Alie Sweany-Rich - Founder & Art Guide
Alie is an Earth Artist, Ceremonialist, Herbalist, Nature-Art Guide and Founder of Wild Roots Studio. She offers soulful nature-based art workshops, custom rituals and art installations aimed to support & strengthen our connection to nature and explore our wild creativity. She is endlessly inspired by the peace, joy, and soulfulness that nature stirs in one’s heart. She believes that nature art is a powerful vehicle to support us in syncing with our natural rhythms and helps us feel more in tune with the seasons and cycles that hold us.
Alie believes creativity is medicine for the soul, as it allows us to quiet our mind chatter and let our wild, inner voice talk through our hands. Creating something with intention from the heart is truly our purest offering out into the world. It allows us an opportunity to offer something soulful out into the world for others to see their soul in yours.
In 2011, Alie made a decision to leave her career in sustainability to create Wild Roots Studio, in hopes to reconnect to her inner creativity and to find a more soulful connection to both humanity & the natural world that surrounds us. Alie believes that a concern and care for the Earth is typically sparked as children (and adults alike) experience the magic and wonder of nature. Nature based art is a great way to deliver this experience to children. Creating art with nature reminds us of our innate and deep rooted connection to our Mother Earth. Reminding us that we are not separate from nature, yet we are all a part of nature. Taking part in all of nature’s cycles and rhythms and by aligning with them we can live with more grace, ease and joy.
Alie received a BA in Fine Arts from Colorado State University and studied under Marghanita Hughes via Educating the Heart Through Nature Program. She also studied Permaculture Design at Quail Springs Permaculture. Alie worked as a Head Gardener for Omega Institute for Holistic Studies and Sustainability Specialist at New Belgium Brewing Company before starting Wild Roots Studio in 2011. She is a Certified Herbalist graduating from the Equinox School of Herbal Studies and is currently studying to become a Flower Essence Practitioner via The Bach Centre and FES.
When not making earth art you can find her playing with and loving on her two children, hiking, making plant medicine, gardening, stargazing or tending to her bees.
Katie Walker - Art Guide
Katie is an explorer of the world around her and a facilitator to others experiencing the expressive power of art. She encourages her students to explore their inner selves and the natural world through creating works of art. She believes that art education is essential to the personal development of any human and can be especially important to young people. From a young age she began to create and the desire to express her ideas and emotions through art became a large part of her life. This discovery of the empowering nature of creation fueled a desire to become an artist creating tangible expressions of the beauty she saw in the world.
For this reason, she graduated with an MA in Art Education at Colorado State University with a concentration in painting. Her education has allowed her to gain new insights into the possibilities that art offers as a lens through which to view the world. She has been fortunate enough to gain experience with many different mediums including fibers, sculpture, woodworking, printmaking, metalsmithing, and photography. Her education has helped her see the world in a new way and her dream is to share this way of seeing with her students.
The playful and carefree nature of young people has always pulled Katie towards working with children as those qualities are some she aspires to cultivate in her own demeanor. As she began to pursue a degree it only made sense to combine her love for art and children and study art education. Her formal training offers an opportunity to create lessons that inspire students to truly explore their creative potential while building self-confidence. Her teaching philosophy is largely based around providing students with the materials and guidance necessary to confidently explore and express their ideas freely. When students create works of art they are learning how to think like artists. They generate ideas, formulate a plan for how to make these ideas tangible, and then effectively carry out this plan to create a complete work of art. The imagination, creativity, and dedication involved in expression can be beneficial to so many other areas of life.
Katie has also been raised with a deep love and respect for nature. Wild Roots Studio has been the perfect culmination of these passions because it aspires to facilitate others in discovering a deep understanding of Mother Earth through the process of creating art that uses nature not only as a subject, but as a medium. Just as creating art can benefit the development of our human spirit, a strong relationship with pure nature has the ability to help us develop our beliefs and heal our internal wounds.
Jillian Bieritz - Art & Yoga Guide
Jillian’s love and connection to nature brought her and her family from the Chicagoland area, to Fort Collins in 2015. She has expressed herself artistically from an early age, with music and dance being huge influential forms of creative expression, which represent her guiding light, and luminated her spiritual path.
When Jillian was introduced to yoga in 2012, she was unaware of how deeply it would transform her life. She stepped to the mat in search of a spiritual connection, and what she found was more powerful than she ever imagined. In 2013, she met her beloved teacher Meggan Riley, and instantly connected to her poetically inspiring, heart-centered teachings. Within a short amount of time she was called to dive deeper into the teaching of the sacred, precious gift, of yoga. In 2015, Jillian received her 200-hour Hatha Yoga Certification upon completion of a one-on-one yoga teacher training apprenticeship with Meggan Riley. Jillian has an intuitive understanding of the ancient wisdom offered through the scientific system of yoga. Her deep love of mythology, natural movement, and the studies of Earth Medicine, inspire her teachings. She is dedicated to teaching yoga from the heart, while bringing a soulful connection to mind, body & spirit.
Jillian also recently received her Reiki I & II certification, along with training in Shamanic Energy Healing with Jacqueline Maldonado of Nurtured Spirits Healing Arts, here in Fort Collins. Forever a student, Jillian is eternally grateful for the wisdom and guidance that has been offered by her teachers.
Jillian’s professional pathway allows her to bring joy and self-love to all those she interacts with, through the art of hair styling. Jillian has been practicing this form of expression for 13 years, and is taking her passion for creating beauty into all facets of her life. With a ritualistic approach, Jillian is using hair as a medium, representing an extension of her energy healing work. Shine Beauty Studio is the sacred space that Jillian is blessed to call her own, right here in Fort Collins.
Jillian and her family take little time for granted, focusing their energy on experiencing all that Colorado has to offer, and growing spiritually through spontaneous adventure, and a willingness to do the unexpected.