People
Studio Staff
Oak Street Studio’s instructors are fun, energetic, and full of life! They are dedicated to providing the highest quality of fine arts instruction available to young people. You will find that most of our instructors are working artists who show locally.
We always welcome volunteers—click here.
BETH WILBUR VAN MIERLO is an artist and the director, founder, and curriculum developer of Oak Street Studios, as well as an occasional teacher! She is an avid supporter of the arts, in particular art for young people. Before starting her business in 1999, she created and ran several summer arts programs in South Portland. She has initiated and taught several in-house art programs in Portland's local public schools as well as at a local mental health center. She holds a BFA in sculpture and drawing from the University of Southern Maine. Aside from teaching and operating the art institute, Beth is enthusiastic about creating and supporting social opportunities through the arts. For more than a decade she has been a supporter and volunteer of Shoestring Theater. She loves to travel and lives in the West End with her husband, twin sons, and daughter.
CATHERINE LABARRE is originally from Québec, Canada. Catherine graduated from the Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières in 2010 with a Bachelor's in Theater and Visual Arts Education and moved to Portland early in 2011. She has worked for Oak Street Studios since the Fall of 2011. Catherine currently pursues studio practice using various techniques such as painting, drawing, ceramics, digital art, and installation art. She truly enjoys working with recycled materials. Catherine also likes to travel and participate in volunteer projects abroad. She has been to a few countries such as Guatemala, Nicaragua, Mexico, St. Lucia, Dominican Republic, and Haiti. You might see her painting kids’ faces on the First Friday Art Walk!
ANTONIO ROCHA is a native of Brazil and began his career in the performing arts in 1985. In 1988 he received a Partners of the Americas grant to come to the United States to perform and deepen his mime skills with mime master Tony Montanaro. Since then he has earned a summa cum laude theater BA from the University of Southern Maine and studied with master Marcel Marceau. Mr. Rocha’s unique fusion of mime and spoken word has been performed from Singapore to South Africa and many places in between, including 16 countries on six continents. Some of the venues include the Singapore Festival of the Arts, Wolf Trap, the National Storytelling Festival, the Kennedy Center, the Smithsonian Institution, National Geographic, the Tales of Graz in Austria, and the Dunya Festival in Holland, as well as many other storytelling festivals and educational institutions around the United States. Antonio has three very entertaining and educational award-winning DVDs, a picture book, and a few awards including the coveted Circle of Excellence Award by the National Storytelling Network.
JILL OSGOOD is a book artist who enjoys illustration, hand lettering, and making all kinds of fun paper creations. She studied Fine Arts at the School of the Worcester Art Museum and the Portland School of Art. Currently, she is happy to be a student again and will receive a BA from USM in 2016 with a concentration in Painting and Drawing and a minor in Book Arts. Her work and life are deeply influenced by the natural world and the beautiful state of Maine. She lives and works in Portland’s West End.
MEG CHRISTIE is a performer, teaching artist, and therapist. Improvising is an integral part of every aspect of her life. She is a founding member of Portland Playback Theatre, playing back stories from the audience since 2006. After working in community mental health for about 10 years, she started a small private therapy practice in 2003, incorporating various expressive modalities including dramatic play and improvisation. She has taught improv to a wide range of ages from kindergarteners to college students. She has a deep belief that practicing improvisation is valuable to everyone and anyone as a tool for learning and exercising the principle of agreement, sharpening active listening skills, teaching and strengthening compassion and so many other benefits. Her goal in all of her adventures is to reduce fear of judgment and support growth, transformation, and healing.
JOHNNA SCOTT Is currently studying Education and Art at the University of New England in Biddeford, Maine. Within her own practice, Johnna values the expressive qualities of her process and takes heavy influence from the world around her. Her interests range from mixed media, and large woodcut paintings, to ceramics. She is excited to engage young artists in art making where they will profit off of the process as well as the result. When not In the studio or classroom she enjoys being outside by the ocean.
SAM O’CONNOR is an artist and elementary art educator in Portland. Sam earned her Master of Teaching in Elementary Education at the University of Virginia and graduated from George Mason with a BA in English, and BA in Art and Visual Technology. After a few years of teaching art near DC, she moved near her family's roots here in Maine. Outside of the school art room, she enjoys oil and gouache painting, sewing, and working with stained glass. When not dabbling with various art forms, she enjoys discovering new places with her two dogs Elvira and Moose, reading thrillers, and watching spooky movies. Her art inspiration comes from the same space that it did when she was a little girl: beautiful vintage dresses adorned with pearls, Victorian cottages, Spanish moss-draped over Gothic fences, and timeless New England lighthouses among crashing waves. Sam's creations are a reflection of mysterious places and people imagined from her past along the coast. Her goal as an artist and teacher is to help render dreams and experiences into whimsical apparitions that inspire a curious and thrilling life.
KELLEY DILLON is an artist, designer, and educator whose painting and illustration work explores the use of color, pattern, and mark-making. She earned her BA from the University of Massachusetts Amherst in 2017. Kelley's creative process often involves experimenting with new mediums and materials. Witnessing this sense of curiosity in students is what she loves most about working with young artists.
SKYE FERRIS grew up in Portland and took classes at Oak St. Studios, cementing her love of drawing. Currently, Skye is a junior studying English at Barnard College in New York City, and spending the spring semester studying at the University of Cambridge in England. She also spent a previous semester in Barcelona, where she learned Spanish and assisted teaching English at a primary school. One of her favorite parts of traveling is visiting new museums and learning about art and architecture. The past three summers, Skye has returned home to Maine to teach art. She is always impressed by the creativity and care which the campers express in their art, and loves supporting them through the process.
SADIE WEED is a student at Bard College studying History and Visual Cultures who enjoys combining her various interests in all aspects of life. She seeks to incorporate her passion for history, writing, and various media into her creative work, including fiber art, painting, 3-D paper crafts, and more. She has spent time working for the Maine Historical Society and Montgomery Place, a historic home on Bard College’s campus, where she brings in her artistic interests as well. Her poetry has been performed around Portland, including readings for a community arts piece entitled Whitman on Walls, a global project seeking to explore a variety of reflections on Whitman’s words, as well as for Glacier Stories, which celebrated Maine’s bicentennial through poets’ experiences with Maine’s history. When she’s not busy studying history, working at historic sites, or writing poetry, she enjoys gleaning inspiration from Maine’s landscapes, her flower garden, and classical music!
ZOE CHEEVER is an educator and theatre artist from Portland, Maine. She is currently based in Chicago, pursuing a degree in Theatre Directing from Columbia College. Her focus is on staging new work by emerging playwrights and on theatre as a tool in education and social justice work. Her work in education centers around providing a process-focused free-form space of creativity and personal agency for children. Her artistic background is in improv, stage combat (SAFD and BASSC certified), physical comedy, and lighting.
HARLEY NIMBLETT is an artist and art educator in Southern Maine. In Spring 2023, Harley graduated from the University of Southern Maine with a Bachelor's degree in Art Education. She has worked at Casco Bay High School as a long term art substitute, as well as at Yarmouth High School, Pownal Elementary School, and Morse Street School as a student teacher. Outside of teaching, Harley's art is focused on watercolor illustration inspired by her cultural background. As a lifelong learner, she is also interested in learning languages as she has been formally learning Korean since 2019. She aspires to learn more skills that can help her grow as both an educator and as a human.
BELLA BLOOM is a Portlander who grew up taking Oak Street courses, moving on to art spaces such as Pickwick Independent Press. They are currently in their second year at Oberlin College, studying English and Studio Art, where they are also a part of a loving co-op community where they serve as FoodCo. They love photography, printmaking, and mixed media, and love sharing those mediums in a variety of ways with students. Their happy place is doing art with kids, and seeing what creations take place.