Arts in Society (AiS) Grantee Awarded $30k 2022 Cycle

Our Instructors and Coaches

Jana L. Bussanich, Artist, Instructor & Consultant

Jana L. Bussanich is the owner and founder of Jana L. Bussanich, LLC, and Jana L. Bussanich Art & Instruction, owner at Yellow Couch Gallery, Classroom, and Community.

We provide high-quality fine Art solutions, creative design, and management of private, commercial, and public art, in addition to art instruction and consulting services to collectors and mentoring services to artists interested in developing the business side of art—Jana Bussanich Artist Studio, located in downtown Colorado Springs, CO.

Leslie McCrea, Leslie McCrea Art

Colorado Springs-based independent artist, Leslie McCrea, paints mainly in water media: watercolor, ink, and acrylic. She shares her love of art-making with others through her watercolor courses.  Leslie finds subtle beauty and Nuanced charm where least expected. Leslie conveys the beauty of the ordinary through her quick journal sketches and paintings in watercolor.

Exploring the intersection between life and art, drawing, and painting requires a certain slowness of seeing, of Being, necessary for recording. Leslie loves the creative process, where she finds goodness, beauty, and truth. She strives to live the way she creates.

Bri Austin

Independent jewelry artist Bri Austin enjoys macrame and making handmade journals, hiking, and dancing. She teaches group watercolor technique and color theory classes in person in the Yellow Couch Classroom at Cottonwood Center for the Arts. 

Mo Morrow, Epiphany Designs 

Mo Morrow graduated from Colorado College with a Major in Studio Art after studying painting in oils under James Trissel and Bernard Arnest. She has found expression over her lifetime in both 2 and 3-D media including ceramic sculpture and functional ware, and fiber art. Mo spent 25 years creating polymer clay cane worked jewelry to integrate color and form. She turned to watercolor as the ultimate medium to express her deep love of the natural world. When not painting or teaching here in Colorado Springs, she heads an equine program at a wilderness retreat center in the Wind River Range of Wyoming.