Hello there! Michelle here, the founder of Shelscapes. Friends and family have always called me Shel, so the name seemed fitting. Born in 1985 ♈️ 😃 and raised in the small town of Saugus, MA for most of my life! After graduating from a very small high school in 2003, I ventured off to college as a commuter for 6 1/2 years, where I earned an A.A., B.A., and a M.Ed. Within that time, I was moving around from job to job trying to find my path in life, traveled, worked and played, got a puppy, got married, had a kid. When finishing graduate school, which was like art therapy for 2 1/2 years, I was creatively opened up and incredibly inspired! I went on to pursue a profession within the arts! I jumped onto the PAINT PARTY wagon which was just taking root in 2009. I began Shelscapes, a traveling paint party business and began hosting weekly events at locations including Border Cafe and Prince Pizzeria in Saugus, the Seaport District in Boston, the Chelsea Yacht Club right under the Tobin Bridge to name a few, along with home parties for friends and small business owners all here on the north shore. In addition to paint parties I was writing for a local publication called Saugus Life Magazine, where I’d share my interests in the arts as a therapeutic outlet for anxiety and daily stresses. “Paint for Peace” became a tagline used at events, where participants would come together, as a tangible way to release stress via paint! Teaching art became something of interest and I was offered a position as an elementary art teacher at a small private school, which then progressed into full time art teacher to the entire school for grades K-12. For 4 years I poured my heart and soul into my students, offering as much creative energy as one could muster, while also raising my kid, and building our new home amidst what seemed to be endless lesson planning and too many hats to put on all at once! The position of art teacher was for a specific season of my life and yet, another creative endeavor was calling me louder than anything had yet…and that was
Motherhood.
About Shelscapes: The name SHELSCAPES is a combination of my nickname name (Shel) and landscapes (scapes). I enjoy painting landscapes, and most people call me Shel! To give credit where credit is due, my husband came up with the name. 🙂 Most of my planning, and writing happen in my home office and I travel for events. Monthly events consist of paint parties, private work parties for team building, and various after school art programs!
Mission: The purpose guiding every class and event that I teach is on bringing people/students together in an environment that cultivates each participants gifts and talents, using the arts as a means of pulling on individual intelligences. As created beings I believe we are uniquely designed with various gifts and abilities to be responders. My goal as an educator is to open up the hearts of students to find their unique voice, and learn how to use it, and once that is found, the true beauty of understanding what it means to be an artist will be unveiled.
SHELSCAPES 