Jen Payne
Jen, editor of CREATIVE SOUP, is a writer and the owner of Words by Jen, a graphic design company now celebrating 15 years in business. In 2006, she began CREATIVE SOUP as a forum for purely creative endeavors, with the hope of rediscovering her passion for writing in the process--she is currently working on her first novel, and was recently published on Six Sentences. In addition, Jen has been exploring the combination of words and visual art, creating a series of mixed-media collages and art journals, some of which can be seen here on CREATIVE SOUP. Jen is a member of the Arts Council of Greater New Haven and the Guilford Art Center.

Branford, CT
wordsbyjen@aol.com
www.wordsbyjen.com
Blog: Random Acts of Writing [+ art]

T.J. Buckley
T.J. Buckley, 54 and a Gemini, is a freelance writer for Nutmeg Magazine: Food Buzz from West Haven to Westerly. A native of Florida, she has also lived in Los Angeles, Middle Georgia and New York City, where she was a journalist and an actress. Currently, she works two part-time jobs. In her spare time she creates her own greeting cards, makes jewelry (specializing in paper beads, or papier roule) and dabbles in as many art forms as she has time for, including rubber stamping, photography, writing, quilting, calligraphy and gardening. She loves animals, nature, the earth, the universe and humanity (in that order). 

Branford, CT
mojobabe7@hotmail.com

Dale Carlson
Author of over 50 books, Carlson has received three ALA Notable Book Awards, the Christopher Award, YALSA nominated Quick Picks for Teens 2005, VOYA Honor Book, ForeWord Magazine's Bronze Book of the Year Award 2004, New York Public Library Best Books for Teens 2000 and 2003. Carlson's books have been Junior Literary Guild selections and International Book of the Month Club selections. The books have been translated into eleven languages. Carlson has lived and taught in the Far East: India, Indonesia, China, Japan. She teaches writing here and abroad during part of each year. She makes her home among her grandchildren Chaney, Jacquelyn, Malcolm, Sam, and Shannon, and her cats in Connecticut.

Madison, CT
bickpubhse@aol.com
www.bickpubhouse.com

Frank Crowley

I'm 66 and singing freely at long last in my own poetry which is starting to pour out in a deeper resonance since a recent trip to Tucson, Az. I tried my first SLAM meet there in January, 2008 ; and I am searching out the nearby open mics in New Haven these days for the immense joy and kick I get in response to my newest writing. I began writing letters to my grandson about 10 years ago, crafting short stories and memoir pieces and , then, dusted off my poetry from early years. Over the last couple of years I have been writing short lyrics, longer narrative poems and now a bonanza crop of travel and spiritual meditations.

I'm creatively retired from Gateway Community College, where I still keep a connection by editing the popular composition reader in use each year: STORIES FROM THE OTHER SIDE, 2007, 4th ed. Pearson Custom. I broker the book, edit it and write for it each new edition; moreover, I travel to interview prospective new writers, as we cull about one-third of the stories from former editions to make room for new work. ALL ROYALTIES go directly to the HAITIAN HEALTH FOUNDATION of Norwich, CT, each year to help support our programs at the HHF Clinic in Jeremie, Haiti.

Madison, CT
danielcrowley2003@yahoo.com

Maggie Dean
"To be able to pursue the creative process through the vehicle of oil paint has afforded me a never ending artistic challenge. Preferring to work "en plein air", I find that each new experience becomes a spark for the very beginning of this "journey". The translucency of oil paints and the richness of their color along with their infinite nuances is such a perfect medium for involvement. It is all encompassing as I struggle to capture that fleeting moment in time. When the timing is right, when the many, many facets of this challenging medium and plein air pursuit come together, I feel very much involved in the moment and consider the experience successful. My brush has the possibility to capture the scene in front of me, and you, the viewer, become a part of it if I succeed. The goal will always be the same: to take the experience and capture it in such a way as to touch in some small way those who happen upon my work. The creative moment, this record of my experience becomes yours to enjoy."

Branford, CT
margaretbdeanstudio@comcast.net
www.margaretbdean.com

Susan Gallagher
My career life has called on me to be writer, editor, advertising director, market researcher, photographer, events manager, and public relations/marketing consultant. When photography and publication prep slipped in along the way, I found they brought meditative moments to my deadline-filled life. Looking through the lens, moving words around, gardening, painting and pasting all call on me to be focused and present in the moment. The ordinary becomes extraordinary. My sense of wonder is heightened and I find myself amazed at the world around me.

Hamden, CT
sgallagher@snet.net

Maureen Goss
Maureen Goss uses photography, writing, flower arranging, gardening and interior design to keep her creative juices flowing. She joined Soup with Jen Payne whom she has collaborated with on many artistic endeavors over the last decade. Goss has participated in numerous group and solo photography and art exhibitions as well as authoring several exercise videos. She currently divides her time between New York City where she works and Guilford, CT where she unwinds.

Guilford, CT
maureengoss@verizon.net
www.stillcenter.com

Pamela LaRegina
Pamela is a founding member of the Calligraphers' Guild of New Haven. She has taught calligraphy to children and adults for three decades and is a frequent guest lecturer and demonstrator at schools. Her calligraphy has appeared at over 200 special events: on envelopes, placecards, signs, invitations, wedding certificates, geneology charts, certificates of appreciation and resolutions. Pamela's own calligraphy study originated with the John Howard Benson lineage. She has studied with Raphael Boguslav, Arthur Baker, and others.

Branford, CT
pamela@cshore.com
www.supercalligraphics.com
www.alphabetdoctor.com

Nathalie Lewis
"I was formally trained in the arts and earned a B.F.A. from the University of Laval in Quebec, Canada. I later went on to pursue advanced studies in Anthropology and worked in Archeology for the city of Quebec for several years.

I am passionate about travel and I had the chance to explored extensively Asia, Europe and North America. Themes and images that I encountered along the way influence my work to this day.

I am now settled in New England where I am pursing a career as an illustrator. I like to work with a variety of media, especially with watercolor and pen and ink. I am inspired by the world around me, by the traditions of many different cultures and the fascinating stories whose threads weave the fabric of the world."

nathalie-lewis@verizon.net
www.nathalielewis.com

Doug Mathewson
Doug Mathewson lives on the Connecticut shoreline. He writes very short fiction that occasionally changes of  its own volition into poetry or essay forms. He has been  published here and there online, most recently at  The Boston Literary Magazine, Doorknobs & Body Paint, Tuesday Shorts, Riverbabble, and Six Sentences.  His current project, True Stories From Imaginary Lives, can be found at www.little2say.org. 

Guilford, CT
little2say.org
dmathewson@comcast.net

Gemma Mathewson

The idiot’s guide to me
We’re all actors playing ourselves
and if we’re lucky, sometimes
get to play a recognizable
version we can still relate to,
sympathize with.

I long for something projected
into the last balcony,
distilled from a reckless abandon
of improvisation, skewed memory,
and perfect timing. .

I dress in too many colors
from the BIG crayon box,
accessorize like a coral reef crab
camouflaged behind anything available.
I embellish with too many adjectives,
(wincing at escaped superlatives),
peg too many ironies
on the conversational clothesline
where they dangle limp in the dead calm
of more literal lives.

I like people, at least, the idea of them -
delicate meat bags
too easily separated from consciousness
who think they can feel, feel they can think.
And want to be desperately in love
with each and every one of them.
But have been just a few times,
and even now hold a fragile thread
like a life line.

I find four leaf clovers easily.

Watches stop when I wear them.

I love prison stories and time travel stories.
I am also fond of sandalwood soap
cowboy yodeling, black lace.
I hate yak butter tea, jury duty
sun roofs on cars, asparagus.

In my only comprehensible version
of probability, everything has a 50-50
chance of happening, or not.

I am saddest on new years eve
and happiest traveling to any new place.
When reality disappoints I use fantasy -
books when they are at hand,
or interior plots of my own devising.

Guilford, CT
gemop@comcast.net
Museum of Rain

Denise Meyer

Trained as a classical saxophonist, Denise Meyer has been working in Public Relation and Communications for nearly 20 years, first in the arts and now for wide-ranging enterprises as a consultant, providing collateral, web and media services for both internal and external communications. She is a contributing writer for Commercial Property News and Founding Publisher of Eirini Press, whose first book Sciousness, edited by Jonathan Bricklin, has received critical acclaim. In addition, Denise is writing From Masters to Mortals - Following the Taiji Path to Nonduality.

Guilford, CT
meyer@snet.net
Eirinipress.com

Carol Nicklaus
Carol Nicklaus has spent most of her life making pictures--and often writing about them--from the early walls of her family home through college studies in painting, graphics and literature. From her home in the Midwest, she moved to New York City to work for several years as a magazine editor and then as an illustrator for over 300 published books for children and young adults.

Her work has been featured in The New York Times, Publishers Weekly, Good Housekeeping, and Mademoiselle. She has won awards from ALA, the Christophers, and The American Institute of Graphic Arts.

Always a traveler, she was, not all that long ago, handed a digital camera...and set foot for the first time on St. Vincent and the Grenadines. It was just that simple. The painter’s head got the painter’s hands on a tool of thrilling immediacy and flexibility. The unique vibrancy of SVG compelled the images, and the images inspired the writer...in October of 2004, she published Glimpses/St. Vincent & the Grenadines.

Carol also created the CREATIVE SOUP logo.

Danbury, CT
cnicklaus@comcast.net
www.carolnicklaus.com

Mary O'Connor
Mary began her career in journalism, continuing through the multimedia worlds of public relations and marketing communications before retiring in 2007 as the executive director of the Guilford Art Center. An award-winning poet, she recently published Dreams of a Wingless Child, a collection of reflections on nature and life drawn in great part from her observations of the rhythms and forces of the New England coastline where she lives. Believing in the power of writing to deal with the emotions and milestones of daily life, she dedicated the book to the Freedom Writers, (2007 Paramount Pictures), hoping in so doing to support them in their goal of achieving dreams for themselves and the world through writing. When Mary isn't writing or promoting her book through readings and presentations on creative writing, she is apt to be found painting wildlife and scenes of nature with watercolors and acrylics.

Old Lyme, CT
Msocol@aol.com  
www.mary-oconnor.com

Marta Reisman
"Art and writing are critical parts of my self-definition," says Marta. In the field of art, Marta illustrated a book about the Dinka tribe of the southern Sudan, years before the tribe was decimated or banished to Darfur and Chad. In the 1970s, the son of the Dinka chief noticed her ink work in her living room and asked if she were part Dinka. The rest is herstory.

Marta has been writing light verse since elementary school. She wrote the lyrics for her Bryn Mawr college musicals, a poem for Seventeen magazine and commemorates events with celebratory verses.

(She advises the reader to recite Prima Ballerina with an exaggerated 1-2-3-4, 1-2-3-4 rhythmic beat. She is interested in finding an illustrator for Prima.)

Branford, CT
mresnikov@comcast.net

Suzan Shutan
Suzan Shutan works site specifically, designing ideas and artwork for private and public spaces (elevators, lobbies, storefronts, parks). Considering function, place and community, her work combines a variety of materials with a narrative that becomes social commentary.

Shutan received her MFA from Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ and her BFA from California Institute of the Arts, Valencia, CA. She is a recipient of various awards and grants including ones from the Artist Resource Trust, Artslink International CEC Partners, Art Matters, the Connecticut Commission on Culture & Tourism, and The Bemis Foundation.

Internationally she has exhibited in Canada, Germany, Columbia, Sweden, and Portugal. Her national exhibits include; The Alternative Museum & Abrons Art Center/ Henry Street Settlement in NYC, The Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art and Real Art Ways in CT, Iowa State University in Ames and the Laguna Beach Art Museum in CA.

Shutan has worked for The City of New Haven, the Lyman Allyn Art Museum, The Des Moines Art Museum, and has taught Sculpture and Art History as an Adjunct Assistant Professor at Quinnipiac University. In addition, she is the owner of Go-Go Consulting, a business that provides grant writing, marketing and development services for non-profit art organizations. She also serves as a juror for public art projects for the CT Commission on the Arts and is on the Visual Arts Advisory Board for the Arts Council of Greater New Haven and the Housatonic Museum of Art.

New Haven, CT
sshutan@sbcglobal.net

Mary Anne Siok

Mary Anne lives near Boston where she works as a procurement director by day and doodles at night. While working in politics, she discovered that abstract expression encourages her sense of creativity while providing a calming affect during a stressful day. As a current government accountant, Mary Anne is excited about the opportunity to stretch beyond her daily linear activities and rediscover her imagination.

Malden, MA
masiok@yahoo.com

Martha Link Walsh
Martha has been cutting paper since 1970 when she discovered it serendipitously. A middle school mathematics teacher at the time, she found her passion by coincidence when she picked up paper and scissors to occupy her free time. She has had a studio and gallery in Branford, Connecticut for more than 30 years, and is continually learning more about the art of papercutting and new ways to create art from paper.

The challenge of design is her stimulus most often. Whether it is symmetrical or not, layered or cut from one piece of paper, with many design elements or a specific message that needs to be conveyed through the images...how to put it all together as a cohesive, artistic image is what she is inspired by. "The cutting is the joy of it all for me," she says, "Watching the pieces of paper fall away to uncover the positive and negative of the finished design. It is magic!!"

Branford, CT
marthalinkwalsh@comcast.net
www.marthalinkwalsh.com