The Studio Staff

Oak Street Studio’s instructors are fun, energetic, and full of life! They are dedicated to providing the highest quality fine arts instruction available to young people.

BETH WILBUR VAN MIERLO is an artist and the director and founder of Oak Street Studios and Side x Side, as well as an occasional teacher! She is an avid supporter of the arts, in particular art for young people. Before starting Oak Street Studios 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.

 

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 third 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 sharing those mediums in a variety of ways with students. Their happy place is doing art with kids, and seeing what creations take place.

 

CAT 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. You might see her painting kids’ faces on the First Friday Art Walk!

 

JILL OSGOOD is an artist, naturalist, and educator living and working in Maine. Growing up in the woods of New Hampshire helped to foster her sense of wonder and respect for the natural world that has guided her perspective as a human being and defined her work as an artist. She is a certified Maine Master Naturalist, and shares her love for art and Maine’s rich ecology through teaching both children and adults.

 

ANTONIO ROCHA is a native of Brazil who 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.

 

PHYLLIS SABATTIS is originally from the Passamaquoddy reservation in Princeton, ME, and is now a resident of Back Cove here in Portland. Phyllis is eager to bring her unique background and passion for mindful education to her new role as an Art Educator at Oak Street Studios. Phyllis is an experienced Art Director and Educator leading art programs at summer camps for over four years. Holding a Bachelor’s degree in Studio Art from the University of Maine, where she also studied Art History and Psychology, Phyllis combines technical artistic expertise with a deep understanding of emotional development. Honing her teaching ability as a Social and Emotional Learning educator for the Leadership School in Nobleboro, ME, she fostered a supportive environment working with students of all ages on their teamwork and resilience in the outdoors. Outside of the studio, Phyllis can be found walking her dogs at the Presumpscot River Preserve or exploring the beaches of Cape Elizabeth. Phyllis is excited to be a part of the Oak Street Team!

 

BETSY SCHEINTAUB is a garment designer, fiber artist, and professor. She has a BFA in Fiber Arts and ten years experience teaching at Maine College of Art and Design in the Textiles and Fashion Design department.

 

 

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!