Sheila Okanga (Functional Art/Recycleable Craft)
Sheila Okanga is a functional artist based in Kilifi, Kenya. Her current interest is in upcycling and recycling various materials, including glass, wood, khanga, beads, acrylics, and plastic, to enhance their value, appeal, and ensure they can be used for multiple purposes. The various products she produces include and are not limited to candle holders, chipboard catering sets, and upcycled reusable tins. Sheila has a background in graphic design and commercial art. She uses her expertise and knowledge to teach art to a group of women from disadvantaged areas. Sheila has turned her current workspace into a safe space for women to learn how to create art and indulge in some form of art therapy and counseling. Products produced by Sheila and her team are sold through social media and other avenues.
Izabela Plucińska (Animation)
Born in Poland and currently living in Germany, Izabela Plucinska has some thirty films to her credit. She studied art and film and now brilliantly combines her talents to create animated works. In 2005, her short Jam Session won a Silver Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival. Since then, this gifted filmmaker has enjoyed a steady stream of projects and successes. Her politically and philosophically oriented medium-length film Esterhazy was screened around the world in 2009, including in England, France, Finland, Hungary and Mexico, garnering a number of awards. In 2015 she finished Sexy laundry co-production with NFB of Canada.
At the moment, Plucinska, a Berliner by adoption, is busily working at her own production company, Clay Traces, along with her associates. Owing to her renown as an artist, she frequently leads workshops and teaches film animation at universities internationally. Several exhibitions have featured her work. Now she’s back with Portret Susanne, her latest film, inspired by short novel of Roland Topor, with puppets from the film Esterhazy. Izabela Plucinska is a graduate of the Academy of Fine Arts in Lodz and Film Animation of the Cinematography Department at the Lodz Film School, where she also completed her Ph.D. in the field of animation. She specialises in clay animation. Currently she is a teacher at the Academy.
She made a lot of workshops and masterclass : in Poland, France, Germany, Korea, India, Rwanda.
