Members and Visiting Faculty

Member Profiles (2012-2019)

Jacqueline Gens, MFA, MAT is a retired director of the MFA program in poetry at New England College which she co-founded in 2001. She began studying book arts in NYC at the NY Center for the Book while working for the late poet Allen Ginsberg. In 1998 while on a year-long conservation project at the state capital of Madison, WI she studied at the Wisconsin Center for Paper Arts learning all aspects of traditional western papermaking from students of Walter Hamady. She has worked as an arts administrator for over 30 years and is an active long time student of the late Chogyam Trungpa working at the Naropa University (1982-89) and Chögyal Namkhai Norbu since 1992 whom she met through Tsultrim Allione. Jacqueline is the founder of KPC and oversees weekly open studios at Khandroling Paper Cooperative. 

She teaches a variety of poetry workshops in Haiku and other forms. Currenty, she facilitates a monthly contemplative poetry class in Shelburne Falls where she lives which you can read about in her literary blog Poetrymind as well as acts as a personal poetry mentor. 

Artist Statement: My inspiration as a poet and artist comes from three decades of Buddhist training and the notion of “First Thought, Best Thought coined by late Chogyam Trungpa and Allen Ginsberg as a sacred exploration in pure perception with trust in the process to carry us into luminous details of awakened mind/heart.

Ingmar K. Gutierrez --I relish living simply here in Hattiesburg, Mississippi with my husband. I have been painting whimsical cartoonish visions and dreams, with watercolors and sometimes acrylics since the early 1960’s. Now that I have retired, I have plenty of time to paint.

I lived and worked most of my adult years in New Orleans. I am a graduate of Newcomb College of Tulane University with a degree in anthropology. I worked as an analyst in city government. I have painted since college, and have taken painting and drawing classes in New Orleans over the years. I have had my work in two small group shows in New Orleans and in a larger art festival in Covington, Louisiana, a shop near the French Market, and at the French Market. I have mainly used the income for any pieces I have sold as donations to fundraisers for various Dharma activities.

I’ve been a Vajrayana and Dzogchen practitioner since the 1980’s.

Sheryl Jaffe received her MA from the University of Massachusetts and BS in Multicultural Art Education from the University Without Walls. She has studied papermaking in Japan and China, at Carriage House Paper Institute and the Women's Studio Workshop. She has taught papermaking in Haiti and throughout the Northeast for many years. Besides teaching workshops, Sheryl is an art educator instructing at the Secondary level. Her paper installations, prints, sculptures and musical instruments have been exhibited throughout New England. Intuition, personal expression and joy guide Sheryl as she is the primary instructor for our workshops and classes.[Sheryl left instructing a woman in making her first piece of paper]




[Photo by Jacqueline Gens, Daria showing us her Tibetan letters]

Daria Juels became interested in Buddhism as a teenager and after taking a college course in Buddhism began to study Zen meditation. She lived in a Zen Buddhist community for a few years while attending art school. She met her Teacher, a Tibetan Nyingma Lama, ten years ago and became interested in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition as well as the Tibetan language. Studying scriptural Tibetan with Heidi Nevin, a well-known translator, she developed her knowledge of the written language. Wishing to become fluent in the spoken language Dara travelled to Nepal five years ago where she lived for almost two and a half years studying both language and meditation practices with various teachers in the Nyingma Lineage. When she returned to the United States she furthered her studies at a translator program at Rangjung Yeshe Gomde in Northern California. Dara began doing both written translation of dharma practices and teachings for buddhist teachers as well as oral translation for her husband. She has a passion for both Tibetan language and translating the vast wealth of wisdom within the spiritual tradition into English. Her wish is participate in assuring that the blessings of the path are carried into the Western languages. At KPX she teaches Tibetan alphabet and calligraphy, Tibetan amulet 
making and visual arts




Kichung Lizee is a Korean-born American artist and Buddhist practitioner who uniquely blends Eastern calligraphy and Western thematic materials. She has taught and exhibited internationally and curated many exhibits bringing together Eastern calligraphers and Western artists. She was honored with a special award in 2008 at the Seoul International Calligraphy Biennale, Korea, and has been a featured artist at the Asian Art Museum, San Francisco, CA, the Jordan Schnitzler Museum of Art, Eugene, OR, and the Turchin Center for Visual Arts, Boone, NC.

Works by Kichung Lizee can be viewed at http://www.absolutearts.com/kichunglizee/ 







Madeline Liebling. I was born into a family of artists and have made art all my life since I could hold a crayon. I have worked in the media of photography, silkscreen and fabric design, collage, assemblage, sculpture and drawing.

I first made paper in 1984 when I studied with Lillian Bell in Los Angeles, CA. She taught a course on Handmade Paper from Plant Materials. That was the same year I began to practice and study Tibetan Buddhism. I have made paper as much as possible since then, and primarily used my papers for collage, as well as utilizing pulp for casting to create sculptural forms. I graduated from U Mass, Amherst in 1987 with a degree in Art Education. Many of my final sculpture projects for my studio art classes incorporated cast paper.

In 1989 I graduated from Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, CA. with a MA degree in Clinical Art Therapy. Since then I have worked as an Art Therapist, and psychotherapist, and my own art making has taken somewhat of a back seat since. I was glad to recently find the Khandroling Papermaking Collective so I could reconnect with an old love!

From 1999-2004 I lived in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and was an active member of the Shambhala Buddhist Community there. While residing there, I taught several papermaking classes at the Nova Scotia Center for Craft and Design, from 2001-2003. I have also taught photography, silkscreen, and Art Therapy techniques.

I currently live in Shelburne Falls, MA, and work at a community mental health agency in Greenfield, MA.






Amanda Pollock 

Amanda received a BA in English and Education from Smith College.During her time at Smith she did a year of letterpress study under Barry Moser with specific interest in early letterpress in Western Massachusetts. She is a ceramic artist specializing in clay book covers and dolls. She also makes handmade books of poetry and song. Amanda  lives in Cummington, MA where she runs a performing arts lodge called The Singing Bridge.

Brenda Lilly writes: "Origami has been a personal passion of mine for over 24 years. As an art educator I began learning folds that I could teach to my students. Over time and through influences from other artists I now fold with hand made papers, a variety of simple to complex designs, and incorporate the models into a work of art. The idea of sharing my accumulated knowledge inspires me to infect other people with the magic of creating something 3-dimensional with a flat piece of paper.




Kathryn O'Connor received a BFA in Textile Design from Moore College of Art, Post-Baccalaureate Art Certification from The School of Visual Arts and an MS Ed degree from Bank Street College. She has worked as an artist, musician and an educator working with young children. Kathryn was first introduced to the art of papermaking during her undergrad years at Moore. Deepening her understanding of Art as a spontaneous expression of the moment has been a driving force at the heart of all of her creative explorations and has led her to study with a range of master of this form: Big brush painting with Barbara Bash, improvisational singing with Bobby McFerrin and by the sides of the three and four year olds that she teaches (some of the most spontaneously creative beings on the planet!!)

[Here she is on the right with our good friend Lauri Marder, owner of the Ursa Major Gallery and the Ox and rabbit B & B in Shelburne Falls] To view her collages made from KPC paper scraps, click here.




Tatiana Shannon received a BA in Studio Art and American History from Hampshire College, where she was first introduced to the arts of bookbinding and letterpress. Tatiana was first introduced to the art of papermaking through a workshop run by Sheryl Jaffe . She studies the art of frame conservation through the Frame Conservation Apprenticeship Program at the Smith College Museum of Art and is preparing to apply for Master’s programs in Art Conservation in the near future. She works as a virtual office manager for a number of small local businesses.





Margherita Zondrak is an Intuitive Business Mentor, Author and a Creative Artist working with clients who want to make their heart centered business & life highly successful. She is the author of: The Crystal Lotus Handbook - An Essential Guide to Crystals. Her work in the Khandroling Paper Cooperative involves traditional book arts and product development. For further information visit her website at www.thecrystallotus.com

VISITING FACULTY


Milan Rai
Tashi Mannox