Erika Cespedes

Erika is an award winning photographer and arts educator. Ever since she can re- member art has been a part of her life, she participated in art festivals, competi- tions and afterschool art programs. She attended Art Universities in Fort Lauder- dale, Chicago for her under grad and obtained her MFA at the Academy of Art University in California. She has practiced commercial and fine art photography allowing her to publish several food photography books and exhibit work in Fine Art galleries throughout the United States. She is versatile in film and digital, in- cluding 35mm, medium and large format cameras. She also alternates her lessons with  alternative  photographic  processes;  which  include  cyanotypes,  transfers, Brown-Vandykes’,  experimental  photography,  chlorophyll  printing  and  much more. Other art areas include: mix media, collage, clay, installation and holistic- healing art.
Erika has taught after school programs through museums and galleries adapting her  lessons  in  several  languages;  Spanish  and  English.  Her  classes  involve  risk youth, terminal illness patients, LGBT teens, k-12 students, immigrant children, adults and seniors.  Classes include, one-day workshops, 6-12 week class sessions and all year round afterschool programs. She taught photography and digital me- dia for high-school students as an artist in residence during her years in West Palm Beach, FL.
Her teaching approach is organic, allowing students to find themselves through the creation of art and encouraging self-discovery. As a mother she understands how important it is to allow students to express themselves, and find their artistic voice.
She guides the class through a combination of visual examples, simple steps and encouragement. Students will not only learn a variety of art techniques but they will be able to understand how art can heal and beautify every day life. Erika rec- ognizes how vital it is to allow children and adults to create in a safe positive envi- ronment.