About Us – Our Founder and Teachers
Founder & Head Facilitator
Alissa is a mixed media artist, with a Diploma in Holistic Integrated Creative Arts Therapies, a Diploma in Arts and a Cert IV in Training and Assessing.
Alissa is the founder of Artlis Studios and has been teaching homeschool groups, after school groups and private art lessons under the Artlis banner since 2012. As a mother, she observed through her own kids and their friends, that kids can sometimes feel that they are too small to have impact on the world. The studio was born to help kids learn how to project their message to the world, and reassure them that their voice matters, no matter how small, or how quiet they are.
Industry trained in technical drawing and drafting she specialises in perspective drawing and gouache rendering, but also has extensive experience in working with a variety of art mediums on canvas and paper. Her lessons often include interesting facts about historical art era’s and how evolution in the art world creates such a change in culture and society.
Alissa believes that many concepts in art emulate what we understand about life and emotional development and with the right approach, art can heal and support a happy self through creative expression. She loves to draw, loves to paint, and loves teaching her own two children and others how to tap into the ability to use art as a tool for understanding themselves and the world around them.
Art Class Facilitator and Artist
Anika Kirk is a Gold Coast artist who has been exhibiting her works since 2015. She has also been featured across multiple publications both locally and internationally.
Anika’s artworks are imaginative, surreal and deliciously colourful. Influenced by pop culture, nostalgia and her own dreams, she loves painting animals and nature in surprising colours. Choosing a cute subject matter, mixing it with surreal and sometimes dark themes, and then adding her signature pop of pastel colour makes her artwork unpredictably beautiful and whimsical. Anika is experienced in most media, specialising in colour pencil, with the addition of watercolour, acrylic and gouache paints.
Anika believes that kids need art as a platform to let their imaginations run free and express themselves fully, which ultimately builds their ability as adults to follow their dreams, create goals, and stand up for what they want in life!
What we love about Anika:
With all the pastels and swirls her signature style holds Anika’s art is so yummy you just want to eat it! And we love that Anika seems to embody the beautiful quirkiness of her artwork in her personal style as well. Kids have described Anika as sweet, soft and beautiful – the same feelings her artwork invokes!
“My child just completed an online watercolour workshop with Anika. She loved it – great engagement and she loved the tuition and fun.” Rachel (Students mother)
Art Class Facilitator & Bubbleologist
Carissa graduated with a Bachelor of Visual arts from QUT in 2012 and her life has been a whirlwind of creative endeavours ever since. From falling in love with contemporary Chinese art during her artist’s residency in China, to immersing herself in the history of art, to becoming a children’s entertainer and face painter, Miss Carissa has years of experience with kids, creativity and helping people have fun!Whilst she loves teaching and creating art, you will most likely have met her dressed as Elsa at a kids birthday party, or blowing bubbles under her stage name Miss Bubbles. Her creative arts practice includes everything from charcoal and watercolours to basket weaving and decoupage, but she also uses herself as a blank canvas and wears her masterpieces in the form of themed costumes!
You can check out Miss Carissa’s other endeavours including birthday parties at www.bubbleliciouscreations.com.au
What we love about Carissa:
Have you seen this lady? What’s not to love! Her sparkly, bubbly nature shines out through her clothes and jewellery, and we’ve been told she always has a secret stash of bubbles hidden away for when her students lose concentration or start feeling overwhelmed!
“Miss Carissa was awesome, she gave us bubble breaks! We need more bubble breaks in life!” Summer (10)
Studio Assistant
Kiarah has been a part of Artlis Studios since 2016, when she started joining our lessons as a 9 year old! Since then she has studied art at highschool, finished a Cert 3 in retail through Artlis Studios and is currently in training to be one of our regular facilitators when she is old enough.
Kiarah has loved creating art since before she can remember, she loves the freedom of expression art can give. She loves how art can manifest abstract ideas from our imagination into reality, and she loves seeing our students discover art and it’s therapeutic values, the way she did when she first started. She creates mostly using drawing and watercolour, and has lately been delving into digital art and sculpture as well!
You’ll see her around the studio assisting our facilitators throughout the week and on school holidays, as she learns all she needs to bring more fun and creativity to future waves of mini-artists.
What we love about Kiarah:
Kiarah has been part of the studio for so many years, our artists already know and love her. We have witnessed her progression from a self-concious child artist to a confident teen artist and we love how she coaches our younger students through their feelings of frustration when their art isn’t going quite to plan, because she knows exactly how they feel!
Creative Arts Therapist (and substitute Facilitator)
Bobby’s passion for using art for emotional well-being started when she was just 12 years old. Her trusty 6B pencil and sketchbook helped her deal with school bullies and a tumultuous home life and taught her first-hand how healing art could be. As an adult she has focussed her career on sharing art with children and young adults, and after recognising, time and time again, how many of her students also used art for getting through the tough times in their life, she was motivated to pursue a career in Creative Arts Therapies.
After graduating with her Bachelor in Arts Psychotherapy in 2022, Bobby brings her knowledge and experience to the studio to share the powerful processes of the creative art therapies with clients of all ages, focussing on emotional wellness, both within individuals and within families. Bobby aims to provide meaningful creative experiences that promote psychological flexibility by assisting clients to understand their unique emotional make up, to help them find meaningful ways to move through the world, and to thrive.
With affordable packages and NDIS billing available now is a great time to find out how Creative Art Therapy can help you and your family. For more information or to book a session please contact Bobby directly at bo*********@gm***.com
What we love about Miss Bobby:
Bobby has been working for years with Artlis Studios, and her passion just keeps flowing! As she watches her students grow, she grows with them, and continues to study to make sure she is giving our creative community the best she has. We have always loved that the most gentle students in our studio seek out Miss Bobby for the care and love that she puts into all her work and feel safe to express themselves authentically around her.
“Bobby allows her students minds to do whatever they want. Bobby inspires us to do better and always has special little quotes.” Sienna (11 years)
Art Class Facilitator & Street Artist
Gilly AfterDark is a local artist who’s street art style is stamped all over the Gold Coast as cafe murals, street stickers and individual pieces for homes and galleries.
With a background in the printing industry, and a Diploma in Graphic Design, Gilly is influenced heavily by 90s cartoons, anime and modern street art, Gilly creates his artworks primarily with paint markers, acrylics, water colours and spray paint. Being a passionate artist he brings many different influences and techniques together to create his signature form.
Gilly brings his edgy skate art approach to Artlis Team, to give us a peek into a world where process art, cartooning, and technical illustration blend together to give our mini-artists all the ingredients they need to develop their own unique style.
What we love most about Gilly:
Gilly’s unique style, mixing edgy lines with unusual colour combos and many layers makes him a great teacher for our more experienced students who are looking to develop their own style!
“Gilly proves you can be a boy and an artist and still be cool.” Drew (11 years)
Sewing Teacher/Fashion Designer/Sculptor
As a young girl Mili remembers watching her Grandma sew her very own teddy bear, and since then sewing has been her choice of entertainment! As she grew, her passion for creativity took her to University of Shanghai, where she majored in fashion design. After completing her bachelor of Arts degree, Mili worked in the industry as a fashion designer for big brands including Tadashi Shoji and Togonal France specialising in pattern making and dressmaking.
Seeing how creativity can bring someone out of their shell and open up, and knowing how much fun and pride a person can feel when they wear something they have sewed themselves, Mili’s path ultimately led her to share her knowledge and skills with kids and adults alike. She loves that her teaching can give someone the freedom to design unique clothes for themselves, and she loves seeing the students faces light up when they try their clothes on for the first time!
Although Mili only teaches sewing in our studio she is also an accomplished wood carver and sculptor, having studied Tibetan art in 2011, and using her Buddhism practice as inspiration for her own exhibits, including her most recent at Gold Coast City Libraries in 2020.
What we love about Mili:
When we first met Mili, she was already teaching sewing at another studio (where she still teaches) and her love and passion for the girls she was teaching caught our hearts. She told us stories of witnessing her students becoming happier and more purposeful, and she was so excited for them to have found something to be passionate about. We love that her dedication to her students lies in their happiness!
Artist & Art Class Facilitator
Fee has been creating art since before they can remember and loves how it can connect, communicate and express in a way that words don’t allow. After completing a Cert III in Visual Arts Fee was drawn to the history of art and how we can use it to shape our future. Feenix’s passion lies in pop art and the culture that shaped the Pop Art movement.
Feenix’s personal style reflects the ever changing dynamic between art we know and what we are yet to discover; combining surrealism, pop art and modern elements to celebrate the beauty in subjects where others may not see them. They love experimenting with faces and the human form, and has created many pop art style artworks using unconventional images of human form to express emotion.
Fee loves seeing art break down barriers, and watching students express themselves with their own personal truth, and has loved working with children so much she has decided to start a Bachelor of Education in 2024!
Fee currently teaches our sculpting class, our intermediate painting class, drawing classes and adults classes!
What we love about Feenix:
Feenix seems to be able to do anything they puts their mind to. There seems to be no skill or medium out of their reach. Fee researches all areas of art history and art culture, and shares the research with students, in conversations that allow them to express their own opinions about art. We love the passion Fee has for anything creative and how easily they instil this in their students.
“She is so happy to come to classes. She loves Fee and says she has found “her people” – Quinn (10 years)
Art Class Facilitator and Cartoonist
In 2014 Bella started as an Artlis Student with a dream of being a Disney Imagineer! 9 years later Bella is teaching her skills to our students at Artlis Studios while she works towards her bigger dreams.
After recently completing a degree in animation, she hopes to land an internship with Disney, which will put her well on her way to achieving her dream of becoming a character concept artist. Bella runs our drop in sessions on Saturdays, and regular cartooning workshops over holidays. Her specialties are Kawaii and Chibi style cartoons and she has a wonderful ability to turn any person or animal into a cartoon!
What we love most about Bella:
Bella represents everything our studio was created for! Starting out as a kid with a creative (and far out there) dream and then working her way up from student to teacher, Bella shows that with solid belief in yourself, a little hard work and a passion to be creative, you have the power to shape your own future! We can’t wait to see what Bella does with her talents as she finishes her degree.
“Bella is kind and a really good painter, she lets me paint whatever I like.” Samira (7 years)
Pre School Class Facilitator & Fairy Duster
Janes life was covered in fairy dust from the beginning. To this day she is still a child at heart. Her love of creativity started when she started dancing at 6 years, and her teaching days started in primary school where she choreographed dance concerts with her fellow students. She spent her school days performing, creating or teaching others how to do what she was so passionate about. With a Diploma of Arts from The Dance Factory, Richmond, VIC she spent years performing in live shows and teaching dance to all ages.
With the arrival of her daughter Tilly, Fairy Jane pursued a Cert III education support so she could inject some of her passion for creative arts and dance into her daughters generation (who now dreams of being a grown up artist one day!) As a pair they are always covered in glitter, paint or dress ups and spreading a little fairy magic wherever they are!
Jane specialises in creating a safe and engaging space for our youngest artists, through storytelling, song and using her dance background to add movement to her art projects.
What we love about Miss Jane:
Jane embodies the fairies that all her students love looking for. With her playful attitude and sparkly personality she looks like she is dancing every time she takes a step. We love watching our tiny artists giggle and create in her care, and we love how much in love our tiny artists are that they NEVER want to grow up and leave her!
“Miss Jane is so nice and lovely, she helps us do such good paintings” Grace (4 years)