. She has a degree in Fine Arts from Georgetown University and has studied painting and drawing at the University of Paris and the Art Students League in New York. She also has an MBA from Stanford University. Colleen shows her work through Studio Montclair in Montclair, NJ, and the Drawing Galaxy.
Patti Jazanoski’s writing has appeared in Cimarron Review, Kenyon Review Online, Ploughshares Blog, Confrontation, The Rumpus, The San Francisco Chronicle, Catamaran Literary Reader, and elsewhere. She’s been nominated for a Pushcart Prize, the Best of the Net Anthology, and was awarded the Doug Fortier MCWC Short Fiction Scholarship. A member of the Authors Guild and National Book Critics Circle, Patti earned an M.F.A. in Creative Writing and Literature from the Bennington Writing Seminars and degrees from the University of California Santa Cruz and the University of Michigan. She’s currently at work on a collection of short stories and a novel.
Theresa Keegan is an award-winning writer. An accomplished journalist she has published numerous stories, essays, and commentaries both in print and online. Her writing has appeared in local, state, and national publications. Her latest work includes short stories and fiction. The California-based author is a proud board member of Third Street Writers in Laguna Beach, where she initiated and edited the award-winning Art Inscribed book series in conjunction with the Pageant of the Masters. When not behind a computer or talking to her fictional characters she can be found happily paddling on the Pacific Ocean in an outrigger canoe.
Raven Miller works in a variety of artistic mediums, including video, photography, sculpture, painting, and book arts. His works have been shown in a variety of venues in Minneapolis and Saint Paul including Vine Arts Center, Augsburg University, Minnesota Center for Book Arts, and the Gordon Parks and Cargill galleries. Miller has created videos for Eagle Heart Productions, Raven Studios, Project Footsteps, Northern Spark and has screened his Queer films at Minneapolis/St. Paul International Film Festival, the European Short Film Festival, the Roma Independent Prisma Awards, and the LGBTQ Unbordered International Film Festival and other festivals across Europe.