Voice & Vocation

n effective studio practice
Determining the right career path
Developing professional relationships
Balancing financial issues
Strategies for engaging creativity

Amy and Amanda have a firmly held belief in the possibility that every working artist can craft a thriving life doing what they love to do. They started Voice & Vocation as a means for visual artists to create their own vision for what that life looks like. This has been their journey as well, and they are equally passionate about propelling artists in the direction of their own dreams. Amy Pleasant is a Seattle figurative and abstract painter whose work reflects an interest in the intersection of memory and the complexity of family relationships. Amy attended the Art Institute of Seattle and the Drawing and Painting Atelier at Gage Academy of Art. She has exhibited in Seattle, Chicago, NY and Amsterdam and was one of 12 artists featured by the Woman’s Caucus for the Arts, NYC in 2012. She is currently a member of the Seattle collective Gallery 110 and previously had an art coaching business serving a range of visual artists. Her previous background in education included mentoring new teachers and leading teacher training workshops in art methodologies in the Los Angeles Unified School District and the Shoreline School District (WA). Artwork, along with her poetry and writing can be found on the website. She has just recently been invited to join the Huffington Post blogging community. (amypleasantseattle.com)

Amanda Michele Dellinger is a Seattle-based arts administrator, and self-proclaimed arts enabler. She's currently the gallery manager at Pivot Art + Culture. Her experience includes twelve years of administrative work, and six years of independent curating locally, and nationally. She is well known, and recognized for her arts and community advocacy in the Georgetown neighborhood of Seattle, WA. Her life pursuit is to create opportunities for artists through connectivity, and education, and to engage the public in non-traditional ways.